Learning a foreign language (1 Viewer)

[nuke terrorist]

Hopefully some I'll be fluent in English.

one of my best posts ever. I have a life long habit of leaving words out of sentences. I didn't leave out 'day' deliberately but when I immediately noticed I had I thought ' this is perfect!' and left it.

 

[xsteox]

Any tips on getting motivated to continue on with a language? Been on Duo for well over a year now, but, last week or so, just not being trying or caring much for it.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

Are you just doing it for leisure or do you need it? I think you need something to draw you in if you're going to stick with it - face to face lessons where you have to talk and listen, plan a trip to somewhere you can use the language, start dipping into social media stuff, try and see what people are talking about, films, music

 

[xsteox]

I initially started it to learn Irish, as I never gelled with it in school. Few days later, and I'd stopped doing Irish and started German (first time) and French (not learnt that since 1st to 3rd year, so 90 to 93). It was more just to learn than a necessity. We were in Köln two weeks back, and it did help, but probably won't be abroad for some time to come.

 

[Bladez]

I think you have to do something that you naturally enjoy and doesn't feel like work. I find reading great. I usually start with simple books on the Kindle and use the integrated dictionary function to quickly look up words by just tapping on them. Having a paper book and having to look something up in a paper dictionary is no fun.

At first it's hard and progress is slow, but if you stick with it, it becomes less like language learning and more like normal reading. At the start I try to treat each sentence as a mini-puzzle, where I try to work out the meaning and the grammatical construction. I start with dedicated language learning novels where the vocabulary, tenses, grammar are restricted. After that I try crime novels. I find the sentences tend to be short and there's lots of dialog. With the Kindle I can try samples to get a feel for whether it's something suitable.

The other thing I find really helpful is podcasts in the language. At the beginning I understand very little, but it helps to get a feel for the language flow and where the word boundaries are. If you combine it with reading, you begin to pick out words that you have read and gradually understand more and more. Eventually you begin to roughly understand what they are saying, and can enjoy it as a regular podcast.

I think the key is just finding stuff you enjoy doing anyway and do it in the language.

 

[rettucs]

Any tips on getting motivated to continue on with a language? Been on Duo for well over a year now, but, last week or so, just not being trying or caring much for it.

I think Duo is great but it can be a bit of a chore. I dislike how they've gameified it, and there is no way to opt-out. Its also hard to get context sometimes on what you're doing in the lesson as there's no way to get an explanation. I've been on Duo for more than 5 years and during that time have done it alongside of classes. That was when I found it most useful.

Don't be afraid to take a break if you're interest is starting to wane. If you're bothered about your Duo streak, you can keep that up easily by just doing one of the broken tiles each day. That should take less than 3 minutes.

I recently re-registered for mylanguageexchange.com to start having conversations with Spanish speakers. Even if you feel your level is not up to the standard to start having conversations, you can offer to help others with their English, and get a little help from them, without having to actually try and speak the language, at least initially.

I guess just try to remember the reasons why you initially wanted to start learning,. Travelling to the place is always the best way to get motivated, or by tapping into some part of the culture of the place.

 

[Unicron]

Been doing Italian duolingo for a good while now but I've never really done much in terms of speaking it to people beyond ordering in restaurants we've gone to.

So I was surprised but how well I was able to get along with the Italian in Stanley Tucci's programme on BBC2 last night without subtitles.

 

[tommytrousers]

I have a 530 day streak and 100K XP on Italian duolingo myself. I have only had one restaurant order to my name and that went well! I can easily make myself understood but I can't converse as I presume the duolingo lexicon is very proper or not like how ordinary folks speak at all.

I speak Italian to the kids (much to their annoyance) and watch as much Italian TV as I can on the dodgy box- Italian masterchef is possible to follow but I think that's because it's formulaic.
Other TV is hard due to the regional dialects, speed of conversation and any shows with young people in them is nigh on impossible to follow as I presume they are speaking in slang/hip youngster idioms.