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Less repetitive advice for new users | ||
Tags: Beginner | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Collaborative writing |  | |
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5559 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 43 17 June 2013 at 3:22am | IP Logged |
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This will come as no surprise to long-term forum members, but we get hundreds of questions a year on the same few subjects:
1. How can I start learning language X? 2. How do I use Assimil / Pimsleur / LR / whatever? 3. What are some good resources for language Y? 4. I have 2 weeks / 2 months / 6 months before visiting country Z. What do I do? 5. How can I improve my listening comprehension / speaking ? Personally, I don't mind seeing these questions over and over again—it's nice to pay things forward, and that's why we have an Advice Center. We have about 10 members who answer the bulk of these questions, and this means the advice gets really repetitive. Nobody knows this better than the people who write the same answers a hundred times. So, here's my proposal: 1. If you see really basic questions posted anywhere but the Advice Center, please use the Report button to notify a moderator and we'll move them. 2. If you write up the same answer over and over, please consider posting it to the wiki, which is awesome but underused. You don't need anything fancy—this page of mine is basically just a list, for example. Also, if you know of any pages on the wiki that address the questions above, please feel free to post links here. 3. If you feel that certain viewpoints are over-represented, please consider chipping in to answer questions. Feel free to use this thread to propose topics and write up draft posts. Once we have a list of topics, we can also make a single Frequently Asked Questions page that links to all of the popular questions and answers. Edited by emk on 17 June 2013 at 3:26am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5036 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 2 of 43 17 June 2013 at 4:00am | IP Logged |
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Well, I think links to the related threads would be even better than just answers as they would give both the answers and a good place to post additional questions instead of creating a new thread. This way, we could get more condensated newbie info in my opinion.
Some proposed topics: What courses to use? How to use Assimil? TY or Colloquial? Is RS any good? How to start learning X language? Should I learn two at once? Which language should I learn? Good beginner podcasts? FSI? Free online resources? What is that Listening-Reading method and how to do it? What is an SRS? Which one should I use? I have started contributing to the wikia, even though smaller bits for now but I can see two troubles there: 1.If you want newbies to go to the wikia, it needs a visible link somewhere where the newbies tend to look. 2.of course the wikia needs to grow. I personally don't mind giving repetitive answers with some personalization as I think it is a sign of welcoming the newbie in the community as well. And every community needs newbies to live. But it is true that handling the common questions more efficiently would be benefitial for everyone involved. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4886 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 3 of 43 17 June 2013 at 6:32am | IP Logged |
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Methods of using FSI - an absolute must.
I would also add somewhere - doesn't matter where, on wikia or on this forum - some radio stations that are perfect if it comes to learning the languages (not too little talking, but not too much either). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5036 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 4 of 43 17 June 2013 at 12:31pm | IP Logged |
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good ideas prz.
the list of radio stations will be great at any place but i have the intention to find most of those great lists (and we have seen quite a lot of them) and put a link on the wikia so that they are easily findable. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5559 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 43 17 June 2013 at 1:23pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you, Cavesa and prz!
I've made a "Learner FAQ" page on the Wiki with most of the questions from this thread, and I'm going to go through and add links to pre-existing pages on the wiki. Once we get this fleshed out, I'm tempted to make it a sticky post at the top of the Advice Center forum. Feel free to take a look and tweak it: Learner FAQ. And yeah, I have no problem with basic questions in the Advice Center. That's what it's for, after all. But still, I'm getting tired of typing the same stuff over and over and would love to be able to give people more links. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5559 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 43 17 June 2013 at 1:47pm | IP Logged |
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Wow, Cavesa has added a huge number of posts to the wiki last night. This is really impressive. Edited by emk on 17 June 2013 at 1:47pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5036 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 7 of 43 17 June 2013 at 2:22pm | IP Logged |
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Thank the Procrastination for those, I should have been doing something else so I am diving into it now. :-D
3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4886 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 8 of 43 17 June 2013 at 3:19pm | IP Logged |
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Yes, definitely impressive.
Just another two things: 1) good methods for learning grammar (especially at intermediate level and above) 2) what to do when you're already B2/C1 I can fill in the "online radio stations" field, just someone who's an English native speaker will have to correct some minor mistakes. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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