Posts by Ethan

If you are like most language learners I have met, then I would guess that you sometimes (or always) get scared before speaking (or even by the idea of speaking). Even in foreign languages I speak fluently, I sometimes still get nervous, especially when I have not spoken in a long time or if I am speaking to…

Justin, Chad, and I are all together again in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Lately we have been talking a lot about education: The problems, the much needed solutions, the role of technology, and how RealLife can make a bigger impact on how people around the world are educated. See, we now have over 20 years of…

  If you’re like most English learners, you confuse the words wish and hope. These two terms are similar—both dealing with desires—but the meaning and context of them is very different. Using one in the place of the other can sound strange and even cause misunderstandings. Thanks to a recommendation from one of our community…

Mistakes with false cognates are far too common among English learners. False cognates—words that are the same/similar between different languages, but have different meanings—are always tricky [deceitful] for language learners. The mistake of using present instead of introduce is made by almost every English learner, especially in business settings, where we make acquaintance of new…

You probably already know this: Phrasal verbs are SUPER common in English! But how often do you actually use phrasal verbs when you speak? You do not need phrasal verbs to be understood, and many of them have a (less common) Latin equivalent in English. However, I’ve noticed one of the things that makes the…

If you are like me, you wait all year for the new season of Game of Thrones. Seriously, it’s like Christmas, or your birthday. We GoT fans (as we abbreviate it in English) mark the days on our calendar to find out what will happen next. But for non-native speakers, you probably find the language…

Note: This is Part II about not making mistakes in English. If you have not read Part I, I recommend you do that first. Last week, in Part I, we looked at why people fear mistakes, common misconceptions, and the definition of true fluency. Just a reminder, we defined true fluency as: Speaking confidently and being…

Ethan here, and today I’m going to tell you the secret to speak English without making mistakes! Are you ready? The secret is… … … … Make A LOT of mistakes! What? This probably sounds pretty counterintuitive and it might not be what you want to hear, but if you want to speak without mistakes,…

Duolingo has revolutionized the way that people learn languages, and is leading the world in free education. In fact, Duolingo’s promise is: Learn a language for free. Forever, a wonderful and altruistic mission. For this reason, millions are turning to Duolingo for their language learning needs. Leading this are people, probably like you, with an…

What’s up everybody?? This week I have another awesome, fun lesson for you with some popular new music: The hit song 7 Years by Lukas Graham. When you first listen to this song (or if you’ve heard it before), you might be thinking, understanding this native English is really difficult! But guess what? It’s not…