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How would you learn WITHOUT internet? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5189 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 1 of 12 13 October 2013 at 11:33pm | IP Logged |
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It's safe to say that the internet revolutionized language learning. It has democratized
language learning with the ample amount of resources available for free for learning and immersion. But how would you learn without it? This isn't a totally hypothetical situation - I'm tutoring a refugee in English who doesn't have internet access or TV. Her family does have a laptop which they use to watch DVDs so I could use that to bring some of what the internet has to offer to her. But there have to be other options for her to study during the week. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6707 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 12 13 October 2013 at 11:59pm | IP Logged |
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There are plenty of ways to learn a language. See this thread:
What to do AFK? (away from keyboard) Don't forget that the internet hasn't been around for that long, and that people have learned languages long before that. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5330 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 12 14 October 2013 at 12:24am | IP Logged |
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For me, it would depend a lot on circumstances.
If I lived in a country where the language was spoken I would visit the local public library, if one existed. With any luck, that would supply me with thousands of books and maybe even some DVDs. With any luck, I might even find a beginner language course for immigrants, or a public Internet terminal. Libraries are truly one of the wonders of the world. Seriously, I have a relatively large budget for native media compared to most folks, and my entire collection isn't one shelf in our itty-bitty town library. It's easy for adults with some money to forget just how awesome libraries are. I would also try to talk with people as much as possible, and to think of myself as a member of my new society. Immersion seems to work for me. If nobody around me spoke the language If I couldn't have Internet access, and there was no source of interesting target language books, I'd give up. Specifically, I would focus my efforts on improving my standard of living, because why would I spend my time studying a language nobody around me speaks, when I can't even afford a junker TV? I know some people totally would study the language, and that's cool, but I need access to people or books or DVDs or something, because otherwise I don't see the point. (BTW, if you're within driving distance of New England, I have a 19" cathode ray tube TV that you're welcome to pick up.) Edited by emk on 14 October 2013 at 3:22am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| nicozerpa Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 4124 days ago 182 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Portuguese, English Studies: Italian, German | Message 4 of 12 14 October 2013 at 2:59am | IP Logged |
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As I'm using a book to learn German (Assimil), I don't need Internet for that. Ironically, the first thing I do
when I'm at home and the Internet connection dies (not that uncommon here, unfortunately) is start a new lesson of that book. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5189 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 5 of 12 14 October 2013 at 3:11am | IP Logged |
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I'm not sure if she's been to the local library before - I may plan on making a field trip. The main electronic
equipment that's really necessary is something to play audio which fortunately is cheap. (Thanks for the offer though we're on the other side. My mom got a new flat screen so she has a giant cathode to get rid of but it's too big and heavy. They also said they don't have the digital signal hookups). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5330 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 12 14 October 2013 at 3:48am | IP Logged |
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For whatever it might be worth, I've heard that the Sweet Valley High series is often quite popular among adult women learning English. The Sweet Valley Kids and Sweet Valley Twins series are aimed at younger readers, so you essentially get a series of graded readers aimed at kids as young as five years old. And it's in most libraries.
The kid's section and young adult shelves can be a gold mine. If the library has DVDs (many do these days), you don't need a TV with digital input. All you need is an analog set and a DVD player with RCA out. A used TV is probably free, and a DVD player runs $30 new. Also, a used Android phone could be useful in a lot of ways. These phones can often be had for the asking after people upgrade, and you can skip the data plan and just use public wifi hotspots. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4032 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek | Message 7 of 12 14 October 2013 at 12:09pm | IP Logged |
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Here in Russia? I wouldn't learn anything at all.
The biggest improvement in my English started when I got to unlimited internet for nighttime, discovered YouTube and torrents. YouTube gave me artists, torrents gave songs, then I got used to actually try to understand what they're singing about. I remember one night when I stayed up, reading lyrics of Breaking Benjamin's songs - yeah, here all that began. I know that it seems weird for those who started language learning long ago, but that has really happened to me. I even remember when I first heard Breaking Benjamin, where the chain reaction began link Sometime after I wasn't able to listen to song without knowing what it is about, then I found that not every song is actually translated into Russian, and so on. I had no real use of English before I've got internet. Now I'm unable to stop this, all my materials are strictly computer-based, and without the internet I would've lost the very control of what I'm doing. Of course, I will fight to some point, but eventually I will give up. No use of other languages here, lack of motivation and, of course, total loneliness - surely these things aren't going help me much. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 3942 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 8 of 12 14 October 2013 at 12:28pm | IP Logged |
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I second the library suggestion. The library is an amazing place. Unlimited information - for free! She can access
the internet there as well. Honestly, while I think that internet is very important when you're learning a language that you're not immersed in, I think that it's a lot less important when you're in an immersion situation. I think that a non-English speaker living in an English-speaking part of the United States can definitely learn without the internet. Things to look for at the library: - books that she can read. This probably means starting with kids' books. But there are tons of books available on every subject, both non-fiction and fiction. (Love the Sweet Valley suggestion!) - DVDs that she can watch on her laptop at home - CDs for music - free ESL tutoring (many libraries offer programs - maybe your friend would benefit from two sessions per week, one with you and one with a library volunteer) - English conversation groups for non-native speakers (depends on where you live - if you're in a city, there's almost certainly something like this available) - one-on-one computer instruction, if she doesn't know how to use the internet Of course, she can also use the computer at the library. But I'm not sure what you'd suggest that she do - I think that living in an immersion situation makes the computer a lot less important. I think that the most important factor here will be her motivation level. You might also want to turn some of your tutoring sessions into "field trips". Do some role-playing together, and then go to the bank/store/etc when she's ready to test out what she's learned in person. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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