As ever it’s a very sporadic update… Apologies.
Work and family keep me busy and I’m never able to post as often as I like. I’m going to attempt to keep a language log from now on as I want to document my progress somewhat.
While I use Korean daily I have limited motivation to write about my Korean adventure as the milestones are few and far between these days. I do plan on sitting the TOPIK exam later this year and will review that when the time comes, but for now I have a more interesting challenge. Click here to read more.. »
There’s no doubt that the people from the Middle East are very proud people. They are proud of their country, of their history and of their language. Except when speaking English… many of those I speak to wish to lose all traces of the markers that identify them as being from the region. But that’s a story for another time.
Today we talk about Arabic itself. What are the differences between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and the colloquial or vernacular varieties? Which is intrinsically the best Arabic to learn? Click here to read more.. »
It appears as if we have been nominated for this years Top 100 Language Blogs over at LexioPhiles. Very happy indeed. Voting will start May 12, so I will post a reminder then 
Top 100 Nominations
As a follow-up to the Multilingual Children post a while back, this is a question we’ve been pondering lately… How do you develop and maintain literacy in the home language without formal instruction?
The obvious way as we are both teachers is to actively teach our son how to write and give him written tasks as he progresses… but that’s unrealistic. The last thing we want to do is have Leon resenting English when we’re in Korea (where English will be the home language). Sure, he’ll be exposed to English in the education system or should we choose, a private institute… but since his English level is likely to be higher than his peers, that’s also kind of unrealistic. Click here to read more.. »
As Nayoung and I have just had our first baby boy – Leon Jaewoo – I may as well do a write up on multilingual children and the common methods surrounding the raising of them. Obviously, we would love for our boy to grow up as a coordinate bilingual of English and Korean… but how are we going to do it? Click here to read more.. »
