Screenshot from Aaron’s website

Just a quick note about this for all language learners who are interested: Aaron G. Myers, the blogger who writes The Everyday Language Learner, has released an ebook with strategies and tips for language learning. The book is called, appropriately enough, Activities and Strategies for Everyday Language Learners and is available for free download here. (Technically, I think you have to click a small button to “pay with a tweet”, but that’s certainly a small price to pay for such a fantastic book!) Update, February 16: Aaron informs me that the book will be free until February 20, after which it will be available in the store, for a price.

What I like most about Aaron’s writing is how he has tips for regular people to learn languages – by regular, I mean those who have jobs and families and the assorted responsibilities that come with being an adult. Students have an undeniable advantage when it comes to learning languages, as they often have the free time to do it. (I had an epiphany recently that all students, whether in school or at universities, should study a foreign language until they are at a decent conversational level at the very least, but this will be the subject of another post.)

Recently, I feel like I have stagnated a bit in my language learning. I intend to focus on improving my Russian this year instead of trying to pick up another language (sorry, Afrikaans!), but I haven’t actually done much work so far. I’ve started reading Aaron’s book, though, and I hope it will help me overcome this stagnation I’m feeling.