You can get stuck in a traffic jam and learn better Spanish. Really!

There’s only one way to be a safe driver.  When you are driving, concentrate 100% on your driving.

Surprisingly, the better you get at concentrating on your driving, the better you will be at concentrating on learning Spanish.

Here’s how to use your driving time to learn Spanish (or any language) faster.

Learn French playing Monopoly?

Games for learning French, Spanish and other languages are popular in the classroom — but do they work?

Most language learning games, are a little bit like playing Monopoly.   You learn as you play, but it takes a long time.

Here’s what we think about French learning games.

According to author Dan Pink, grades really don't motivate us to do something like learn Spanish.

You might guess that getting a reward like money or a good grade would really motivate us to do something good like learn Spanish.

But according to Daniel Pink, author of “Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” that’s not how motivation works.

Read more about how to improve your motivation to learn Spanish.

Click on this to see if you can tell what is an ad and what isn't. Google has eliminated the once clear difference between ads and organic search.

Language learners tend to rely on Google to plan their travel.  Say for example that you are using Language101.com to learn French online but you also want to take an in person French class when you visit Bordeaux.

The image to the left is a screen shot of a search on the term, “Learn French Bordeaux.”

Click on it and quickly see if you can tell the difference between the ads and the organic search results.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Google has been gradually reducing the difference between paid ads and organic search results.

First they gradually reduced the shading over the ads until it was invisible on some monitors from some angles.

Now (for some users) it has been entirely dropped.

There is still a tiny easy to overlook line that separates organic search results and paid ads, however I think most users would be misled into thinking that an ad was an organic search result.

Of course ads can be useful to travelers too, but you really need to be able to tell what is an ad and what isn’t.

Is Google In Financial Trouble, Who Knows?

Google’s change from ads you could easily identify to ads that look like organic search listings seems like a desperate attempt to boost falling advertising revenue?  Only a Google insider knows for sure.  While there still is a tiny visual difference here, the goal is clearly to mislead searchers.

A Failed Strategy at Yahoo

Google apparently is going down a path that Yahoo tried and failed with.  You may remember that Yahoo search used to be primarily a paid index.  While the Yahoo index still exists, the marketplace rejected that model.

Yahoo was then forced to outsource search results to Bing.  Today Yahoo Search (which is different than the Yahoo index) is very clear about which results are paid ads and which ones are organic search.

Searchers Beware

So Google, the once trustworthy search provider, seems to be phasing in a slightly less clear presentation of which results the internet has judged to be good, and which results are paid.

Blessings on the people at Google who made this decision.  Like all of us they are doing the best they can.  However hopefully they will realize that clarity about what is an ad and what isn’t an ad, is good for business.  Until that happens it’s “Searchers beware!”

You May Not Be Seeing These Results Yet.

Google customizes search results for everyone based on your prior search history, your IP address and of course what operating system and browser you are using.  Many people (perhaps most) still have a slight tint over the ads that may make it possible to tell what is an ad and what isn’t.

Last Updated:  October 20, 2001

If you're learning French and you see this man say, "Vous êtes Barack Obama."

How would you like to be able to speak over 10 languages and read almost 20?

Dutch language genius Mark Benninga can do that.

French is one of his favorite languages, so, we’ve asked him to share some of his advice for learning French.

The phrase "Times Studied: and then a number shows how many times you have studied this phrase."

Sometimes it would be nice to know, “How many times have I studied that phrase?”

We just now made knowing the answer a LOT easier by adding a feature that shows you the word, “Times Studied:  ____”  This appears at the top of the main study screen.

Other Ways to Find The Same Information

You can also find the same information when you have clicked on the “I’m done for now, show me my progress.” button.

Click or hover over the blue ? (on the progress page not here) to find out how many times you have studied a phrase.

This was an “Accidental Feature”

We originally developed this as a debugging tool that was never intended to be a feature.  Then we accidentally rolled it out and people started telling us that they really liked it.

The real problem was that since this was intended to be a debugging tool, not a real feature it didn’t really do what people thought it did.

Well now it really does what people expect and the answers are accurate.

Enjoy!

The Little Prince

When we make language lessons we always try to bring you the best of every culture.  Of course with French culture there are so many wonderful things to choose from.

If you are learning French you absolutely must take time to listen to this audio recording of our French teacher reading a selection from “The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Click on the link below (or the book cover above) and then click “Play Complete Lesson Soundtrack or Video”.  If you don’t yet know much French, you can read the translations in English by scrolling down the page as the teacher reads.

Try to focus on how you feel as you hear the teacher read the story.  I think you will find as I do that it is stunningly beautiful.

Le Petit Prince – audio.

