Hi, I’m William.

I’ve been a lover of languages since as far back as I can remember and my interest in how to learn them has pretty much dominated my life. Possibly pathetic that statement, but true.

Even as a kid, with the language bug firmly rooted, I attempted to learn a few languages on my own and to be honest, found the entire experience disheartening. Despite my interest, I simply couldn’t make heads or tales out of the books supposedly meant for self-instruction. Obviously I was too young for the complicated grammatical explanations. But not only that. I also had very naive expectations believing that by simply following those books page by page and chapter by chapter, I would emerge on the other side, a fluent speaker.

Although I never made it past “hello” and “how are you” in any of those languages, my desire to learn continued and pushed me forward. I eventually signed up for my first real language class in high school – German. Unfortunately, I was faced with the same issues as when I set out to learn on my own. The class seemed to be full of demotivating exercises, forced and very unnatural conversation, and a bunch of grammatical charts I was supposed to memorize. I wasn’t getting what I really wanted, which was an ability to actually use the language naturally. But finally, at 17-years old, I had an epiphany: If I truly wanted to learn German, I had to move way beyond my high school class curriculum and go out and get the language myself. And that is what I did.

I truly believe that anyone anywhere can learn a language on their own if they understand how to train themselves properly. That means using good technique, focusing on performance outcomes, and simply understanding what they are doing and more importantly, why they are doing it.
I have started The Independent Language Learner to help people become excellent language learners. I believe that taking charge of your own learning path is the only way to reach fluency. You must take responsibility. No excuses. You want that language? Then go out and get it.

I’ve also written the book that I’ve always wanted to read, Getting to Fluency. It is the guiding force behind my language learning philosophy and acts as the foundation for The Independent Language Learner.

I am a trained instructional designer (M.Ed. in educational technology and instructional design from the University of Washington) and have designed learning programs for both universities and corporations. In addition, I have worked as a language teacher and as the director of the language learning center at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

I also have a M.A. in German literature and linguistics and am fluent in Spanish. I am constantly working on learning new languages.

Join me.