[Follow on Twitter:
@gruffdavies]
Despite the very Welsh name, Gruff is actually half French. Nowadays, he's a tech entrepreneur (and some-time novelist) but he used to be a physicist at Imperial College before getting hooked on inventing things. He has a special interest in language learning, speaks five languages to varying degrees of fluency and he often blogs about language learning, science, and technology.
As well as co-founding
Kwiziq, he is the author the Amazon best-selling SF thriller,
The Looking Glass Club and the inventor of the
Exertris gaming exercise-bike and
Pidgin, a free online tool that makes drawing flow charts and relationship diagrams as quick and easy as describing them in pidgin English.
Posts by Gruff
Grammar is the key to meaning and understanding in languages and you're brilliant at it, whether you know it or not. more »
Forget about New Year's Resolutions! Make New Month's Resolutions instead! more »
Whatever your dreams related to Spanish may be, setting goals is one of the most effective tools in your learning arsenal. more »
Can you learn Spanish while you sleep? The answer is surprising... more »
Don't give up learning, don't criticize yourself - just be kind to yourself, throw caution to the wind, and make mistakes. It's a marathon, not a sprint. more »
When learning a language, immersion is ideal and practice is paramount. more »
Being self-conscious about making mistakes in your foreign language is counter-productive, so don't be. I know it's easier said than done, I've been there. more »
The real peril when learning Spanish, or any language, is getting demotivated before you get to the magic. So the secret to learning is to stay motivated. more »
Think of learning a language a bit like climbing a tall but not-too-steep mountain. The first part is the hardest: it's all bad weather and slog. more »
One way to jumpstart your language learning journey is spend some time absorbing the sounds of the language: just listen without trying to understand. more »