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Top Ten Language Learning Mistakes | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5720 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 34 of 51 02 December 2009 at 11:59pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
If you feel like you can manage another language then by all means. I mean, there are people here who can juggle 10+ languages without running into trouble, and there are others who prefer to stick with just one. Personally I think people differ mostly by preference and that's what determines how much they're able to take on, rather than actual ability. Only you can really know if another language would be too much or if it would be manageable for you (although since you said "I really want to learn German" I'd say you're at least interested enough to give it a whack). The only reason I'm sticking with just the one language (and only occasionally looking at others) is because I'd rather speak one language very well than several reasonably ok - and I only reached that decision after dabbling in far too many. I guess my point was that if someone realizes they've spent too much time language-hopping and too little time actually learning a small number of languages to their full potential, and that seems like a problem to them, then it can be good to try to stick with just those few that we love most, even if that means finding a way to get through the difficulties rather than dropping it for something else when tempted. Those times will come, but if we've made a firm decision and have coping mechanisms in place to deal with it then we can stay on target. Or not, depending on what we really want to achieve. At one point I was studying 3 very different languages (biblical Hebrew, ancient Greek and Hungarian) intensively at the same time and none of them suffered from me spending time on the others. Really, it wasn't a big deal. I could have taken any of those languages further, or all three of them even, I just eventually chose to drop them - so for me the biggest mistake I've made has been starting these languages in the first place, because if I'm just going to go and forget them, why spend time on them in the first place, right... If I could go back in time and do things differently, I would pick my languages carefully and stick with just a few. So in my experience - dabbling is unproductive in the long run and not something I want to do anymore, but sticking to a few languages doesn't have to be damaging to any of them. All the best to the people who choose to dabble, everyone has their own reasons for doing this - so just figure out what yours are and run with that :-) Edited by Lizzern on 03 December 2009 at 12:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5770 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 35 of 51 03 December 2009 at 12:53am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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This will probably raise some eyebrows....I wish I had started listening to native speaker audio (intented for native speakers) from the first day. It took something like 6-9 months of listening to this type of material before I was able to understand elementary vocabulary spoken at normal speed. This was vocabulary that I supposedly knew about 1 1/2 years before that point. Edited by Snowflake on 07 December 2009 at 11:43pm 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5735 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 36 of 51 03 December 2009 at 12:55am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
6. Setting goals that are too general. The best example is my original goal for Afrikaans; to become completely fluent in 6 months. This did not happen because I did not have a plan for how to achieve fluency nor did I have a definition of fluency. 7. Reading too much about various language learning philosophies or programs, instead of actually learning a language. There are some intriguing programs and ideas, but I won't actually use most of them. 8. This one could be a continuation of #7, but another trap is spending very much time debating the advantages or disadvantages of different learning philosophies or language programs. Some of the debates start off well and occasionally some good information can be found, but eventually they get sidetracked in one of two ways: a.) Vicious personal attacks, or b.) Questions about whether or not the research cited is valid. Finally sometimes the debates simply become repetitive. NB The same thing applies to the endless debates about whether or not constructed languages are useful, or have a valid culture. 9. Spending too much time on Wanderlust languages. Wanderlust can be a good thing; I won't forget that it did lead me to Finnish and then Swedish. An example of bad wanderlust was when I spent all night trying to read French websites or trying to draw Chinese characters when I know I'm not going to learn these languages any time soon. Edited by mick33 on 04 December 2009 at 4:09am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5778 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 37 of 51 03 December 2009 at 4:07am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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A mistake I make frequently is learning advanced vocabulary while neglecting to review more basic, necessary words. Sometimes I also do this with grammar, too, when I finally understand a difficult concept; I'm so pleased that I don't remember to reinforce what I learned at an earlier stage of my studies.
I am also very much a perfectionist about words and how they look and sound, and it is hard to accept that I can't produce the same quality of work in another language, and that I'll have to write badly before I can write well. Somehow, mistakes in speaking don't seem, to me, to be as bad. Maybe because spoken words fade away and are forgotten--unless you have just said something so unintentionally funny that your friend/listener will never let you forget. But I don't mean to say that I'm careless about correct speech, because with too many mistakes, there's not much communication happening. It is also a mistake to study written language but not spoken language, or vice versa: both are essential Another big mistake: letting a language go dormant for too long, as I did with Spanish, neglecting it for years. Biggest Mistake: Not Studying! I try to be good about that, but I have some lazy days, too. Edited by meramarina on 03 December 2009 at 6:03am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Envinyatar Diglot Senior Member Guatemala Joined 5347 days ago 147 posts - 240 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 39 of 51 03 December 2009 at 4:04pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Another golden rule: know thyself. If you have already detected that you get the most possible pleasure learning those three (or more) languages at the same time then by all means do it. If you're learning languages for fun then have fun! In my case I've noticed that I must stick to one language at the time for better results, but that's me, I'm in the journey of knowing myself too. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Aquila Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5292 days ago 104 posts - 128 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: French | Message 40 of 51 03 December 2009 at 5:34pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
I totally agree with this. Listening is so important if you want to converse in your target language. Understanding normal/rapid speech can be very difficult so start as soon as possible with it. And use different kind of materials, not only the cd's by your textbook or only an audio course, but also podcasts, radio, television/movies/documentary's and so on. Even if you don't understand very much in the beginning, you'll become more at ease with the sound of the language, and it helps with pronunciation.
I also think that it's better to learn the basics first. After, it will be easier to learn the rest because you can read texts more rapidly, as you know the most frequent words! Edited by Aquila on 03 December 2009 at 9:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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