"Just tell me what to do" (Advice Center) Language Learning Forum

"Just tell me what to do"
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Language Learning Forum : Advice Center

37 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5

culebrilla
Senior Member
United States
Joined 3943 days ago
246 posts - 436 votes

Speaks: Spanish

Message 33 of 37

28 January 2014 at 10:18pm | IP Logged

Ah, ha Serpent. You are quite right. But in those circumstances (living in English bubble) the people do NOT *need* the language to survive. They may be retirees or even make a living just speaking English.

But if you are a poor Chinese person that speaks a village dialect that nobody knows in the US, you will have to learn English. You will need it to survive, to get a job and to support your family. Well, you could always go on welfare but that's another issue.

Obviously the best circumstance would be for the person to love the language and need to do it.

Edit: In some of the examples you give the immigrants really DON'T need to learn English. I personally know a good number of Latinos that live in the US and don't really need English to survive; they make (not much, but enough to live on) enough money with jobs that don't require English.

But if you truly DO need to learn English in the US, you're gonna know it very, very well or at least try really hard to learn it.

Edited by culebrilla on 28 January 2014 at 10:20pm
1 person has voted this message useful

Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6543 days ago
9753 posts - 15779 votes

4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, Finnish^C1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

Message 34 of 37

28 January 2014 at 10:31pm | IP Logged

What I mean is that there are people who need it and still fail. You have to need it really desperately and preferably have no distractions like your dear family...
1 person has voted this message useful

AML
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6771 days ago
323 posts - 426 votes

2 sounds
Speaks: English*
Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish

Message 35 of 37

29 January 2014 at 12:38am | IP Logged

Serpent wrote:

Also, be sure to show him the attitude-related advice people posted here. In fact while I understand not wanting to get to know an entire forum, surely he has
the time to read a 5-page thread which is specifically about him? I hope you can clarify the things that are obvious to us but not to him.

Indeed, I have pointed him to this thread.
I gave him my general suggestions (converse and read a lot), but ultimately he has to do the work. I emphasized that he should experiment for the first couple weeks and try
out some of the things people suggested in this thread. It's in his hands now.
3 persons have voted this message useful

Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6543 days ago
9753 posts - 15779 votes

Message 36 of 37

29 January 2014 at 12:06pm | IP Logged

patrickwilken wrote:

AML wrote:

Alright, I read everyone's advice. Knowing his personality and his needs in 18 months, I concluded that my buddy needs to juggle the fewest possible number of learning tasks. Therefore I recommended
that he emphasize:
1.) Speaking every day (via iTalki, for example, where he can pay for some teachers he likes)
2.) Reading every day (aloud).

As auxiliary learning methods if he has time/desire for any of them, I suggested that he:
(a) put words/sentences into Anki and review a little each day
(b) occasionally flip through a grammar book when he feels like it would be useful
(c) listen to German radio/music/audiobooks as he commutes to/from work
(d) take in German couchsurfers
(e) replace the kids' nanny with a German-speaking one

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!

Do you want to clue us into what language it is? I am curious...

It was revealed to be German on the second page already :-)

One more idea: look at some thread about learning the language of one spouse's (like this one) to get ideas for changing the established language of your relationship. Of course there's no need to speak with your wife and children in German all the time, but having some German days/evenings would be very beneficial for the whole family.

Edited by Serpent on 29 January 2014 at 12:34pm
1 person has voted this message useful

Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6543 days ago
9753 posts - 15779 votes

Message 37 of 37

04 February 2014 at 9:57am | IP Logged

patrickwilken wrote:

It's perhaps useful to think of language learning as having a relatively short-beginning, long-middle, and really-long-end.

Yes.

2 persons have voted this message useful

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