Your Language Learning Strategy...In 50 Words or so

General discussion about learning languages
User avatar
zenmonkey
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2528
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 7:21 pm
Location: California, Germany and France
Languages: Spanish, English, French trilingual - German (B2/C1) on/off study: Persian, Hebrew, Tibetan, Setswana.
Some knowledge of Italian, Portuguese, Ladino, Yiddish ...
Want to tackle Tzotzil, Nahuatl
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=859
x 7030
Contact:

Re: Your Language Learning Strategy...In 50 Words or so

Postby zenmonkey » Sun Mar 19, 2017 10:07 pm

My own strategy seems to be: move there. Bang head until it enters.

Strategy:
1) think a lot about learning methods
2) learn to enjoy the head banging stuff
3) find small epiphanies and victories that are truly enjoyable
4) play with methods, tech, tools
5) drop everything for short whiles
6) play with words: songs, poetics and the beauty of expression of literature
7) accumulate the love of expression
8) share language learning in a small private circle
9) travel
10) forget
11) rinse and repeat

My method:
HAVE FUN. <--- can't underline that enough.
1) focus on pronoun (a) verbs (b) object constructs (c) that are visually relevant
2) get talking baby talk
2.5) work on reading about grammar but not overly so
3) conjunctions of all sorts
3) worry less about writing for a while
3.5) vocabulary building moments where I stuff word lists, anki and cards down my throat
4) simple reading, lots
4) abstract verbs and nouns
4) then worry more about talking, more talking
5) finally work on writing (maybe)
5 x
I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar

User avatar
Kamlari
Orange Belt
Posts: 224
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2015 7:36 pm
x 239

Re: Your Language Learning Strategy...In 50 Words or so

Postby Kamlari » Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:27 am

I get down to it and do it. No matter what.
And then, after a while, I know some of it.
And then more and more of it. Exempli gratia, I can read a book, listen to a radio play, or watch a movie.
Once I've read all the books I originally wanted, I mercilessly abandon it.

And then, if I feel like it, I let another little something choose me. And let it grow in me, no matter what.
4 x
Frei lebt, wer sterben kann.

J'aime les nuages... les nuages qui passent...
雲は天才である

1. There’s only one rule to rule them all:
There are no Rule(r)s.
2. LISTEN L2, read L1. (Long texts)
3. Pronunciation.
4. Delayed recitation.

User avatar
solocricket
Orange Belt
Posts: 157
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2015 4:21 pm
Location: USA
Languages: My good languages: English (N), French (C1), Spanish (B2), Italian (reading knowledge)
Languishing Languages: Dutch (~B1), Icelandic (delapidated passive intermediate skills), Yiddish (basic passive), Japanese (smattering of reading knowledge, lots of vocab, maybe I'll get back to it someday)
Studying: Polish (A1)
Wish List: Chinese, Urdu, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew... yep
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=5502
x 265
Contact:

Re: Your Language Learning Strategy...In 50 Words or so

Postby solocricket » Tue Mar 21, 2017 3:28 am

I mostly use massive native exposure and immersion inspired by the blog, All Japanese All The Time. Because I like lots of languages, I cycle through them throughout the day or sometimes I take a break from one or more especially if it's at a high level. I also use/collect textbooks just because I love them, but I don't often stick with them unless I'm adding sentences to Anki.
6 x

Thunter
Yellow Belt
Posts: 80
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2015 6:21 pm
Languages: -
x 70

Re: Your Language Learning Strategy...In 50 Words or so

Postby Thunter » Tue Mar 21, 2017 7:57 am

Studying
1. I work through an Assimil course not ignoring the ebbinghaus curve.
2. Then I work through another workbook (if necessary). I do this at least 3 times.
3. After having a good basis I jump into the cold water and regularly practise my new language.

Repeating
1. I rehear the Assimil lessons 4-5 times a year in gym and look the forgotten words up.
(I part the course into two lists (even and odds) and rehear them randomly for I prefer a good mix of easy and difficult lessons).
2. Secondly I reread a grammar summary 4-5 times a year.
3. Furthermore I repeat a vocabulary list in my new language if it seems necessary to me.

Last but not least
I avoid using to many sources at the same time but focus on a few well chosen.
6 x

User avatar
leosmith
Brown Belt
Posts: 1341
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2016 10:06 pm
Location: Seattle
Languages: English (N)
Spanish (adv)
French (int)
German (int)
Japanese (int)
Korean (int)
Mandarin (int)
Portuguese (int)
Russian (int)
Swahili (int)
Tagalog (int)
Thai (int)
x 3098
Contact:

Re: Your Language Learning Strategy...In 50 Words or so

Postby leosmith » Wed Mar 22, 2017 6:00 am

1.(a) Learn alphabet, pronunciation of phonemes and words, start listening.
(b) Do Pimsleur: learn sentence pronunciation, read transcript, learn vocabulary doing scriptorium with sentences via anki after lessons.
2. Converse daily, anki review vocab and sentences after lessons, read on lingq, do a grammar, continue listening and scriptorium.
3. Practice all skills until finished.
6 x
https://languagecrush.com/reading - try our free multi-language reading tool

