Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5000 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish
| Message 17 of 22 25 February 2012 at 9:50pm | IP Logged |
We actually have one coming up...but there still needs to be a method to maintain its use; a few weeks is
hardly enough time to learn/revive knowledge in a language.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6486 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew
| Message 18 of 22 25 February 2012 at 9:53pm | IP Logged |
Kartof, I'd like to suggest something I'm using with my girls that I find useful, if not 100% successful.
First off, I'm in a situation where for a long time I was being very ineffective in teaching my oldest girls my languages (especially Spanish) because I was to busy learning French at the time. My daughters have complained about this.
With the younger girls we have "encapsulated" time - time which we know we are going to dedicate to language learning - the car time is for that and certain meals. Making it fun, cajoling, not forcing the situation is very important. It seems to be working to some extent - they are not local native speakers but have advanced in their learning.
It is also very important that you find local material to work with that is age relevant. Use the trip to come back with a year's worth of material!
If at all possible also find an external teacher. Having a schedule and someone come in regularly helps a ton.
Edited by zenmonkey on 25 February 2012 at 9:56pm
2 persons have voted this message useful
|
Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6531 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 19 of 22 25 February 2012 at 9:57pm | IP Logged |
Kartof wrote:
I just check the website and I don't think that the Michel Thomas learning method has Bulgarian. |
|
|
I think the suggestion was to get acquainted with the method (via, say, MT Spanish) and do something similar.
Have you been able to find any media? Movies, cartoons... sure at least music? This could help with the Bulgarian hour thing.
Making Bulgarian friends would also help him a lot I think.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6486 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew
| Message 20 of 22 25 February 2012 at 10:02pm | IP Logged |
and you might find this material interesting teaching children bulgarian, if you have not seen it already.
Edited by zenmonkey on 25 February 2012 at 10:03pm
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5000 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish
| Message 21 of 22 25 February 2012 at 10:25pm | IP Logged |
Thanks for the advice and the link. Yes, not forcing it is definitely key! And I hadn't thought about that but we
will be certain to pick up tons of age appropriate material for him on our next trip! As far as media goes, television
is especially difficult to find, especially cartoons. There really isn't much available except for what's on youtube
and that's mostly classic movies from the 60's, 70's, and 80's and soap operas. I've tried to get him into music but
I think he's too young to really appreciate it.
I like the idea of "encapsulating" time for speaking Bulgarian, maybe around dinnertime.
We don't really live in an area with many Bulgarians and the nearest Bulgarian friends his age are more than an
hour's drive away. Besides, they just speak English when they're together.
He seems to think that it's too difficult for him to learn despite the encouragement we offer him. He's too afraid
of making mistakes even though we tell him that it doesn't matter. What he really needs is to loosen up and get
out of his comfort zone in English, something that all too many Anglophones need to do!
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5000 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish
| Message 22 of 22 26 February 2012 at 3:22am | IP Logged |
The "encapsulating" time for Bulgarian around dinnertime worked stupendously well! My brother felt much looser
talking in Bulgarian over food than he would otherwise. I'll try to make sure that we all keep up this as a habit!
2 persons have voted this message useful
|