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The holidays are calling – it’s time to get away, or at least get booking, and dream of adventure.  For language learners, holidays can be a great time to practise what they have learned in term-time.  But have you ever thought of going on a holiday where language learning is...

Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. William Faulkner In the post-method era, the role of language teachers changed, as did the learners’, who do not receive their knowledge passively, but are instead expected to actively participate in learning. There...

As well as language lessons, BLS offers a translation service.  We also encourage our students who are interested in translation as a career to have a go at it.  In this blog post, Suzannah, one of our translators, shares tips from her experience on how to translate texts effectively.  Suzannah...

Getting pronunciation right in the language you are learning helps you feel at home in that language.  It also helps you be understood by speakers of the language.  Below are a few tips on how to improve your pronunciation in a foreign language. First things first Learning a bit about...

As you remember, we introduced a new series of blog posts (see Spanish, French & German) where we teach you some useful phrases in different languages. Sounds amazing? And it’s RUSSIAN today! Are you planning your ski holiday in Sochi? Do you travel frequently to St Petersburg? Do you dream...

Arabic is one of the five most spoken languages in the world.  It is spoken by around 422 million people and is the native language of over 200 million people in the geographical region stretching from Southwest Asia to Northwest Africa, also known as the Arab World.  Arabic is the...

Everyone can learn a new skill, and everyone can learn a new language – but did you know that different people learn in different ways?  Not all people’s learning techniques are the same.  The type of learner you are depends on how your brain is wired.  The categories of learner...

Japanese (日本語 [nihõŋɡo]) is the ninth most widely spoken language in the world.  It is the official language of Japan, which has a population of over 125 million people.  There are also around 2.5 million people of Japanese origin, many of whom speak Japanese as their first language, living in...

Reading is a key skill to develop when you are learning a new language.  Reading in another language makes us comfortable with the words and grammar used in that language.  Seeing words written down helps us remember them.  You can improve your reading and understanding skills – and your writing...

As you remember, we introduced a new series of blog posts (see Spanish & French) where we teach you some useful phrases in different languages. Sounds amazing? And it’s GERMAN today! Are you planning your ski holiday in Switzerland or Austria? Do you travel frequently to Berlin? Do you dream...