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How to activate a language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6676 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes  Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 1 of 18 30 August 2006 at 5:53am | IP Logged | ||
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I was wondering if you knew a good way to activate a foreign language when you don't have access to native speakers to practice it. I mean, I find it quite easy to learn to understand a language, but when it comes to using it, I find that even at a high level of passive knowledge of a language I have lots of trouble when it comes to talking or writing myself. What do you do? Talk to yourself?
Thanks in advance, Marc Edited by Marc Frisch on 30 August 2006 at 8:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6729 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 2 of 18 30 August 2006 at 6:08am | IP Logged | ||
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From my studies into the topic, talking to yourself is a very big part of learning. So yes, definitely talk to yourself.
Personally, I would also join Skype or some other chat group and find people, who speak the language you are learning, to talk to. If you search on Skype by language, it brings up many people. Cheers, Katie 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6714 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 18 30 August 2006 at 6:46am | IP Logged | ||
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'Thinking to yourself' is in my opinion even more fundamental than speaking to yourself, not only because you can do it in public without being carried away to the nearest asylum, but also because it is less physically tiring and faster. But both thinking and speaking and writing (in that order) are essential.
I personally would define the step that takes you from 'beginner' to 'intermediate' as being the difference between laboriously constructing/repeating phrases to being able to just blabber away without caring for the number of errors that this entails. Going to basic fluency demands that you get the blabbering (silent or loud) under control. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6695 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 4 of 18 30 August 2006 at 7:59am | IP Logged | ||
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I would recommend speaking above thinking, if you could choose between them, because with thinking, it's easier to get distracted or slip into more comfortable languages, while when you're speaking, your ears are keeping track of everything, so it's more demanding - not to mention it also requires you to think while speaking. It also gets you used to the sound of your voice in the f.l., which is important psychologically as well as practically - practically in that it clues you in to your pronunciation. But as Iversen noted, it's more tiring to keep up - likely because we don't normally talk to ourselves aloud in any language, compared to how often we do it in our heads.
But basically, if you can handle talking to yourself about random stuff aloud, you've got a much better chance of doing the same when speaking to someone else. But since there's a mild taboo about talking to oneself aloud, I would only do it in private. If you're in public, and you want to practice, do it in your head. Writing I'd recommend least, simply because it doesn't approach the speed necessary for conversation, and it also allows you to see the words physically while producing them - something you cannot do while speaking. But if you have the time to write a language, you have the time to think it - so I'd speak or think before writing, if the goal is to practice active production. This, of course, presumes you want to actively use the language orally, and not on paper. That said, speaking with other people is more fun than speaking to oneself. Try Skype. It's free. You basically register, and you can search through every country on Earth for speakers of the language you're learning. All you need is a microphone and speakers/headphones. If you're learning a language like Spanish or English, you can take advantage of the many countries they're spoken in, and have fun trying to understand different accents. Edited by lengua on 30 August 2006 at 8:07am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Darobat Diglot Senior Member Joined 7199 days ago 754 posts - 770 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin | Message 5 of 18 30 August 2006 at 10:33am | IP Logged | ||
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For writing, unless you're learning some obscure language with little or no internet presence, you could probably find a forum in your target language on a topic that interests you. Try asnwering posts, asking questions, and just put a note at the bottom asking people to send you corrections via PM or e-mail.
One trap I've found when writing, is taking for ever to write. Once you've got past the basics, try to write spontaneously and fluently, to wit, without stopping to look up words or come up with the correct ending etc. This is more what you'd be speaking like if you were put on the spot. Once you're done, you'll often find tiny, silly mistakes that you've made in your hasty writing. If you correct such mistakes enough, you'll learn not to do them, and hopefully this skill will transfer nicely over into your speaking ability. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| CaitO'Ceallaigh Triglot Senior Member United States katiekelly.wordpress Joined 6868 days ago 795 posts - 829 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Russian Studies: Czech, German | Message 6 of 18 30 August 2006 at 7:48pm | IP Logged | ||
I am having such a hard time with this part. This is such a serious psychological undertaking. Don't you find it exhausting sometimes? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6714 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 18 03 September 2006 at 10:24am | IP Logged | ||
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For me it is much easier to think in a language than to speak it. If I read a book in one or the languages where I'm above total beginner then I will automatically begin discussing the book within my head, and then it's just a matter of weeding out words in my native Danish or English or other non-wanted intruders. If I walk to the bus I will be thinking about what to do the rest of the day or something else, and again it's just a matter of telling myself which language to think in now. Maybe it is just a matter of training, which I have internalized so much by now that it doesn't represent an effort any more, but it gives me lots of extra active time with my languages.
If you really think it is a problem then try it out with a language where you feel comfortable rather than a language you are just learning, but eventually you will find that the method works for any language where you can put just two words together. Edited by Iversen on 03 September 2006 at 10:28am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6695 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 8 of 18 03 September 2006 at 10:57am | IP Logged | ||
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I blogged about the difficulty of doing it - whether aloud or in your head - in the beginning. It gets easier. But it doesn't get easier without being harder at first. It doesn't matter if it takes you ten seconds to make a sentence you could make in five in a native language during the first few hours. The point is to log as much time as possible using the language - whether verbally or internally - in order to get comfortable with it. It definitely gets faster, and it definitely gets more fluid - but it takes time.
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