Old English : Texts for Newbies and Brushers-Up

It’s not foreign languages, but a variety of my first language that has been central lately. Old English keeps cropping up – in my research, in the classroom, and as a general object of geeky interest – so I’ve been digging out all the old texts for reference.

I’ve used a right mix of them over the years. From traditional grammars and readers, to more modern guides that take the same approach as modern language learning, I’ve got something from each and every one of them.

If you’ve not learnt Old English formally, some of these are texts you wouldn’t necessarily have come across. That said, they’re still great for self-teaching, as well as dipping in and out of. So here you go – my go-to bookshelf of Old English primers and reference works.

Learning Old English

First off, two solid texts that have formed the basis of a couple of university courses I’ve followed.

Introduction to Old English by Peter Baker, 2012

In its third edition now, Introduction to Old English by Peter S. Baker is one of the more contemporary primers in Modern English. It has some great material situating the language in its socio-historical place, making it a really comprehensive introduction.

A Guide to Old English by Mitchell, Bruce and Robinson

But if it’s pedigree you’re after, this is the one. Published by Wiley-Blackwell, like the more recent Baker text, this guide – already in its eighth edition! – is a staple of introductory courses. It follows a solid expository-exercises layout but also features a section of elementary readers for practice. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Teach Yourself series. It’s probably not the first place you’d think of when it comes to ancient languages, though – until you look at their back catalogue and see that Latin and Ancient Greek have featured there for decades. Old English is a slightly more recent edition, and it’s recently been given the Complete range makeover you see in this edition.

Some might class it as a bit of a hobbyist guide, and for sure, it does take an approach that is closer to a modern language course. But that’s precisely what’s so good about it – and so appropriate if you’re coming to it as a learner of other languages. Accessible and chunked up into very digestible portions. A winner.

Finally, if you’re hankering to see it all in action, give this a go. It’s a bilingual edition of the Old English classic Beowulf. Each page spread features the original, and a side-by-side modern translation by Seamus Heaney. Read it from cover to cover, or dip in and out when the mood takes you. A brilliant first text once you’ve covered the basics.

Whether you’re diving into Old English for academic purposes, out of linguistic curiosity, or simply to connect with the roots of Modern English, these resources offer a fantastic starting point. Happy reading and learning!

Anki Heat Maps – Honesty Corner

When it comes to building and reviewing habits, honesty is the best policy. And there’s one Anki plug-in that has been that tough-talking, truth-speaking friend I’ve needed over the years.

Review heat map has been going for as long as I’ve been using Anki (and that’s a long time already!). I think it was a German conversation partner on iTalki who pointed me in its direction originally – it was so long ago, that that origin story is lost in the mists of time.

But because of that admirable length of service, I have years of usage data in there – and it really shines a light on my consistency (or lack thereof) in that time.

Anki Honesty

I’d not looked at mine in a while – in the desktop app they’re hiding below your decks – so it was about time to check in. And while I knew I’d been a bit on and off in 2024 (preparing for a PhD was a slight distraction!), I didn’t realise I’d been quite so neglectful.

Anki heat maps over time

Anki heat maps over time

It’s not all bad, though. There’s actually something very encouraging about this. Progress is bitty, yes; but it never stops completely. A couple of times, I’ve had over two weeks without checking in. But I’ve always got back into it (usually in a mammoth catch-up sesh, working through 200+ cards – although even those catch-ups took perhaps just 10-15 minutes each).

Taking stock like this also serves as a motivational kick – I can do better. And so it’s back in my goals list for 2025 – make Anki part of the start of your day. Getting a year completely blued out, like 2021, will be so satisfying.

Know Yourself

Heat maps can show us that sometimes, we fail to take our own advice. We fall off the wagon. It’s clear that there are times that I repeatedly let my daily tactics slide, despite my own efficiency evangelism!

That said, knowledge is power. Looking over those heat maps, I see when those times of slippage occur. Without fail, they’re always times of being over-busy, stressed out, or – conversely – times of extreme leisure (think: holidays!). More than anything, the stops and starts in my heat maps show that life sometimes gets in the way.

But you can always get it back on track.

Review Heat Map is a pretty essential addition to your Anki toolbox, to my mind. And it’s available for free from the Anki plug-ins site!

Lots of Flashcards floating down from buildings to the street below

Mastering Verbs with Anki: A Step-by-Step Guide

Verb conjugation is a sticking point for many language learners at some point. Of course, some languages let us off the hook with minimal paradigms, like Chinese, or Norwegian. As for the rest of them, there’s no getting around endings, stem changes, auxiliaries and the like.

