Bex wrote:
Started a new book today. I've read the first chapter. It's for ages 8+ but I'm still finding it a struggle ... it's a lot harder than the learner material I'm used to reading
But I know it's time to take off those training wheels now.
It's great that you decided to take off those training wheels!!!
Here a few tips in case they may be of help:
From my experiences so far, the most important factor in order to stick with materials for natives in the long term is to find material that is genuinely compelling to you and take it slowly at the beginning. The reason why is this:
- When you are working with material that is not compelling/engaging enough to you you need to use willpower in order to stick with it. Willpower takes a lot of energy and leaves us with less energy to learn from the material. But when the material you are using is compelling/engaging enough to you, then you don't need to use your willpower because you will feel naturally attracted to go back to the material and continue working on deciphering it. With willpower out of the equation you save a lot of energy that can, instead, be used in the learning process.
- It is important to go easy on us at the beginning because if we don't then we run the risk of early burnout. Don't make goals like "today I'll read 5 pages" (if the material is genuinely compelling/engaging enough to you, you won't need those kind of goals). It is ok if that day you only read a line or a paragraph. If the material is genuinely compelling/engaging enough to you, then you will feel the impulse to go back to it the next day, and the next day, and the day after that (no willpower needed and, thus, lots of energy saved). And as you keep going back to it you'll start to notice patterns, words, expressions that repeat a lot. And, because the material is genuinely compelling/engaging to you, then it'll be easier to remember what all those words and expressions mean because they we'll be emotionally connected to you and surrounded by lots of context clues. So, even if you start by only being able to decipher one line before getting exhausted, as time goes by things will become easier and easier to understand, and eventually you'll find yourself reading many pages without much trouble.
And you can use whatever tool you need in order to make the material more comprehensible. The key factor is not what tool you use but how you use it:
First try to decipher a line or a word by yourself. Then, use the additional tools. Here some examples:
- When reading a korean webtoon that is way above my current level but which is really compelling to me, I used to do this (and I plan to do this again when I go back to learn korean):
1. See the main image and the surrounding images.
2. Read a line in korean and try to guess its meaning without the use of additional tools.
3. After trying to guess the meaning, then put that line on "Google Translator" and compare the english translation to my initial guess and try to divide the sentence into parts and match those parts with the korean line.
4. If the translation from Google didn't make the korean line comprehensible enough (this usually happens with some slang, for example), then look for key words or parts on the internet and read about it (sites like italki or HiNative tend to be really useful for solving these doubts)
5. Move on to the next line and repeat the process.
NOTE: Especially when the material is too difficult or way above your level, the most important thing is to just get the gist of it and move on. Later, when your are already at a level where you can easily get the gist of things, then you can move on to a more precise understanding.
- I'm working in different ways with different chinese dramas. Here is one way:
Watch the drama with dual chinese-english subs and pause at each line.
1. Read the chinese sub and try to guess its meaning without using additional tools and without reading the english line.
2. Read the english line and compare it to my initial guess.
3. Compare the chinese line and the english line and try to match meaning between the two (for example: "Oh!, this word here seems to mean -shopkeeper-". Or "In chinese they seem to say ______ using this kind of wording: _____". Or "This character name is spelled like this _____", or "Oh! this word was used in the previous line too, and the only word that is repeated in the english subs from this line and the previous line is -heir- so this chinese word probably means -heir-".
4. After finishing step 3 there will probably be parts that are still obscure to me. It doesn't matter for now. I just move on to the next line and repeat the process.
Note: Sometimes the lines don't match perfectly (because of a different word order in each language, for example), so I have to read the next english line in order to compare it with my guess from the previous chinese line.
Besides the specific activities with native or target-language-translated material, I do other complementary activities like reading about grammar and getting familiar with the most frequent vocabulary. I usually don't try force myself to memorize anything, I just try to understand, guess the meaning of the example sentences, compare it to the english translation, and move on. You could do the same with courses, for example. With enough exposition to native material that you try to understand and that is compelling to you, you will eventually start to connect the dots between the courses you work with and the language as it is used by natives.
EDITED: To add an "f" in "off" XD!
