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How I learn Languages

 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
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ellasevia
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2011
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6142 days ago
2150 posts - 3229 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian
Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian

 
 Message 9 of 29
16 January 2010 at 11:26pm | IP Logged 
Thanks for this. :)

NuclearGorilla wrote:
Thanks for sharing this. While I don't think there's much in there that would be new to someone who's read a lot on the topic, it's a good collection of general tips and ideas.

Parts of this seem really familiar, actually, as if I've read them before. Maybe I'm having synaptic troubles.


I agree. I feel like I've read this before.
1 person has voted this message useful



Icaria909
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5591 days ago
201 posts - 346 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 10 of 29
17 January 2010 at 1:47am | IP Logged 
Cainntear wrote:
Thanks for sharing, fanatic.

There's a couple of things I disagree with, but I might start new threads to discuss them.

OlafP wrote:
fanatic wrote:
You don’t have to memorise declensions, just understand them. You will learn them naturally as you practise the language.


I'll keep that in mind for my Russian, albeit I don't fully believe it. Native speakers make grammar mistakes, too, so getting a feeling for the language may not be enough.

I half agree with fanatic here, in that I do not believe in memorising tables of declensions or conjugations. When I learned French at high school, we started with full verb tables for the present tense. I was faster than most of the class at the singular conjugations (I, you (familiar), he/she/it), but the others were faster than me at the plurals. However, over the course of the first year, my plural conjugations got quicker until I was faster than all of them, and their speed stayed the same.

What that demonstrated to me was that I was learning the conjugations one by one through use, whereas it appeared as though my classmates had developed a good memory of the table and were relying on "looking it up" in their heads every time.

Memorising endings can be useful in that it lets you look them up without carrying a book, but if your brain finds it too easy to look up, you'll never learn it.

"You don't need to memorise conjugations, just understand them."

What does he mean by "just understand them". I would interpret that to mean that if you study the declensions a little, but aren't able to actively recall them on demand, your brain will remember them when it hears them, and that will in turn help you speak.


i think it is important to memorize declensions and such, but only to be able to read. For me, it is easier to speak a language after I have a lot experience reading the language, and memorizing grammar like that is important to being able to read well. Just what I think.

Also, thanks for the advice, it's going to come in handy.
1 person has voted this message useful



fanatic
Octoglot
Senior Member
Australia
speedmathematics.com
Joined 7146 days ago
1152 posts - 1818 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch
Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto

 
 Message 11 of 29
17 January 2010 at 2:26am | IP Logged 
ellasevia wrote:
Thanks for this. :)

NuclearGorilla wrote:
Thanks for sharing this. While I don't think there's much in there that would be new to someone who's read a lot on the topic, it's a good collection of general tips and ideas.

Parts of this seem really familiar, actually, as if I've read them before. Maybe I'm having synaptic troubles.


I agree. I feel like I've read this before.


What is your point?

Are you saying I have already written this on the forum? Sure, I have. I have just put the information together as I thought it might help and might interest some members.

Are you saying others have already said it? You will find members on this forum agree on a lot of things. Not on everything, but a lot.

What are you saying?
1 person has voted this message useful



fanatic
Octoglot
Senior Member
Australia
speedmathematics.com
Joined 7146 days ago
1152 posts - 1818 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch
Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto

 
 Message 12 of 29
17 January 2010 at 2:33am | IP Logged 
Icaria909 wrote:
Cainntear wrote:
Thanks for sharing, fanatic.

There's a couple of things I disagree with, but I might start new threads to discuss them.

OlafP wrote:
fanatic wrote:
You don’t have to memorise declensions, just understand them. You will learn them naturally as you practise the language.


I'll keep that in mind for my Russian, albeit I don't fully believe it. Native speakers make grammar mistakes, too, so getting a feeling for the language may not be enough.

I half agree with fanatic here, in that I do not believe in memorising tables of declensions or conjugations. When I learned French at high school, we started with full verb tables for the present tense. I was faster than most of the class at the singular conjugations (I, you (familiar), he/she/it), but the others were faster than me at the plurals. However, over the course of the first year, my plural conjugations got quicker until I was faster than all of them, and their speed stayed the same.

What that demonstrated to me was that I was learning the conjugations one by one through use, whereas it appeared as though my classmates had developed a good memory of the table and were relying on "looking it up" in their heads every time.

