Tips on learning (spoken) languages

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I like learning languages, but since learning English (which of course I can improve) I didn’t know which one I want to learn first. I’m going back and forth between French, German, and Italian. At the moment I’m going with German, but who knows I might change my mind.

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Which has been the easiest to learn Anton? I keep wanting to learn another language too - thinking of Spanish… as I’ve thought about living in Spain for a while :lol:

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I think Spanish is easy. I’ve tried it just a bit. For me it’s easy because it is close to Russian in the sense, that I can quickly learn to read in Spanish. Russian could be described as What You See is How You Read It, and Spanish too. And for me reading is such a huge component. If I can read quickly and comprehend what I’m reading then it means I’m half way to true fluency.

By the way, there used do be a very cool resource for Spanish called SpanishPod.com. Unfortunately the company behind it is no longer working, so one must look in other places to find those podcasts. They are so much fun and have different levels. Very beginner friendly.

I still remember one dialogue I listened to:
Ya estas lista?
Tranquila, todavia tenemos tiempo.
Menos mal.

(Don’t mind the mistakes : ) )

I also believe listening is the key.

You might want to watch this video about language acquisition. It’s a gem.

How to acquire any language NOT learn it.

  • some Spanish music I listen to from time to time.
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Just remembered about a very interesting Spanish youtube channel. Which is also a gem.

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Any resource for learning German?

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Thanks Anton, I’ve bookmarked your post :003:

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So generally speaking YouTube has so many resources and even more than I listed here. I also forgot about GermanPod101 on youtube which has a lot of vocabulary videos. They provide examples as well as translations.

I also use Anki (Spaced Repetition System open source freeware) and make my own cards. I recommend you do the same. They have a free app for android, but a paid app for iOS. You can keep your cards synchronized.

I of course could write a lot more, but gosh it will time consuming. But, frankly, those resources are already too much to handle. Meaning, you gotta pick something and stick to it.

The general strategy, I use:

  • Focus on listening and comprehension
  • Anki (commit to long term memory)
  • Reading
  • Little goes a long way.
  • Often is better than cramming.
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I’ve found learning new languages really difficult - how do you choose what words and terms do you focus on?

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I use a multitude of approaches. It’s better if I illustrate it with an example that you can personally start implementing right away.

One of the most effective and immediate steps you can do in order to decide what words to learn is to look at your own speech (both vocal and in writing):

In concrete steps:

  1. Look at the last three messages on this forum.

  2. Translate them fully. Here, again, you can do a number of things:

  • Simply throw those sentence into google translator.

  • Pick words one by one.

  • When you pick a word add an association to it. Sort of play with it.

  • Let’s pick the word chair.

  • Chair is a noun. Nouns usually go with adjectives. (actually it’s the opposite: adjectives go with nouns)

  • Beautiful chair, small, broken, etc.

  • Then try to put this into context.

  • I bought a small chair.

  • I broke a chair.

  • Then you can complicate the sentence.

  • I bought a chair because I broke my old one.

  • I broke a chair because I was rocking on it.

  • I broke a chair when I was drinking coffee. When that happened I spilled coffee on myself.

  • Let’s pick a verb ‘buy’

  • What are the last 10 items I bought?

  • Why did I buy them?

  • Which item was hard to buy?

  • What did I buy that I use everyday now?

  1. By this time you have created some sentences or maybe even a little story. Now you need to translate it and post it on langcorrect.com.

  2. So, after step 3 you have a correct version of your sentence(s)/story. It’s time to use another modality. Your ears. Post that sentence(s)/story on rhinospike.com or buy a voice over on fiverr, or ask a native to narrate in a language exchange app.

  3. Listen to that sentence/story until you:

  • hear every word

  • understand every word

  • can play with every word

  • can repeat every word you hear

Instead of picking your last messages you write down the thoughts that appear in your head often. That way you, going through the steps above you will learn how to think in that language.

Some caveats:

  • Go in small steps. If the messages you picked are big break them or shorten them. Don’t complicate stuff especially in the beginning.

  • Learn like a child. Don’t sweat it. Just go at it. Just like with programming. Just hack at the compiler until you get it right. Make mistakes and be bold enough to experiment.

  • Bear in mind, that little goes a long way. Meaning, it’s important to build momentum. It’s important to build a habit of doing that consistently.

  • Translation is not bad, but you shouldn’t rely on it. Why? Because it messes up language acquisition process. You should learn to think in the language, not translate first and then think. But then again, don’t sweat it. It’s an inevitable process. If you take the 5th step seriously where you listen to your own story and you are able to repeat after the narrator that means you can tell that story yourself in your own head or even out loud. That means success.

  • It’s good to do the listing practice first thing in the morning and before going to sleep.

  • When listening to the story/sentences in the 5th step listen to it on repeat for many times until things become automatic. That way you will surprise yourself after a two weeks practice when you suddenly start thinking in your target language about the things you’ve listened to.

Another approach in choosing words.

  1. is to start to read, better if it’s not something hard

  2. just pick the words that you read

  3. make some anki cards

  4. continue reading

  5. don’t mind the thoughts that might come up like “is this the most effective strategy?”

  • It’s effective if your goal is just to read.

  • The key in the difficulty of the text. If it’s too hard then it’s not effective, if it’s too then it’s also not effective.

  • And the text should be interesting as well.

  • So, the challenge is finding the materials that both suits your level and peaks your interest.

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Moved to a dedicated thread :003:

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Thank you very much for the detailed answer - I’ll be printing it out and test it!

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