Ani wrote:I'm going to use the dumb internet acronym ELI5 -- explain like I'm 5. I'm a beginner language learner. I know hour to study from a math book. You read the chapter, think through the examples, maybe write them out and re-do them yourself, then complete the practice problems. If I take notes, I am writing down theorems, noting my own questions so I can dig for background information, and summarizing the uses of the particular information. Studying physics is the same with more questions and rabbit trails to research, and more summarizing the uses and steps of a particular problem and its relation to other things.
I sort of know how to read a book for literary analysis. You summarize the structure of the book, identify the writer's key words and what he means by their use, mark assumptions, arguments and conclusions etc.
I feel like an idiot when I look at a grammar. What are the important notes to take? What activities do you do to be certain you are internalizing the material? What prevents you from looking a set of rules and saying "isn't that nice" and having them go in one ear and out the other? Do you practice each section in a certain way or do writing based on the example text?
Thank you so much for that post. I wish I could break things down like you do. Have you always been so analytical, or is it a skill you acquired after years of explaining things to toddlers?
> I know hour to study from a math book. You read the chapter, think through the examples
That's basically how I use a grammar and this grammar. Sometimes I take notes and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I take summary type of notes, and sometimes I only take notes of things that are harder. Sometimes I review my notes and sometimes I don't. Most notes are on scrap paper and tossed away after not too long. I read one textbook or grammar or website after another (maybe this is key). French is extremely similar to English to me so there's only the occasional difference to learn and memorise, and after reading 10 textbooks/grammars/websites, there's little left that I still don't remember. I seldom do exercises or tests so I don't know what I'm forgetting and life's beautiful. I don't practise making my own sentences. Sometimes I try to translate the example sentences from English to French, but that's mainly under "thinking through the examples" and not for memorisation. Basically, I read grammars to find out how things are expressed. (So, more for output than for input). All that is for both grammars in general and this grammar in particular.
I drill conjugation (a lot) but that's a separate activity. Sometimes I do exercises (eg. Schaum's) but that's more for oral fluency.
The earlier parts of the book had word lists and I did try (a bit) to remember them. Lists like "masculine nouns that end with -x" and not really grammar rules. I wasn't memorising them for the grammar, anyway.
I was sort of responding to your "ways to review advanced grammar without having to try very hard" by saying "I just read harder and harder grammars and over time, grammar felt easier and easier". And I basically just read them.