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Top Ten Language Learning Mistakes

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
51 messages over 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7  Next >>
Aquila
Triglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 5292 days ago
104 posts - 128 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, German
Studies: French

 
 Message 41 of 51
03 December 2009 at 5:52pm | IP Logged 
mick33 wrote:
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.


Ok, in 6 months is a bit fast and I think you're right with this point, but isn't become fluent a good long term goal?
How do you set you goals? And how do you make them more specific?

Edited by Aquila on 03 December 2009 at 5:52pm
1 person has voted this message useful



datsunking1
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5396 days ago
1014 posts - 1533 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French

 
 Message 42 of 51
03 December 2009 at 6:26pm | IP Logged 
Cordelia, I completely agree with number 5. lol I spend WAY too much buying materials. If I got through everything that I've bought I would have a very very good grounding in Spanish, German, French, Japanese (basics), and Portguese.

Time to actually go through them :D
2 persons have voted this message useful



Dainty
Newbie
United States
Joined 5296 days ago
38 posts - 53 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German

 
 Message 43 of 51
03 December 2009 at 6:30pm | IP Logged 
I'm reading through the thread and thinking, "guilty, guilty, guilty..." but hey, I'm here to learn!

Kubelek wrote:
For me that must be spending half of my daily hour devoted to languages reading this forum instead of actually studying.

But this is going to change! (pre-TAC mood)


Oh yes. I currently require myself to do at least 10 minutes of studying before coming to this site every time I do. That probably doesn't sound like much, but I'm working at it!


1 person has voted this message useful



MäcØSŸ
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5620 days ago
259 posts - 392 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2
Studies: German

 
 Message 44 of 51
03 December 2009 at 9:42pm | IP Logged 
Cainntear wrote:

5) Score fixation You want to measure your progress, but because "language ability" is a very hard thing to
measure, you end up going down an artificial path simply to "score". I've tended to avoid this in language, but in
essays... I usually start by writing a couple of hundred words of waffle just to get my word-count up. Guilty.


I do that all the time. Until some months ago I even measured my progress every week (when it’s obvious that there
can’t be any visible improvement in such a short time).
Unfortunately I really love describing things with numbers.
1 person has 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 45 of 51
04 December 2009 at 4:01am | IP Logged 
Aquila wrote:
mick33 wrote:
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.


Ok, in 6 months is a bit fast and I think you're right with this point, but isn't become fluent a good long term goal?
How do you set you goals? And how do you make them more specific?
Yes, I agree that becoming fluent is a good long term goal. What I've learned is to decide exactly why I want to learn a certain language and then how well I wish to learn it. That is to say, "Do I want to learn 1,000 words or 10,000 words?" Some other questions I might ask myself are, "Do I want to be able to read literature and scientific journals or would I rather read newspapers and comic books?" and "Do I want to give lectures to university students, make small talk on the street or maybe I'd like to do both?". Asking myself these types of questions and then determining the answers is what helps me to set specific goals.
1 person has voted this message useful



genini1
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5279 days ago
114 posts - 161 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 46 of 51
07 December 2009 at 6:56pm | IP Logged 
Dainty wrote:
I'm reading through the thread and thinking, "guilty, guilty, guilty..." but hey, I'm here to learn!

Kubelek wrote:
For me that must be spending half of my daily hour devoted to languages reading this forum instead of actually studying.

But this is going to change! (pre-TAC mood)


Oh yes. I currently require myself to do at least 10 minutes of studying before coming to this site every time I do. That probably doesn't sound like much, but I'm working at it!


Even 10 minutes of studying if it happens every day can be worth a lot, I seem to remember a study about how the first 15 minutes of a study session were the most profitable for lack of a better term and how studying for 15 minutes every hour for 4 hours was better then studying for an hour straight.
4 persons have voted this message useful



cordelia0507
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5649 days ago
1473 posts - 2176 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*
Studies: German, Russian

 
 Message 47 of 51
07 December 2009 at 7:01pm | IP Logged 
genini1 wrote:
Even 10 minutes of studying if it happens every day can be worth a lot, I seem to remember a study about how the first 15 minutes of a study session were the most profitable for lack of a better term and how studying for 15 minutes every hour for 4 hours was better then studying for an hour straight.


THis is an encouraging message.

One of my mistakes is to think that unless I have the time and mental energy for at least 1 hours studying there is no point...

I've taken some time off work but I know that once I get back to work I will be back in a situation where I am physically and mentally "spent" by the time I get back home at 8 or so in the evening...

Very discouraging prospect. Any tips for handling this would be appreciated.
1 person has voted this message useful



The Real CZ
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5460 days ago
1069 posts - 1495 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Korean

 
 Message 48 of 51
07 December 2009 at 7:10pm | IP Logged 
One of the biggest mistakes I ever made was "let's do everything at once." Seeing as I didn't want to spend hours at a time studying, I never did study. Now I break up my studying into ten to fifteen minute sessions, usually taking a five to ten minute break and switching to something else.


1 person has voted this message useful



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