Hey reader,
With Italian done, I am currently adding German resource on MondeLibrary. This week’s edition includes a fun game I found plus a good repo of podcasts.
Simon
🛠️Resource spotlight: Langopod
This was recently submitted to MondeLibrary - it’s just a directory of podcasts in a few languages. Covers French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Turkish, Dutch, and Hindi.
🌐Language learning
Someone’s experience laddering their language (leaning one language through a language they have previously learned). Despite being concerned it might cause them to mix them up, consensus seems to be it instead highlights the differences.
Lindsay does Languages looks at if it is really possible to maintain 15 languages. The upshot is that studying 15 languages doesn’t mean being able to speak them actively. It means she studied them and got to a certain level. She also touches on the idea that this is because she has been drawn to different languages at different times, and the actual number doesn’t mean much. I made a similar point recently.
No you did not go from A0 to C2 in six months - a dash of scepticism applied to the odd post you see online where people claim very rapid progress. The discussion below adds some more nuance.
💻From around the web
The word “big”, despite being so common, has no traceable origins in early English or French. It seems to just pop up out of nowhere. This article looks into where the word might have come from.
Reborder - a game where you are given the outline of two countries and you have to draw the border between them from memory. A good bit of fun.
Till next time!
Mondecast is a twice-monthly newsletter for curious language learners.
Did you know you can reply to this email? I read every response, and interesting responses can be featured in future editions.
Follow Mondecast