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Learning entire texts by heart | ||
Tags: Memory | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| iaf Heptaglot Newbie Germany Joined 5394 days ago 34 posts - 36 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Esperanto, Latin | Message 1 of 10 11 July 2010 at 9:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello everybody,
at the moment i am focussing on the "text-learning-method". I've read about positive aspects of this method on the internet. So what do you think? Is there someone who uses this method? I've just started once again with Italian. At the moment, I can recite two short texts by heart. My goal is to know about 50 short texts. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ibraheem Groupie United States Joined 5161 days ago 84 posts - 106 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Mandarin | Message 2 of 10 12 July 2010 at 1:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I wonder if people who have memorized Latin hymns or Arabic surahs would have an easier time learning the language. Edited by ibraheem on 12 July 2010 at 1:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| CaucusWolf Senior Member United States Joined 5068 days ago 191 posts - 234 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Written), Japanese | Message 3 of 10 12 July 2010 at 2:39am | IP Logged | ||
Well Even if one were to memorize The entire Qur'an they may not realize that in Arabic there's different meanings to different words depending on context. Also there's no real equivalent to Is. However, The way old scholars used to learn languages was by reading a bible in the target language because they memorized the bible in their own language and was a way to learn the language or at least the basics could no doubt be achieved but I just don't see how one could grasp a language fully this way but I suppose its possible. So Furthermore, it would help a little if one memorized the actual Arabic in the Qur'an and understood its meaning but then again it would just be another way of learning the language. Edited by CaucusWolf on 12 July 2010 at 2:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Enki Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5629 days ago 54 posts - 133 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written), English*, French, Korean Studies: Japanese | Message 4 of 10 12 July 2010 at 8:17am | IP Logged | ||
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I'd say that memorizing texts using elaboration strategies (for example, breaking down the sentence into the "who" "what" "when" "where" and "why"; or connecting the phrase with other ideas or with how your native language does it, ect.) is probably one of the most useful ways of getting a feel for the language.
Many people can skim texts for understanding but not actually be able to reproduce the phrases and sentences that they read. That's fine for my native language, but I feel that I need to understand both content and form of the target language I'm learning. Memorizing makes sure I get that understanding. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5465 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 5 of 10 12 July 2010 at 10:00am | IP Logged | ||
Some people (including me) have done this with Assimil courses. Study each lesson repeatedly (both reading and listening) until you remember it. The course book actually tells you it is not necessary to do this, but several people have reported it being useful. One thing I found is that it does flood your brain with the sounds of the language, so that they are still there floating around when you put the book and CDs away. I do think Assimil is a good candidate for this, because the texts start off easy and build up their complexity, so that not only are you able to recite them, but also (importantly) to understand and absorb them. Since each course has about 100 lessons, there is enough material in there for many months of memorisation. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5116 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 6 of 10 12 July 2010 at 10:44am | IP Logged | ||
It worked for Heinrich Schliemann who claims he was able to memorize 20 pages of text after having read them three times. He writes in his English autobiography:
In Schliemann's time, rote memorization was pretty much de rigeur. But nowadays only actors have to memorize large amounts of text. I looked into this and found a couple of web sites with memorization tips for actors, but most of them either only deal with making rote memorization easier or mention common memory techniques such as links, peg words, memory palaces etc. That's why I didn't pursue this any further. It would be very helpful if anybody who actually does memorize texts in foreign languages could post their tricks. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Declan1991 Tetraglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6235 days ago 233 posts - 359 votes Speaks: English*, German, Irish, French | Message 7 of 10 12 July 2010 at 1:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think it's wrong to learn texts off by heart, if learning off by heart is your goal. I know a lot of German off by heart, but from repeated listening to Reinhard Mey's songs, not because I set out to. There is a difference.
Furthermore, I think it's better to learn sample sentences. For example, "I heard that something happened" can easily be transformed into "I heard the cat died" etc. That's beneficial I think. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6564 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 8 of 10 12 July 2010 at 2:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think that if nothing else, memorizing entire texts would profoundly increase one's memorization skills.
However, as with Doitsujin, the first thing I thought of was Schliemann and his amazing polyglot skills. He would sometimes write in Ancient Greek, and if anyone challenged his grammar, he could quote from memory a Greek source that used the same sentence structure. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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