Introducing WordBrewery, a new language-learning website

This is the first update to Wide Awake Minds in several years, but I am touched to see that we still get a lot of search traffic from people discovering our content. As you have probably guessed, WAM has been on hiatus while I pursued other projects. But I wanted to write a quick post today to bring one of those projects to your attention: WordBrewery, the language-learning website and app I am developing.

WordBrewery teaches high-frequency vocabulary in context with real sentences from news sites around the world. It tests each sentence for its expected usefulness to language learners at different levels, so learners only see sentences that will introduce and reinforce the most important vocabulary. It can never run out of fresh content, and it is aimed at motivated learners as well as learners at or above the intermediate level. WordBrewery also has a blog (RSS) about language learning that Wide Awake Minds readers will find valuable.

Currently, WordBrewery users can browse curated sentences packed with high-frequency words, retrieve definitions and example sentences for any word, add words and sentences to study lists, and export those lists to CSV files to make flashcards using Anki or other software. We are gradually adding language courses, quiz games, native-speaker audio, and edited sentence translations.

I need your help spreading the word about WordBrewery so learners who would find WordBrewery helpful can learn about it and try it out. Please take a moment to do one or more of the following:

• Visit WordBrewery and click "Get Started"
• Share this post on or
• Subscribe to WordBrewery's blog
• Sign up for occasional email updates about WordBrewery
• Follow WordBrewery on Facebook or Twitter

Thank you so much for reading and for helping me make this exciting project a success.

Learning from non-native English speakers

When we come into contact with a person who has difficulty expressing himself or herself in English, rather than jump to conclusions about the person's preferences, intellect, or educational background, we ought to ask ourselves how we would fare if we were forced to communicate in their native language. We can replace our prejudicial assumptions with a presumption that the other person is just as complex and interesting a person as we are.

Our default stance toward “linguistic others” is one of dismissal: we assume that we cannot communicate with them, we suspect that even if we could communicate, the other person might not have anything valuable to say, and in short we try to end the exchange as quickly as possible. But instead we could choose to adopt a basic posture of respect; we could try to move beyond thought-shortcuts and see the other person in the fullness of his or her individuality and humanity. (One good way to do this is to recognize that the place and circumstances of our birth as well as our language, heritage, and family, is nothing more than an accident – I could have just as easily been born in the mountains of Central Asia instead of Michigan).

We might communicate our respect with a smile and a few words, or by taking the opportunity to learn a bit of their language and something about the place they are from. We might also talk with them in English, but in a patient manner in which we are willing to slow down our own speech and hear the other person out even if they do not navigate the difficulties of the English language as quickly or as fluently as we do. Our own ability in English is no more than an accident.