Category Archives: Uncategorized

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 →

In the run-up to the holiday season, I’ve managed to get a week off. I’ve been devoting my time to two languages: Old English and Elixir. For Old English, I’ve been working through Learn Old English with Leofwin, which includes … Continue reading →

For the last year or so, I’ve spent a lot more time on one computer language – R – than I’ve spent on human languages. It’s not a question of foregoing human languages. It’s just that I’ve been able to … Continue reading →

I see at the end of December, I wrote about this being the year I’d hit French. We all know how that goes… I have now finished 39 lessons of Pimsleur Dari – the whole first phase and the first … Continue reading →

After years and years of knowing French, this year I’m relearning it to get my speaking back up to a halfway decent level again. I’ll be working with the beginning Assimil book, just for content to read, and Using French. … Continue reading →

Recently, my language learning efforts have been divided between Python and Elixir on the computer side, and the Indo-Iranian languages on the human language side. The Indo-Iranians provide the basis for getting pretty close to the Indo-Europeans – the Rg … Continue reading →

I recently ran across The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything . . . Fast! . In the last few years, with books like Outliers: The Story of Success , we’ve gotten fixated on things like 10,000 hours to … Continue reading →

I’ve written in the past about learning like a child and the problems that exist with taking this approach with adults. That said, I recently discovered upon something novel and worth having a look at if you’re learning Japanese. The … Continue reading →

This weekend, browsing in Barnes and Noble, I ran across Traditional Chinese Characters: Learn & Remember 2,193 Character Meanings by Alan Hoenig. There’s a simplified version as well. In both cases, the introduction acknowledges a debt to Heisig’s Learning the … Continue reading →