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Language classes do NOT work | ||
Tags: Class Learning | School Education | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 5906 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 9 of 116 07 December 2011 at 7:35am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm in a class where nearly everyone has lived in Japan at one time, and all those guys who have been there over a year or so are pretty fluent. Mostly these guys have pretty good conversation skills, but still have issues with reading ability. I'm sort of the slightly baffled confused person who can read but not talk. I think there is something magic about being in country, I think, at least for listening comprehension. I've tried to keep up with news and watching anime and TV and things like this, but maybe it's not quite the same having to talk to survive.
I don't see the class as my main means of study. Though I do take it seriously and memorize all the words and do all the readings. I may need to just get myself to Japan one of these days. Or maybe try to get on skype more regularly. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6401 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 10 of 116 07 December 2011 at 8:04am | IP Logged | ||
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I think it depends on the class. I took Spanish in high school and it was like you described -- about 20+ students and long lists of vocabulary and verb conjugations on the chalk board.
I took Chinese in college and it was much better. We were only 5-6 students in those classes. The class itself mostly focused on conversation. We had a lesson to learn that we were supposed to go through on our own ahead of time (read the grammar notes, listen to the dialogues, memorize the vocabulary, practice all the drills). In class we just talked with each other under guidance of the teacher. It was still just going around the room asking each other for directions to the library, or whatever topic the lesson had covered, but since there were so few of us, everyone had a lot of opportunities. Also the teacher could correct us and help us with things we hadn't understood from the book. I think I would have learned a lot more from both of these classes had I known more about how to learn a language. Now that I've learned one language to fluency, I think I would be able to get more out of a class than I did then when I thought that going to class would in itself teach you a language. If I were to take a class now, I would use every opportunity I had outside the class to watch movies, listen to the radio and read books and articles in the language, plus do another course of self-study in the same language along side (I mean get another language program like Assimil or Pimsleur or whatever to do on my own in addition to using the class text). I would use the teacher as a resource to help clear up any areas of confusion I have and hopefully get as much conversation practice as possible in the class. I know now that you get out what you put in. Unfortunately I hadn't yet learned that at the time I was taking those classes. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| On_the_road Diglot Newbie Sweden Joined 4537 days ago 23 posts - 29 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish | Message 11 of 116 07 December 2011 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think that language classes can be good and sometimes perhaps even better than spending time in the country where the language is spoken. I have met people who have lived abroad for six months or a year who, while being quite good at speaking, are making a lot of (even basic) gramatical mistakes that they have learned while abroad (probably because people were able to understand them despite the grammatical errors, so they were not forced to learn the right grammar). Therefore, I think that it can be a good idea to learn the basics of grammar in a language class (or by styding on your own for that matter) before going abroad. That way you already know the basic structure of the language and you are more able to correct yourself whenever you say something wrong. Edited by On_the_road on 07 December 2011 at 2:00pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| On_the_road Diglot Newbie Sweden Joined 4537 days ago 23 posts - 29 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish | Message 12 of 116 07 December 2011 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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.. Edited by On_the_road on 07 December 2011 at 1:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5211 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 13 of 116 07 December 2011 at 3:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I really think that a blanket statement that language classes don't work is an exaggeration. A lot depends on the teacher, the method, the number of students and the motivation of everybody involved. Where I live adult language classes are very widespread, especially for immigrants, and they work quite well.
Living in the country of the language is a whole other experience. It's certainly a lot more fun than sitting in a classroom, but you can't really compare the two. I should point out as well that the vast majority of people who try to learn on their own give up very quickly. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6378 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 14 of 116 07 December 2011 at 4:00pm | IP Logged | ||
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kwai-Chang Tetraglot Newbie Switzerland Joined 4526 days ago 8 posts - 27 votes Speaks: English*, French, German, Spanish Studies: Mandarin | Message 15 of 116 07 December 2011 at 5:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've just knocked my Chinese evening class on the head for much the same reason. Very expensive and really not acheiving very much. This was exacerbated by a teacher who did not appear to be taking the whole thing seriously. I will continue to work on my own and on Skype.
On the other hand I had an excellent and very enthusiastic French teacher who got the whole class fired up and everyone passed the exam at the end with flying colours. It really makes a difference if the teacher is not just 'phoning it in'... 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Mowli Triglot Newbie Norway Joined 4704 days ago 19 posts - 40 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Mandarin | Message 16 of 116 07 December 2011 at 7:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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I took German classes for five years (we had to have a third language in school) and I actually learned quite a bit, but I did a lot of study at home and started reading books as soon as I could. To expect to learn a language in 90 minutes 2 times a week isn't really realistic. Still I think I would have learned a lot more if I had used these 90 minutes for something else than classes. I learned a lot of grammar though, which I would never have bothered to learn alone...
Now I am hopefully taking a Spanish class in the university I am going to. This is not for learning the language, but it's free and I get a "proof" to employers that I "know" the language which is important. If the class isn't helping anything I will only show up for the things I have to show up for, which isn't much. Saying I learned a language by myself will in most job situations not be enough to convince someone to hire me. So what I think classes is helpful for is getting some kind of certificate. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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