A continuation of the endless I/O talk (General discussion)

slucido — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 13:07:44 GMT

Hi tapark,

I agree. Grammar and specific listening exercises can be very useful, but we have a problem. A lot of people can not put up with grammar and listening drills. If those approaches are unavoidable, because without them students get fossilized, what do you recommend for those people?

What"s worse?

-Avoiding grammar or giving up your target language?

-Avoiding specific listening exercises or giving up your target language?

TAC 09 - Mandarin and French (Language Learning Log)

Sapphire — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 12:47:53 GMT

1.12.08 Monday - still Pre-TAC

Mandarin
I"m still collecting materials and didn"t get much done, unfortunately.
It seems that most western TV-series dont get dubbed in china; if I find something I"d love to watch in chinese, because I already know it (CSI, X-Files etc) there are only chinese subtitles but English audio! q.q So no English series for me...
Maybe I"m searching in the wrong categories...

I have y

TAC 2009 - Podnikavost (Language Learning Log)

TheElvenLord — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 12:32:35 GMT

Wow TEL, an interesting array of world languages. I myself have never heard of the Asset language exams. Then again I am still limited to GCSE choices in my college (after they recently got rid of Italian, and only let you study German if you"d done it at school). Cornish is quite an unusual language, I don"t know much about it, living wuite close to Cornwall myself, I may research it a little more.

Yes, quite... different... for someone my age!
Asset languages

TEL"s TAC 09 6 Language challenge (Language Learning Log)

TheElvenLord — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 12:20:23 GMT

I study on the way to school (Assimil Spanish) for 10 minutes.
I leave all my homework and coursework until the last minute in order to give me maximum language time. When I don"t have homework (which I do at school), I use it to study more (usually by reading a newspaper online in TL).
I also do Assimil Spanish at registration (10 minutes).
If I have coursework, I will do that at lunch times, but if I do not, and don"t have anything else more important, I will study anything I

TAC 2009 - Podnikavost (Language Learning Log)

Smurf36 — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 12:05:34 GMT

Thanks Rob for that note of wisdom. An interesting read and very informative.

Wow TEL, an interesting array of world languages. I myself have never heard of the Asset language exams. Then again I am still limited to GCSE choices in my college (after they recently got rid of Italian, and only let you study German if you"d done it at school). Cornish is quite an unusual language, I don"t know much about it, living wuite close to Cornwall myself, I may research it a little more.

Russian in Latvia (and Baltic States)? (Specific Languages)

misty — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 11:49:47 GMT

I am a 24 years old Latvian and I would definitely prefer speaking in English. I believe that most of the older generation and Russian speaking community wouldn"t mind using Russian for communication, but there are also many who might prefer English or German. The younger generation age 25 and less (mostly those who started school after the collapse of the Soviet Union - like me) speak very little Russian or don"t speak at all.

I have to say that different prejudices migh

Who is behind Japanese101pod, German101? (Language Programs, Books & Tapes)

Sprachprofi — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 11:38:10 GMT

Thanks for your comments, atamagai, even though they only confirm what I guessed from the start: that you are a very independent language learner with a method that won"t suit the less experienced, such as the average GermanPod101 user. Since meeting Volte, I have started to experiment with L-R myself and it seems to do something, though I still think that active language usage can best be learned - by using the language actively.

1. I"m sure you mean well, but there"s always

Russian through literature (Language Learning Log)

tricoteuse — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 11:19:07 GMT

I"ve finished Нос and today I read Живые мощи. Нос was very easy going and straightforward, but all that "and then the story is shrouded in mist" felt a bit cheap.

Turgenev, on the other hand! Now, this story felt very different from anything else that I"ve read in Russian. Very much more alive and present, instead of that impression of distance and always being told afterwards that I get from the other stories. Were my vocabulary only some 1000 words bigger

TAC09 Russian & Hungarian (#lal) (+Nor.) (Language Learning Log)

DaraghM — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 11:17:23 GMT

I was for a while, but I"ve temporarily stopped using the FSI course. I"m now using this time for my Russian. I hate learning off a screen as well, so I printed out whatever pages I needed to study. This meant I could fold them up, carry them in my pocket, and study at lunch, or while I was walking.DaraghM39783.4728703704

TAC09 Russian & Hungarian (#lal) (+Nor.) (Language Learning Log)

tricoteuse — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 11:08:18 GMT

I can"t wait to read how you tackle Hungarian Assimil. I"m ploughing through the course, albeit very slowly. It"s a good course, but you really need to check the dictionary at the back on some lessons. The FSI Hungarian course is also very good, and free.

