Spoonary wrote:So I nearly failed before I started yesterday when I searched for Greek music on YouTube
then I realised that it's a no-go. I guess I could use my subscription to Spotify as a pre-existing streaming service, but no, I want to stick to the pure FLC.
I figure internet radio is ok, right?
The challenge is "Free and Legal". Youtube music is probably ok. Youtube series and films probably not. Yes, internet radio is fine.
Those who accept "The Pure FLC" will have a harder time making things happen, but their perseverance, creativity and ingenuity will more than make up for not having ideal materials. That's been my experience when I was learning Haitian Creole and Ladino.
S_allard almost never comments on these things and almost never reads logs, but part of my inspiration comes from him. I remember his comments about watching a series and how he said that you don't need 150 episodes, to learn. There's more than enough language in one or two episodes. His comments were met with derision, however; despite the fact that he is ignoring the snowball effect and the effect of visual clues on learning a language, I have found his observations to have merit. Sure, I read lots of books, listen to lots of podcasts and watch lots of series, but when I was limited to just a few resources in Haitian Creole and Ladino, I still did fine. I just concentrate on them more. While I paid for some things, most of my learning was free and legal- you can't pirate Ladino or Haitian Creole, there isn't anything to pirate. So really concentrating on a few resources does work.
For The Pure FLC participants, a lot of your success will depend on your attitude towards what you have. If you look at it as a hardship and deprivation that's not going to help. If you approach your limited, less than ideal, resources with "How can I best make this work for me?" you are onto a winner. When you don't have much to work with you have to make the best of what you have. If you can find a good source of parallel texts, even if you have to make them yourself- I'm allowing use of downloaded srt subtitle files- you are onto a winner.
GlobalVoices.org is one such place to go. The site has a
Greek Version and a
Czech Version with links to article translations in English and other languages. For instance, here's a Czech article
Kolumbijský filozof, který se snaží přijít s alternativou k drancování planety and the English version:
A Colombian Philosopher Explores the Alternatives to Overusing Mother Nature and a Greek article:
O Paul Théa, σκηνοθέτης από τη Γουινέα, μιλάει για το εγχείρημά του “Ο Δρόμος της Σκλαβιάς” with a translation in
Spanish,
English,
Italian and
French. Ok, maybe in an ideal world you wouldn't care about "Guinean Filmmaker Paul Théa Speaks About His ‘Slave Route’ Project"... wouldn't even give it a second look... but... now your resources are limited. Here's something you can make a parallel text out of (and not just with English!). What can it teach you? What can you learn from it? A lot more than you think and a lot more if you keep replicating the process over time. Maybe enough to start making sense out of a language and moving it forward, believe it or not. Not all the way, but a good part of the way can be done with this type of outside of the box, language-learning.
Ok, it ain't "Harry Potter". It ain't even "The Picture of Dorian Gray"... but it's something and it's something you can use to help you learn a language when you can't choose what you would like to have in an ideal world. There are a bunch of articles on the GlobalVoices site and elsewhere available for you to use in your learning... but you have to make the effort, be happy with what you have and make the best out of it. This is just one example. Do this kind of thing, think outside the box, and you will succeed.
I've posted about this stuff before, but few people take advantage of it in their learning. This kind of thing can help. It's free and it's legal. It just takes a little bit of effort to put it to work for you.
Using GlobalVoices.org to make simple parallel texts. What else can you find? I'm eager to see what you all come up with that I don't know about yet.
), there is always