German has some funny words like Fahrt.

When you learn German, you’ll notice that it has some funny words.  Take the word Fahrt for example.

It sounds a lot like the English word fart, but as you might have guessed it has a completely different meaning.

If you are learning German, you’ll definitely enjoy our article on  German Fahrts.

However if you feel compelled to start your day with news, I recommend the Daily Good.

Click on Linguistics Jobs for details on all the jobs.

If you just take melatonin for jet lag, you are missing several safe and easy remedies.

If you are planning a trip on the airlines that crosses more that one time zone you will probably want to read my new article about jet lag remedies.

Getting over jet lag is now a lot easier for me than it used to be.

The most important and obvious feature that we have added is a dramatically different set of interactive instructions that replaces the video that you used to see when you clicked “Try It.”  In the old instruction video you had to watch and remember three minutes of tightly packed information and then remember how to apply it later.

It wasn’t always easy.

In the new interactive instructions, you learn one new thing and then try it.  I think it’s a LOT easier to understand than the old video version.  I’ve tried to make the new instructions just like sitting next to me having me show you how to use our program.

Faster Study = Faster Learning

We also think that we fixed the most common problem of students studying too slowly by adding what we call a “Speed Bar.”  The “Speed Bar” is a simple timer that reminds you to study quickly.  The faster you go through each study item, the better our program works.

How to Make the Timer Invisible

A few people have been so stressed by their previous learning experiences, that the timer brings back memories from old stressful learning experiences.  This is not what we want to happen.

We want you to feel as if the timer is the leader of your home team fan club cheering for you.  Remember that the “speed bar” won’t grade you, spank your bottom, or make you stand in the corner.

It just silently and gently reminds you to go as fast as you can.  Feel free to ignore it when you need more time on a particular item.  But use it when you can.  Believe me our program will work a LOT better when you go faster.

However if you are feeling stressed by the “Speed Bar” there is a very easy way to make it invisible.  You simply press and hold the ctrl key and briefly press the + key until you have zoomed in so the timer is invisible.

Read our article on how to make the text bigger on your browser for more details.

Invisible Quality

There are also some changes that you can’t see.  We’ve improved the algorithm that schedules when you need to review a particular study item.  This is a change that no one will ever see.

It’s sort of like when a car maker improves the quality of the steel in their car.  You can’t see this kind of quality improvement at first, but later it becomes very obvious.

Brent Van Arsdell

Naturally, I wanted to help. Fortunately, we now have many more lessons completed than she could possibly learn before arriving in Italy.

Because we are so close to being done with our Italian lessons, I made a deal to swap house cleaning for an Italian learning program so she could have a better time on her vacation.

If you are planning to travel to Italy soon, we may be able to help you too.

“Super Package” Customers Can Now Learn Italian

Our Italian lessons are not yet completed, but if you are planning to travel to Italy soon and if you are already a Super Package customer, or if you want to upgrade to a Super Package (if you are not currently a Super Package customer), please contact us, and we can help you a LOT.

I would like to help you have more happiness on your trip to Italy,  just as I helped my cleaning lady!

We are still not yet accepting new customers for Italian by itself, but if you want to buy a Super Package and learn Italian and something else with it, go ahead and sign up through the page of the other language you want to learn.

Contact us for help on how to study Italian after you have signed up for a Super Package.

It’s also possible to be completely engaged while learning Spanish words with simple flash cards.

If you have ever been bored when you are studying, here’s

how to avoid boredom.

Solar flares affect the earth's geomanetic field and might speed up learning.

Have you ever had days when your study seemed to go very well, perhaps for reasons that you didn’t understand? It could that be the earth’s magnetic field was helping you.

“Rats exposed to geomagnetic fields learn mazes more quickly.”

This is from an article by B. McKay and M. Persinger, “Geophysical Variables and Behaviour: LXXXVII. Effects of synthetic and natural geomagnetic patterns on maze learning,” Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1999; 89 (3 pt 1): 1023-4.

If you want to see if today’s geomagnetic activity is intense or not, visit this link:

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/today.html

Then click on “Three Day Solar Geophysical Forecast.” If you aren’t already an astronomer, you will find that this page isn’t the world’s clearest writing, but usually you can figure it out.

Today’s report included this item:

“The geomagnetic field was at active to minor storm levels for the first 12 hours of the period . . . ”

Earlier today I had an excellent one-hour language study session. Perhaps I was being helped by a stormy or intense geomagnetic field, who knows?

The sunspot cycle will be increasing from now until it peaks in 2012.

If increased geomagnetic activity does indeed help human learning as well as rat learning, then 2011 and 2012 should be a great time to learn a language.