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pedroso Newbie Spain Joined 5007 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes
| Message 1 of 15 03 March 2011 at 12:29am | IP Logged |
Hi all!
I am a language student and I wonder what´s your general opinion on current language learning methods. As we all know, there are different way to learn a language, but what is or would be the one of your choice to learn or improve your foreing language skills?
1) Autodidactic with classical language books
2) Autodidactic by reading foreign press, watching movies with subtitles, music...
3) Attending a regular language school with a teacher
4) With Internet tools (webcam teacher, online resources...)
5) Other
Well I hope you guys share your opinions and ideally explain why you chose each method. I am really interested in knowing more about this!
Pedro.
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| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5326 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian
| Message 2 of 15 03 March 2011 at 1:05am | IP Logged |
Best method: Boyfriend (or girlfriend - whichever works). One that you are really interested in.
And if you live in the TL country while he is your boyfriend, even better.
That is the one person that would be not only willing, but actually eager to listen to you, regardless of level, and it is the one person you feel close enough to, to be able to let your linguistic inhibitions go. And pauses in the communication due to lack of skills - can always be filled with other activities.
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| Rameau Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6099 days ago 149 posts - 258 votes 4 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanC1, Danish Studies: Swedish, French, Icelandic
| Message 3 of 15 03 March 2011 at 8:06am | IP Logged |
Some time ago, someone on this forum proposed learning a language by writing words on a great big wheel and spinning it around. While I would not particularly vouch for the effectiveness of this method, it certainly ranks as my favorite.
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Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6695 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 4 of 15 03 March 2011 at 8:57am | IP Logged |
I can't compete with the big spinning wheel. I just copy and translate texts by hand, make wordlists from those texts or (later) from dictionaries, reformulate the information in my grammars and use bilingual texts to get access to texts that otherwise would be too difficult. And instead of engaging in silly dialogs with other incompetent students I think in my target langages, and at a later stage I make on the fly (bad) translations of things I hear or see until the glorious day where I feel I can communicate with native speakers. And hurray for the internet!
Edited by Iversen on 03 March 2011 at 11:34pm
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| pedroso Newbie Spain Joined 5007 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes
| Message 5 of 15 03 March 2011 at 12:05pm | IP Logged |
Interesting opinions guys, it´s very nice to see that there can be so many ways to learn a language and every single method can be valid for a particular person or purpose.
Hey Iversen I´m with you, Internet is great. I often use dictionaries, song lyrics, forums... but what about those e-learning methods such as establishing a connection with an online teacher, let´s say, with a webcam or microphone? I´ve never explored that possibility but do you think it could be effective? Would you rely in such a method if you were to learn a new language? I included that option in my question because I´m really curious about e-learning.
Nice Solfrid, we should never forget about that method! ;)
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| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5373 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian
| Message 6 of 15 03 March 2011 at 4:07pm | IP Logged |
Apart from 1), a mixture of all other options should work well. You may or may not like a classroom environment, but it's possible to get lots from it if you play it smart. However, classroom alone will not work.
As "Other", I'd say find a language partner. Someone who speaks your target language and who is learning yours. Meet regularly and meet often.
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| nuriayasmin Senior Member Germany Joined 5235 days ago 155 posts - 210 votes
| Message 7 of 15 03 March 2011 at 4:16pm | IP Logged |
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
Best method: Boyfriend (or girlfriend - whichever works). One that you are really interested in.
And if you live in the TL country while he is your boyfriend, even better.
That is the one person that would be not only willing, but actually eager to listen to you, regardless of level, and it is the one person you feel close enough to, to be able to let your linguistic inhibitions go. And pauses in the communication due to lack of skills - can always be filled with other activities. |
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I guess that's my best method, too. In the past I dated guys who spoke Portuguese or Spanish as their mother tongue and was really keen to learn the languages. I'm sure I'd have reached fluency if I had stayed longer with them .... well, that's life. My current boy-friend is Czech and suddenly I've got twice as much motivation to master Czech than at the time when I started learning it and just did it because I liked the language and the country :-). It doesn't matter that my boy-friend is bilingual, he appreciates my efforts and keeps telling me that I'm the only woman he's ever dated who tried to learn Czech and that he loves me for that. Well, so I hope the relationship will last for quite a while :-).
Generally I like language classes but my irregular working times make it very difficult for me to attend classes. I prefer to work with course books and use the internet mainly to improve my listening skills. I also like to have language partners.
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| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6003 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh
| Message 8 of 15 03 March 2011 at 10:40pm | IP Logged |
Rameau wrote:
Some time ago, someone on this forum proposed learning a language by writing words on a great big wheel and spinning it around. While I would not particularly vouch for the effectiveness of this method, it certainly ranks as my favorite. |
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Ah yes, the Mind Portal Project. Groovy stuff....
Edited by Cainntear on 04 March 2011 at 2:41pm
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