Zireael
Orange Belt
Posts: 158
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:29 pm
Languages: Native: Polish
C2: English
B2: Spanish
Somewhere I don't know: German
Beginner: Arabic, Polish Sign Language
Wanderlusting: Japanese, Russian
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=815
x 77

Re: Your Language Learning Strategy...In 50 Words or so

Postby Zireael » Wed Mar 22, 2017 7:41 am

My strategy boils down to:
1) have motivation (got a friend you want to chat to/ or a site to follow in language X)
2) find some basic 'intro to X' site/booklet
3) start working through 2) until I have a grasp of the writing system
4) find interesting texts (sports, current issues, inventions, kids' fairytales) and drop them in Learning With Texts

Basically intensive reading as soon as possible and/or talking to a native tutor. I've done that (minus LWT as I didn't know about it yet) with my Spanish (A2->B2, a tutor and reading Spanish sites helped more than university classes) and Arabic (0->A2, native tutor and later on, self-study), and now I'm doing it with Japanese too, with LWT (0->?, started a couple months ago, no tutor :().
1 x

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
x 17565

Re: Your Language Learning Strategy...In 50 Words or so

Postby Cavesa » Wed Mar 22, 2017 9:58 am

1.want it
2.don't have time
3.regret
4.study as much as possible in intensive breaks between other stuff
5.procrastinate a lot with series and books
6.shuffle and repeat, until you know it quite well
7.despair you seem unable to progress even further :-D
6 x

User avatar
Random Review
Green Belt
Posts: 449
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2015 8:41 pm
Location: UK/Spain/China
Languages: En (N), Es (int), De (pre-int), Pt (pre-int), Zh-CN (beg), El (beg), yid (beg)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 75#p123375
x 919

Re: Your Language Learning Strategy...In 50 Words or so

Postby Random Review » Wed Mar 22, 2017 1:15 pm

The most important thing in language learning is the most important thing in life. I'm going to let a great man say it far better than I ever could (and in less than 30 words):

Image
6 x
German input 100 hours by 30-06: 4 / 100
Spanish input 200 hours by 30-06: 0 / 200
German study 50 hours by 30-06: 3 / 100
Spanish study 200 hours by 30-06: 0 / 200
Spanish conversation 100 hours by 30-06: 0 / 100

User avatar
Ani
Brown Belt
Posts: 1433
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:58 am
Location: Alaska
Languages: English (N), speaks French, Russian & Icelandic (beginner)
x 3840
Contact:

Re: Your Language Learning Strategy...In 50 Words or so

Postby Ani » Wed Mar 22, 2017 1:57 pm

1.) Wish you were as virtuous as Smallwhite in always choosing the next thing strategically with the best possibility to improve. End up putting too much pressure on self and fail.
2.) Wish you were as balanced and methodical as Iguanamon, working consistently with a few well chosen resources. Skip around inconsistently and fail.
3.) Try to procrastinate with huge volumes of series and books like Cavesa. Run out of time and randomly lose interest.
4.) Cross fingers.
15 x
But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

User avatar
mick33
Orange Belt
Posts: 139
Joined: Sun Jul 12, 2015 6:39 am
Location: Lakewood, Washington, USA
Languages: First language: English
Languages I'm focusing on learning now: Italian.
Languages I'm learning but not focusing on: Afrikaans, Polish, Finnish Turkish, Spanish, Swedish, Catalan, Hungarian, Russian.
Just for fun I sometimes learn a little of: Hindi, Japanese, Indonesian, Georgian, Thai etc.
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=762
x 361

Re: Your Language Learning Strategy...In 50 Words or so

Postby mick33 » Thu Mar 23, 2017 5:54 am

A basic overview of my language learning strategy could be called "The Shampoo Method"
Phase 1. Lather - Listening lots of listening even when I don't understand, learning alphabet and vocabulary and a very little bit of grammar (which means learning common verbs, pronouns, nouns adjectives and simple word order to express concepts like, I want...., I like...., I don't like...., I'm going (somewhere), then after I learn vocabulary do more focused listening (that is picking words and phrases I understand), practice pronunciation, listen to music and sing along and begin extensive reading.

Phase 2. Rinse - Also known as actually using the language, ie making myself think in the language, speaking, writing (including, but not limited to, scriptorium), intensive reading while continuing Phase 1 activities. I also learn more advanced vocabulary and a little grammar as I encounter it and then use this stuff in speaking and writing.

Phase 3. Repeat, always repeat until I become interested in another language because of wanderlust :lol:!

In real life I am often way too lazy and erratic to actually get very far into Phase 2 with most languages :oops: :cry:. Sometimes this leads me to what I guess is Phase 4. Revisiting and Streamlining - Revisiting means reviewing (or revising) what I've learned in a few languages as a way of maintaining knowledge and preventing myself from forgetting too much and streamlining means that much of my wanderlust ends up being brief dabbling sessions.
4 x


Return to “General Language Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Kraut and 2 guests