Ya Polyglot

14/01/2013

Advanced learners of English (some native speakers can definitely benefit from this too :P) this podcast is for you!

Audio Vocabulary Lessons for ESL students

14/01/2013

Bad grammar? G**O! Comments? Thoughts?

If you think an apostrophe was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, you will never work for me. If you think a semicolon is a regular colon with an identity crisis, I will not hire you. If you scatter commas into a sentence with all the discrimination of a shotgun, you might make it to the foyer before...

13/01/2013

Some of you may want one of these on your next trip abroad :P

Meet the SHY RUSSIAN T-SHIRT I made for my dear friend and lovely designer, Guildensterrrn, for her trip to UK :3 I hope I’ll make some other ‘vocabulary’ t-shirts, because I honestly love the way...

11/01/2013

Random fun fact about English: Experts cannot explain many English words. For hundreds of years, a dog was called a “hound.” The word is still used but not as commonly as the word “dog.” Experts do not know where the word “dog” came from or when. English speakers just started using it.

09/01/2013

Learn languages, people! It'll save you from senility and other forms of old-age craziness!

Neuroscientists have been discovering mounting evidence that being fluent in more than one language protects against age-related cognitive declines. But there's still the major question: Why? Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to get a closer look at the brains of bo.....

26/12/2012

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you all had an amazing Christmas, and may the boxing day crowds not sweep you off your feet today ^_^

21/11/2012

Hey everyone! Winter camp registration is fully on the way. Got kids? Why not give them an international experience with Ya Polyglot linguistic camps (they happen all year round!). For more info send us a private message, and we'll be more than happy to answer any questions you may have :)

24/10/2012

How do they celebrate Halloween in Japan? Read this article by Tofugu to find out!

19/10/2012

Hey guys! Question of the day: How (if at all) do people celebrate Halloween where you live? You can leave your answer in the comments below. Thanks in advance for helping out!

13/10/2012

Speaking of reading, a former student of mine asked me today: "What good will reading do for my English knowledge if I no longer take lessons and can't practice it any more?" Well here's what good it does:
-Students who read more do better on a wide variety of tests.
-Reading is the most significant factor in the development of vocabulary.
-Reading is the major factor in the development of writing competence.
-Students who read extensively have a greater general knowledge.

12/10/2012

How do you learn a language..no.. ACQUIRE a language without the presence of a native speaker? Well if you have some basic skills, you need to spend as much time with your language of choice as possible. It's as simple and difficult as that. Simple, because this means that reading simple things that you enjoy will get you LIGHT YEARS ahead of the guys who do nothing but formal grammar study. Difficult because sometimes it can get frustrating when you're looking for graded readers or easy stuff to read and listen to when you don't know where to look.

Have some books or audio you can recommend for language learners (in any language including English)? Feel free to post here. We're all very interested!

07/10/2012