Memorising endings can be useful in that it lets you look them up without carrying a book, but if your brain finds it too easy to look up, you'll never learn it.

"You don't need to memorise conjugations, just understand them."

What does he mean by "just understand them". I would interpret that to mean that if you study the declensions a little, but aren't able to actively recall them on demand, your brain will remember them when it hears them, and that will in turn help you speak.


i think it is important to memorize declensions and such, but only to be able to read. For me, it is easier to speak a language after I have a lot experience reading the language, and memorizing grammar like that is important to being able to read well. Just what I think.

Also, thanks for the advice, it's going to come in handy.


What I was trying to say was that I don't spend a lot of time memorising declensions and tables. That doesn't mean I am content to speak the language with poor grammar. I learnt German grammar by learning correct usage with Assimil German Without Toil. I didn't learn bad grammar nor was I given bad examples. I noted the grammar and read the declensions and found I naturally used them correctly when I spoke. I wanted to learn the language correctly.

I did write elsewhere that I told a fellow English teacher at my school in Germany that when I was uncertain of the correct declension, I mumbled.
1 person has voted this message useful



BartoG
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
confession
Joined 5447 days ago
292 posts - 818 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Italian, Spanish, Latin, Uzbek

 
 Message 13 of 29
17 January 2010 at 8:23am | IP Logged 
Thanks for sharing. Right now I'm working through a text (not Assimil, sigh) that has long dialogs followed by long vocabulary lists for deciphering them. I'd picked it up a couple times, then put it back down. This time, I used the linking method you described to memorize the vocabulary, read the dialogs while the vocabulary was still fresh and re-read them in the morning. Now the words are there and the dialogs make sense. Very helpful suggestions.
1 person has voted this message useful



fanatic
Octoglot
Senior Member
Australia
speedmathematics.com
Joined 7146 days ago
1152 posts - 1818 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch
Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto

 
 Message 14 of 29
19 January 2010 at 7:34am | IP Logged 
OlafP wrote:

fanatic wrote:

Komm hier means Come here.

Maybe it's just a typo, but I'll mention it anyway before someone commits this into memory. "Komm hier!" is not correct. Instead, you would say "Komm her!". "hier" is more about static places and can be used alone, like "Ich bin hier." (I am here), whereas "her" is used with directed motions and always tied to a verb, even if it is split up in a phrase.


Thank you for pointing out my mistake. My manuscript was ready to go to the publisher but I was able to make the correction in time.
1 person has voted this message useful



s_allard
Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5430 days ago
2704 posts - 5425 votes 
Speaks: French*, English, Spanish
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 15 of 29
21 January 2010 at 7:26am | IP Logged 
A couple of people have made disparaging remarks about flash cards. I'm a big fan of flash cards and use them daily with excellent results. But first of all, the flash cards I'm talking about are not the typical one-word-on-front-and-translation-on-the-back kind. These are basically useless, I agree. What I'm talking about is home-made cards or pieces of paper with entire sentences or dialogues on the front and translation on the back.

Every day I assemble little packets of more or less ten phrases or structural units that I want to work on. I take them with me and consult them from time to time.

The great thing about flash cards is that can sort them in any order, unlike those lists in textbooks. I use the flash cards basically as a memory aid.
5 persons have voted this message useful



bcurtis
Newbie
United States
Joined 5409 days ago
36 posts - 38 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 16 of 29
27 February 2010 at 12:51am | IP Logged 
My name is Bryan. I live in the USA (Texas). I am amazed by people who can speak many languages. At this point, my target languages are Spanish, French, Portuguese, and maybe German or some other language. Spanish is the most important as of now because I'm surrounded by native speakers of espanol. French will be important in 4-5 years because I plan on doing business in Africa. Portuguese is not as important but it's similar to Spanish and would be easy to learn so I figured why not. German sounds cool to me which is why I wouldn't mind learning that. Arabic seems to be too difficult lol but im curious. I have Rosetta Stone on my pc with all the languages listed above. Currently I'm only studying Spanish but want to add another language to my study habit. What would you recommend I add as a second language? I currently spend 1.5 hours a day and have an extra 30 minutes to make it an even 2 hours of study time if need be. Please advise.


1 person has voted this message useful



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