61 messages over 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next >>
montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4831 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh
| Message 17 of 61 15 June 2013 at 1:46pm | IP Logged |
kujichagulia wrote:
Marry a native speaker of your TL. Oh, and go to a foreign country
and just let the language "soak in."
Oh, and this is a doozy: "If you want to learn how to read a newspaper in your TL, read a
newspaper in your TL." Okaaaayy... how am I supposed to understand all those strange
words, then? |
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Let them "soak in", of course. This is best done by sleeping rough on a park-bench in
your TL country, using TL newspaper as blankets. With luck, it will rain, and the strange
words will "soak in". As a bonus, when you are arrested for vagrancy, you will hopefully
end up with TL cellmates. This seems like win-win all the way.
7 persons have voted this message useful
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5433 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish
| Message 18 of 61 15 June 2013 at 2:23pm | IP Logged |
leosmith wrote:
s_allard wrote:
Can you really learn to converse in two days? |
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Once again, you haven't defined the level. |
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Once again what? I guess I didn't express myself clearly in this my first post in this thread. English is so complicated. I was talking about the claims made by a language school that they will have the student conversing in two days.. I myself wonder what level they are talking about.
1 person has voted this message useful
| simonov Senior Member Portugal Joined 5592 days ago 222 posts - 438 votes Speaks: English
| Message 19 of 61 15 June 2013 at 3:23pm | IP Logged |
tarvos wrote:
When I started Romanian (I knew a little bit) I started talking to one of my friends (we switched from English to Romanian).
It takes a bit of time to get over the initial hurdle, but I got really good at chatting in both Romanian and Russian this way. This is not to say I speak either perfectly, I don't, but I can hold conversations in both.
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1. Now what on earth has that got to do with the topic "Most ridiculous ways to "learn" a language"?
2. You forget to mention that you know English and German, so Swedish is no sweat And you know quite a bit of French, so Romanian is easy as well.
As for your Russian, I don't know what it sounds like now because you haven't posted any YouTube videos about it lately. Anyway, chatting idly in a language is one thing, actually talking it is another.
I was quite impressed by your oral French, so maybe your oral Russian is also better than your writing. But I wish you wouldn't set yourself up as a expert on how to learn languages, you remind me of cainntear who did just that, but didn't actually know any foreign language, not properly, whereas you do. So don't try to imitate him.
4 persons have voted this message useful
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emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5535 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map
| Message 20 of 61 15 June 2013 at 4:41pm | IP Logged |
simonov wrote:
But I wish you wouldn't set yourself up as a expert on how to learn languages, you remind me of cainntear who did just that, but didn't actually know any foreign language, not properly, whereas you do. So don't try to imitate him. |
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This thread is about weird and implausible ways of learning languages, and not about Cainntear's language skills. Furthermore, it's bad manners to criticize somebody who can't respond.
Please keep this thread on topic; it's much more amusing that way. Thank you.
9 persons have voted this message useful
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4710 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish
| Message 21 of 61 15 June 2013 at 5:21pm | IP Logged |
simonov wrote:
tarvos wrote:
When I started Romanian (I knew a little bit) I started
talking to one of my friends (we switched from English to Romanian).
It takes a bit of time to get over the initial hurdle, but I got really good at
chatting in both Romanian and Russian this way. This is not to say I speak either
perfectly, I don't, but I can hold conversations in both.
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1. Now what on earth has that got to do with the topic "Most ridiculous ways to "learn"
a language"?
2. You forget to mention that you know English and German, so Swedish is no sweat And
you know quite a bit of French, so Romanian is easy as well.
As for your Russian, I don't know what it sounds like now because you haven't posted
any YouTube videos about it lately. Anyway, chatting idly in a language is one thing,
actually talking it is another.
I was quite impressed by your oral French, so maybe your oral Russian is also better
than your writing. But I wish you wouldn't set yourself up as a expert on how to learn
languages, you remind me of cainntear who did just that, but didn't actually know any
foreign language, not properly, whereas you do. So don't try to imitate him. |
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My point was to explain how you start from zero. When you are at zero, everything
sucks, and you use tools. Gradually you wean yourself off of them. I gave an example
from experience, that is all. Saying that you need to read many newspaper articles to
understand newspapers isn't such a weird thing to say in my opinion, it just sounds
really dumb at the beginning when you don't know ANY words.
I don't know Cainntear very well, and I am even less interested in judging his skills
in any language. I am aware of there being flaws in my Russian (it has gotten better
since the measurement point you described it, and it is understandable enough all in
all, but yes, I still do not think it is on the same level as my French). I am glad you
estimate my level of French as being quite good, though, that is pleasing to hear.
I'm not an expert on anything (I hope I did not claim to be). I was just sharing why I
think reading newspapers adds up to understanding them, just like chatting leads you to
use chatty Russian and like playing the guitar leads you to play the guitar well.
Nothing so strange about that, I hope?
In any case, I don't think there's much that doesn't help (except putting it on in your
sleep or in the background when you aren't really paying attention). Most things will
help, although I am doubtful of passive skills crossing over into active skills without
having some form of activation practice.
5 persons have voted this message useful
| schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5563 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch
| Message 22 of 61 15 June 2013 at 5:24pm | IP Logged |
I actually have hypnosis down as one of the things I'd quite like to give a go. I've found
it helpful in the past, curing my spider phobia, and (maybe) helping me to get motivated
to study once, before an exam. What I'm vaguely thinking of is just something to make you
feel more open to and focussed on the target language, but I haven't really thought out
how it would go. Obviously if she could bake cookies and was interested in motivational
undressment, that would be a bonus.
1 person has voted this message useful
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4831 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh
| Message 23 of 61 16 June 2013 at 1:50am | IP Logged |
Develop a stand-up routine in your TL, then go to an open-mic night in a comedy club in
the capital city of your TL country, and see if you can deal with the hecklers.
(probably too risky in the provinces until you've ironed out a few of the bumps).
4 persons have voted this message useful
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4850 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese
| Message 24 of 61 16 June 2013 at 1:55am | IP Logged |
tarvos wrote:
In the beginning you use a dictionary, or an online one. |
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Now, see, I agree with you completely about reading newspapers, or chatting, if you add that caveat. But there are people who will spout out, "If you want to read newspapers in your TL, read newspapers in your TL." What is the poor soul who is just starting to learn his first foreign language supposed to do with that advice?
But if you say, "If you want to read newspapers in your TL, read newspapers in your TL with a dictionary by your side, and a notebook/flash cards to help you remember new words," that is better advice, in my completely humble opinion.
2 persons have voted this message useful
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