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!

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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AI to decipher old languages?

Posted on July 10, 2019 by G Barto

Interesting article from the MIT Technology Review: Machine learning has been used to automatically translate long-lost languages But speaking about new research into AI translation of lost languages, the article notes, “In this paper, Linear A is conspicuous by its … Continue reading →

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Ijo li awen lon tenpo suli…

Posted on August 11, 2018 by G Barto

I recently had surgery and, as always happens when I’ll have some time to do nothing, I set great goals for working on, say, Sanskrit or Tibetan. That happened… Actually, I stumbled again upon Toki Pona and Esperanto and really … Continue reading →

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Romagnolo Dictionary

Posted on March 30, 2018 by G Barto

In the past few months, I’ve been working on a dictionary of Romagnolo. If you look in the header for the site, you’ll notice there’s an article for it. The dictionary should come some time this summer. In the mean … Continue reading →

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Another year without resolutions

Posted on January 13, 2018 by G Barto

Way back in January 2009, I shifted from New Year’s Resolutions to directional intentions. In January 2015, I gave up ascribing any importance to the changing of the years for my language learning. I’ve found that I’m learning more, though … Continue reading →

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Whither Europe?

Posted on October 28, 2017 by G Barto

In the past few months, Catalonia has been very much in the news. And it’s got me thinking about the Catalan language. For one thing, as a French speaker, I’m very much aware of what happens to other languages in … Continue reading →

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Posted on August 31, 2017 by G Barto

Idahosa Ness of Mimic Method does a lot of cool and sometimes strange stuff with pronunciation. He just posted a nice bit on how to figure out a sound in your target language that doesn’t exist in your native language, … Continue reading →

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Be Prepared for the Challenges in Language Learning

Posted on July 8, 2017 by 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 →

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