New Prof Argüelles Youtube Series

[jeffers]

Read aloud with feeling

I watched the whole video, but I can't recall if he said why this was to be done. As I see it - and have seen it expressed elsewhere for many years - the act of doing this impresses it as an image upon the mind. In the way that a well-acted phrase from a film is instantly repeatable. (Waddya mean I'm funny? Funny how? Funny like a clown? I amuse you?) I suppose one might have to be a reasonable actor to get best results.

When I read plays (and about a third of the input books I read are plays) this is much easier to achieve since it's all dialogue and meant to be read with such a delivery. I find this lends itself ideally to repetition and reading aloud and also to go back and 'improve the performance' as it were.

I think you're right, that reading aloud with feeling imprints the language read more firmly on the mind. But there's also another point: you can't really read with feeling if you don't understand the text. So of course this comes after looking up the selection of unknown words. So far in the process you have worked on understanding, now he is saying to do something which requires a productive skill (the "with feeling" part). One more reason, it will be a little bit less boring for you than reading in a monotone.

[jeff_lindqvist]

How to Listen to Audio Books in Foreign Languages for Polyliteracy:


Duration: 23:20

Quote:
"(...)if I can sort of share my experience and get you to do the more efficient way sooner than I did, then my life has been well spent if I save you time." (c:a 3:45 minutes)

[Le Baron]

There are interesting points here worth discussing. I tend to keep several narratives running (like his father), though I think I could probably give my brain a rest by cycling books in the way he describes.

The point about reading a single chapter and then summarising, to clarify everything to make sure you know what is going on, is an essential step for me. I resist the temptation to just keep on going through yet another chapter until I've stopped and thought about the one I've just read. Looking up those missed key words and sentences, and then going back over the passages that contained them, helps me a lot before moving on. Not doing this builds up layers of misunderstanding and confusion as you plough on.

Lastly, the thing he said about audio books needing concentration. Totally agree. I even find it hard to listen to audio books in English whilst doing other things. I can hear it and know what's happening, but I end up skipping back because I was shifting my concentration to something requiring careful attention. When you 'multitask' I feel you're really only concentrating on one major task, and really with not as much attention as you could, and allocating a smaller amount of attention to periphery tasks. The motor tasks then run in a sort of skeleton way, sparing some details. It's probably not a great way to listen to some things and certainly not foreign languages you're learning which aren't a motor skill yet.
I find that dramatisations of books and radio programme podcasts are easier to listen to with looser attention because there is space between speech, little music breaks, and it's 99% pure dialogue. Audio books are description, written prose which is densely woven for artistic effect and different from speech. So I need to concentrate more. I already removed the audio prose books from my mp3 player. Just dialogue material on there now and podcasts. The audiobook I'm listening to currently is done at the desktop/laptop, where I can listen/read, note-take and check things out.

[galaxyrocker]

Taking over for Jeff today. Hope he doesn't mind.

Audacity Tutorial for Language Learning.



Haven't watched it myself, but if he's showing how to use Audacity to cut out silent periods, could be super useful.

[David1917]

Prof delved into the world of clickbait this morning. Video was originally titled something like "PLEASE WATCH NOW." 1PM CST today will be premiering a 3 hour interview discussing Great Books with live chat.

[Vordhosbn]

And here's the link to the three hour conversation:

Prof delved into the world of clickbait this morning. Video was originally titled something like "PLEASE WATCH NOW." 1PM CST today will be premiering a 3 hour interview discussing Great Books with live chat.

Haha that's hilarious. It was changed by the time I saw it, but I notice someone complained in the comments section. I wonder what they'll think when they see the interview video titled "60+ Language Polyglot"!

[jeff_lindqvist]

Advice About Advice: Applying the Parable of the Sower to Language Learning:


Duration: 5:27

[luke]

Advice About Advice: Applying the Parable of the Sower to Language Learning:

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who occasionally has a messiah complex. He's better qualified. Mine shows up in different domains.

Oh, btw, on the Audacity video, I prefer "change tempo" rather than "change speed". Change tempo makes the audio go faster, but doesn't affect the pitch. Change speed is similar to making an analog device, such as a record player, spin faster.

One thing I really like about the Professor's videos is that he covers a broad range of topics. The Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Razor videos are good examples of this:

[jeff_lindqvist]

Korean in 3 Months Overview of Resources for Activating a Heritage Language by Guided Self Study:

[sirgregory]

Interesting that his son's name is Ardaschir. That was Prof A's original handle on HTLAL. Way back when I would read/lurk on that site I recall there was a lot of chatter about this mysterious Ardaschir fellow. He evidently had posted there and developed quite a reputation but was not active at the time I was reading the forum. I remember I somehow got the idea he was Lebanese which just seems funny to me now. (I think he was living in Lebanon at one time).

I never knew his kids weren't raised knowing Korean. Given his polyglot ideals, I assumed that would have been emphasized. And his son seems pretty interested in languages so it's not one of those dad tries to push son into playing football but the son likes music sort of situations. No judgment from me at all, but it just goes to show you the practical difficulty of learning and maintaining foreign languages when they aren't strictly needed.