Memorising entire conjugation tables by rote might work as an overview. But retaining reams of conjugation tables in memory, then using them naturally in context, is a different story.

That’s where Anki can help. By customising your cards to include not only disembodied parts, but also real-world, conjugated, in-use examples, verb drills will be less wading through treacle and more in-the-moment fast recall.

Here’s how.

Custom fields for verbs

It’s all about customising your note types to contain contextualising info, and not just a simple dictionary form and translation. A good ‘verb note’ should probably contain the main dictionary elements – infinitive, simple past and past participle, for example – but also a space for a sample sentence (or several, if you like).

To add these custom fields to a note type in Anki, start by opening the Manage Note Types menu. You can find this by clicking Tools > Manage Note Types in the top menu. Choose an existing note type you want to customise (or create a new one by clicking Add) and select Fields. In the fields editor, you can add new fields by clicking Add and giving the field a name, such as “Dictionary Form,” “Conjugated Sentence,” or “Notes.”

Making a custom note type for verbs in Anki

After you’ve done that, you can start adding items to your decks in this new format.

Adding an Anki card using a custom note type for verbs

We’re not quite done yet, though. Your new, custom note is up and running in terms of storing data – just not displaying it in cards, yet.

To include these fields on your flashcards, hit the Browse link in main Anki window, select the note type in the left-hand menu, then edit the card templates by selecting Cards in the right-hand pane. Insert your named fields into the template using curly braces, e.g., {{Dictionary Form}} or {{Sample Sentence}}. You can use basic HTML to style your data, too.

Customising a card view to use a new note type specifically for German verbs

Experiment with different strategies for where you place the info. The front side might contain just the English prompt, with the target language all on the flip side. Alternatively, you might want to keep your cards solely in the target language, with the infinitive on one side, and the parts / context material on the back.

Form and Use

The beauty of the customised note types approach is that a deck can contain multiple types. So, for verbs, enter your vocab using the note type created in the steps above. For other items like nouns, adjectives and so on, add using a basic card. Either that, or customise for those parts of speech, too – there’s no limit!

Mastering irregular verbs is all about context. Anki gives you the tools to leverage context in any way you please, through its extensive customisation tools. By taking advantage of Anki’s spaced repetition when learning verbs in full sentences, you’ll not only memorise their forms, but also their use. It’s especially effective when you make Anki cards one of your daily tactics.

Ready to take control of your verbs? Start building your deck today, and let Anki do the heavy lifting!

Fireworks at New Year - the best time for resolutions!

Realistic Resolutions for 2025

Days away from the turn of the year, many of us feel the potential to start new projects and revitalise old ones – a roadmap to the ‘you’ you want to become. And as with all roadmaps, New Year’s resolutions are always better when you start with a good plan.

The best kind of plan, in this case, is a scaffold. A scaffold is a set of looser rules to guide you, rather than a straitjacket to lock you into one, unbending path. Where this helps is when life inevitably gets in the way – there will be times you have to miss a streak or fall short of your weekly goal. Broad guiding principles provide just enough give to prevent bumps in the road from feeling like total failures.

The best guiding principles are ones that are realistic about the limits of our distractible, whimsical, faddish human brains. They respect our energy and concentration levels, as well as acknowledging when and how we work best.

Below are some of the most sure-fire scaffolding tricks I’ve personally used to guarantee realistic resolutions for 2025!

Daily tactics for Realistic Resolutions

The old adage little and often really is your best friend. Daily tactics are just this – short, snappy and non-negotiable habits that keep you learning and improving all the time. They can be super short, in fact – five minutes completing a lesson on an app, for example – but they must be easy enough to perform regularly. Think about putting together a little regime of three or four tactics that you can perform each and every day.

Tactics can evolve over the year, too, as they’re easy to tweak if something isn’t quite right. The most important thing is to have your core of easy tide-me-overs, and stick to them.

Lark or owl?

Talking about regularity of habits, an important question to ask yourself is when are you at your most effective and energetic? My biggest mistake when making any kind of self-development lists in the past was over-optimism about my energy levels. I’d see myself getting up at dawn for a learning session, working all day, then scheduling classes and activities at night. I love learning – so why wouldn’t I plan learning into my entire day?

You can guess what this leads to: burn-out.

Over time, I’ve come to accept that I’m a lark, through and through. My energy is morning-loaded. After a certain point (usually about 6pm), I am done for the day. What this acceptance gives me is a more realistic attitude towards procrastination. Before, I’d kid myself that I could postpone task X or Y until the evening, and allow distractions to creep into my morning. Embracing my inner lark reminds me that the only thing I’m doing in the evening is recharging!

