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Learn a language through another language | ||
Tags: L3 via L2 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| lampeter Newbie Ireland Joined 5302 days ago 7 posts - 6 votes Studies: English* | Message 1 of 24 27 August 2011 at 9:10pm | IP Logged |
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How crazy is it to learn one language through another language? Especially if you don't
speak the language a coursebook is presented in? How difficult is it to translate instructions, grammar headings etc? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6438 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 2 of 24 27 August 2011 at 10:04pm | IP Logged |
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Not at all, it varies but usually very, and it varies, respectively.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5008 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 3 of 24 28 August 2011 at 1:02am | IP Logged |
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It's quite usual, especially when you wish to study a less popular language and there are too little learning materials in you native language. Or you just know you want to study from for example Assimil and the only base language for your target language course is French. Or learning L3 through L2 may be one of the ways to maintain your L2 as well.
However, you really need to have a good knowledge of the language you want to use as a base. Not that much because of the grammar terminology (it's not that vast amount of vocab after all) but to avoid learning two languages at once, from one book and at the same moment. And you need to realize that a textbook meant for people with different native language from yours will most probably emphasize different features of the language than textbooks meant for your native language speakers. It may as well explain pronunciation differently etc. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5727 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 5 of 24 28 August 2011 at 11:46am | IP Logged |
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Well, I guess than anyone whose mother tongue isn't English and they learned it is gonna use English resources to learn other languages. It's not uncommon at all. But using a completely foreign to you language is a bit risky I'd say. But you may still use correct sentences in your target L3 to put into Anki, etc and totally disregard the instructions. Edited by pesahson on 28 August 2011 at 11:46am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5008 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 6 of 24 28 August 2011 at 1:01pm | IP Logged |
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I don't agree, pesahson. Depends on the native language and the language you want to learn. I suppose that everyone who has got an opportunity to learn from a good quality textbook in their native language will use it.
The fact that the particular recources are made by british or american publishers doesn't mean they are necessarily better. Yes, there are jewels like FSI and many TYs or Colloquials (and surely others as well) but there are as well tons of the "learn miraculously Japanese in 30days and 100 pages" approach and other rubish resources we've seen all around the world. For exemple, there are very good czech textbooks for German, Spanish and French, which are in my opinion much better than Colloquial or Teach Yourself even though the approach is similar. But there is no czech textbook like Assimil. And there are very few czech resources for Swedish for exemple. So the choice always depends on the situation for me. And when it comes to choice whether I should use English or French based books (in particular Assimil), I choose French because their explanations of both grammar and pronunciation are more clear to me. I suppose I am not the only one with this approach, for exemple prof.Arguelles advices to those learning multiple languages to start with English, German and French to get the best resources for the others. Different question comes for an average native English speaker. They do not usually have the trouble of finding resources for any language, thanks to the huge book market, and the vast amount of resources gives huge chance to find something good. But it doesn't mean a different language-based resources might not suit them even better. It always surprises me that many people ponder learning L3 through L2 but nearly noone asks about learning L3 through itself. That is possible as well and I believe it is a very good way for intermediate students. Beginners can try as well (at least for the common languages with the same script), since most of such textbooks have got lots of pictures and the translation of the common words used in instructions is not that difficult. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5727 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 7 of 24 28 August 2011 at 1:47pm | IP Logged |
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I agree, I just wanted to show that many people do learn other languages through English (which isn't their mother tongue) all the time and it's not uncommon at all.
I agree about Assimil series, too. It motivated me a lot to work on my French to be then able to use their courses which are great. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| floydak Tetraglot Groupie Slovakia Joined 4853 days ago 60 posts - 85 votes Speaks: Slovak*, English, German, Spanish Studies: French | Message 8 of 24 28 August 2011 at 2:53pm | IP Logged |
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this is interesting question.
I also always try to find textbook in my native language. For this 2 reasons: 1. A really good! textbook can warn you and help you with similarities and differences with your native language so that you can obtain maximum of perfect knowledge from your native language. And this would be even more important if your target language is from the same language-group. For example if I would like to learn russian, I would definitely try to get good slovak-russian textbook, becouse it (should) be adjusted for my already knowledge and this book can point out things which can help me a lot which I wouldn't find in english-russian textbook. 2. When I was learning Spanish, I used to use sometimes English-spanish podcasts etc. etc. But sometimes I felt this was not good idea. When I wanted to say something is spanish I first needed to think about it in English and first then I could say it. I don't know and it would interest me, if you also had this problem. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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