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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Mozzo Newbie United States Joined 3449 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 33 of 34 11 December 2014 at 6:07am | IP Logged |
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I find Internet learning more helpful than the initial "CD based" learning courses
available in the 1990s were. Online there are more material sources, more examples of what other students have done, many more variations of difficulty allowing for careful tuning of study material. Computers are VERY patient, and allow for self-testing again and again ... which would exasperate a human tutor (or be expensive to keep requesting grading.) The ability to edit audio and vary the pace and word separation in Audacity has been very helpful. I definitely had no tools like that available to me back in the 1980s when I was learning in a classroom environment and taking a book home. Edited by Mozzo on 11 December 2014 at 6:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4233 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes  Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 34 of 34 11 December 2014 at 7:53am | IP Logged |
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People do pick up languages the "old-fashioned" way but I think the social environment has to be present. You hear
the new commercial for Rosetta Stone and you know why you might find it useful. Besides having electronic tools, you are relying on a teacher as a guide because most people don't reside in the country that speaks the language they are learning. You can't rely on the students for social interactions because they are learning to speak the language at the level you are at. Besides going to class and relying on a teacher, how else would you pick up a language? By reading books, newspapers and magazines of course. Like what the Japanese used to do after the Second World War. They would learn English by reading a lot. Many can translate back and forth between Japanese & English flawlessly but unable to speak because they lack the social interactions. Fluency in a language involve reading as well as conversation. People tend to think about learning a new language using phrase books or materials that are geared to repeating words & phrases. There are other places where you can pick up words & phrases including interacting with somebody from another country through Skype. Most people don't think of watching a movie, videos or listening to the radio as learning but you can get all sorts of videos on DVDs as well as online. If I spend half a day watching a few episodes of a Chinese drama series from China, Taiwan or Singapore, I'm not "technically" in a language program but I do pick up half-dozen words & phrases. On the radio as well but a lot of the TV shows I am watching online both from China including a drama series on the law: 普法栏目剧 another show call: 一年级 (Grade 1) featuring parents, students and teachers sort of like a "reality" series on TV. Because of where I'm living, I can go to a video store that sells Chinese materials and possibly buy a series I might watch only once or watch the same shows online. When TV broadcast became available mainly after WWII, people pick up all sorts of things from the news, health shows, documentaries, etc. And in the 1980s VHS came along followed by DVDs. A lot of the same content is now online. Suppose I watch a TV series in Chinese call 城市一对一 (City 1 to 1) which is a show comparing 2 cities on TV in Beijing, or get the series on DVD or watch the same show online, is there a difference? The only difference is the method of delivery. It's the same show and the same content. I came back from a trip in HK recently and besides keeping up with the local news through the S. China Morning Post, I also get other Chinese editions of the newspapers online. Since I don't subscribe to any of these newspapers, I wouldn't have access to them because none of my friends subscribe to them. I do look up Chinese characters on a computer dictionary from time to time. If I have to rely on a traditional printed dictionary, I'd skip over many of the same words & phrases since it is too cumbersome to go to the Table of Content to match the radical and count the # strokes to locate the character. When I'm reading a Chinese news article online, I'd just Copy & Paste a character into a computer dictionary. What about people who mastered languages by traditional means? I know 2 brothers who studied several languages in school including Latin, French and German which is their mother-tongue because the father is Austrian. Although they both got top marks in school, they did not communicate with people in another language even at home. Both were later ordained as Catholic priests and headed to Europe where they picked up Spanish & Italian on top of their German, French & Latin. They use the languages they acquire regularly conducting Church services and meeting with Parishioners who speak different languages. If these 2 men were to stay in Canada, their chances of becoming fluent in these languages would be a lot less since the social environment isn't there. My grandfather lived in S. America for a while and picked up a few languages including Spanish, French, Dutch and a bit of Portuguese. Back in the 1920s many of the countries there were under European colonial rule with Spanish being the dominant language. Again there is a need for people to interact in more than 1 language. People don't just attend classes, read phrase books but they actual communicate with others in the languages they learn. What about foreign exchange? Many people have been spending their summer vacations in other countries where a different language is spoken. The social environment is there however, I do find problems with some people. They can be spending 3 months in a country and only managed to say a few greetings like "hello, how are you?" in a foreign language. They tend to rely on others who are more fluent to do shopping or read the restaurant menu on their behalf so going to another country would be like taking a vacation. There was an American movie from 1982 "Facts of Life Goes to Paris" and a cartoon movie "Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back)" both featuring Americans going to Paris. Not 1 of the students who were on foreign exchange in France learned to speak French even at a basic level. They were more interested in having fun and talked among themselves in English. Edited by shk00design on 11 December 2014 at 8:00am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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