Would-Like-To-Do Lists

Finally, a bit of self-kindness is key to tackling goals without stress. As a friend of mine always says, don’t make to-do lists. Make would-like-to-do lists. These are things you’d love to see yourself mastering in the long-term, but not do-or-die obligations on yourself.

Think of them as a mood board for the future you – ideas for a new you, some of which will make it, and some of which will change over time. There’s no ‘must’ about self-development – it’s a network of roads and your route can change at any time.

The main thing is that you have an open positive, and explorative mindset!

Someone cooking beans by a campfire. Preparedness reading can be great for your languages!

Dystopia Warning: Reading Preparedness Booklets for Language Learning

Dystopia warning: there’s a lot of doom-mongering in the news lately. Much of it (we hope) is newspapers sensationalising for clicks. Now, you could just limit the flow of all this in the name of sanity. But, since all that reading material is there, why not turn that negative into a positive?

That’s my thinking with one type of foreign-language literature reflecting the current Zeitgeist, anyway: the preparedness booklet. This is a type of public information pamphlet that pops up from time to time when the news gets hairy.

If you grew up in the 70s or 80s, you’ll remember these as the ‘nuclear survival’ leaflets that, to be honest, frightened, rather than reassured people. These days, they’ve resurfaced, thanks to a rather dicey new geopolitics.

This time round, however, they’re less When the Wind Blows, and more about general preparedness for anything from power cuts to cyberattacks. They’re also a lot more accessible than back in the day, since they’re largely downloadable PDFs rather than locally distributed leaflets now.

Oh – and they’re also completely free.

Reading Preparedness Booklets

So why are these rather alarming publications so good for language learners? Well, first off, in terms of vocabulary, they are all about basic items. That’s the kind of stuff that’s useful to know in many situations, let alone emergencies. Food, water, utilities… All great stuff to know how to talk about when visiting a target language country.

Also, they’re accessible in terms of language, too. They’re meant to be read and understood by everybody, which means the language is clear, direct and unfussy. That’s great for a bit of intermediate reading practice.

If I’ve convinced you that a bit of prepping lit is good for your languages, then here are some links to preparedness booklets I’ve come across in other languages:

Hopefully we’ll never need these for real. For now, at least, they’re great reading practice, and offer some insights into public life in your target language countries.

Have you found any more of these online? Please let me know, as I’m always glad to add them to the list!

New Year Bells

That was 2024 : (Almost) a year of language learning

As things wind down for Christmas, it’s always worth pausing to take stock of what went well over the last twelve months.

Language learning can be both a high-focus undertaking as well as a lower-key, background constant, especially if life is busy. But sometimes, just listing what you’ve managed to do in twelves months will reassure you that you’re on track.

For me, it’s been an incredibly busy year. It’s been one where I’d have loved to find more time for languages, and felt that pang of underachiever guilt. That’s probably me being far too harsh on myself — it’s been a year of product launches, presentations, and from September, a PhD too!

Adding it up

When I add it up, though, I haven’t done too badly despite the calendar crush. Here’s what I’ve managed to keep up in spite of it all:

Granted, that’s less than I’d have wanted. It’s a focus on fewer languages than I wanted, for sure. But it’s not a bad haul at all, given how packed the year was with other stuff.

And there’s a pattern here.

Recipe for success

My 2024 language achievements fall into three categories:

  • Occasion-based motivators (building language skills in the lead-up to holidays)
  • Social motivators (learning languages with people – your class, or a favourite teacher)
  • Everyday habits / daily tactics (five minutes on a language app, for example)

They’re all things that make squeezing an hour in here, half an hour in there, worthwhile. The rewards are things I value: lovely experiences, having fun, making friends, having a quick gamified language escape on the bus.  And they’re the reason I’ve not fallen off the wagon despite my protestations of I’m too busy all year!

It’s a nice reminder that language learning works best when it works with you. Ideally, your learning should be frictionless. If you feel resistance, then you should think about reframing your approach to your person interests (books and podcasts that grab your fancy in your ‘non-languagey’ life definitely help). If in doubt, use the motivator mix above to make your recipe: event goals, people goals and everyday mini-habits.

As the year ends, it’s clear that language learning isn’t about perfection—it’s about persistence. Whether it’s for travel, connection, or the joy of discovery, the key is finding what keeps you coming back. So, take a moment to reflect on your own journey this year. You might be surprised at just how much you’ve achieved, even when life was at its busiest. Here’s to more languages, more moments, and more fun in 2025!

