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Learning numbers in your target language | ||
Tags: Number System | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Swift Senior Member Ireland Joined 4389 days ago 137 posts - 191 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French, Russian | Message 9 of 20 21 May 2012 at 1:18am | IP Logged | ||
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I definitely try to say a date or number in my TL every time I see one, even when I'm
not reading something in it. Like some people pointed out, it's just a matter of practice. It's probably not completely necessary to think in the numbers of your TL if you have a good degree of fluency. Still, I think overcoming the urge to say them in your native language in your head is a good discipline that makes thinking in the TL much easier over time. It's because of that that I've found myself saying the first few words of an English article with a French accent in my head. Personally, I want to go to university in France in the next year. I am interested in science subjects, and more specifically I am considering Computer Science. Imagine if I got called out to give a long list of complicated numbers and calculations in class and sat there having to think about it! Knowing numbers is easy, I think recalling them instantly is the hard part. Your challenge is probably much greater with Japanese, which seems to be much more complex in terms of numbers. Edited by Swift on 21 May 2012 at 1:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Avid Learner Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4443 days ago 100 posts - 156 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: German | Message 10 of 20 21 May 2012 at 1:39am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm so glad to find out I'm not the only one with this difficulty. I've begun watching TV in German, and it's been so frustrating that every time there is a date or a number, I recognize it as such but can't decipher it fast enough to construct the number in my mind, even thought it's composed of words I know!
I've found this game, it's fun and I try to play every time I think of it. I don't remember experiencing any such difficulty in English, but I learned it at a slower pace and I assume my brain slowly got used to it. Also the order (unit before ten) seems to totally throw me off in German. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Andrew C Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom naturalarabic.com Joined 4971 days ago 205 posts - 350 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written) | Message 11 of 20 21 May 2012 at 1:51am | IP Logged | ||
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I'd recommend listening to numbers, for example in an audio of economic news. If you just see the numerals, you'll just skip over them and never learn them. You'll never learn what the word for things like "[decimal] point" is just by reading.
English numbers are quite easy, but there are numerous pitfalls - e.g. we say "two hundred" not "two hundreds", in British English we say "and" before the "tens" e.g. "one hundred and fifty", in US English I think it's usually "one hundred fifty". The spelling of our numbers is horrible too (two?), e.g. twelfth, as well as the pronunciation of the numbers 1 to 10 being quite tricky. Then a "third" could mean 1/3 or 3rd... And we don't just add "s" in the plural, sometimes we add "es" e.g. watches or "ies" e.g. babies... It's only easy if you know it. Edited by Andrew C on 21 May 2012 at 2:05am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tanya b Senior Member United States Joined 4559 days ago 159 posts - 518 votes Speaks: Russian | Message 12 of 20 21 May 2012 at 2:52am | IP Logged | ||
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Numbers can be a major pain for a language learner, irrespective of math skills.
Do you want to put your language skills to the test? Watch, or listen, to a TV commercial or announcement in your target language, where they give a telephone number for a business or an organization. The announcer usually makes no effort to speak slowly or clearly, assuming that everyone watching is a native speaker. See if you can write down the telephone number without looking at the screen. If you can write down 10 different telephone numbers in row correctly, you are a titan in the world of language learning. This is the most difficult listening exercise I have come up with since I started watching Russian and Armenian TV. Yes, Russian numbers decline, in the following cases... Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive Prepositional Instrumental, often with irregular declensions... As if Russian wasn't difficult enough already. Edited by tanya b on 21 May 2012 at 2:54am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4446 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 13 of 20 21 May 2012 at 4:18am | IP Logged | ||
I try to do this as well. Part of my job involves dealing with a moving succession of boxes, each with several numbers on it. The numbers are pretty random, and I try to see if I can come up with the French for them before the next box goes by. It's good practice. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sandy Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5409 days ago 37 posts - 61 votes | Message 14 of 20 21 May 2012 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Just put the numbers from 1 to 1000 into anki and reverse the deck so that you have 1000 cards where you say the number and 1000 cards where you recognise the sound of the number. It is a lot of work at first but you will end up with a few cards each day and you will know the numbers without thinking about them.
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| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4420 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 15 of 20 22 May 2012 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | ||
I don't know how many weeks it will take me, but I've spent a couple of weeks lately getting my head around the Russian numbers, mostly trying to memorise the different declinations (I've done other things as well, obviously). I guess it will take me a long, long time before I master it well enough to apply it correctly in speech or writing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6937 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 16 of 20 23 May 2012 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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Numerals can be tricky but it varies wildly. On one end, Hungarian numerals are almost as easy as the English ones since they come in two sets: cardinal and ordinal, and don't usually decline.
Egy katona. "One soldier" Három katona. "Three soldiers" Száz katona. "A hundred soldiers" Háromszáz katona. "300 soldiers" Látsz háromszáz katonát? "Do you see 300 soldiers?" A minor point is that cardinal "2" comes in two forms, depending on whether it's used as an attribute or not. Két katona. "Two soldiers" Kettő meg kettő az négy "Two and two are four" Other languages' numerals have been trickier for me (e.g. Slavonic languages, Finnish) When I saw the thread's title, I couldn't help but think of this gag in Scandinavia and the World. 
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