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Using non-native languages... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| deadscreen Diglot Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4184 days ago 25 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 1 of 20 07 December 2012 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is a question for tri- and higher polyglots. After reaching a certain level of proficiency or even mastery of a second or third language, have you ever gone on to study a new language using study and teaching materials in your non-native language? How would you say this course of action affected your understanding of the new language? Did you learn new things about your already-mastered language that you might not have otherwise learned? And finally, do you think there are some languages that are best taught in a specific language?
This question came to me when I started looking into using the Assimil programs. My native language is English, and I am proficient with Spanish. The language I'm currently studying is French, and I hope to move in to Arabic after that. I checked Assimil to see if they offered an Arabic course, but all they had was l'Arabe (studying Arabic in French, not English). Though it's possible they also offer something in Spanish, that would still not be my native language. So I wondered. Polyglots, what is it like to learn a new language using something that is not your native tongue? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4332 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes  Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 2 of 20 07 December 2012 at 6:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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I studied Gothic using English materials and some of my Old Norse materials were in Norwegian (especially the stuff about Old Norwegian dialects). Wasn't better or worse than using my native language. Well, maybe the Old Norse - Norwegian dictionary made the relation between the languages clearer and therefore helped me to retain words better.
I'm currently going over Teach Yourself Finnish and it shows me that I lack vocabulary knowledge in some areas of English like the names of fish. But then, I don't know a lot about fish names in my native language either. Generally though, when I don't know the English translation, that just means that I probably won't ever need to use the word anyway. So it might even improve my learning process, because it helps me to set priorities in what I learn (even textbooks for beginners sometimes use low frequency words because of the lesson topic). If I use translations into my native language, everything seems important. Edited by daegga on 07 December 2012 at 6:41pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4450 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 3 of 20 07 December 2012 at 6:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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As a Norwegian, I have no choice but using non-native languages to learn a language apart from English, German, French and maybe a few others like Spanish or Italian. I once studied Romanian using French learning materials, I now study Russian using English and French, and I am using the German Langenscheidt course to study Greek.
I don't think this has affected my learning in any way. Sometimes I come over words in German or French that I do not fully understand, so it might require turning to a dictionary from time to time. Anyway, it all depends on your level in the languages you use to learn other languages. For example, my Italian is not as strong as my English or French, so it would probably be a bit more difficult to use an Italian-based course. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4518 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 4 of 20 07 December 2012 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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I use French at times. I will miss an extra word here and there, but it's usually obscure
vocabulary - like I didn't know what an oak was in French. No big deal, I don't usually climb oak trees for fun. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4655 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 5 of 20 07 December 2012 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I learned Icelandic through English (Colloquial Icelandic) and now I'm learning Russian with Colloquial Russian. There are no problems at all. The only problem I encountered in Colloquial Icelandic was the word "puffin" which I had to look up on Wikipedia. Some Russian verbs of motion were not absolutely clear to me when I saw their English translation, so I had to look them up in my Russian-German dictionary, but that's it.
The only "problem" is that most grammar explanations for native English speakers are redundant for Germans, because we already know cases, personal endings, emphatic particles, impersonal constructions, subjunctives, and the like from our own language. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5343 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 20 07 December 2012 at 10:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Earlier this fall, I spent 30 days studying Assimil L'Égyptien hiéroglyphique just for the fun of it. You can find the story starting on page 17 of my log, though most of it is in French. This was shortly after I passed my B2 exam, so you could say that I was awkwardly fluent. :-)
It was a total blast. I barely noticed that the course was in French, except that I had to learn a bunch of new French vocabulary to discuss ancient Egypt. Of course, now I'm in the weird position of knowing that the two major kinds of palm trees in Egypt are bnrt and mAmA, and that the French call these palmier dattier and palmier doum, respectively. But I don't know what either of these trees are called in English. It's actually kind of fun to have subjects that I can discuss more easily in French than in English. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6408 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 7 of 20 07 December 2012 at 11:04pm | IP Logged | ||
If you are willing to use textbooks, the best ones are based on related languages. Even for unrelated languages, French-based Assimil might be better though. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that this makes your L2 feel familiar by comparison. But nevertheless, the links between the equivalents can't ever be as strong as in your L1-L2, so it's much easier to think in the language and to understand things directly without translating them. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5577 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 8 of 20 08 December 2012 at 12:12am | IP Logged | ||
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My Korean study is done mostly using English, but also some Japanese. Japanese explanations aren't that great, but that way it's much easier to find parallels in certain grammar points those two languages have and spot vocabulary of Chinese origin - and then figure out how those differ in nuance and usage. Otherwise I just go with what's available. (And yes I only count myself as bilingual, but my level in several languages is high enough to use them as base language for studying other languages or non-language related topics.) Edited by Bao on 08 December 2012 at 1:40pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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