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Reasons to write in your target language? | ||
Tags: Writing | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6103 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 1 of 13 28 August 2013 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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Writing is the language skill I practise the least. When I speak, I can make gestures and get enough instant feedback to communicate. Speaking draws the language out of me, whereas writing is painfully slow and there's no hiding place for poor grammar or spelling. However I want to write more because:
1. There are lots of opportunities to use my TL through emails. I'm tired of sending a short email or, worse, resorting to English. 2. To drill grammar. 3. To improve accuracy and spontaneity in speech. If I can write it, I can speak it (at least that's what I hope!). This last reason is the most important for me, so I am thinking of writing down imaginary dialogues. To comment about things in my mind such as the weather, and then sit down and write that comment in my TL. What are some of the reasons you write? How do you practise? Edited by Mooby on 28 August 2013 at 6:34pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4701 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian | Message 2 of 13 28 August 2013 at 6:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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In terms of practice - Sprachprofi once compiled
a list of 100+ essay topics that would be fun and interesting to write about. For 30 days I did one of these a day and posted them to lang-8 to get feedback. There was a noticeable improvement. Sorry about the weird post formatting, I'm on my mobile. Edited by Hekje on 28 August 2013 at 6:53pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 3 of 13 28 August 2013 at 7:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Writing in other languages, especially English but others as well, does bring various advantages:
1.You get better at it 2.You can communicate on interesting forums and in communities where you wouldn't get otherwise 3.It is an opportunity to find different writing styles than those developped during the education process. I write a story in English, wrote some fan fiction, tried a diary in French and I've been enjoying the differences from writing in Czech. Both the objective ones and those coming from my different approach to each language, different literature read in it and so on. 4.It is a challenge. In French, it is pretty hard because I've been neglecting writing in it during the last year or so. In English, it is sometimes easier than in Czech because I have been writing mostly sms or exam tests since graduating highschool. I practice by writing a lot. And reading does have impact as well. However, I found my speaking and writing skills are quite independent on each other. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| darkwhispersdal Senior Member Wales Joined 6038 days ago 294 posts - 363 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 4 of 13 28 August 2013 at 8:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have to write alot to get new words to stick in my memory, particulary for Russian, Mandarin and Classical Greek.
Usually I like to write short paragraphs and then I analyse what the words are doing in the sentences. This helps me with the grammar. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5764 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 5 of 13 28 August 2013 at 8:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here's why I write:
1. I am a visual learner. I learn best by seeing a word written down, so reading helps, and writing (and then reading what I've written back to myself) helps me drill spelling and grammar. 2. I enjoy writing. I used to come home from school every day and write stories non-stop until I went to bed. Thanks to my love of story writing, I've got quite a good imagination. The more I write, the stranger the ideas I come up with, and the more complicated the concepts become for me to try to express in my target languages. 3. When I first started learning German, one of my favourite things to do to practise besides talking a lot was to write. Why? Because I was afraid of reading real stuff - even really simple kiddy books. So I had my (often rubbish) writing corrected, and then I'd read my own writing back to myself, aloud. This was different from reading actual proper German because I'd know the majority of the words I'd written down already. Writing helped my reading. I imagine it's actually supposed to happen the other way around, but whatever :] Jack 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6595 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 13 28 August 2013 at 10:48pm | IP Logged | ||
As for my reasons... to add some personal touch to all the football and media. to express my thoughts and emotions, even to feel closer to my team. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| I'm With Stupid Senior Member Vietnam Joined 4171 days ago 165 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Vietnamese | Message 7 of 13 29 August 2013 at 12:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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I used to keep a diary in Vietnamese. I found it really useful for learning the every day things. I guess once you get to a higher level, joining forums and talking about things that interest you might be a good idea.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6701 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 8 of 13 29 August 2013 at 12:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Funnily enough I have the same problem now with Russian as Serpent once had with Finnish: I can write it and at a primitive level think in it, but I have not listened enough in it to get tha 'buzz' in my head which is the best background for learning to speak fluently. The funny thing is that when I listened once again to the Croatian series about their old kings on the History Channel yesterday I got close to having that feeling of a language buzzing around in my head - even though I haven't really studied Croatian or its linguistic neighbours. If the History Channel or somebody else could just be persuaded to send similar programs in Russian with subtitles then it would help a lot.
As for shadowing I have tried simultaneous shading, but find it utterly impossible - I stop listening when I speak. Sequential shadowing is possible, but boring and I have to press buttons all the time, but even worse: I don't get the buzz that listening to genuine speech with a visual component and subtitles would give me (even subtitles in Russian would be fine). OK, I could have searched harder, but in the meantime I just use writing as a slower substitute for speaking. And one good thing with writing is that you can return to things you have written long ago and see the progress. Edited by Iversen on 29 August 2013 at 12:22pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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