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Learning sentences?

 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
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ajelsma
Newbie
United States
Joined 4638 days ago

26 posts - 26 votes

 
 Message 1 of 10
12 April 2012 at 8:47pm | IP Logged 
Hey everyone I'm knew to the forum. I've been reading the posts but finally can ask my
own questions. So I realized that the best way for me to learn a language is through a
sentence. I will learn the vocabulary and be able to almost...mix and match the words
relatively easily. That being said I need a better method to learn sentences. I've
tried the a ton of methods such as shadowing, goldlist, flash cards (online and paper),
just repeating the sentence, the sentence method by glossika and a few others (and more
for non-sentence methods). Shadowing works ok but runs out when you don't have the
recording. Also I tend to forget about 1/3 of the sentences. This method also takes too
long for me personally; I want to be able to say the sentence relatively quickly not in
a week and forget it. The goldlist method; the major flaw for me and sentences in this
is it becomes passive vocabulary and I really do not enjoy writing sentences (I dont
mind words but that is different) which is one of the main parts of the method; to
enjoy it. Flashcards do not also work for me because Ill remember if for 30 seconds and
the be completely gone (just like I used for school). The repeating a sentence or doing
physical activity while doing so works pretty well but is very very slow and doesnt
solidify it (like Goldlist claims to). I wish I could use the sentence method by
Glossika but honestly I cant listen to my own voice for that long and its he says he
just knows the meaning of the word its just the repetition that gets it into his head.
Also of course the fear of everyone with this method is pronunciation. I could get a
native speaker to do it but I still will not know what some of the words are. I've
tried alot of the other methods; such as the one used by Steve Kaufman, Luca, Goldlist.
Which showed me that the use of sentences is the way for me. Anyone have any ideas or
methods. Alot of the ones that "push it in over time" are just that over time and slow.
As for the ones who just force it in for a "study session" tend to make you forget it
quickly.
Yes, so thank you for reading it and any good ideas would be awesome. If there was
already an extensive post about this. A link would be great too.
Thanks everyone
1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6625 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
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Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 2 of 10
13 April 2012 at 2:41am | IP Logged 
Have you tried SRS? this guy learned Japanese by learning 10,000 sentences... or something.
You don't necessarily need to reproduce entire sentences, in fact the real acquisition happens when they are divided into smaller chunks in your brain, those you can mix and match.
Also, you do need longer input in your learning, whether books, music or TV shows or whatever.
How do you choose your sentences? Seems like it's best to stick with shadowing and just use what you have. If you really like a sentence, ask for a recording at forvo.com :)
1 person has voted this message useful



ajelsma
Newbie
United States
Joined 4638 days ago

26 posts - 26 votes

 
 Message 3 of 10
13 April 2012 at 5:24am | IP Logged 
Ive tried the mnemosyne and if I can push in into my longterm memory then it is passive
not active. I have a large list of sentences from a website (maybe 10-20,000). This is
just a list already in the mnemosyne program. This just doesn't seem to help but ill try
this for a bit. Thanks :)
1 person has voted this message useful



Wulfgar
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4699 days ago

404 posts - 791 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 4 of 10
13 April 2012 at 6:10am | IP Logged 
ajelsma wrote:
So I realized that the best way for me to learn a language is through a sentence.

We can suggest ways to learn sentences more efficiently; there have been many threads on the subject. But I'm
going to have to disagree with the above quote. I can't imagine a situation in which someone would be best served
by only learning sentences.

I would encourage you to try to become more balanced in your approach. In fact, you may find that it's this lack of
balance that makes it hard for you to learn sentences.

If you are open to this, and willing to give a lot more details about what you're trying to accomplish, you will
probably get a lot more useful advice and information out of this forum.
6 persons have voted this message useful



atama warui
Triglot
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4729 days ago

594 posts - 985 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, Japanese

 
 Message 5 of 10
13 April 2012 at 12:05pm | IP Logged 
I agree 100% with Wulfgar. There is no one-way-method you use to learn a language.

Find a forum in your TL where natives discuss something you love. This was effective for me for English. Doesn't work pretty well for Japanese, because of Kanji (although, at my level now, it might... hey, I need to check this out).

Find a podcast teaching your language. Michel Thomas or Pimsleur are fine, but there are others for free on the net as well.

Watch youtube clips in your target language. Those are short, so it's easier to handle them up to some certain point.

You can still do your sentences, but doing ONLY that will burn you out and frustrate you for a lot of reasons.
1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6625 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 6 of 10
13 April 2012 at 12:39pm | IP Logged 
I agree too.
Also, even gaining only passive skills is a huge achievement. When you have them you can improve by simply using native materials.
if you insert gaps you can also test your active skills with SRS.

And really at least I find that reading activates my passive skills. I noticed that during Tadoku.

Premade decks might sound tempting but I recommend finding sentences on your own, on topics YOU consider interesting :)
1 person has voted this message useful



ajelsma
Newbie
United States
Joined 4638 days ago

26 posts - 26 votes

 
 Message 7 of 10
14 April 2012 at 5:35am | IP Logged 
Ok, then let me ask advice on the learning idioms. Of course you need to learn what each
parts mean but idioms are not "cut and paste" the words but basically regurgitation. How
can you learn these to become long-term, active memory? Thanks :)
1 person has voted this message useful



atama warui
Triglot
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4729 days ago

594 posts - 985 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, Japanese

 
 Message 8 of 10
14 April 2012 at 7:12pm | IP Logged 
Idioms are material for advanced students. By the time you reach that level, the approach itself will be automatic.

You then immersed yourself to some degree already and since you'll need even more immersion most at that stage, you will encounter idioms. You'll understand almost everything else, so you can decode idioms without too much trouble by deriving their meaning from context, just like you'll do with unknown words.

Does that make sense to you?


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