My languages
Actively learning
- German - The language that I've spent the most time with other than English and the one that finally got me to be consistent with my learning. At my current level, I can read and listen to most native content with high comprehension, but my output ability leaves a lot to be desired still. Started learning October 24th, 2022.
- Spanish - After about a year of German, I felt confident in adding another language to the mix. Spanish is a notch easier due to the shared vocabulary with English. After going through the top 1000 most common words, I quickly got into reading and listening to native content. Listening ability is decent, but I tend to miss a lot more sentences if I'm not paying attention and having captions helps a lot. Output ability is limited, but I think I could get my point across in writing with some mistakes. Started learning October 3rd, 2023.
- French - If I can study two at the same time, why not three? Hubris got the better of me and I added French to the mix. I was consistent for some time, but eventually started skipping days or doing the bare minimum, so progress suffered. My weakest language, not yet at the point where I can comfortably consume content without helper tools like Language Reactor. Output ability non-existent. Officially started 11th December, 2023 - but I've also taken French in school for 4 years (ages 10-14), it didn't get me very far at the time.
- Japanese - Childhood dream, but never got farther than learning some of the alphabet. I plan to pick it up once I'm satisfied with my level in the other languages and I can dedicate myself fully to it. I expect it to take roughly the same amount of time as the other 3 European languages combined, the final boss.
My method / strategy
I'm a fan of input-based approaches and you'll probably find me frequently recommending it to newcomers or defending it to the death in method debates. I try not to be too dogmatic these days, but I'm convinced that traditional methods are generally quite bad, unless you have a certain analytical personality type that likes to tinker with abstract rules and concepts. I mostly avoid grammar because it's a distraction, the explanations are often not very helpful and you're given elaborate algorithms on how to construct correct speech and compensate for a lack of a natural intuition for the language. You can obviously get visible results quite fast with that and demonstrate it on tests and exams, but I think there's a qualitative difference between true acquisition and "learning", that most students and teachers aren't aware of. I'm happy to sacrifice on output ability and go through long silent periods, as long as I'm increasing comprehension and I feel I'm developing a deeper intuition.
My strategy basically consists of finding a piece of content in my TL, preferably close to my current level and interesting enough to help me pay attention, then reading/listening/watching it, and filling in the gaps with lookups, translations, thinking etc. as well as tolerating a certain level of ambiguity. The main variable I'm paying attention to it is comprehension, since when you read and listen to language that is understandable to you, that's when the magic happens. The more understandable sentences pass through my mind, the more my mind can acquire whatever it needs to acquire in order to shape the internal language model. The other variable I'm paying attention to it is - speed. Starting off with "slow" understanding that is good enough for reading, and gradually increasing my speed of comprehension which transfers into listening i.e. moving through stages - understand a video with captions and pauses, then real-time with captions, then real-time with no captions.
What kind of content do I use?
Initially, when starting out, I look for material aimed for beginners that has simple sentences and preferably audio. You can input on day 1 as long as the content is simple enough and you know how to deliberately increase comprehension if needed. This method is best when you're a pro-active learner and when you don't understand something, you do something about it and figure it out.
- Assimil - Good for day 1 input, the lessons are just a piece of text and translation, lets you quickly figure out how basic sentences work and learn some words in context. Some grammar explanations, but they don't get in the way too much
- Graded readers - Just good ol' stories, labeled A1/A2/B1/B2, or beginner/intermediate/advanced depending on the author and publisher. For German, I really like Dino Lernt Deutsch series, which got me into reading and it's very accessible even with about 500 words in your pocket. Olly Richards' graded readers are also very good and it's the same stories in every language, so either a pro or a con, depending on how you look at it.
- YouTube - My main driver these days. Once you subscribe to a dozen or so TL-related content creators, new videos just keep coming to you and you always have something to input with. Beginner content is usually labeled as such or "comprehensible input". I think these days you can learn an entire language from just YouTube because there's so much variety.
- Movies / Series - I start out with native-produced ones, since they usually have accurate captions available (but it's still a struggle to find them). Then I move on to dubbed content once my listening ability is high enough, in order to take advantage of the insane amount of English produced content and from other countries.
- Comics / Manga / Graphic Novels - Pretty good when you're not ready for proper literature yet. The text is usually just dialogue, so usually very accessible. Solo Leveling in Spanish was an enjoyable read.
- Books - Finally, you want to start reading actual books because it becomes the only way to get exposed to more complex, less common language. Going from graded readers to native-level books is tough, BUT I've found that translated books from English tend to be easier and help bridge the gap. Harry Potter is available in over 80+ languages, take advantage of that. When Hesse starts giving me a headache, I go and read something easier like Brandon Sanderson, good ol' genre fiction.
What tools do I use?
- Google Translate - Browser extension lets you select a piece of text and get a quick translation in a couple clicks.
- Anki - Quintessential SRS program that everyone has probably already heard of. Used to be a main part of my routine, but I'm not a fan of memorization, even though it helps a lot, so I'm moving away from it and simply adding a healthy amount of repetition and review of the content that I input with.
- Language Reactor - meta-layer on top of text, video, Netflix and YouTube, that you can use for dual subtitles, looking up words, pausing after every subtitle line. Overall great tool and it's free (unless you want to save words and export to Anki). Saves you a lot of time if you're watching something above your level and need to fill in the gaps.
- Lithium Reader - Lightweight Android reader app for epubs and other ebook formats. Mainly for more simple, extensive reading on my tablet, with some limited lookups abilities if you combine it with the Google Translate app. Works pretty well for me.
That's about it for this main intro post.