Learning without the Internet and HTLAL

General discussion about learning languages
User avatar
Serpent
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3657
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 10:54 am
Location: Moskova
Languages: heritage
Russian (native); Belarusian, Polish

fluent or close: Finnish (certified C1), English; Portuguese, Spanish, German, Italian
learning: Croatian+, Ukrainian; Romanian, Galician; Danish, Swedish; Estonian
exploring: Latin, Karelian, Catalan, Dutch, Czech, Latvian
x 5179
Contact:

Learning without the Internet and HTLAL

Postby Serpent » Sat Jul 18, 2015 5:00 pm

so let's pick back up from here ;)

One thing I kept meaning to post is that if it's not a post-apocalypse scenario but just a routine situation you know in advance about, I highly recommend getting a reader with eInk. It needs very little charging and can carry lots of content ❤
1 x
LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
Corrections welcome

User avatar
arthaey
Brown Belt
Posts: 1080
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:11 pm
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Languages: :
EN (native);
ES (adv receptive, int productive);
FR (false beginner);
DE (lapsed beg);
ASL (lapsed beg);
HU (tourist)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3864&view=unread#unread
x 1675
Contact:

Re: Learning without the Internet and HTLAL

Postby arthaey » Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:25 pm

Hahaha, nice way to tack on "and HTLAL" to this ongoing thread. ;)
0 x
Posts in: FrenchGermanHungarianSpanish
NaNoWriMo: 10,000 words
Corrections welcome in any language; I prefer an informal register.

Spoonary
Blue Belt
Posts: 876
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:45 pm
Location: England
Languages: English (N)
Español (Adv), Italiano (Int), Esperanto (I try)
x 1656

Re: Learning without the Internet and HTLAL

Postby Spoonary » Mon Jul 20, 2015 4:10 pm

Serpent wrote:so let's pick back up from here ;)
I highly recommend getting a reader with eInk. It needs very little charging and can carry lots of content ❤


I agree! My e-reader has been an extremely valuable language-learning tool for me. Although I must admit to being guilty of filling it with material and then hardly ever using any of it.
3 x

User avatar
arthaey
Brown Belt
Posts: 1080
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:11 pm
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Languages: :
EN (native);
ES (adv receptive, int productive);
FR (false beginner);
DE (lapsed beg);
ASL (lapsed beg);
HU (tourist)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3864&view=unread#unread
x 1675
Contact:

Re: Learning without the Internet and HTLAL

Postby arthaey » Fri Jul 24, 2015 9:53 pm

Spoonary wrote:Although I must admit to being guilty of filling it with material and then hardly ever using any of it.

Ah, "sample chapters", where interesting books go to be forgotten. At least my wallet is happier, though! ;)
2 x
Posts in: FrenchGermanHungarianSpanish
NaNoWriMo: 10,000 words
Corrections welcome in any language; I prefer an informal register.

User avatar
reineke
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3570
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2016 7:34 pm
Languages: Fox (C4)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=6979
x 6554

Re: Learning without the Internet and HTLAL

Postby reineke » Sat Apr 08, 2017 3:42 pm

You mean despite the Internet and other distractions?
5 x

galaxyrocker
Brown Belt
Posts: 1120
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:44 am
Languages: English (N), Irish (Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge B2), French, dabbling elsewhere sometimes
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=757
x 3333

Re: Learning without the Internet and HTLAL

Postby galaxyrocker » Sat Apr 08, 2017 5:24 pm

The only issue for me would be duration of lack of internet, and thus getting resources, especially if I wanted to pick up a new language. I have more than enough stuff in Irish (I just can't resist buying new/famous/"must read" books!) that, even if my Irish stuff on the Kindle were to run out I'd be good. I've also got enough literary stuff for French (my old high school got rid of their French program when the teacher moved; they allowed me to take copies of everything). I live near Spanish speakers, so I could use the few resources I have then interact with them. But, outside those 3 languages, I'm kinda done. It'd be a bit harder for me to get to a high level.

But, conversely, it'd be a whole hell of a lot easier to focus! Not as many distractions (i.e. Reddit and LLF) to stop me from focusing, though it also lowers my motivation a bit since I live in a rural area that is vastly more English speaking.


