Author Archives: G Barto

Agnieska Murdoch warn’s about The Dark Side of Language Learning. While learning a language can be an exciting adventure, it’s not just a question of putting in the time and maintaining motivation. You will encounter actual stumbling blocks and a … Continue reading →

When asked if you remember something, the condition on which you answer yes is if you can consciously recall it. But remembering how to ride a bike is not the same as remembering the Pythagorean theorem. In older times, there was … Continue reading →

After a year’s disappearance, I know I must seem to be brimming with chatter to post twice in a week. That said, after a long time of muddling around, I have the sense that things are picking up, and this … Continue reading →

According to Scientific American, Evidence Rebuts Chomsky’s Theory of Language Learning. Chomsky had theorized that there was all languages had beneath them an underlying structure whose rules for use were embedded in the human brain and that when we encountered … Continue reading →

I’ve been reading Learning Russian Marathon: How to Speak Russian in 10 Years and the author has an excellent suggestion (among many): When speaking, we use language chunks. We don’t speak in separate words, sounds, syllables, or sentences, and especially … Continue reading →

Read all the sagas and eddas? Looking for something else to read in Old Norse? Here’s a curiosity: A grimoire from the 1600s called Galdrabok. You can find a (less than perfect) scan of a 1921 reprint with Swedish translation … Continue reading →

I’ve written in the past about the problem with New Year’s Resolutions and won’t do so again. What I will suggest, though, is that this is the year to learn Old Norse, the Viking Language. Two years ago, Jesse Byock … Continue reading →