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Do you need a course for learning? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4894 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 17 of 23 29 January 2013 at 7:23am | IP Logged |
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I've learned languages both with and without courses. You don't need a course,
but it helps immensely, and I don't know why you wouldn't use a resource if it were available. I think Richard Burton's story is inspiring ... but it's more inspiring (to me) when you add in more details to the story: he resolved to teach himself Arabic only after the professors at Oxford discouraged him, and he was socially isolated at school and spent twelve hours per day studying Arabic and Hindustani. (Source: The Real Sir Richard Burton, by Walter Phelps Dodge, 1907) If you have that kind of time and dedication to imitate Burton's method then I think any course would be superfluous. Most of us mortals don't. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4449 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 18 of 23 16 February 2013 at 6:52am | IP Logged |
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In my opinion there is good and bad aspects of taking a course. Personally after taking
French in primary and high school for at least 8 years, I was disappointed in the results. I am sure there are over half of my former classmates who had not watch a program in French in the past 10 years because of the lack of fluency. For someone who is into self-taught approaches, I'd go back to Moses McCormick from Akron, Ohio in the US. An African American who tended to get stereotyped as being from a low-income neighborhood. He ended up acquiring 50 languages with fluency in at least half of them with his own systematic approach. The bottom line is not to waste time with something that doesn't work. I know 2 people at least who got into a 3rd language besides their mother-tongue and English. 1 took classes in Japanese and the other in Spanish. Both probably have friends in the target language but engaging in a conversation? No way... Besides a few words in between they'd resort to English. I can remember 1 house party the host from Taiwan went around and asked the guests if they want any homemade Sushi in Chinese Mandarin. A few people replied in English "I don't want any..." kind of thing. Part of learning involve vocabulary and grammar. The other part is to be able to engage in active conversation. Being in a classroom with half-dozen people who are beginners doesn't guarantee your success. You need to communicate with native speakers or at least make an effort... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| wber Groupie United States Joined 4306 days ago 45 posts - 77 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Vietnamese, French | Message 19 of 23 16 February 2013 at 9:41am | IP Logged |
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It depends on what your goals are. I definitely agree that structure is useful. Also, I must add in that there are two types of beginners, a complete beginner and a heritage learner who is only a beginner in their TL in an academic context.
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| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5014 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 20 of 23 16 February 2013 at 1:16pm | IP Logged |
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I thought we were discussing courses as structured textbooks preferably with audio, not
classes. That is very different. I believe you don't need classes at all, even though some could be helpful. Courses can be very helpful but not necessary, if you are learning a close language for exemple. And today, there are more choices than there used to be. I prefer to use a course but I can imagine not finding one I would like. In that case, I believe a grammar book and vocab book or anki deck could give me the needed basics to get right into native materials. But it would be harder, I don't doubt that. wber, I believe there are much more types of beginners. 1.Real beginners, to which this one may be the first foreign language 2.Beginners in the language, who already know one or more foreign languages. 3.Beginners in the language, who already know a closely related language. 4.Beginner-heritage learner, who can for example speak but can't write or discuss too complicated things 5.Beginner-heritage learner, who can understand the language but cannot speak except for a few phrases and so on. And there is the language schools' favourite one: the forever beginner. One who never gets past the level and, unless he or she gives up, is their eternal paying customer. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6602 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 21 of 23 16 February 2013 at 2:44pm | IP Logged |
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Some do offer classes for false beginners though, to help them structurize their knowledge alongside other false beginners, rather than people who start from scratch.
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| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5014 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 22 of 23 16 February 2013 at 3:12pm | IP Logged |
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Yes and those false beginner classes work the way I describe. They may not start from
scratch but many of the people don't move forward and go to the false beginners again and again for years. Like my dad. The trouble is that most of these people need something very different than those courses offer. And there are language schools, who just call their A2 courses "false beginners", which is quite funny, in my opinion. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6602 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 23 of 23 16 February 2013 at 3:32pm | IP Logged |
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I see. At least that's better than starting from scratch several times...
1 person has voted this message useful |
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