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Making it fun | ||
Tags: Motivation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5222 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 1 of 22 11 August 2012 at 11:28am | IP Logged | ||
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The theory being that people will do what is fun even if it a little more effort Piano stairs
I was looking for an angle to share this video with you. What do you do to make things fun? Thinking mainly of language learning here folks! I relish unusual links and browsing around near my target research - learning by proximity. Link fixed Edited by maydayayday on 11 August 2012 at 11:50am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6906 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 2 of 22 11 August 2012 at 11:48am | IP Logged | ||
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- using methods that are fun for me (for example, I actually enjoy Michel Thomas)
- using interesting, enjoyable content, including books, movies, sometimes songs that I try to sing along (the latter is fun in small amounts, though) - browsing around: e.g. looking up the origin of words and their equivalents in related languages - coming up with some funny mnemonics - alternating languages when I'm getting bored I'm not sure if that's the kind of activies you've meant - the link to the video is not working on my computer. Edited by Julie on 11 August 2012 at 1:26pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6600 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 3 of 22 11 August 2012 at 1:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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Using native materials as early as possible, with aids like lyricstraining and gloss if needed/available.
What I like about my Spanish 6WC (which was a bit of a dare:D) is that I have an excuse to do all the fun stuff that I don't maybe need, like Destinos, Assimil (mama acaba a morir en la bañera), those mentioned above too (omg I forgot about GLOSS!). I wish there were more courses with content, btw. I love "_______ for doctors" textbooks (medical stuff is the only FSI stuff I use:D) and there's a fantastic site made for the Euro-2012 that teaches Polish and Ukrainian, heavy on football vocabulary/themes. Any other courses like that? GLOSS almost fits, but it's many individual lessons rather than anything structured. Maybe I should try one of those "Italian through music" (or cinema) courses... Edited by Serpent on 11 August 2012 at 1:21pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5229 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 4 of 22 11 August 2012 at 1:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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As I see it, learning a language (before reaching the 'just spit and polish' phase) is roughly moving along a continuum from extreme A, where it's more efficient to focus on studying basic grammar structures, etc. and not worry too much about content that's mostly beyond your ability anyway, to extreme B, where formal study won't make you advance too much and you'll benefit more from [unconscious? maybe] language patterns and vocabulary acquisition through 'mere' use of the language, i.e. watching movies, reading books, etc.
I am immensely lucky to have been raised in such a way that I learned to love learning in itself, all those little 'light bulb' moments. So, when I am closer to extreme A, studying IS fun. It is only as I get closer to extreme B (when studying begins to feel less and less efficient) when the boredom problem arises... The only solution I have found so far is, summing it up concisely, content selection. This is necessarily only a partial solution because I am prioritizing having fun over learning the language then, which obviously raises a lot of subsidiary problems. The alternative, just consuming whatever content (no matter how boring) because it will make you improve... well, I have met people who learnt languages to an incredibly fluent level because they spent ages vegetating in front of TV watching soap operas that they didn't even understand at the beginning (not too hard to figure out anyway), but I'm afraid that's not my cup of tea. If anyone knows a pill for that... ;) 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6600 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 5 of 22 11 August 2012 at 2:36pm | IP Logged | ||
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4831 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 6 of 22 11 August 2012 at 4:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I love the idea of making up fun mnemonics, although I'm not all that good at doing it. I
might try a bit harder though. I know they are not the magic bullet that I long ago thought them to be, but they definitely have their uses. I have a feeling that if you could turn them into a song or a tune, they would be even more powerful, although that takes a certain talent. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5786 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 7 of 22 11 August 2012 at 5:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Like Julie I actually enjoy Michel Thomas, I also take genuine pleasure in many (though
not all) Assimil lessons (more so in the old without toil series), which is the main reason I rate it so much more highly than series like Teach Yourself. Beyond those two I'd also have to go with native content as being most enjoyable. I also love noticing connections between words. I get a little jolt of pleasure when something suddenly makes sense: like suddenly realising that the Spanish word lado (roughly = side) must be related to the English (and Spanish) word lateral, or reading that the European Spanish word chaval and the Mexican Spanish word chavo both come from the same source (different forms of the Romani word for boy: chavó), or that the German word bleiben (=stay) comes from the same root as the English word leave, yet any given step on the road to this flip to an opposite meaning in English makes perfect sense if you look at the history of how it happened. I love stuff like that. It doesn't really help me learn, but it's like a little reward that helps with motivation. Edited by Random review on 11 August 2012 at 5:34pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6906 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 8 of 22 11 August 2012 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | ||
I love it too! That's partly the reason why I enjoy learning languages so much, especially those that are closely related. (Although I guess finding connections between more distant languages would be even more interesting.) I find French particularly rewarding: e.g. I was amazed to find out that pl. 'szezlong' is actually 'chaise longue' which is the perfect description of what a chaise longue actually is :) ('a long chair'). Same goes for pl. 'garderoba' and many many others I noticed on the way. While learning basics of Dutch now, I'm amazed to discover that 'graag' basically works like the German 'gern' (looks like it's of the same origin, I have to look that up), 'weel' works like 'schon' in some contexts, and again many many others. Finding some 'older' connections is also very interesting; one day when I have a lot of time and more living languages I under my belt (huh, where is that gonna be...?) I'll have to spend some time on Latin, Old German etc. Edited by Julie on 11 August 2012 at 6:01pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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