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Language retention | ||
Tags: Maintaining Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5585 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 9 of 17 12 February 2010 at 1:48am | IP Logged | ||
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read a russian novel out loud before going to bed. The speaking parts will get your mind used to hearing it, and reading is just...well, reading. :)
I always read a novel/language before bed. I find that my mind concentrates on it while I sleep. :) (IT'S GREAT FOR STUDYING FOR TESTS TOO!) -Jordan 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7181 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 10 of 17 12 February 2010 at 3:51am | IP Logged | ||
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Why not put a lot of the stuff you are learning into supermemo/anki software? That way
you will know what you are forgetting/remembering. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TheBiscuit Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5923 days ago 532 posts - 619 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian Studies: German, Croatian | Message 11 of 17 12 February 2010 at 5:04am | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, some way to measure what you have learnt will help you avoid wasting time. My language learning has become much more productive since I started doing this.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sandman Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5408 days ago 168 posts - 389 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 12 of 17 13 February 2010 at 10:58am | IP Logged | ||
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I suspect reading 3 or 4 Russian novels a year would probably be sufficient to keep you at a point where you could VERY quickly regain anyting you need.
I attained some proficiency in Spanish before now going full time to Japanese, but with very little work I seem to be able to at least maintain my old levels ... if not improve. I'd think at this point your "forgetting curve" is pretty stretched out, so as long as you find a way to quickly pound a few thousand words into your head repeatedly through reading/listening that you won't notice much of a drop-off if it ever becomes necessary to regain full fluency. Just a guess but 4 nice sized novels a year and 10 movies/40 tv episodes a year would probably be more than sufficient to keep you from really losing anything if at some point you need to regain your proficiency. Obviously your language skills will slip a bit, but I'd guess (from little real experience) that after a 10 or 15 year span you won't feel too uncomfortable immediately picking things back up if necessary with that much reinforcement. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| John Smith Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6042 days ago 396 posts - 542 votes Speaks: English*, Czech*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 13 of 17 13 February 2010 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | ||
That's so true. Thanks for pointing that out. I learn languages because I like learning them. Discovering new grammar. New words. Once I reach a certain level I sort of lose interest. Now I know why. Thanks :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| John Smith Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6042 days ago 396 posts - 542 votes Speaks: English*, Czech*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 14 of 17 13 February 2010 at 3:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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The mere presence of English words in your day to day conversations is not a sign that you are losing your language. There are many words that can't be translated 100%. You might be using them because they don't exist in Russian or because they have a slightly different shade of meaning.
You just have to use the language as much as possible. Speaking is better than reading. If you only read/listen to the radio/watch movies you will end up with a passive knowledge of the language. You'll be able to understand it perfectly but will find talking/expressing yourself very difficult. Edited by John Smith on 13 February 2010 at 3:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| elysandler Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5404 days ago 22 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew, English*, French Studies: Latin, Spanish, Russian | Message 15 of 17 15 February 2010 at 9:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Suspicious ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5808 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 16 of 17 20 February 2010 at 4:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have the same issue with Spanish.
I find its a matter of getting one's brain to switch its thinking into the other language. Its like loading the language from the hard-drive in your brain to the RAM in your brain. And while its in transition some thoughts and words are still in English. As far as "forgetting" a lanugage, when I started studying Italian I found myself saying a lot of words in French which I haven't studied or used much in 20 years. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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