I don´t know if this happens to you, but I am the kind of guy who always goes to bed regretting something. Regretting that I did not do a good job…

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't – you're right,” Henry Ford

I was just watching a YouTube video with people from around the world talking about the things they like to eat when they are homesick.

It is really amazing the way my little one (3) looks at me. Like I am some sort of massive superhero. I wonder how long it will take him to figure things out.

I am going to keep this short and simple. I have been teaching for 15 years and I have never in my life come across a student who used or was currently using Duolinguo and didn’t like it or love it. But I can also tell you that I have never met a student who really learned…

In my previous blog post I started to discuss with you the impact of the curse of knowledge when it comes to learning a second language and choosing the right instructor.

The curse of knowledge (quick review here) refers to the phenomenon for which people who know a lot about something tend to forget (or simply ignore) what it’s like …

Let’s pick a famous song or melody. For example (feeling patriotic today) the American anthem.

Now I want you to sit across from someone and try to rhythmically tap the song on a table and see if she can guess. Heck! Even if there is no one there to listen, just go ahead and tap away.

How did you do? Do you think a listener would guess what song you were tapping?

Today one of my students was so excited telling me about how she got to practice her Spanish with someone she met at a party last weekend.

‘It was awesome! I even got to use some of the stuff you taught me last week! I used the entre comillas thing (while using the international sign for air quotes) that we learned during our lesson! And he said my Spanish was so good!’

You can tell she was having a…

I pretty much fell in love with Anthony Bourdain the very first time I saw him. My big fat gay TV crush.

I don’t really remember where he was in that first episode of No Reservations. But I remember I wanted to be…

Last year I read Tolstoy’s War and Peace. NOT AN EASY READ! Some chapters were not that interesting or easy to follow. There seemed to be 20 different characters with the same name in the same room and Tolstoy would go on and on about…

Yesterday I had a lesson with a new student. Her name is Hilla and we had a great time. I am SO excited to teach her. What a sweet and sharp girl.

At the beginning of my career ...

Have you ever been lost in translation? Really, really lost in translation?

Listen up. It is very important that you start watching TV and movies in Spanish if you are not doing it already.

I can tell you right now that it took me a long time before I was able to understand (almost) everything when...

You are at a job interview. Things are going great. Things are going really really great. The interviewer loves you and you are told you can start Monday. Yay! ... But there is a catch. They tell you that in order to work there, you have to hide your real accent and fake another one. What would you do?

The age question is one that I get all the time. Often it's not even a question but just a statement: I just think I am too old to learn a new language.

So, is it too late for you to (really) learn and speak a new language?

Like Mahatma Gandhi once said:

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as ...

Have you heard about Plato’s cave? I was 17 the first time I heard about it through my philosophy teacher and it had a big impact on me.

In this powerful story Plato realizes that humankind can think, and speak, etc., without (so far as they acknowledge) any awareness of his realm of Forms.

In this allegory there is a group of prisoners who have been chained their whole lives in a cave facing a wall. Behind them there is a fire. Between them and the fire there are some moving puppets. All they can see is ...

That necktie felt like a rope around my neck. I had been a lawyer for over two years and that tight rope was taking the best out of me. I was not happy. I could not breath. So I quit and started my plan to move out of the country and have a new start somewhere else.

During those weeks of transition  between my old and my new life something terrible happened in my country...

If you are studying or planning to study in a language school as part of a group this is for you.

There is one vital decision you will make as soon as you enter the classroom and take off your coat. But what is it? ...

Vilfredo Pareto was an interesting man. Born in Paris 1848 of an exiled Italian family. Pareto became a philosopher, economist, sociologist, engineer and, most importantly for us, a small time gardener.

It was Pareto’s peas that made him famous and today will help you learn a second language...