Sydney Groupie Yugoslavia Joined 6454 days ago 58 posts - 71 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Serbian
| Message 25 of 63 29 February 2008 at 8:33pm | IP Logged |
I once substitute-taught an ESL class for kids around 7-8 years old. The kids had CDs that accompanied their textbooks and I was playing the CD during a listening activity, it was a dialogue that should have been something new for the kids to listen to and attempt to understand in class, but this one kid was enthusiastically speaking along word-for-word (and intonation-wise) to the whole thing! The CD had songs on it and I guess it was his favorite thing to listen to at home, dialogues included. I thought it was pretty impressive (and the kid was adorable). He came upon this kind of thing quite naturally!
Edited by Sydney on 29 February 2008 at 8:35pm
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ryuukohito Bilingual Diglot Groupie Malaysia Joined 6238 days ago 89 posts - 98 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Malay* Studies: French, Japanese
| Message 26 of 63 01 March 2008 at 1:25am | IP Logged |
If I may offer a little opinion of my own: I too am attempting the Heinrich-Schliemann method, for my Japanese and French studies.
As far as I can tell, it's been of great help for my Japanese. In the Japanese language, the verb comes last, so I've always had to consciously remember and make sure that the order of my sentences follows that rule; but now, I don't even have to think about it. What I speak or write just 'comes out' that way.
What I have discovered, and like best, about Heinrich Schliemann's method, is that it has helped me internalize the usage of some particles; now I don't even have to think about which particle is suited for where, because the cache of sentences in my head seems to be able to 'tell' me which is the most appropriate one for the situation. (E.g. the で versus に problem.) And I can always and just as easily contrast and compare against the original sentences to know whether what I'm saying is grammatically right or wrong.
Also, I have become not as hesitant when speaking. Sentences just seem to roll off my tongue; whereas before I had to construct a sentence off the bat, now it seems that my mind gets a sentence structure, automatically substitutes the words that gets across my meaning. So I am able to produce a sentence very quickly.
But I do have to admit that it's tiresome, having to memorize entire stories and chunks of text. (I try my best to memorize a text as it is, and in its original order; but sometimes, I make sure I memorize the exact sentence, and can reproduce it perfectly per se, but not in the original order and structure.)
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slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6677 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English
| Message 28 of 63 01 March 2008 at 4:44am | IP Logged |
Why don't you use the DVD movie method?
I am learning by rote the scripts. It's easy and efortless.
And much esier if you use the SRS sentence method.
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Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6704 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese
| Message 29 of 63 01 March 2008 at 6:11am | IP Logged |
bacchanalian wrote:
I have pi memorized to 1,000,000 decimal places.
Just teasing.
However, I memorized the "to be or not to be" soliloquy in Hamlet (three pages of small print) in a matter of
hours...without using any memory tricks. This text was in something sort of resembling English but not really! I
don't know about an entire book however...or in a foreign language...but the mind is capable of more than we
realize...ask Kim Peek...
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I know a couple of people who have memorized Shakespeare plays just to do it. I believe one of them memorized Hamlet; I forget what the other memorized. But I also think about all the people who have had reams of poems memorized, or the scholars who would memorize the Bible or Chinese Classics. It can be done.
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Alkeides Senior Member Bhutan Joined 6150 days ago 636 posts - 644 votes
| Message 30 of 63 01 March 2008 at 11:29am | IP Logged |
I seemed to remember the full extract regarding Schliemann's method as containing something regarding comparing "Paul et Virginie" in French and Modern Greek to learn the vocabulary; thus I googled for more details.
http://www.seg.co.jp/cgi-bin/kb7.cgi?b=sss-old&c=e&id=86 contains the full text, and a Japanese analysis of it for those of you studying Japanese. It also contains, AFAIK, some parts that other sites posting the extract have chosen to omit. (Hiring the poor Jew who didn't know any Russian lol and the tenants complaining)
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Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6896 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map
| Message 31 of 63 01 March 2008 at 5:27pm | IP Logged |
raeve wrote:
Interesting method. I once tried to memorize "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe, but I gave up after 4 verses. I guess my brain is no use for that. |
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Ha, funny you should say that. I actually did memorise "The Raven" many years ago, but all that is left now are little random scraps: "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, etc..."
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Ichiro Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6211 days ago 111 posts - 152 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, French Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, Malay
| Message 32 of 63 02 March 2008 at 10:45am | IP Logged |
ryuukohito wrote:
But I do have to admit that it's tiresome, having to memorize entire stories and chunks of text. (I try my best to memorize a text as it is, and in its original order; but sometimes, I make sure I memorize the exact sentence, and can reproduce it perfectly per se, but not in the original order and structure.) |
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Could I ask, how do you keep the stuff you memorised live in your head? Doesn't it just vanish again?
Or does that not matter - do you feel that if the words and structure have been embedded by learning some passage, you don't need to reproduce the whole thing again at some much later date?
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