by John Fotheringham | Apr 1, 2020
After two decades of learning foreign languages and one writing and podcasting about them, I’ve decided to quit this absurd undertaking. It turns out that the monolingual naysayers and forum trolls have been right all along. Life is short, so it’s high time I accept the truth about foreign languages, stop trying to empower independent learners, get a REAL job, and spend whatever leftover time I have on a more worthwhile habit. Read on to see the top three reasons I am throwing in the towel and shutting down Language Mastery.
by John Fotheringham | Mar 23, 2020
Nelson Dellis is a memory athlete, 4-time U.S. Memory Champion, a Grandmaster of Memory, a high-altitude mountaineer, author, speaker, and all-around cool dude. He is now on a mission to reach conversational fluency in Dutch in just one year, applying all the memory techniques, mnemonics, and visualization strategies he used to train for memory championships.
by John Fotheringham | Mar 16, 2020
Last week, I shared part one of my most recent chat with the inimitable Olly Richards, who first appeared on The Language Mastery Show back in in April 2014. Since that time, he’s gone on to build I Will Teach You a Language into one of the top language blogs, launch a slew of excellent language courses, and publish a series of great short story books through Teach Yourself. In part two of our wide-ranging conversation, we get into his language learning routines and habits, how he tackles reading (especially in Japanese), the importance of getting a wide range of high-quality exposure to your target language, the power of following your interest and curiosity, and Olly’s top tips for launching a successful online language learning empire or just a profitable side hustle to help pay the bills.
by John Fotheringham | Mar 12, 2020
I am excited to announce that the brand new version of Master Mandarin: How to Learn Mandarin Chinese Anywhere in the World will be released on April 6, 2020 in both digital and print versions. There is still time to make a few changes and additions, so would you do me a quick favor? I am looking for insight on how I can make the book most useful for you. If you have a spare minute or two, let me know: ① What are you struggling with most in your language learning journey?, ② What do you find most difficult about Mandarin Chinese specifically? ③ What content, methods, resources, etc. do you hope I include? You can either leave a comment on the post or send me a quick email.
by John Fotheringham | Mar 9, 2020
Author, polyglot, and “langpreneur” Olly Richards from I Will Teach You a Language returns to the podcast six years after our first chat to share what new lessons he’s learned and how a high-altitude near death experience led him to the power of stories in language learning. Olly has been quite the busy bee since we last spoke, going on to build one of the most popular language blogs on the planet, launching a series of in-depth language courses, and publishing 16 short story books with Teach Yourself (with more coming soon, including a Japanese edition)!
