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Forums in your TL? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Links & Internet Resources |  | |
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5136 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes  Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 1 of 11 28 April 2014 at 7:47pm | IP Logged |
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Do any of you use forums in your target languages to improve? If so, do you mainly stand on the sidelines and read, or do you actively participate? Any tips?
Since HTLAL went down about two weeks ago, I’ve looked at Thai forums and found a few worth keeping an eye on. I haven’t yet figured out how to participate efficiently, the one which seems to be the most popular doesn’t have a mail notification system and seems to require you to basically come back online and check threads you’ve participated in. I find that a bit inconvenient, in particular given the time difference to Thailand. But maybe that’s just my limited understanding of how it’s supposed to work, I must admit I don’t have a lot of experience with forums. In any case, just reading through some of the more popular discussions is A) a lot of fun, and B) a treasure trove of colloquial speech. People seem to write much more like they talk on these forums, and I have even found a few word-to-word transcripts of spoken conversation at registers I’ve never encountered before in print (but hear frequently in spoken Thai, of course). It could be an incredibly useful study tool. Hence my question: Do any of you work or participate in TL forums? If so, what’s your experience? 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4105 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 2 of 11 28 April 2014 at 9:03pm | IP Logged |
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I participate in a few francophone fora on topics that are important to me, yes. It took me a very very long time before I felt that my French level was sufficient to read through long threads and keep up, though. I lurked a lot. When I did emerge in the beginning I had some rather unpleasant experiences where people where rude to me because of my language level, which was weak B2 at the time. They didn't come out and tell me that I should "learn the language" and that being a learner was no excuse for anything less than perfection (so it wasn't quite as scathing as the critiques I got as a Swedish 11 year old on English poetry-writing newsgroups), but some people threw fits when I asked them if they meant so-and-so in saying this-and-that or very very very apologetically corrected a common (but horribly wrong) misconception. When some people were embarrassed about being wrong about things that are easily fact-checked, even in a very cushioned situation (and I do mean cushioned, I grovelled a lot, and when people took offence any way I grovelled some more), so they blamed my language level for causing the whole situation. The fora I kept with had a great welcoming culture that was very pro-references and sharing expertise, because in those places my language abilities were not held against me.
With Breton I don't participate in stand-alone fora, but I jumped in with the Facebook groups within three-four months. Facebook discussions are generally shorter, which makes it easier. They're also more targeted, like small sub-fora. I rarely start threads, but I'll respond, and discuss. I've had no negative experiences there. Quite the opposite, even though my Breton is far worse than my French was when I started using fora/Facebook groups. I'd say: choose your forum culture wisely. And if you want to keep motivated, make sure the forum is really interesting. I, at least, could never sustain interest in an uninteresting forum because it's written in my target language. Understanding the threads takes far too much energy for that. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5172 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 3 of 11 30 April 2014 at 7:36pm | IP Logged |
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I have yet to find a forum in French worth going through the quirks of reading and writing in French.
This thread, nonetheless, reminds me I can already benefit from reading at Forum.ge and getting those insights from the colloquial language. One issue is I'm mainly interested in languages, so I'd have to find a forum where people diacuss languages in my target language. I am of course interested in other subjects but not for 'discussing' in a forum, I'd rather just go reading the most important books about them. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5136 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 4 of 11 30 April 2014 at 8:12pm | IP Logged |
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@eyðimörk: Thanks for sharing your experience! You’re right, one needs to take some care. I’m pretty much a newbie when it comes to forum culture, so a bit of caution is certainly good advice. Ah, and Facebook again. I’m not on Facebook… may I ask you what FB groups are and how the interaction works?
@Expugnator: OMG, what a wonderful script! Makes me want to learn Georgian right away :) … Yeah, I know what you mean by being mainly interested in languages. I haven’t seen a forum dedicated to language learners in Thai, and I’m pretty sure there is nothing even remotely resembling HTLAL out there in other languages. I’ve already spent a few evenings glued to the screen reading forum chit chat. Of the sort, somebody was over the moon that a Korean friend told him that Thais are the most beautiful people on the planet, upon which a bunch of sarcastic people poured in to make fun of him and his naiveté. Or a coming-out staying-in-the-closet story of two university students, or “why Lao steals so many words from Thai (or is it the other way round?)”. Nothing I couldn’t live without, but choke-full of cool colloquial expressions *I’m* gonna steal! Anybody else active in TL fora? Advice, experiences? :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5340 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 11 30 April 2014 at 8:41pm | IP Logged |
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I have been on some gardening and rose fora in French and Spanish, which was great fun. Particularly the
Spanish one was very welcoming, and the French one got me in contact with some top specialists within the field which I would otherwise never have been introduced to. It takes me forever to write in French though, so I dropped it after a while. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6111 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 6 of 11 30 April 2014 at 10:13pm | IP Logged |
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For the past few months I've been exploring threads on Skyscrapercity.com
Here's the Polish sub-forum. There's a huge number of threads, not just on architecture, but cities and travel. I get to virtually travel interesting places, learn about things, enjoy some excellent photography and learn Polish. It's also been a great source of colloquial speech, as Bakunin pointed out. The only forum I'm likely to participate in, is a Polish Cactus Forum which I recently signed up to. I'm sure it'll do wonders for my botanical vocabulary! Edited by Mooby on 01 May 2014 at 2:51pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5172 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 7 of 11 30 April 2014 at 10:28pm | IP Logged |
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Mooby, I'd never have thought about this! I visit threads on SSC about my hometown and the city I live in. I never thought of the local forums as places to read interesting urban discussion posts on the local language(s)!
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| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5268 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 8 of 11 30 April 2014 at 11:40pm | IP Logged |
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Like eyðimörk and facebook, twitter is where I have most of my online written interaction with my languages. I do follow the ladinokomunita forum, in Ladino. It's a very tight community and I feel too much of an outsider, being a gentile and a learner of Ladino, to contribute. I mean, I may introduce myself and ask some questions about the language but I just wouldn't feel comfortable doing much else given the membership of the forum.
Thanks to Mooby for the Skyscrapercity recommendation. I will check out the Lusophone and Spanish-speaking forums. Funny, the tallest buildings in the VI are just three stories, and those are not very common! 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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