Best of Luck!!!

Thanks! :)
I glanced at FSI some 6 months ago and was just scared away by some very long list of greetings... as well as the PDF issue (I hate to read on a screen). Do yo

Iversen’s Multiconfused Log (Language Learning Log)

Iversen — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 11:00:47 GMT

Die Leute, die mit ihren Grabmaschinen neulich das ganze Landschaft im Nähe meiner Mutter wie ein Schweizerkäse durchlöchert haben, glauben offensichtlich nicht, daß Kabel-Fernsehen tot sei. Ich auch nicht.

French or Russian? (General discussion)

chelovek — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 10:42:03 GMT

Seems like Russian is the favourite here. To clarify, I am not going to drop Italian, my level is nowhere near good enough, I will continue to study that language alongside another. So how long would Russian take to get to basic fluency?
G

Hmm...tough question. I"ve studied it pretty seriously for about 15 months. (I started a university course last year, about a month into it I started simultaneously studying using the Penguin course and Schaum"

All Arabic All The Time (Language Learning Log)

Gilgamesh — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 10:36:07 GMT

I decided to stop using that Living Languages Ultimate Arabic course. ProfArguelles lauded it, others did, as well; still, there are too many things about it that keep annoying me - for instance employing someone with a bloody speech impediment to record dialogues (or is this just me?).

I"m now going with the "Lehrbuch des Arabischen" by Langenscheidt. I decided that the way for me to go is with the more stern, academic, etc. manuals instead of attractive, glossy-like look-good-in-

New Assimil Italian (Language Programs, Books & Tapes)

TheBiscuit — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 10:27:21 GMT

Thanks for the reply

I should have mentioned that I completed all the Michel Thomas Italian courses prior to completing Assimil.

If I can"t see the Italian words written, I can"t seem to remember them very well. This is causing me great vexation. If I had anyone with whom to communicate with, I think it"d be ok, but unfortunately I don"t have that luxury.

Thanks for your input

Sounds like you"re at saturation point

Arguelles" spreadsheet (General discussion)

jeff_lindqvist — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 10:24:15 GMT

6 minutes as an average, but 44 hours in total (the top language, in fact) and 227 hours for all the languages. In an old thread I think he said that you didn"t have to shadow all languages each day, and that it was more beneficial in the beginning of the studies to get accustomed to the sounds and learn how to produce them yourself (and not get confused by the script).

German thread - again (Multilingual Lounge)

JW — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 10:14:08 GMT

JW,

Wo kaufst du alle die Filme, die du guckst? Es scheint, dass du ganz viele gesehen hast. Via Belgacom können wir Filme kaufen und sehen, aber das sind meistens nur die große Amerikanische und Französische Filme, und sowieso leider synchronisiert. http://www.netflix.com/ und auch http://www.ifc.com/

Ich weiß nicht ob diese in Europa

Music & Languages (General discussion)

Alkeides — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 10:14:07 GMT

Has anyone recommendations for Mandarin Rockmusic?

Unfortunately, the Mandarin music industry is saturated with boy and girlbands producing bubblegum pop. I haven"t listened to Mandarin music for a long time but I think the following are rock musicians: Wu Bai, 五月天(mayday), F.I.R, 信乐团

I don"t know how subjectively good any of those are, YouTube or baidu.com are your best sources for finding samples.