Christmas 2024

Christmas Gifts for Language Lovers : 2024 Edition!

Linguists in your life and lost for present ideas? It’s that time of year again, when I crack open the bubbly, grab a seat by the fireside, and list my favourite language learning Christmas gifts of the year. And it’s been another cracking year for learners!

Here’s my round-up of gifts (that includes gifts to yourself, remember!).

Christmas for Linguists, 2024 Edition!

SCOTTISH GAELIC : A COMPREHENSIVE GRAMMAR

Christmas gifts 2024 - Scottish Gaelic - A Comprehensive Grammar

Christmas gifts 2024 – Scottish Gaelic – A Comprehensive Grammar

I won’t lie – this was my highlight of the year. On the surface, it’s clearly one for Gaelic learners, but Indo-European typologists and other fans will also be cheering for it.

We’ve been waiting for a Gaelic grammar as comprehensive as this for years, and this volume by William Lamb does not disappoint. It’s as thorough a take as I’ve ever seen, and chock full of real-world examples. While not for beginners (a little knowledge of basic syntax would be recommended for some chapters), it’s pretty much an essential companion for anyone studying the language seriously.

It’s another gem in the crown of Routledge’s long-loved grammar series. And with a second edition of Turkish being added to the Comprehensive cache next year, it looks bound to keep growing.

THE TRUTH ABOUT ENGLISH GRAMMAR

Christmas gifts 2024 - The Truth about English Grammar

Christmas gifts 2024 – The Truth about English Grammar

If the usual stuffy old style books leave you reeling, then this could be the grammar guide you’re looking for. It’s a really refreshing look at what counts as ‘good’ English, without the moralising and with an eye to language as a developing, living thing, and not a relic.

THE LANGUAGE PUZZLE : HOW WE TALKED OUR WAY OUT OF THE STONE AGE

Christmas gifts 2024 - The Language Puzzle

Christmas gifts 2024 – The Language Puzzle

We all love a good language origin story, and this year’s offering to the fray is Mithen’s excellent The Language Puzzle. It’s a great synthesis of current thinking on how we became talking apes, and very readable with it.

EUROVISION 2024 DVD

Christmas gifts 2024 - Eurovision DVD

Christmas gifts 2024 – Eurovision 2024 DVD

If you experienced this in the moment, you’ll remember as one of the most contentious contests of the show’s nearly 70 years of history. But it was also a great one for non-English entries, which you can enjoy in full HD in the peace of your own home now the dust has settled.

BRAVE NEW WORDS: HOW AI WILL REVOLUTIONIZE EDUCATION (AND WHY THAT’S A GOOD THING)

Christmas Gifts 2024 - Brave New Words

Christmas Gifts 2024 – Brave New Words

It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t squeeze an #AIEd book in here too, and Brave New Words is one of the best amongst a bumper crop. The clincher with this one is that its positivity is palpable. True, there’s a fair bit of plug for the author’s resources, but overall it’s a book full of ideas that look forward with excitement, rather than apprehension. Nice title too, playing on the currency of LLMs.

CHATGPT ADVANCED VOICE MODE

And of course, on the topic of AI, the big game-changer in AI for language learning this year was ChatGPT’s advanced voice mode. For a start, it much more closely mimics real conversation with more humanlike turn-taking. But it’s leagues better at speaking languages other than English, too. Impressively, this includes varieties of other languages. Just ask it to speak German with a Bavarian accent, or French as in Marseilles.

It will blow your socks off. Well worth the upgrade to Plus.

 

Robots sitting an exam - it could even be the JLPT exam!

Making It Official : The Joy of JLPT and Other Language Accreditations

Sometimes a language chooses you by sheer dint of the wealth of resources, and a wonderful organisation of tutoring and testing around it. I got a sneak peek of this while assisting at local JLPT exams recently, the benchmark Japanese proficiency exams administered from Japan and held all over the world.

The local JLPT team in Edinburgh run exam days like a well-oiled machine. Everything has a place, and everything is in its place, down to the neat answer sheets and thread-tied packing folders proctors sort them into at the end of each session. It feels like a real academic event, and a joy to watch it taking place without a hitch.

Lots of national cultural entities have similar systems, of course. The Goethe Institute has its own set of tests in German, for example. Chinese is covered by the graded HSK tests available at centres worldwide. And then there’s Norskprøve, which will give you accreditation in Norwegian (although you’ll likely have to go to Norway to sit that). Whatever your language, it’s worth looking into national testing. They offer the perfect opportunity to mark your progress with an official stamp.

