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Shutting out native languages entirely | ||
Tags: Surroundings | Immersion | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4948 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 1 of 9 22 June 2013 at 6:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Do you think that avoiding (in my case) English, (and Spanish but that's not as hard),
at all costs would accelerate my fluency goals in my target languages? Has anyone else done this strategy? In other words, do you think that shutting off your native languages accelerates the takeover of your target languages in your mind (i.e. thinking in that language). I can think in Fremch and German, but I also still have to often "think" how I put the thoughts together. I want to reach a point where it seems effortless to think in these languages. I am planning starting this very thing next week and for as long as I can (my goal is oral C1 level by the end of the year in BOTH French and German). I plan to no longer watch TV in English, even as background noise. No more reading any English articles, minimizing my conversations with people (that will be the hardest because it will involve becoming somewhat of a hermit), etc. Just for 6 months, and only watch, read, and talk in German and French. I plan to read every day one (1) high-level article on Politics, Space, History, Geology, Art, Economics, Geography, in either French or German, and learn the terms used and the "expressions" and phrases that tend to be used in higher discourse. I will TRY to write a small essay a week in each language time permitting. In essence I will be attempting the ultimate "virtual immersion", about as close as I can get to being in a target-language speaking country. Also, do you think that at my current level (C1+ reading, C1 listening, B2+ writing, B2 speaking), it is worth to just listen to French/German in the background without paying attention to it at all, while I do my intensive reading or writing an e-mail in the language? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5008 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 2 of 9 22 June 2013 at 8:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Your plan sounds in many ways similar to the AJATT, even though Khatzumoto had to keep English for the job if I remember correctly. Are you in need of those daily hours in English for job/school or do you have a specific great opportunity, such as a year out in between studies?
I think the background listening depends on you. There are people who like background audio while doing something else or studying something else and there are people who find it distracting. Which group do you belong to? And are you going to leave the forums or just keep to non English pieces ? :-D And please, would you write a log? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5531 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 9 22 June 2013 at 8:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
I did this for about 4 months in French, and made it from about A2 to B2. I did spend a lot of time speaking to people in French and writing on lang-8, and I had several conversations per week with a tutor. I may try this again at some point to get all my skills up to C1.
Personally, I feel like I get the most out of background audio if I can actually understand a lot of it. If I put on a really difficult radio channel, I'll often tune it out entirely. But if I put on something easier—or even better, the audio track from the TV episodes that I watched last night—I understand a pretty large percentage without paying much attention. Of course, I have no evidence whatsoever that this is useful, but it doesn't seem to hurt. 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4948 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 4 of 9 22 June 2013 at 8:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yes, I do have an unusually great opportunity to "shut" English down much more than
other people. I also agree that my background noise would be quite easy stuff. In fact it maybe a combination of easy stuff and/or things I have already watched. But my German/French listening skills are good, I would dare to say to the point where I no longer need my full attention to still follow the plot of audio. And yes, I will probably "leave" the forums, only posting essential questions (probably Mandarin), as my need to ask questions about German or French grammar as plummeted this year. And any vocabulary nuance questions I can ask either my tutors or new conversation/pen pal friends. I am not sure how I would keep a log of this project though. How and about what would I write writing or keeping track of? I am willing to do it but need ideas (of course it would be in German and French only). 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 5 of 9 22 June 2013 at 9:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't avoid English completely but then again it's not my native language either :P I only use a minimal amount of Russian if possible...
I do think it's more important to increase the percentage of your important languages than to reduce your native language from 20% to 10% (if it's more than 20%, definitely reduce it). For short-term progress I've found it more important to focus on a couple of languages, like Finnish when I just started it, Polish during last year's 6WC or Portuguese and Italian when I started the Super Challenge. Ie if you can afford it, take a break from Mandarin and Portuguese instead, or reduce the time spent on them. Basically, I do All Foreign Languages All The Time, but that's because I rarely go anywhere apart from Finland. As much as I advocate learning many languages at the same time, if I wanted to improve my speaking significantly ahead of a trip, I'd focus on just one. And imo that becomes even more important if you want to reach C1 asap but have no plans for travelling to the relevant countries. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5099 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 6 of 9 23 June 2013 at 12:52am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm not sure how one goes about that in their native country, but I think it would be cool to try. However, I have an enormous weakness for books. I just can't seem to keep myself from reading a lot of English books.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4948 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 7 of 9 23 June 2013 at 5:27am | IP Logged | |||||
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Mandarin is different enough and I'm a level that is nowhere near my French or German.
Furthermore, I do four days a week German and three French, with every third week being four French days. I have enough time to be able to do all three. To be honest, I would not have to change a lot of my current language load. The only thing I would be doing is cutting my English exposure and reading a bit more in German/French, and trying to write something substantial each week. But most importantly, I will be thinking all the time in German and French. I must admit I have tried to do this a couple of times before and given up within two days (thinking in these languages ALL day). Just too exhausting and slow. I think this time I will bite the bullet, and carry a dictionary with me everywhere if I can't remember a word to say something. Anyway, I've decided to go forward with this project, and I will have a log where I may try some interesting things to show my progress, lack of, or whatever. I am really determined to do this. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 9 23 June 2013 at 11:21am | IP Logged | |||||
But good luck with your project :) welcome to my lifestyle (?) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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