Guide library
Guides for language teachers and learners
Written for people who do this for a living, or who are serious enough about learning that they want the method rather than the encouragement.
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Anki for language learning
Anki is the best spaced repetition tool and most language learners abandon it. The cause is almost always card design — here is what to put on a card, what to leave off, and how to keep the deck alive.
How to create a lesson
A lesson is a live document with its own URL that you and your student both edit during the call. Here is how to make one, what goes in it, and how it differs from a shared doc.
Anki vs Quizlet for language learning
Quizlet is easier and Anki remembers better. The difference is entirely in the scheduling, and it decides which one is right for you more than any feature comparison will.
Lesson notes students actually reuse
Most lesson notes are written once and never opened again. The difference between notes that die and notes that get reused is structure, not effort — here is the format and the ten-minute workflow behind it.
How to read the IPA
You do not need the whole chart. You need the twenty symbols that differ from your expectations, plus the logic behind the layout — after which the rest is lookup.
The online language teacher's tool stack
What you actually need to teach languages online, what you can skip, and where the hidden hours go. A jobs-based breakdown rather than a list of apps.
The hardest sounds for English speakers
Ranked by actual difficulty rather than by how exotic they look — with the reason each one is hard and the specific fix. The near-misses cause more trouble than the strange sounds.
Record a sentence to get transcription, phonetics and translation
One press-and-hold turns a spoken sentence into a transcript, a phonetic transcription and a translation, on your student's screen, before they have finished writing it down.
The shadowing technique
Speaking along with a recording, a second behind, trains the one thing conventional practice never touches — rhythm and intonation. Here is the method, the material to use, and the mistakes that waste it.
Spaced repetition, explained properly
Why reviewing something just before you forget it beats reviewing it daily, what the intervals actually are, and the four mistakes that make most people's spaced repetition useless.
How to tag sentences for Anki
A hashtag while you type becomes a filter in Anki later. Here is the syntax, where it works, and a tagging scheme that stays useful past fifty sentences.
How to teach pronunciation online
Video lessons strip out the mouth, the room and half the frequency range. Here is a method for correcting pronunciation over video that does not rely on the student being able to see your tongue.
You understand everything but cannot speak
The comprehension–production gap is normal, predictable and fixable. Here is why it forms, why more input will not close it, and the four things that actually do.
Guides for online language teachers
All 7 →Everything here is written for someone who teaches one-to-one or small-group language lessons over video, and who is trying to do it well without spending three unpaid hours preparing every lesson.
Correcting students without discouraging them
Error correction is the most face-threatening thing that happens in a language lesson. What to correct, when to correct it, and the techniques that get uptake instead of silence.
The first lesson with a new student
The trial lesson decides whether they come back, and most teachers spend it on the wrong things. A minute-by-minute structure, the diagnostics worth running, and the questions that actually predict retention.
Lesson notes students actually reuse
Most lesson notes are written once and never opened again. The difference between notes that die and notes that get reused is structure, not effort — here is the format and the ten-minute workflow behind it.
The online language teacher's tool stack
What you actually need to teach languages online, what you can skip, and where the hidden hours go. A jobs-based breakdown rather than a list of apps.
Language homework that actually gets done
If most of your students arrive with the homework undone, the homework is wrong — not the students. Six design rules for tasks adults finish, and the review habit that makes them non-optional.
How to teach pronunciation online
Video lessons strip out the mouth, the room and half the frequency range. Here is a method for correcting pronunciation over video that does not rely on the student being able to see your tongue.
Using the IPA with students
Teaching the whole chart is a waste of everyone's time. Teaching four symbols that name a specific student's specific problems pays for itself in one lesson.
Guides for language learners
All 8 →These are methods, not motivation. Each one is specific enough that you can start it this week and tell within a month whether it is working.
Anki for language learning
Anki is the best spaced repetition tool and most language learners abandon it. The cause is almost always card design — here is what to put on a card, what to leave off, and how to keep the deck alive.
