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Learning language on another base | ||
Tags: L3 via L2 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4050 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 1 of 15 18 October 2013 at 8:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello,
I know the subject is kind of bad, but I didn't know how to describe it in just a few words... So my question is: What do you think about learning a new language with resources in another language you are not native to? So for example: I am a native German speaker and I want to learn Spanish. Is it good to learn English-Spanish instead of German-Spanish? Or does it have disadvantages in your opinion? I'm sorry if this question is stupid, but I'm just interested how you think about it. There are many courses in other languages which are not translated into German, so I wonder if it is good to use them or if one should find courses with a German base because the connection to the new language is easier then... I hope you get my point ^^ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4627 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 2 of 15 18 October 2013 at 8:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think it's fine when you don't have a better course in your native tongue, or if it's another language in the same family as your TLs.
So for example, I'd use a German course for Finnish since I can't find a better one in English. I'd use a Spanish based course for Portuguese since they are so close. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5000 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 3 of 15 18 October 2013 at 9:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's not a stupid question. :-)
It is a normal thing to do when there are too few or bad quality resources in your native language. It is a normal thing to do when there are good resources in your languages but you want a different kind (so many people using French Assimils are a good example). It is just as normal as using monolingual sources from the beginning or rather easier if you know the base language quite well. Pros: -a wider range of material to choose from -you don't need to get too dependent on translation from your native language -some people like the way it helps maintain the base language -if the base language is close to the new target language, it may be more efficient as a lot of things don't need to be explained as much to natives of the base language and, on the other hand, it may contain a lot of comparison and advise on how not to mix the two languages together Cons: -sometimes more difficult to come by -some people may miss the specific explanations and notes dealing with issues specific to speakers of their native language 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6573 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 4 of 15 18 October 2013 at 9:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's not ideal, and it probably shouldn't be done just to get some extra practice in that other language. If you need practice the language probably isn't stong enough to serve as a base. However, it's hardly problematic if you have a good grasp of the base language. I've used English as a base to learn pretty much all my other languages. So it depends on your ability.
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| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5000 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 5 of 15 19 October 2013 at 12:19am | IP Logged | ||
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I believe you need further practice to maintain a language at any level so I don't see any problem with this. Welcoming further practice is not a sign of incompetence and low skills, in my opinion. As soon as you don't need to learn the base language in the course, you are ok.
And there are even people who take this to extremes and deal with their studies of several languages only through the means of the previous language. It is called laddering. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5121 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 6 of 15 19 October 2013 at 1:27am | IP Logged | ||
It's a question of semantics, I suppose. Personally, I believe that you can get to a level in a language and not consider it practice, rather simply usage. If you were working every day in a language other than your native language, would you consider that practice, or usage? I consider that usage. You might learn something new while you're working in the language - just as can happen in your native language, but I wouldn't consider it "practice". R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5523 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 15 19 October 2013 at 2:27am | IP Logged | ||
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I bought Assimil's L'Égyptien hiéroglyphique as a reward for passing my B2 exam, and I found it quite easy to use, except for a small handful of French words I had to look up. If I ever get around to starting Spanish, I'll almost certainly use a French-based Assimil course. And I'm far from finished learning French. :-)
Personally, I never liked French courses that had large amounts of English in them, and I almost entirely stopped using English to study French by the time I reached a lower-intermediate level. This was because I had a nasty habit of translating everything to English, which was wrecking my listening comprehension. However, not everybody suffers from this translation problem. But going all-French was the right solution for me. When I study another language through French, the new language is only very weakly attached to my French, and it has only the barest hint of an attachment to my English. I find this useful enough that I plan to take advantage of it when learning languages in the future. Again, I don't know if this applies to anybody else. Of course, you do need to be able to understand the course books reasonably comfortably. But if you can do that, I don't see why you couldn't use courses written in English. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7147 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 8 of 15 19 October 2013 at 4:33am | IP Logged | ||
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See the following:
Learning L3 with L2 How many languages to learn others? Using non-native languages... Learn a language through another language Learning a 3rd language through my 2nd Learning one language through another Learning L3 through L2 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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