Ah, nostalgia. I just got done reading the short blog post I wrote last year to ring in the year 2011. It feels like we were such a baby company barely 12 months ago! I mean, we were so excited about the mere facts that we had launched a few pilot iPhone apps and had a new website “on its way”. Gosh we were so cute. Fast-forward to late-December 2011.
Let’s take a look at what we’ve accomplished over the past year: (more…)
Are you prepared to keep your resolution this coming year?
If you’re like the rest of us, it’s more than likely that you’ve made resolutions in past years that, for some reason or other, you were not able to keep. Perhaps you stuck with them for all of January, or even into February, but then other obligations came up and the resolution you made January 1st fell to the wayside.
Don’t be too hard on yourself! And don’t give up on New Year’s Resolutions! There is still time to plan the perfect resolution and here are 5 tips to set yourself up to succeed with this year’s resolution. (more…)
Do you dream of landing a job at ESPN or as a sports manager at IMG? Maybe you just love rattling off NFL records while watching the game with friends. Or perhaps you’re new to watching sports and need to learn the basics about the leagues and teams as you get started. Now there’s an app for that.
Brainscape’s Sports Trivia* app is THE tool for learning about the teams, players, records and history of the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL. It’s perfect for novices who simply want to learn the teams and cities, or for the more advanced fan who wants to drill himself on the top NBA draft pick in 1957. (more…)
12 hours left on the Brainscape Holiday Promotion!
All Brainscape apps are 1/2 Off until the end of the day. Gift an app and give the gift of knowledge at half the price TODAY!
Like every other language, English contains a wealth of words that at some point have been adopted (or adapted) from another foreign language. Once these words become incorporated into the everyday vocabulary and are thus accepted, people often forget all about their ‘alienness’. As a native speaker of English, you know the meaning of these words and understand them. However, do you truly know their origin? By that I not only mean the country/language of origin. Are your aware of the actual meaning of the word/its elements in the native tongue?
My sister once told me a story of how during her time in France, she had to detangle the meaning of the word ‘kindergarten’ to some of her non-German friends. It made me realize that while using and understanding the meaning of a German loanword, English-speaking people may not necessarily be aware of its original meaning. (In this case: a garden for children.) Personally, I love those aha-moments when something suddenly appears in an entirely new light because someone explained a context or background you never thought of before. Therefore I put together a list of 20 German words that have been adopted into the English language and detangled them for you. Read on and let me know: Any surprises (or laughs)? (more…)
Have you made your New Year’s Resolutions yet? 2012 is fast approaching, and the time to reflect on 2011 and to decide what you want to pursue in the coming 365 days is now.
We all know it is important to plan ahead if you want to keep your resolutions. But did you know it is equally important to choose the RIGHT resolution? So choose wisely to increase your chances of keeping your resolution this year. To help, we have an idea for the PERFECT resolution. (more…)
Dear Brainscapers,
This year, as you are deciding what to give your loved ones, friends, and peers for the holidays, why not choose to give something interesting, meaningful, and useful? Give the gift of knowledge!
Brainscape is the perfect gift for everyone: your little sister studying for the GRE, the friend who loves sports trivia, or your coworker who wants to learn Spanish for an upcoming trip.
To make gift giving even easier for you, we’ve made ALL Brainscape apps 1/2 OFF from NOW until December 21st! What’s even better, did you know you can gift an app on iTunes? All you have to do is follow these 3 simple steps: (more…)
Have you ever wished that you could take an on-demand video course for interesting topics like building a website, starting a company, or doing yoga? Gagan Biyani has. That’s why he and co-founder Eren Bali decided to start Udemy, an online course authoring and sharing platform that aims to “democratize online education.” I actually interviewed Eren nearly a year ago about his role as the technical founder, and now that the company has raised a Series A, I thought it was a good time to catch up with the other co-founder Gagan to see how Udemy’s plans have evolved.
As you’ll see in the video below, Udemy still combines series of instructional videos into full courses that can be purchased, shared, and even certified. But they now have even bigger plans to expand on their additional features such as the addition of articles, presentations, assessments, index-able videos, and a variety of other social and collaborative education activities to create a richer overall learning experience.
Be sure to check out our interview below and tell Gagan what you think! (more…)
When we try to acquire a new language, many factors can influence how difficult or how easy it is for us to learn. There are varying views on such approaches as full immersion in the foreign language and the use of translation. One of the most difficult areas of mastery is the attempt to get a ‘feel’ for the language. When children acquire a first language, they unconsciously pick up on those very small and hard to grasp patterns that make it so unique. Studies have now shown that even as we grow older, grasping those subtle regularities is still possible and will allow for a better understanding and mastery of the new language.
I acquired much of my vocabulary and feel for grammar and sentence structure in the English language through daily reading. For me, that form of immersion in a language proved to be the most effective way to learn its implicit patterns. But even after 12 years, some of these patterns still seem to elude me. What has been your personal experience with unconscious or implicit language learning? (more…)
“MS Excel on a Mac is the bane of my existence.” This is what I tweeted a few months ago while I was painfully getting used to my first Mac. As a long-time Windows veteran exploring my new machine, I found myself constantly looking for directories that didn’t exist, or punching in keyboard shortcutsthat had totally unintended consequences. It was as if the Mac and I just fundamentally did not understand each other, no matter how “user-friendly” everyone told me that the Mac should be.Worse, any headway I did make toward “internalizing” my new Apple keystrokes would just screw up my PC skills for the next time I was using a Windows machine. I ended up making countless distracting syntax errors on both platforms as I switched between personal and work computers during those initial weeks. It was as if I had a distinct PC “accent” when trying to speak Mac. (more…)
