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How to continue learning a language

 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery Post Reply
17 messages over 3 pages: 13  Next >>
Pyx
Diglot
Senior Member
China
Joined 5494 days ago

670 posts - 892 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: Mandarin

 
 Message 9 of 17
26 July 2009 at 1:06am | IP Logged 
Avoid getting that book at all cost ;)

If reading is the way to go for you then by all means go and get some nice books.
Somebody else also wrote that he/she likes to use German computer games, maybe that could be something for you too. Definitely worked for my English :)
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ILuvEire
Diglot
Newbie
United States
iluveire.wordpress.cRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5394 days ago

26 posts - 26 votes
Speaks: English*, Sign Language
Studies: Esperanto, Italian, Arabic (Written), Danish, Japanese

 
 Message 10 of 17
26 July 2009 at 6:31am | IP Logged 
Hmm, I think that not caring about the gender when learning the word will just cause problems later. For example, for some reason, I've convinced myself that the gender of Zeit is feminine. I don't even know what the correct gender is, no matter how many time I look it up, I've got the bad habit stuck.
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Pyx
Diglot
Senior Member
China
Joined 5494 days ago

670 posts - 892 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: Mandarin

 
 Message 11 of 17
26 July 2009 at 6:37am | IP Logged 
Well, you're right, ILuvEire ;D Seems to work ;P
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Lizzern
Diglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5668 days ago

791 posts - 1053 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 12 of 17
26 July 2009 at 1:23pm | IP Logged 
First let me just say that for a 15-year-old, a working knowledge of German and Norwegian is a huge feat. WELL DONE. Whether imperfect or not, you've done an excellent job, and I hope you know that.

Have you tried learning it as a sole unit, rather than labelling the articles as 'gender'? Maybe if you think of das Mädchen as ONE word 'das+Mädchen', not 'Mädchen' and it's sidekick 'das', you might pick up the whole thing rather than just the word. Because it really is like that, the gender of the word is just as much a part of it as the vowels and consonants and individual syllables in the main part of the word. Maybe you can think of it as the first syllable of the word...

Also be careful about how you read things when you understand the noun, it's so easy to not pay attention to the structure itself as long as we understand what we're reading, so we don't notice what article is in front of the word, just that there is one, and it makes sense that it's there.

Liz
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Sean Heiss
Newbie
United States
Joined 5363 days ago

6 posts - 6 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Norwegian, Icelandic, Irish

 
 Message 13 of 17
26 July 2009 at 11:17pm | IP Logged 
Well, I only know German and Norwegian at an intermediate level. :P
I started learning German in April 2008, and Norwegian in December 2008. Neither are difficult at all, actually both are quite easy for me.

Yesterday I watched Die Simpsons: Der Film (which happens to be one of my favorite movies) along with the subtitles, and was glad that I understood most of it, and was able to forget about the words I didn't know and still understood it fine. :)

Quote:
Have you tried learning it as a sole unit, rather than labelling the articles as 'gender'? Maybe if you think of das Mädchen as ONE word 'das+Mädchen', not 'Mädchen' and it's sidekick 'das', you might pick up the whole thing rather than just the word. Because it really is like that, the gender of the word is just as much a part of it as the vowels and consonants and individual syllables in the main part of the word. Maybe you can think of it as the first syllable of the word...

Well, that was what I was doing, so when I start learning German again, I'll try doing that. I've been saying "et" or "en" along with the Norwegian word when I look it up, and that works, but unfortunately there isn't anything like that for Irish, since it doesn't have indefinite articles, and the definite articles are the same for both genders. :/
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Cabaire
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5358 days ago

725 posts - 1352 votes 

 
 Message 14 of 17
27 July 2009 at 12:31am | IP Logged 
Quote:
there isn't anything like that for Irish


Of course the article in Irish differs depending on gender also. Before feminine nouns, it is "an plus lenition", before masculine it is "an without lenition", but with t-prefix if it starts with a vowel. I always think of the mutations as part of the word, which triggers it.

So if you learn bean, an bhean (woman) or fear, an fear (man), you know which is masculine and which is feminine, because it is not *an bean or *an fhear. It does not work for words like "an tine" (the fire), were the lenition is blocked, or an lá (the day), were it is not written, or an náire (the shame), were it is impossible respectively, but for most nouns, this helps.

So to learn "an bhean" is in my eyes as helpful as "das Mädchen".

Also most masculine nouns end in a broad, most feminine in a slender consonant. This gives also a clue.

Ingeborg.
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JonB
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 6024 days ago

209 posts - 220 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Italian, Dutch, Greek

 
 Message 15 of 17
27 July 2009 at 10:56am | IP Logged 
Just out of interest, I wonder which Celtic language has more living native speakers - Irish or Welsh?

I guess it is probably Welsh? I think I once heard that there are still about 250000 native speakers in the northern and western parts of Wales.

I've also heard it said that Welsh is (slightly!) easier to learn than Irish...
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Sean Heiss
Newbie
United States
Joined 5363 days ago

6 posts - 6 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Norwegian, Icelandic, Irish

 
 Message 16 of 17
27 July 2009 at 9:09pm | IP Logged 
Yeah, Welsh has the most, but I much prefer Irish to Welsh. Welsh is boring to me. :D

Cabaire, tá aithne dhom ar ndóigh, but I haven't thought about using that, since so far I am able to remember the gender without doing that, but I can try that if I need to. :)


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