Accent reduction is the wrong goal
Sounding native is not achievable for most adults and would not help much if it were. Intelligibility is achievable, measurable, and depends on a short list of features most learners never work on.
How many words do you actually need?
The numbers are smaller than you fear and the distribution is stranger than you expect. What 1,000, 3,000 and 8,000 words each buy you, and why the first thousand are worth more than the next five.
Minimal pairs training
If you cannot hear a contrast, you cannot produce it reliably. Minimal pairs fix perception first, which is why they outperform every other pronunciation drill — when done in the right order.
The shadowing technique
Speaking along with a recording, a second behind, trains the one thing conventional practice never touches — rhythm and intonation. Here is the method, the material to use, and the mistakes that waste it.
Spaced repetition, explained properly
Why reviewing something just before you forget it beats reviewing it daily, what the intervals actually are, and the four mistakes that make most people's spaced repetition useless.
You understand everything but cannot speak
The comprehension–production gap is normal, predictable and fixable. Here is why it forms, why more input will not close it, and the four things that actually do.
Why you cannot hear the difference
Adults do not fail to reproduce foreign sounds — they fail to receive them. Here is what happens to your ears at ten months old, and what can still be done about it decades later.
Phonetics and pronunciation reference
All 5 →Reference material you can come back to. If you teach pronunciation, this is the vocabulary you need in order to describe what a student is doing wrong.
How to read the IPA
You do not need the whole chart. You need the twenty symbols that differ from your expectations, plus the logic behind the layout — after which the rest is lookup.
IPA vs phonetic respelling
"pruh-NUN-see-AY-shun" is easier to read and tells you less. Where respelling is the right choice, where it actively misleads, and why it cannot work at all across languages.
Phonemes vs allophones
Why English speakers cannot hear the difference between two Korean stops, and why Korean speakers cannot hear English b and v. The distinction is the single most useful idea in learner phonetics.
The hardest sounds for English speakers
Ranked by actual difficulty rather than by how exotic they look — with the reason each one is hard and the specific fix. The near-misses cause more trouble than the strange sounds.
Stress and rhythm explained
Rhythm is the deepest difference between languages and the least taught. Why English compresses and French does not, what that does to learners in both directions, and how to fix it.
Tool comparisons for language teaching
All 2 →Where a tool is genuinely better than Teachee for a job, these pages say so. A comparison that never concedes anything is an advert, not a comparison.
Anki vs Quizlet for language learning
Quizlet is easier and Anki remembers better. The difference is entirely in the scheduling, and it decides which one is right for you more than any feature comparison will.
Teachee vs a shared Google Doc for lesson notes
Most online language teachers run on a shared document, and for good reasons. Here is exactly where that breaks down, and where a document is still the right answer.
How to use Teachee
All 7 →Short, complete answers to “how do I actually do this”. Each one ends by pointing at the teaching guide that explains why you would want to.
How to add a picture to a lesson
Attach an image and move it to the side so it sits next to the sentences rather than interrupting them. Short feature, one genuinely good use.
How to create a lesson
A lesson is a live document with its own URL that you and your student both edit during the call. Here is how to make one, what goes in it, and how it differs from a shared doc.
How to add comments to sentences
The comment box is where the explanation goes. Three shortcuts turn plain typing into formatted notes fast enough to do mid-lesson.
The record button isn't working
Two layers can block the microphone and they are independent — the browser, then the operating system. Fixing one while the other is still blocking looks like the fix did nothing.
Record a sentence to get transcription, phonetics and translation
One press-and-hold turns a spoken sentence into a transcript, a phonetic transcription and a translation, on your student's screen, before they have finished writing it down.
How to share a lesson
Sharing produces a link. Send it however you already talk to that student, and they see the lesson update live while you teach.
How to tag sentences for Anki
A hashtag while you type becomes a filter in Anki later. Here is the syntax, where it works, and a tagging scheme that stays useful past fifty sentences.