A blog by by Steve Kaufmann, former Canadian diplomat who has had his own company in the international trade of forest products for over 20 years.

Kaufmann founded The Linguist Institute Ltd. in 2002 to develop a new approach to language learning using the web. The new LingQ system for learning multiple languages is now available.

This system reflects work on the early stages of language learning done by Prof. Fred Genesee of McGill University:

“When learning occurs, neuro-chemical communication between neurons is facilitated, in other words a neural network is gradually established. Exposure to unfamiliar speech sounds is initially registered by the brain as undifferentiated neural activity. As exposure continues, the listener (and the brain) learns to differentiate among different sounds and even among short sequences of sounds that correspond to words or parts of words…”

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