A Fun Way To Learn The English Language?

I have people from about 40 countries visiting my blog every day.

Image courtesy of Colin Adamson ~ http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Col6085

Sure, the USA, UK, Australia, and India are the top ones since I write in English.

But, the other 30-some countries are are always changing and, over the last 3 years, there are only about 12 countries that haven’t shown up in my visitors’ stats.

Part of me is astonished that folks from so many countries come to a blog in English.

Another part of me has a hint about some of their motivations…

Back in June of 2011, I published the post, Writing Challenge ~ Use The 1200 Most Common Words To Write A Story…

That post has been, for the last 3 years, the most visited post on this blog; and, to date, there are 866 posts here.

For a long time I wondered at my visitors’ interest in a writing challenge; then, not long ago, I was talking with my Best Friend and the idea surfaced that perhaps that post was being paid so much attention because all those people from countries where English isn’t the first language wanted to know what the most common words were—duh!

I can’t imagine the effort it takes to learn English—probably puts some folks to sleep :-)

So, I thought I’d feature a relativity new site that helps people learning English by encouraging them to write within a community of other learners.

TechCrunch has an article about the site DailyThem.es and here’s some of what they say:

“DailyThem.es is a social writing platform that wants to help English learners improve their language skills in an enjoyable and non-intimidating way. The concept behind the site is simple. Each day, users are encouraged to write 100 words about any subject they want, and then exchange feedback with other writers. Users also get access to analytics that tell them what language errors they tend to make.”

“The site is aimed at English-language learners ranging from high school students to young professionals….While peer-to-peer commenting is encouraged, users have the option of paying for a subscription writing program to get additional learning material and feedback from professional reviewers.”

“[One of the founders] …says that DailyThem.es is “modeled on a writing course that has been taught at Yale College for more than a century…”

English is often said to be one of the most difficult languages to learn; but, opinions vary…

One more excerpt from TechCrunch:

“Doing a bit of personal writing each day is also a great habit for anyone to cultivate. …DailyThem.es’ most active users log-in between two to five times per day and write four to seven posts a week. The site’s most popular posts are read by about 100 people and users write about a wide range of topics, ranging from biology to more personal, diary-like entries.”

Are you learning English?

Do you know someone who is?

Perhaps DailyThem.es can help :-)
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