Learning Science
How the brain learns — and how to apply it to language and life.
The articles in this section are written and synthesised by AI from published research in the fields of learning science and linguistics.
The sources for each article are listed at the end of the piece — do read them, both for a fuller grounding and to satisfy yourself as to their reliability.
Language Pluralism
Most learners carry a model in which each language is a sealed box, and each box only counts once filled to native level...
Procedural Memory in Language Learning
You know the rule. You can explain it, you got the exercises right — and mid-sentence it is not there. That gap is not y...
The Beautiful Things About Languages That Nobody Mentions
The beauty of language usually gets advertised with lists of untranslatable words and the story about fifty Eskimo words...
Applying James Clear’s Atomic Habits to language learning
A 900-day streak, and still unable to order a coffee. The habit succeeded exactly as designed — the design was just poin...
How to practise Chinese writing with almost no resources
Copying a character twenty times feels like diligent work and builds almost nothing, because the model sits on the page...
Does learning a new language improve your memory?
The question runs three different questions together, and each has its own answer. One of them rests on evidence that di...
HSK 3.0: every section of the new exam and how to prepare for it
The old HSK effectively tested two skills. HSK 3.0 tests five. Anyone preparing out of old habit is preparing for about...
The systems modern polyglots built for themselves
They disagree on nearly every concrete question: speak immediately or stay silent, flashcards or no flashcards, translat...
From fluency to mastery: the road from C1 to C2
At C1 you can express any idea you have. What is missing is not vocabulary or grammar but knowing which of the many corr...