You are now reading the first part of our “The four cornerstones of language learning” blog series. In this series, you will learn how to improve your language skills through four basic areas of language learning: listening, reading, writing and speaking. The topic of the first part is listening skills. Listening skills are one of the main cornerstones of your language skills. If you want to be able to have a conversation with people, you need to understand what they…
The first and most common mistake that adult language learners make is irregular exercising. Many adults who want to improve their language skills sign up for weekly language courses at a community college or adult education center. In addition to this one weekly lesson, most adult learners do basically nothing for their language learning project. It’s clear that this pace is way too slow to result in any real improvement in their language skills. The key to achieving real conversational…
Young adults dreaming about starting their own families like to speculate about names for their future babies. Name trends change every year and are strongly influenced by pop culture, globalization and international marriages. Names are copied from famous singers, actors, top athletes and fantasy characters. Modern parents also want their children’s names to be international and pronounceable in many different languages. On the other hand, many traditional – even old-fashioned – baby names are on the rise again. In addition…
A few years ago, the English architect Chris Mount noticed that he wasn’t enjoying his office job. Instead, he would have wanted to spend more time outdoors, having adventures. Time was passing by, and he realized that he wasn’t doing any of the things he truly enjoyed. Now Chris is a husky guide, living in Northern Finland and spending his time on the things he loves: being outdoors, exploring the wilderness and learning new things, like Finnish. How exactly did…
Soon it’s time to welcome yet another new year. There are different New Year’s traditions around the world, and we have gathered some of them here. Now you can pick your favourites and maybe even include them in your own celebrating! New Year’s resolutions Many of us promise to make changes in our lives as the year changes. Making New Year’s resolutions is a part of the New Year celebrations in many cultures, and has been for a very long…
I remember the first time I visited a Spanish-speaking country. I was ten years old and on a trip to the Canary Islands with my grandmother. To a little Finnish girl, Tenerife seemed like paradise. Later I would go on to live in mainland Spain with my family for years. Even though I went to a Finnish school and most of my friends were Finns, the highlights of my day were always meeting local people and having conversations with them.…
