The return-to-innocence pleasure of starting a new language

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Khayyam
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The return-to-innocence pleasure of starting a new language

Postby Khayyam » Sat May 27, 2023 1:16 am

Do you ever find that when you're starting with a new language, it's actually a pleasure rather than an annoyance to go back to preschool and learn your ABCs, and to read innocent children's stories, all over again? When you're a beginner, especially at a language that's far removed from those you already know, you really have no option but to hang out in what would normally be considered small children's territory for a good while, which means you can relax and not worry about being bothered by any adult-world unpleasantness. You know that eventually, you'll have to leave this G-rated, soft-and-fuzzy world if you don't want to stagnate, but for now, you *can't* leave, so why not enjoy it while it lasts?

Side thought: it would be interesting if someone made it their quest to learn to read stories up to, say, a third-grade level in as many languages as possible. It's not something I'd do myself, but it would be a way to keep things tough and interesting without leaving Neverland.
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Re: The return-to-innocence pleasure of starting a new language

Postby 無限時間 » Sun May 28, 2023 1:30 am

There is certainly a charm about the beginner stages in any language, but you are not really restricted to kid shows. At the start you can easily start grinding vocab and grammar and reinforcing that via reading (which is much more fun than watered down children's content in my opinion.) The issue with children's content is your growth will stagnate quickly and if you are looking up words and grammar points it won't be long before you can "choose" your own content (within reason, pre-teen and early teen content being the ideal, especially via reading)
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leosmith
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Re: The return-to-innocence pleasure of starting a new language

Postby leosmith » Mon May 29, 2023 7:10 pm

I always start out with the alphabet and pronunciation. But children's material? Never. Hate it, no offense intended. There's only one thing I hate more than children's material, and it's mosquitos. But a close runner up - I hate it when people say using children's material is the most effective way to learn a language. Wow! I feel better now.
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Re: The return-to-innocence pleasure of starting a new language

Postby 無限時間 » Tue May 30, 2023 7:44 am

leosmith wrote:I always start out with the alphabet and pronunciation. But children's material? Never. Hate it, no offense intended. There's only one thing I hate more than children's material, and it's mosquitos. But a close runner up - I hate it when people say using children's material is the most effective way to learn a language. Wow! I feel better now.


I agree, it's a hindrance when relied on
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Re: The return-to-innocence pleasure of starting a new language

Postby Gaoling97 » Tue May 30, 2023 12:09 pm

leosmith wrote:I always start out with the alphabet and pronunciation. But children's material? Never. Hate it, no offense intended. There's only one thing I hate more than children's material, and it's mosquitos. But a close runner up - I hate it when people say using children's material is the most effective way to learn a language. Wow! I feel better now.


You’re not wrong. For some reason, people think material for children is linguistically limited as opposed to just limited in content. Might be true for something for literal newborns, but it’s not like most children’s material is going to, like, not include past tense. Lol
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Re: The return-to-innocence pleasure of starting a new language

Postby Le Baron » Tue May 30, 2023 2:08 pm

It is a pleasure for a while. And in a TL I do like to delve into whatever children (older children maybe) were reading, probably in the past in parallel to things I read at the time. I find it a good way of getting under the cultural skin of a language, because I don't like just learning divorced structural grammar and words.
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