A language learners’ forum

blaurebell wrote:By the way, I wouldn't want to go back to language learning without the internet. It's just so fantastic to have a whole library of books, movies and series in gazillion languages available, as well as a ton of free language learning resources. To think that my dad still had to learn to read Russian with a paper dictionary!

Yeah that would be miserable. And to be honest, without the internet I wouldn't know HOW to learn a language in the first place. I had always wanted to learn a language but never knew how until one day I finally got frustrated and googled "How to learn a language" -- HTLAL popped up. It was like the best day of my life

As much as "year abroad" and "exchange student" stuff sounds great, I never had that opportunity and now it is a complete impossibility. I have also never had the funds to get the thousands of hours of immersion possible from Netflix, YT, and other streaming sites. Even italki cuts the price of tutoring sessions to 1/3 of what I'd need to pay locally, (if not more) and allows me to schedule them when I need them rather than setting up a fixed routine of paying every week whether I really need the lesson at that time or not.

I managed to learn a few languages before the internet was even invented, and I keep my paper books around so if the worst should happen I can still study foreign languages in my mudhut, but just not communicate with the world any longer. The biggest threats are that criminal activities will make the internet inoperative or that a major solar blast like the one in the mid 1900s will zapp all the satellites and relay stations - and both scenarios are fairly likely to happen.

Iversen wrote:The biggest threats are that criminal activities will make the internet inoperative or that a major solar blast like the one in the mid 1900s will zapp all the satellites and relay stations - and both scenarios are fairly likely to happen.

By the solar blast in the mid 1900s do you mean the Carrington Event?

Iversen wrote:I managed to learn a few languages before the internet was even invented, and I keep my paper books around so if the worst should happen I can still study foreign languages in my mudhut, but just not communicate with the world any longer. The biggest threats are that criminal activities will make the internet inoperative or that a major solar blast like the one in the mid 1900s will zapp all the satellites and relay stations - and both scenarios are fairly likely to happen.

Or we might have nuclear war, with survivors in their mineshafts contemplating the mineshaft gap in a spirit of bold curiosity. Language learning, if done at all, will definitely involve paper dictionaries by candle light.

MorkTheFiddle wrote:

Iversen wrote:The biggest threats are that criminal activities will make the internet inoperative or that a major solar blast like the one in the mid 1900s will zapp all the satellites and relay stations - and both scenarios are fairly likely to happen.

By the solar blast in the mid 1900s do you mean the Carrington Event?

yup.

But smaller events happen all the time.

Well my computer has given up the ghost and i doubt ill get any of the material bacm and my phone doesnt work with headphones, so definitely i have no audio anymore and no access to my grammars anymore. I have some old newspapers that im gonna go over as well as my notes that i thankfully wrote down...reading and writing is the only possibility i have now.

Never underestimate how important written notes are!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtJzF6PD2nM

Imagine language learning in this environment...

arthaey wrote:Hahaha, nice way to tack on "and HTLAL" to this ongoing thread.

It was either that or "in bed".

This was when the old HTLAL died (temporarily).