slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6680 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English
| Message 9 of 122 19 December 2010 at 5:07pm | IP Logged |
Cainntear wrote:
The second S in KISS stands for "stupid". |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle
" KISS is an acronym for the design principle "Keep it simple, Stupid!".[1] Other variations include "keep it short and simple"[2] or "keep it simple and straightforward".[3] The KISS principle states that simplicity should be a key goal in design, and that unnecessary complexity should be avoided. "
http://www.acronymattic.com/KISS.html
Keep It Simple Stupid
Keep It Short and Sweet
King of Indiana Sprint Series
Keep It Short Simple
Keep It Short and Simple
Keep It Stupid and Simple
Keep It Simple and Straightforward
Keep It Sweet and Simple
Kitesurfing International Safety System
Keep It Stupid Simple
Kontron Industrial Silent Server
Korea Information Science Society
Keep It Simple and Straight
Keep It Simple Simon
Korean Information Science Society
Keep It Simple and Sweet
(...)
3 persons have voted this message useful
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Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5674 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin
| Message 10 of 122 19 December 2010 at 5:36pm | IP Logged |
When I was studying latin at school, and a test was approaching, some pupil would
always ask the master: "What should we focus on studying?"
The latin master always replied:
"Vocabulary
.
.
.
(long pause)
.
.
.
.
AND Grammar"
Then he would burst out laughing, and we would all sigh.
The same seems to be true here. We need to focus on only one thing:
"Quantity
.
.
.
.
.
.
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AND Quality"
9 persons have voted this message useful
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slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6680 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English
| Message 11 of 122 19 December 2010 at 6:06pm | IP Logged |
Splog wrote:
The same seems to be true here. We need to focus on only one thing:
"Quantity
.
.
.
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.
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AND Quality" |
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Yes, you are right.
QUANTITY is repetition and more repetition. The more time you spend with your target language, more repetition you will get. Obvious.
And we have QUALITY...
What is quality here?
EMOTION.
If you attach emotions to your repetitions, you will spend less time and you will go faster...This is the trick and the real secret.
3 persons have voted this message useful
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LangOfChildren Tetraglot Groupie Germany Joined 5432 days ago 82 posts - 141 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Swedish Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Thai, Russian
| Message 12 of 122 19 December 2010 at 6:46pm | IP Logged |
There is most definitely more to the process of language learning than the hours of
input one accumulates. You can call it quantity or meaningful input, whatever you want.
What's clear is that it makes a huge difference HOW you spend your time. Having said
that, I do actually agree that most of the time, time spent is more important than what
method you are using, AS LONG as the method is not complete rubbish. Often, people keep
looking for methods to use and waste all their valuable time on that instead of spending
time with their languages; I've been guilty of this a lot, too. So as long as you keep
going with whatever weapon you chose you will get to your goal eventually.
IF, however, you are sure to be spending a great deal of time on your target language every day consistently, then of course it may be a good idea to think about optimizing
your routine.
tl;dr
FIRST you need to be able to put in enough work/time everyday, before you worry about anything beyond that.
Only THEN do you have the luxury to do fine tuning.
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carlonove Senior Member United States Joined 5991 days ago 145 posts - 253 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian
| Message 13 of 122 19 December 2010 at 6:49pm | IP Logged |
Learning methods, your mother tongue, and where you live are all factors or variables in attaining fluency. The number of hours required is a non-negotiable and binary issue rather than a variable one: you've either clocked in the required hours or you haven't.
2 persons have voted this message useful
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tomsawyer Senior Member Aruba Joined 5292 days ago 103 posts - 141 votes Speaks: English* Studies: GermanB1, French, Russian
| Message 14 of 122 19 December 2010 at 6:50pm | IP Logged |
Slucido, maybe you can elaborate a bit more, as I'm not really understanding your argument here. Are you saying that quantity makes the difference for your approach? If so, then great! Keep pushing in massive input, if that works for you. But I'm not sure that you can say that quantity makes the difference for my approach, or for anybody else's approach, unless you actually know how we go about learning languages.
5 persons have voted this message useful
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slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6680 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English
| Message 15 of 122 19 December 2010 at 10:25pm | IP Logged |
tomsawyer wrote:
Slucido, maybe you can elaborate a bit more, as I'm not really understanding your argument here. Are you saying that quantity makes the difference for your approach? If so, then great! Keep pushing in massive input, if that works for you. But I'm not sure that you can say that quantity makes the difference for my approach, or for anybody else's approach, unless you actually know how we go about learning languages. |
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I am saying that in the long run, the QUANTITY of target language you are exposed to will determine your overall success. Quantity makes the difference for everyone who wants to really learn a language to high degree. The methods we are using doesn't make any difference.
My approach is chaotic. Many times I don't even want to learn any language. I only want information and language learning is a side effect. I became interested in language learning and I have been trying many techniques and methods, but the underlying "method" is that I keep doing, that is to say: endless repetitions whatever the reason.
With the word "quantity" a mean input and output quantity. I mean overall "interaction" with the language. It really doesn't matter how you do it. It doesn't matter when you start with the output or if you start to read or to listen, in the long run you will succeed if you keep doing, if you keep with endless repetitions.
It doesn't matter how you work with these repetitions. You need to listen, read, speak and write and you need endless repetitions of all of them.
I have been reading this forum for several years and I have read quite a few books and it all boils to the same: umpteen variations of how to repeat and repeat and keep repeating input, output or both.
3 persons have voted this message useful
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Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6016 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh
| Message 16 of 122 20 December 2010 at 12:18am | IP Logged |
I've tried to stop picking on people's English, but there is a lot of holes in yours, slucido. As you say, you've spent years exposing yourself to English. Why is it some people learn better than you, quicker?
I'll give you a hint: they're following different methods from you.
1 person has voted this message useful
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