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Best "course" to get started talking | ||
Tags: Speaking | Language Program | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| JiriT Triglot Groupie Czech Republic Joined 4596 days ago 60 posts - 95 votes  Speaks: Czech*, English, German | Message 9 of 17 12 September 2012 at 11:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
I am afraid one cannot learn to speak a language without really practicing it. You can learn to speak to a certain level from a textbook or a course. Here you can learn conversation phrases. I believe a textbook or course learning provides you with something you would not learn in other way. You can read a number of texts in the foreign language and listen to a lot of news broadcast etc. But here you will never or seldom hear some conversational phrases you hear in certain situation. These book and courses may be good and from these materials you can get some conversational skills. But without real conversation you will never cross certain level. You will speak like a person who learned speaking in this way and has never experienced real conversation (or in an insignificant amount). In an indirect way listening a lot and reading can also improve your speaking. But there is a level you can never cross without speaking in real situation with native speakers. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| JiriT Triglot Groupie Czech Republic Joined 4596 days ago 60 posts - 95 votes Speaks: Czech*, English, German | Message 10 of 17 12 September 2012 at 11:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The best way to learn a language is to live in a country where the language is spoken.
The problem is you can be in some situation required to know the language before. For instance, you want to work there and you will not get the jobs without a very good knowledge of the language. In such a situation it would be best to learn the language – most of the job can be done without a teacher. I thing at the exam your grammar knowledge will be tested and I really do not need a teacher for grammar drills. And to guess whether I can pass the exam after only self-teaching or whether I should take part in a conversational course (when I do not have native speakers willing to speak with me). It would be better to learn the conversation in the country where it is spoken. I would learn the language without a teacher and then I would attend a 3 months conversational course in my own country. And then I would take a conversational course in the country where the language is spoken. Again I would do this if I had to know the language before I can work there. More natural would be to learn the language solely by self-teaching. And then I would live in the country, where I would learn mainly by using the language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6396 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 11 of 17 13 September 2012 at 12:29am | IP Logged | |||||
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Majka Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic kofoholici.wordpress Joined 4456 days ago 307 posts - 755 votes Speaks: Czech*, German, English Studies: French Studies: Russian | Message 12 of 17 13 September 2012 at 12:53am | IP Logged | |||||
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The best what works for me, as a self-learner, is to learn the very basic phrases so that I could rattle them out in my sleep. These are such as you would use very often and it is a good idea to have them as "resting points" in conversations - where you don't have to think about it, where the words come naturally.
Next step is to go through different scenarios - simple conversations where I talk to myself. It is important to imagine the real situation. Here, I don't learn a sentence verbatim, but I make sure that I could cover the basics (for example buy a bread, order a meal in restaurant, order a beer in a pub, introduce myself, ask the way, ...). Again, I start with very basic sentences and with time I expand what I am able to say. There is a finite number of situations we need to master in the beginning and we should make our own list and not take one from a book. Next step is to train myself to adjust the spoken language to my current active level (usually, I can understand quite a lot. I can write much less and speak even less). The problem is that we are used to certain way of formulating in our native language or in our strong languages. A weak language needs adjusting - simple sentences, simple grammar, no frills. And then, I am learning how to trick the native speaker so that he/she talks more and I can listen. I learn how to bait them with questions, so that I have again time to rest myself slightly in middle of conversation. And I learn to derail the conversation, switch to another subject if necessary. These are the tricks I am using before I meet the first native speaker. When I really start conversation, I am fairly sure I won't freeze, I won't find myself completely speechless or in need to switch into one of my stronger languages. At the same time, I accept that I won't be able to discuss complicated or unfamiliar subject. For me, building such bag of tricks works better then looking for a ready-made course. And I am constantly checking and tweaking the level of my written and spoken language for each of my languages - nothing is worse than to add to my frustration because I try to talk in my A2 language the same way as in my native one. It simply cannot happen, I don't have the same big vocabulary and an equal good grammar sense. But I may be able to talk like a know-it-all six year old :) Edited by Majka on 13 September 2012 at 9:19am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6396 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 13 of 17 13 September 2012 at 1:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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Shekhtman's book teaches you tricks like this :))))
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5061 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 14 of 17 13 September 2012 at 2:14am | IP Logged | |||||
I agree with @hr henry. If you don't want to try a private tutor, then breaking in at an anonymous level with text chat could help give you the confidence you need to start speaking. If you don't think you are ready for that just yet, do try writing on lang8 on an easy topic- even just a paragraph to get you started. I have good days and bad days with the language- I think we all do. I don't let it keep me down for long. You know this stuff, Steve. I believe that. Yes, it is a good idea to get going with native materials. You can only do so much Assimil. Too much "studying" tends to make folks good at- studying. The Scheckman book How To Improve Your Foreign Language is a good idea- developing "islands" of topics you can rely on in conversation can go a long way toward building your confidence. Then you can build on that foundation. The main thing to know is that you will forget words, screw up syntax and grammar, mess up noun gender and adjectives and use the wrong tense on occasion. That's ok and normal. You're still learning. That's why I suggested a tutor. They've seen it all before and know and understand that learners are far from perfect. Whatever the case, know that we have all been there before and that you can and will get to where you want to be- as long as you don't give up. Edited by iguanamon on 13 September 2012 at 5:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5664 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 15 of 17 13 September 2012 at 10:25am | IP Logged | |||||
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Sharedtalk also has voice chat and finding partners to talk to on Skype can be a big help, too. I always felt uncomfortable speaking Spanish until i finally immersed myself in it.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5468 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 16 of 17 13 September 2012 at 11:16am | IP Logged | |||||
Here is a thread which discusses learning to speak a language, and also has a couple of posts by me on Shekhtman's book. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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