Vlog: Koszty życia w USA - Mieszkanie
Ludzie ciągle pytają mnie o kosztach życia w USA. Zdecydowałem nagrać filmik o kosztach powiązanych z mieszkaniem z mojego doświadczenie w moim mieście. Jeśli spodoba Wam się, mam pomysły na inne filmiki w tej serii.
Równiez trochę eksperymentowałem z nagraniem w tym filmiku - czasem udało mi się, czasem nie. :-) Od razu przepraszam, że kamera tak dużo się rusza!
Proszę podaj mi poprawki w serwisie Lang-8!
Czytaj transkrypcję poniżej!
LinguaTrek got 7th place among the top Language Learner Blogs of 2012!
For the past five years Lexiophiles and bab.la have organized an annual contest recognizing language blogs. Last year was the first year LinguaTrek participated and we managed to get the most votes (thanks to Wykop!) and 12th place!
This year there were 935 blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts nominated, including 200 blogs in LinguaTrek's category. This time around we didn't do as well in the voting, but LinguaTrek still got 7th place in it's category and 50th place overall!
Many fantastic blogs that I admire highly participated in this contest! Congratuations to everyone! I'm simply thrilled that LinguaTrek could be among such great company. :-)
Thank you everyone for voting and your support!
Do I NEED to speak from day one?
This is topic widely discussed and disagreed upon in the language learning community. One of biggest advocates of speaking immediately is Benny Lewis, author of the Fluent in 3 Months blog and creator of the Speak From Day 1 video course.
In the FAQ for that product, he writes: (some emphasis added)
Rather than read through the guide and watch all the videos to find out my one major 'secret', I can tell you right now: you need to speak the language immediately.
No years of studying grammar, no expensive and complicated software, no "magic pill" to master a language while you sleep, you just need to speak it. Speak it regularly, speak it confidently, and speak it immediately. The more you speak, the quicker you will improve.
Now, I'm a BIG fan of Benny. He recently gave me the amazing opportunity to write a guest post on his blog.
But in this particular point, I disagree. I don't think you NEED to speak from day one.
Read more to find out why!
"Czytamy w oryginale - wielkie powieści" - great material for learners of English or Polish
(If you haven't voted for LinguaTrek yet in the "Top 100 Language Learner Blogs" contest, only two days remain! The voting last until May 28th at 5:00pm CST (or midnight Polish time). If you have a free minute, please vote!)
Wojtek - a reader of my blog who regularly comments - just sent me an e-mail about a very interesting product which matches the learning methods I describe in my ebook very well!
Wojtek writes: (translated from Polish - see the original here)
I'd like to inform you about some excellent materials for learners of English and even those wanting to learn Polish.
„Czytamy w oryginale – wielkie powieści” ("We're reading in the original - great novels") it is a recently republished series of simplified novels (graded readers) for learners of English. So far 2 parts have been published - in total 10 classic stories. Today I just received my copies in the mail. The price for one part is 19.99 PLN (around $6).
Read more, to see the rest of Wojtek's e-mail!
3 super simple "speaking strategies"
In the introduction to my FREE ebook, I talked about the three steps to speaking a language "fluently" (although, I'm not fond of this word!): (1) get the language in your brain, (2) overcome your fear of speaking and (3) practice speaking. (Like I mentioned in the ebook, these steps can be done simultaneously)
Because the ebook discusses only the first of those steps, I've decided that I'm going to spend some time on my blog covering the next two. Today, I'm going to talk about #3: practicing speaking.
In this step, the goal is to develop and practice "speaking strategies" like circumlocution (for when you don't know a word), various conversational phrases to keep things flowing and even non-verbal tricks to make people more comfortable when speaking with you.
Silence is the one of the most uncomfortable things that can happen in a conversation, both for you and your speaking partner.
As a learner you might sometimes need a little extra time to process what you've heard or to form your response. But if the train conductor says, "Could you show me your ticket?" and you stare at them for 15 seconds without saying anything, it could get pretty awkward. :-)
In this article, I'm going to describe 3 super simple speaking strategies to avoid silence!
Read more learn what they are!
Vote for LinguaTrek: Top 100 Language Lovers!
