(You can quickly jump to the book’s page here.)
Japanese has been my primary foreign language for a long time, and I expect it to stay that way. However, I’ve spent some time in the last few years dabbling in a few other languages including Korean, German, and Mandarin, not to mention a few years of Spanish from back in high school.
I’ve spent a lot of my time focused on things specific to Japanese, but sometimes I feel like painting broader strokes and talking about language learning in general. A few weeks ago I suddenly had a mini-Eureka moment about a topic I felt was critically important to learning languages in the modern age, so I decided to take a break from other projects and focus on this passion project.
In short, the book is about the dangers of using resources such as video sites (YouTube, TicToc) as well as social media sites (Twitter/X, etc.) to study a foreign language. Though to be fair much of what I have to say applies to learning nearly anything via what I am calling hyper-engaging, “addictive” content.
With the large number of video channels out there focusing on language learning, I think I may be holding a minority opinion, but nevertheless I wanted to make what I felt were important claims (and related suggestions) about language learning using modern technology. This is all based on observing my own behaviors and those of others over time.
You can find the book available here, or as part of a 2-book series with another book on language learning I wrote some time back. For a limited time it’s only $0.99 USD (or equivalent).
I’d like to thank Jim Miles and Priya Singh for help with proofreading this book.
If you’re considering starting a new language this year or just jumping back into an existing one, I think this is a good supplementary resource to help keep you productive.