Author Archives: G Barto

About G Barto

Geoffrey Barto has been teaching language and culture for more than twenty years. His focus is helping people use language to achieve their goals, both for personal growth and in building their careers. The right words can make all the difference in the world!

Intercomprehension and Receptive Bilingualism

Posted on February 26, 2021 by G Barto

Meina at TogetherWeLearnMore has an interesting article about her experiences with “receptive bilingualism,” that place where you can understand a lot but you can’t speak. In her case, she shares her journey with Arabic, as well as a lot of … Continue reading →

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A new year…

Posted on January 12, 2021 by G Barto

Like many people, I’ve found myself laid off for quite some time due to COVID. It’s especially bad in California, and especially bad in Silicon Valley, where business closures and lockdowns have been pervasive. I’ve used the time to retool … Continue reading →

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Mezzofanti and Vocabooster

Posted on May 25, 2020 by G Barto

A few weeks ago, I followed an Agnieska Murdoch Youtube and wound up hearing about Vocabooster. As I am on layoff for the Coronavirus, when I saw the opportunity to get the full Vocabooster package for too much money, I … Continue reading →

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The Linguistics Research Center at UT-Austin

Posted on April 20, 2020 by G Barto

Over the years, I’ve referred to the Early Indo-European On-Line resources at the University of Austin many times. They are hosted by UT-Austin’s Linguistic Resources Center. The LRC, like many other university resources these days, is facing budget cuts, possibly … Continue reading →

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For the truly ambitious polyglot

Posted on February 3, 2020 by G Barto

A little while ago, I wrote about just how many languages there are to learn and John McWhorter’s Language Families of the World. Today, though, I stumbled upon something truly incredible: Handbook of Descriptive Language Knowledge. The author, Harald Hammarström, … Continue reading →

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Romagnolo Starter Dictionary now available

Posted on January 29, 2020 by G Barto

I have been studying the regional languages of Europe off and on for quite some time. One of the languages which includes a nice catalog of poetry and plays yet is probably on its last legs is Romagnolo. At a … Continue reading →

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So many languages!

Posted on December 17, 2019 by G Barto

If you go into the typical bookstore these days, you’ll get the impression there are about 10 languages, starting with Mandarin, Spanish and French, German and Italian. Oh yes, and there’s Portuguese, Russian and Japanese. These are the only languages … Continue reading →

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New Approaches to Polyglottery for the Language Addict

Posted on December 9, 2019 by G Barto

Recently, I ran across a reference to EuRom5, a book for studying French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan, using one as your base and developing your intercomprehension skills to gain a reading knowledge of the other four. I’d read about … Continue reading →

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It’s Black Friday! Language learning bargains

Posted on November 29, 2019 by G Barto

One of my key recommendations for language learning is that you use lots of different materials and techniques so you can find things that fit you and things that challenge you. But, alas, that doesn’t come cheap. So here’s a … Continue reading →

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Place to start listening?

Posted on November 26, 2019 by G Barto

I just ran across a program called LingoJump. It’s a collection of audios where a native speaker pronounces at normal speed, then really drawn out, then less drawn out, then back at normal speed. I’ve been listening for Turkish and … Continue reading →

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