Learning a Language through Music? (General discussion)

TheBiscuit — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 10:12:47 GMT

Here"s a method I use, and have had a lot of success with. It will probably seem very tedious to anyone else but me but here goes:

-Find a song in your target language that you really like.
-Listen to it repeatedly, kind of mouthing along with the words, even if you don"t understand anything or feel silly.
-Resist looking at the lyrics, just keep listening WITHOUT straining to understand or getting frustrated. You"ll gradually understand more and more, ESPECIALLY when yo

Porozmawiajmy po polsku :) (Multilingual Lounge)

Chung — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 10:06:18 GMT

Dziękuję wszystkim za miłe słowa. Nie dziwię się temu, że brzmię jak cudzoziemcem. :-P

Co prawda myślałem o zrobieniu takiego egzaminu językowego, ale czuję się, że muszę się jeszcze do niego przygotować.

Pozdrawiam

Hey, so... Croatian? (Beginner forum)

Chung — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 10:03:59 GMT

I"ve been reading that Croatian is easy to learn if you know Russian, does it work the other way around too? Does knowing a south slavic language make learning Russian a bit easier? Has anyone here been to Croatia?

Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS) is indeed easier to learn if you already know another Slavonic language. The relationship works in the other direction as well to a good degree as there"s a substantial degree of overlap be

Hey, so... Croatian? (Beginner forum)

SamD — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 09:59:36 GMT

Knowing Croatian will probably help you more with spoken Russian than written Russian because Russian uses the Cryillic alphabet. However, the Cyrillic alphabet is not as much of an obstacle for English-speakers as many people fear.

I was in Croatia years ago when it was part of Yugoslavia. I was able to get around with English, German and Italian, but I learned a few words for the purpose of my visit and Croatians seemed pleased that a US visitor would take time to lear

Ken Hale (Polyglots)

jackcleveland — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 09:59:17 GMT

Iversen,

Thank you very much. I thought as much. I have read the previous thread, but I appreciate your re-referencing of it.

By the way, thanks for all of your posts on this site. I don"t post often unless I have something to ask or something to say. Your posts have been in the top 2-3 for me. Because of the wealth of information from you and others at this site, I was able to go from zero to very reasonable levels of Spanish in about 6-7 months of work. I hate t

German thread - again (Multilingual Lounge)

Jar-ptitsa — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 09:55:13 GMT

All Arabic All The Time (Language Learning Log)

Gilgamesh — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 09:49:01 GMT

I have been quite ill the past 4-5 days, I have thus been unable to do anything. Even now, I"m thinking of getting to bed again and sleeping off the disease; I guess my health is worse than I thought.

I hope that you will feel better soon

Th

"Oui" and "ouais" in French (Specific Languages)

Jar-ptitsa — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 09:48:48 GMT

I"m native speaker of Belgian French. I think that I don"t use a glottal stop at the beginning of "oui", because this sound isn"t a vowel but it"s "w" . At the beginning of a word which has a vowel sound (not only spelled) and is the first word (it"s not after a word and would be connected) I think that I use little bit for example "un" but I"m not certain.

Language forum on How-to-learn-any-language.com

A continuation of the endless I/O talk (General discussion)

TAC 09 - Mandarin and French (Language Learning Log)

TAC 2009 - Podnikavost (Language Learning Log)

TEL"s TAC 09 6 Language challenge (Language Learning Log)

TAC 2009 - Podnikavost (Language Learning Log)

Russian in Latvia (and Baltic States)? (Specific Languages)

Who is behind Japanese101pod, German101? (Language Programs, Books & Tapes)

Russian through literature (Language Learning Log)

TAC09 Russian & Hungarian (#lal) (+Nor.) (Language Learning Log)

TAC09 Russian & Hungarian (#lal) (+Nor.) (Language Learning Log)

Iversen’s Multiconfused Log (Language Learning Log)

French or Russian? (General discussion)

All Arabic All The Time (Language Learning Log)

New Assimil Italian (Language Programs, Books & Tapes)

Arguelles" spreadsheet (General discussion)

German thread - again (Multilingual Lounge)

Music & Languages (General discussion)

Learning a Language through Music? (General discussion)

Porozmawiajmy po polsku :) (Multilingual Lounge)

Hey, so... Croatian? (Beginner forum)

Hey, so... Croatian? (Beginner forum)

Ken Hale (Polyglots)

German thread - again (Multilingual Lounge)

All Arabic All The Time (Language Learning Log)

"Oui" and "ouais" in French (Specific Languages)