Beyond the certificate, though, there’s a great sense of community in joining an exam class. It’s a lovely thing to see students excitedly swapping stories at the end of a session. What went well? What was tricky? And, of course, good luck for the results. It’s made me eager to join a course with accreditation again (and maybe learn some more Japanese – if only I had the time!).

Either way, it’s a reminder that learning for an exam can be hard work – but so rewarding.

Parcels flying over from Germany - from Momox perhaps?

Meet Momox – German Language Materials on the Cheap

You might already know that I’m a language learning eBay bargain hunter. The site is a goldmine of course book treasures. But if you’re after German realia in particular for your teaching and learning, the Momox store could be even more of an Aladdin’s cave.

Momox is one of the big used media sellers on eBay. If you’ve bought popular items on eBay in the past, you may well already know them. They deal in all the usual mainstream books, CDs and DVDs.

But there’s one key difference: Momox is actually a German storefront. Being headquartered in Berlin, they have an immense catalogue of German-language materials. And better still, all that still qualifies for their standard free delivery charge, making it a really affordable way to buy your authentic materials auf Deutsch.

Momox Merch

One particularly rich seam of goodies available for a bargain on Momox is reality TV merch. In terms of language learning, you’ll know that I rate following a reality franchise as a super fun way to engage with your target language country.

Personally, Germany’s take on Pop Idol, Deutschland sucht den Superstar, has been a favourite of mine since I excitedly discovered it in the early noughties. Back then, I had to wait for a trip abroad to grab the CDs and DVDs. Now, there’s a raft of Deutschland sucht den Superstar memorabilia on Momox, all at super cheap used prices! For fans of the rival Voice of Germany, you can even pick up the console game from the series. Hours of fun.

And there are books, of course – loads of them. For easy target language reading, all the big kids’ series are all there, like Harry Potter – just search “Harry Potter und” for all the German ones. They’re a lot cheaper than buying them from a UK-based store.

It’s all the kind of thing that would have made me giddy in my early language learning years (and kept the postman busy). If you’re a German learner, then Momox might be just what you need to stay plugged into German pop culture – without breaking the bank.

Swirls, a bit like an abstract Eurovision logo

Junior Eurovision : Worth a second look for language fans?

When it comes to Eurovision, I’m your man. Junior Eurovision, though, not so much.

It’s hard to believe that the kids’ version of our favourite contest has been with us since 2003 already. It’s a lovely idea – what’s not to like about showcasing young songwriting and performing skills?

But it became clear pretty early on that the target audiences for Eurovision and its junior counterpart didn’t quite overlap. Yes, there’s still the flag-waving excitement of a national competition. There’s still the razzamatazz of an expensive, slick TV extravaganza. But it can all feel a bit… twee. Great for other showbiz-minded kids (I’d have loved it as a theatrical pre-teen) and cooing grandparents, but not quite the banger-factory Eurovision proper had become.

Irish Surprise

So, imagine my surprise when Ireland popped up this year with a song that made me rethink the whole shebang. The country has tasked Irish-language station TG4 with selecting its junior entry since its 2015 debut, which has meant a stream of non-anglophone entries that are joy to polyglots’ musical ears. In fact, Junior Eurovision has been flying the flag for non-English entries well into ‘daddy’ Eurovision’s broken English-heavy, post-language rule phase.

It turns out that Junior Eurovision is very much a contest of two camps. On one hand, you do have the saccharine, milk tooth and pigtails contingent (which often wins thanks to a seemingly sentimental jury vote). On the other, you have a more grown-up side to the contest with the slightly older kids entering sometimes quite sophisticated pop. And so it is with Ireland this year, represented confidently by Enya Cox Dempsey and the Eurovision-worthy Le chéile (Together).

It’s the kind of tune you can dance to. It’s a mature, well-produced mix. And it has hooks for days. This is no cookie-cutter junior bop—it’s a song that could hold its own on the adult stage.

In the end – perhaps predictably – it didn’t fare so well in the voting, ending up 15th out of 17 (again, it’s those sentimental juries). But it was fresh, catchy and authentic, and well worth adding to a Gaeilge pop playlist.

In any case, props to TG4 for providing a stream of Irish-language bops to a wider European audience. There’s a lesson here for the grown-up event: Eurovision needs to reclaim its roots and embrace more authentic language diversity.

Let’s see that role reversal!