A strange thing happens in language learning. People spend weeks, months, or even years thinking about what they need to improve. Then they finally start studying. And discover they were solving the wrong problem. Not because they are careless. Not because they are lazy. Not because they are incapable of understanding their own situation. But […]

There is a belief that if you find the strongest teacher, the problem is solved. More experience. More certificates. More qualifications. More languages. More achievements. More years in the profession. It sounds logical. And yet, reality often disagrees. Over the years, I have seen students leave excellent teachers and thrive with other excellent teachers. Not […]

Many language learners believe that listening is about hearing every word. For years, students have told me: “I cannot understand native speakers because they speak too fast.” Sometimes that is true. More often, however, the real problem is different. They are trying to understand language one word at a time. Native speakers rarely do that. […]

Many years ago, I noticed something that kept repeating itself in lessons. A student would know every word in a sentence. They would know the grammar. They would understand the literal translation. And yet they would completely misunderstand what had actually been said. At first, this seemed strange. Later, I realized the problem was not […]

Many language learners believe that confidence is the missing ingredient. They think: “If I were more confident, I would speak better.” As a result, they spend enormous amounts of energy trying to become less nervous, less self-conscious, and more comfortable speaking. Confidence certainly helps. But confidence is not the foundation of fluency. Understanding is. And […]

Many language learners experience a strange contradiction. They know the rule. They can explain it. They can even recognize mistakes when they see them. But when they start speaking, the rule disappears. The same mistake returns again and again. This often leads to frustration. Students begin to wonder: “If I know the rule, why do […]

Many language learners experience the same frustrating situation. They understand films, podcasts, books, and conversations much better than they can speak. They recognize words. They follow meaning. They know what another person is saying. But when the moment comes to answer, something changes. The sentence disappears. Students often describe this experience in the same way: […]

A student once asked me what seemed like a simple question. What is the difference between: At first glance, this looks like a grammar question. It is not. It is a question about meaning. And that difference is one of the reasons why I do not start language lessons with grammar tables. I start with […]

There is a sentence I have repeated to students for many years: “Your problem is usually not that you do not know the language. Your problem is that you do not know what to look at.” At first, many people are surprised by this idea. They come to a lesson expecting another explanation of grammar, […]

Why information alone rarely changes anything One of the biggest misconceptions in education is the belief that knowledge automatically leads to understanding. It does not. A student may know a rule and still misuse it. A person may memorize a formula and still fail to solve a problem. Someone may learn hundreds of words and […]