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I feel so demotivated | ||
Tags: Loss of confidence | Motivation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| NC181818 Tetraglot Newbie Hong Kong Joined 4350 days ago 17 posts - 24 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 17 of 34 18 February 2013 at 6:23am | IP Logged | ||
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I gave up learning Spanish, because I'm not really passionate in it like I'm in Japanese, and I felt that there were too many things to remember in Spanish (vocabs, grammar, etc.), I know it's the same for every language, but I don't want to spend so much effort in Spanish. Also, I kept thinking and I came to a conclusion that Spanish would probably be pretty useless for me anyway, so I don't want to waste time learning it now and forget the language later on. Another problem is that I can't produce the RR sound (or strong R), but the languages I already know/currently learning/planning to learn don't have this sound, so I can speak them better.
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| lewevanhoop Newbie United States Joined 5014 days ago 13 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Afrikaans, Modern Hebrew | Message 18 of 34 18 February 2013 at 6:29am | IP Logged | ||
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I am having a motivation problem in my Spanish class. It is an A1 level course and all
of the grammar is review and the class is almost entirely vocabulary. This makes the class a little boring. I find myself more motivated to work on the catalan. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 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 19 of 34 18 February 2013 at 10:48am | IP Logged | ||
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Try to find some bilingual sources. It isn't cheating, it is common sense and a good way to make incomprehensible things comprehensible. If you use machine translations then be aware that they produce results with lots of errors. Therefore you should only use them in the direction FROM the foreign language (here German) TO your own language, where you can spot the worst errors. Even a bad translation may be able to give you a hint about the real meaning of the original.
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| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5867 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 20 of 34 18 February 2013 at 2:07pm | IP Logged | ||
That demonstration is so good that it is mind-boggling to me why there isn't a huge number of language learning courses in many languages based on that technique. The technique of comprehensible input is more fully developed in what is generally known as TPR or TPR(S) which is totally physical response (storytelling). It has been discussed here on HTLAL before. It is a technique that is more commonly found in schools and dedicated training environments but can be done very effectively on video. There are tons of material ABOUT TPRS on the Internet but unfortunately very little material USING the technique. Here is a Wikipedia article about TPRS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TPR_Storytelling I think the answer to why it is not very available is that it general is considered to be very time-consuming and costly to produce. But I believe that the effectiveness of the technique and the almost certain huge profits to any company that developed extensive amounts of such language learning material would be enormous. Does anyone have links to online TPRS for language learning? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4445 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 21 of 34 21 February 2013 at 11:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think any form of media that is interesting you tend to pick up faster. Radio news is
low on the list. If you listened to the news in English or a language you know, you will pick up the content in your target language better. In my part of N. America there are radio stations that broadcast in foreign languages where listeners phoned in for discussions. None of the dialogue is off the script. People would call and talk in everyday speech. Personally prefer TV & videos with subtitles. For example: the French musical turned into a movie "Le Cage aux Folles" later became a Hollywood movie "The Bird Cage". With radio broadcast you may just pick up noise but with videos at least you have actions to guide you. Videos in German or another language you stop you come across a word or phrase that is unfamiliar, look it up if you don't have subtitles. At the same time you get your ears accustomed to sounds that are not native to English or your mother- tongue. At first there will be a time lag. You listen to a word or phrase but have to think for a few seconds. The transition from textbook to being able to engage in conversations takes some effort. Find good videos that you can watch for at least half-hour/day. Like learning French, you make every effort to think (talk to yourself) in that language. If you are thinking about the time you'd say to yourself "Quelle heure est-il" and "Il est six heures" instead of the English version "It is six o'clock". Even listening to songs you can read the lyrics beforehand and just pay attention to how the words are said and sing-along. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4652 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 22 of 34 22 February 2013 at 11:48am | IP Logged | ||
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Maybe part of the reason why I gave up on German around A1 level was the lack of bilingual resources. I mean, at this level you can't really read anything except very basic things or children's books. Any online sources for German at this level?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4522 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 23 of 34 22 February 2013 at 2:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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You should be able to make your own bilingual resources. Alice in Wonderland, Brothers Grimm's fairy tales, HC Andersen's fairy tales etc. You can find those online in several languages including German and English. German texts can be found here. The spelling is often a bit archaic (like too many silent h's or ß instead of ss), but the difference to modern spelling isn't very big.
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| Walshy Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6943 days ago 335 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German | Message 24 of 34 22 February 2013 at 11:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's just a matter of exposure and persistence.
Whatever you do for your leisure time, convert it to German. Playing video games in German did me wonders for my listening comprehension and my vocabulary, and you can buy them fairly cheaply on Steam. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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