But, yeah, I definitely recommend an e-reader. I myself have a Kindle Fire, for the sole purpose of Scribd. It's like a Netflix for books, except you're limited to 3 a month outside their "Free Reads' pile... but your tokens roll over to a maximum of 9 at any one time. I absolutely love it because it has a fairly good selection of academic books, as well as every Irish language e-book ever published. I haven't really checked for other languages, yet, but I'm sure they're there; just depends on the ebook publisher. That said, you obviously need internet to install the app, but you can download the books for offline mode, and, if I've done the math correctly, you just need to connect to the internet once a month or so to refresh them. Not to mention Scribd's documents section, though, quite sadly, there's a lot of copyright issues with that
3 x

User avatar
blaurebell
Blue Belt
Posts: 840
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2016 1:24 pm
Location: Spain
Languages: German (N), English (C2), Spanish (B2-C1), French (B2+ passive), Italian (A2), Russian (Beginner)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3235
x 2240

Re: Learning without the Internet and HTLAL

Postby blaurebell » Sat Apr 08, 2017 5:58 pm

I've had a Kindle since 2012 and I've read thousands of pages with it, I'm a big fan! Before I upgraded to one with a touch screen it was a bit cumbersome to use the dictionary, but with the new one I've been reading more intensively. To get the most out of it I actually need internet connection though. For quite a lot of the words only the translation function makes sense of it and that one doesn't work without internet connection. Also, I don't take any physical books on trips anymore. I always have a good selection of French and Spanish books on my kindle and it's light.

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!
3 x
: 20 / 100 Дэвид Эддингс - В поисках камня
: 14325 / 35000 LWT Known

: 17 / 55 FSI Spanish Basic
: 100 / 116 GdUdE B
: 8 / 72 Duolingo reverse Spanish -> German

William Camden
Green Belt
Posts: 384
Joined: Sat Nov 14, 2015 2:47 am
Location: Greenwich Mean Time zone
Languages: English (N), German (fluent), Turkish (fluent), Russian (fluent), French (semi-fluent), Spanish (semi-fluent), am studying Polish, have some knowledge of it, also studying modern Greek, basic knowledge of Arabic (mostly MSA, some exposure to colloquial dialects), basic knowledge of Latin and Italian, beginner in Scottish Gaelic.
x 476

Re: Learning without the Internet and HTLAL

Postby William Camden » Wed Apr 12, 2017 5:40 am

The Internet definitely revolutionised language learning. In the 1990s I subscribed for a time to a Russian newspaper to receive it by mail, and sometimes bought other L2 newspapers and magazines at newsstands or shops in London. But though I still occasionally do that, it is so much easier to click on a website.
3 x
: 4321 / 4321Greek Memrise

User avatar
PeterMollenburg
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3229
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:54 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), French (B2-certified), Dutch (High A2?), Spanish (~A1), German (long-forgotten 99%), Norwegian (false starts in 2020 & 2021)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18080
x 8029

Re: Learning without the Internet and HTLAL

Postby PeterMollenburg » Wed Apr 12, 2017 12:12 pm

I often have thoughts on how I might tackle learning a language without the majority of electronic devices (no internet, no smart phones, no apps, no computers...). Why? Well, I dont think easier is necessarily better. Of course I think it, but don't actually practise it, at least not at this stage. It can be done.
0 x

User avatar
MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
x 4824

Re: Learning without the Internet and HTLAL

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Wed Apr 12, 2017 7:52 pm

In the "old" days some of the students who studied a language in college and who wanted to become fluent spent a year abroad with a host family in the country where their chosen language was spoken. High school students could become "exchange students." Surely this is still done, but if you're not familiar with the idea, families of different countries would swap a high-school age child for a year. Along our Mexican border, I know some Mexican parents pay tuition to send their child or children to a school on the American side. Or such a child might live with a relative on the American side (not an infrequent occurrence, having relatives living on both sides of the border, I mean). Further, there are of course language schools.

I suppose not all languages can be learned in these ways, but frankly, for me anyways, all these methods seem more efficient and fun than learning on the Internet (but not HTLAL, of course :) ).
0 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson


Return to “General Language Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests