Language learning tactics that worked

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djm
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Formerly: djm

Re: Language learning tactics that worked

Post by djm » Thu Sep 30, 2021 7:18 pm

I hate to admit it, but the traditional English technique of being English so mostly people speak your language has worked well for me over the years.

I pick up spoken language reasonably well if I immerse myself but that only works when people don't help you by having decent English.

Duolingo I found good for learning arabic, but less so for Mandarin.

Spanish and French I can read OK but that doesn't help when I have to understand it spoken as it comes too fast for me to process.

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Madrigal
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Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2019 8:59 am

Re: Language learning tactics that worked

Post by Madrigal » Mon Oct 04, 2021 5:38 pm

I dreamed I was speaking Italian (with some difficulty) and telling people I would learn Portuguese now because I'm in Brazil. (?)
Noping the fuck out of living in Brazil, but I'm anxious to resume Portuguese maybe next year.

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Utisz
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Re: Language learning tactics that worked

Post by Utisz » Tue Oct 05, 2021 5:12 am

Ferrus wrote:
Sat Sep 18, 2021 10:35 am
Utisz wrote:
Sat Sep 18, 2021 7:50 am
But it's also depressing in a way, because there are so many syntaxes, that one person can only ever learn a fraction of those syntaxes, and the idea that the meaning does not translate well means that large portions of the world's population will never see eye to eye, or be able to "know" in the same way.
Actually I sort of came to the sane conclusion. Learning a language well, I mean really well, is so vast an effort that personally I feel learning just one other living* language is realistic. You need to immerse yourself in the culture and language (which intermix) - not to mention regional differences - and this to me seems a lifelong project. I've become skeptical of those who say they are polyglots in 15 languages or whatever. Maybe they can speak a textbook form of various languages, and once you have learnt universal grammatical concepts it is just a question of memorisation - but speaking idiomatically and naturally is a different question. It takes a certain amount of time for your neurons to get rewired so the grammatical concepts are natural. I saw this in seriousness, for me using foreign grammatical forms original felt unnatural, like forcing an EU plug into a UK plug socket. But with repetition the brain changes and the framework in which you slot words felt normal. In mean this is true for riding a bike, programming, cooking, kayaking, karate or whatever but is much more noticeable with languages.

* I saw living as I think you can include non-living languages as a separate skillset. Non-living languages are for reading old documents with a fixed vocabulary and usually more stylised idiom and grammatical form. Although again it is better to limit yourself to just obe of these.
Agreed yep, I think that what is considered to be a "native speaker" is basically some convention of the aggregate of how a kid processes the language, like to be a native speaker you need to either "fake it", or just "roll with it". I think that even immersing yourself in the culture is sort of hopeless, like there will always be some random toy or television ad that was collectively experienced and gives birth to some phrase that will randomly work its way into conversation. You cannot fake having lived in a culture since birth.

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