Voting for the yearly contest Top 100 Language Lovers has begun and my blog, LinguaTrek, has once again been nominated in the category Top 100 Language Learning Blogs.
Last year, thanks to the "Wykop effect", LinguaTrek received the MOST votes out of any of the blogs!
But the votes only count for 50% of the overall score - the other half is the opinion of the contest organizers. A year ago, LinguaTrek was still pretty young, so it's completely understandable that we only got 12th place.
But this year, right after the publication of my FREE ebook - who knows what's possible! :-)
Can I count on your support? :-) It only takes a few seconds. Here is what you have to do:
- Go to this page.
- Find and select "LinguaTrek".
- Click the "Vote" button at the bottom of the list.
While you're there, check out the other great blogs! It's really a great honor to have LinguaTrek on the list with them. :-)
Thanks for your help!
Vlog: Mój ebook jest dostępny (i po polsku również)
Wreszcie polska wersja i wersje mobilne mojego ebooka są gotowe!
Jeśli chcesz dostać mój ebook, proszę zasubskrybuj mój blog!
Proszę podaj mi poprawki w serwisie Lang-8!
Czytaj transkrypcję poniżej!
Ebook available for e-readers (like Kindle) and in Polish!
It's been great to hear everyone's thoughts about the ebook since I published the English version last week. I'm positively thrilled with the response that I have gotten so far!
I really hope it helps you in your language learning journey! :-)
Versions for mobile devices and e-readers!
Today, I'm happy to announce that you can now read it on your mobile devices and e-readers, like the iPhone, iPad, Nook or Kindle!
If you are subscriber, you should already have received an email about how to download the ebook in not only PDF format, but also EPUB and MOBI. Thanks to everyone who help BETA test those files!
Polish translation!
Also, with the help of several LinguaTrek subscribers, the ebook is now available in Polish! This really took much more time and effort to produce than I thought it would!
Luckily I had the help of many wonderful volunteers -- without whom, I don't think I could have ever finished it this quickly. Thank you so much!
If you want to receive your copy, please subscribe now!
Natural Language Learning (my FREE ebook) is finished!
After three weeks of intense work since I announced that I would create it, I've finally finished the English version of my FREE ebook on language learning, called: Natural Language Learning (Without a Teacher!)
It ended up being 104 pages in PDF format - a little bit longer than my guess of 40 pages. ;-) The ebook consists of 13 chapters in two parts (a theory part and a practical part) as well as 4 worksheets to help you create the perfect language learning method for you!
Check out this article for more information about what's in the ebook, as well as these two excerpts: Planning your daily routine and 3 steps to speaking a language fluently.
The theory part consists mainly of rewritten material that I've previously published on my blog. But almost all of the practical part is completely new!
As a software developer, I never really imagined that I'd end up doing this much writing, let alone writing a whole ebook. :-) While it was definitely harder than I expected it was also much more enjoyable. I can't wait to hear what you think!
Read more to find out how to get it and what's next!
Planning your daily routine (ebook excerpt!)
This is an excerpt from my upcoming ebook on language learning, called Natural Language Learning (Without a Teacher). I was trying really hard to have the ebook finished before today! It appears that two weeks wasn't quite enough time to finish it.
But the first draft is complete! I'm now focusing on editing, preparing all the worksheets, and making the book more visually appealing. I'm really hoping to have the English version ready for you next week!
For now, please enjoy this excerpt from the practical half of the ebook! (Last week I shared the introduction, which revealed that the ebook is made up of two main sections: one on theory and the other on using that theory in practice.)
Earlier in the theory section, we talked about the importance of time and regularity in language learning. The core idea is that practicing 15 minutes per day (almost 2 hours per week total) is better than practicing for 3 hours, but just once a week.
Regularity is more important than the raw amount of time!
When your brain learns a new skill, it's actually changing on a physical and chemical level. This takes time and energy in a very literal way! Spreading out your language learning gives your brain the chance to adapt.
In this section we'll take a brief moment to discuss planning your daily language learning routine. In the appendix, there is a worksheet to help.
For now, we'll be talking primarily about Parts A and B of the worksheet: Finding time and Activities that could be converted. When we get to the section on Creating your own method, you'll have everything you need to complete Part C of the worksheet.
Read more to see the full section from the ebook!
English
Polski
