How do you learn a language?

[aCol]

I want to learn slowenian, then russian. I have no idea how to accomplish. I guess friends won't turn out to well, have nobody speaking these languages. So, how do you learn them?

[gore goroth]

I failed German class because learning a language is boring and frustrating and I can't be assed to do it.

[isebell.]

I just memorize the words with flash cards. I just go from vocab list to vocab list while occasionaly reveiwing old words. Its realy isnt that hard at all. I think its fun actually. You could also read books and watch tv in that language after you know the basic vocab. You should definetly go for it.

[SaintVicious]

Schools teach it wrong they teach words first then congregation instead of the other way around Learn how they do their version of ER ing singular a plural words ETC then learn words or pirate rosetta stone

[iloveyouall]

(12-28-2011 03:13 PM)Comrade Wrote:  Schools teach it wrong they teach words first then congregation instead of the other way around Learn how they do their version of ER ing singular a plural words ETC then learn words or pirate rosetta stone

Absolutely not. Rosetta Stone is one big piece of fuckery. It is memorization of worthless phrases and teaches little.

[Efs]

Yeah I pirated rosetta stone, it's pretty shit, just memorizing random words.
First thing I do when I learn a new language is learn the ALPHABET first. Then proceed to basic words like Mum, Hello, Thank You etc. And learn by writing them using your knowledge of the sound/pronunciation and writing the letter.
Then just move on to harder words and learn the language rules.

[aCol]

(12-28-2011 12:19 PM)gore goroth Wrote:  I failed German class because learning a language is boring and frustrating and I can't be assed to do it.

You know, we could just conversate over skype. Talking a language is the best way of learning it. And I speak perfect german, since its my mother tounge.

[Faby]

I get really self-conscious when I speak with natives of any other language than English and Romanian in their own language. [please ignore the trainwreck that is the previous sentence]

My knowledge of German is... functional at this point in time, but whenever I try to write in German for German readers, I get self-conscious like whoa.

>.>

[Prince Rilian]

Since I don't really have anyone to speak russian or romanian with, I learn those languages with books. Books from the 60's are good, because they give you little one-page stories to read, with a translation on the next page, and then there's grammar explanations. The Teach Yourself Language series is also good and they come with CD's so you can hear what all the sentences and stuff sound like. I think you should do it on your own like that and then try to find a club or something of people who want to get together and practice speaking the language. They're often called "tables". Spanish Table is a club where people speak spanish to practice.

[Prince Rilian]

I took two semesters of french, and then after that I got a french book called Deux Mondes, and I started with the last chapter and did the grammar exercises (translations, conjugations, fill-in-the-blank) and I went backwards through the book (only doing the grammar pages because the rest of the book is shit). It was way more interesting that way.

[aCol]

I guess I'm just going to learn the alphabet and look up every single word. You don't neccesarily need to do grammar exercises, didn't do them when I learned english, won't do them again.

[Prince Rilian]

I like doing the grammar stuff. I like learning in a systematic way. Obviously I didn't learn my first language that way, but I've always been interested in the grammar of it, ever since I was like 5 years old.

If you want to be able to communicate right away, just looking up essential words is probably better, though you do need to know *something* of the sentence structure.

[aCol]

Yeah, but reading books will help. Gotta go to slowenia some day again, so I can buy some.

[Prince Rilian]

Um, yeah. Reading regular books helps with learning vocabulary.

[aCol]

Then I think this will be the way to accomplish it best for me. I'll start as soon as school stops taking up my time. Oh the irony - school is acutally hindering me to learn something "important". [Or I'll just learn it in school...]

[Prince Rilian]

Yeah, that's all school does. Take up time that could be useful.

[bulgvar]

Write, Write, Write. I was awfully bad at English until fourth grade and now I can speak it in a proper way with very few mistakes. (or at least I think so)

[Efs]

Or you can do what I do.
Get someone that you share a common language with and knowns another language.
For example. Person 1 knows English and Russian. Person 2 knows English and Spanish. So they communicate in English, and Person 1 teaches Person 2 Russian, and Person 2 teaches Person 1 Spanish. And they can communicate in English to make things easier to understand.

[bulgvar]

That sounds harder. Just take notes and try to remember the words. You'll learn to form sentences in no time.

[Efs]

(01-03-2012 10:53 PM)bulgvar Wrote:  That sounds harder. Just take notes and try to remember the words. You'll learn to form sentences in no time.

It's actually much easier. I'm learning Aromanian from a girl and I'm going to be teaching her Greek.

[bulgvar]

Yeah, but that doesn't work if you don't have any foreign friends who wish to help you.

[Efs]

(01-03-2012 10:57 PM)bulgvar Wrote:  Yeah, but that doesn't work if you don't have any foreign friends who wish to help you.

Oh of course. I met this girl online, and we just started talking and then all of a sudden she started the idea that we should teach each other our languages. She's from FYROM and I'm from Australia, so we just do it through Facebook.
If you're lucky to find someone, then it works, otherwise just learn online by reading, writing and talking out loud as well as learning the alphabet and language rules.

[bulgvar]

Umm... FYROM = somewhat Bulgaria. Their language is a dialect of Bulgarian. But anyway, the hardest thing in English is learning to talk with their "English" dialect. I am still practicing this but I am far from succesful.

[Efs]

(01-03-2012 11:04 PM)bulgvar Wrote:  Umm... FYROM = somewhat Bulgaria. Their language is a dialect of Bulgarian. But anyway, the hardest thing in English is learning to talk with their "English" dialect. I am still practicing this but I am far from succesful.

Oh God, the Macedonia dispute has to be the most argued dispute in all of history lol
Yes, it's pretty much Bulgarian. But they call it Macedonian, I disagree though. Since Macedonians were Greek, not Slavic. But eh.

[bulgvar]

Yeah. I do have some opnions on this matter, but that is strongly offtopic, so let's forget this.

Another thing about foreign languages is, that if you don't practice, you fail. My sister spoke perfect German but now she doesn't know a word, since she never practiced it after school.

[Efs]

You may discuss your opinions on the matter in this thread:
http://forums.school-survival.net/showth...?tid=23450

Not only do you have to practise, you have to speak the language otherwise everything you've learned goes out the window.

[Prince Rilian]

Reading, writing, listening, and speaking are all learned differently and at different speeds. If you don't have anyone to practice with, you can just focus on reading and writing. You should still try to learn the pronunciation and practice saying everything out loud, and it's good if you can listen to examples of the language, but it's not like it's completely hopeless just because you don't have another person to practice with. Speaking and listening always lag behind reading and writing anyway, even if you take, like, a class.

[ModestMusic]

Taking a class has seemed to be the best method for me, although everyone is different. I like that someone could give me instant feedback on my pronunciation, although I suppose the same would be true with a tutor. I've learned a fair bit of Spanish from http://www.livemocha.com/ , but I do not care for it because one must memorize quite a bit of terminology before anything besides basic grammar is employed.

[Lil'Orange]

I buy a book and a dictionary and learn by myself.

[RammsteinFearFactory]

(01-06-2012 02:45 AM)LilOrange Wrote:  I buy a book and a dictionary and learn by myself.

My mother suggests I use a dictionary to learn German, thing is though don't they only teach you the words, not the grammar? From a dictionary one would think "Ich wie du" would be correct instead of "Ich mag dich" from the German dictionaries I've seen because it doesn't explain what words to use in what context, but there again I've mostly only seen a mini travel dictionary thing and an app on my phone.