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Week 3 [19-25.10.2015] Learning Languages

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Read the article 5 Tricks to Learn Spanish (or any other language) from 2 People who Speak 11 at   
 https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/tips-learn-spanish?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=CON&utm_campaign=cd_engall_gen_ceu_spanishtips&utm_term=ibtimes and present your ways of learning/improving foreign languages. 

Comments

Cezary Góralski said…
It is very interesting subject that I was interested in for a long time. What those guys said is absolutely true. If you know french it is easier to learn spanish and portuguese. But it works only in language family. For instance Polish does not have to much in common with Japanese or Norwegian.

In my opinion it is important to learn only the most common words at the beginning. All language courses that I attended in my life were mostly waste of time. Teachers waste our time with forcing us to learn words like ‘loan shark’ or ‘sullen’ when we have problems with basic vocabulary. We can really communicate with others without knowing such vocabulary. I'll bet that never in my life I will neither use them nor hear in someone's speech.
21 October 2015 at 19:41
Aleksandra Grigorian said…
The article has made a few valuable points although I can't agree with everything.
Most importanlty saying that Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian can barely consider each other foreign languages is a big overstatement. It's pretty much like saying that Polish and Russian are the same.

Obviously there are similarities inside the language family groups, but this is a little too much.

Same with the part about democratisation in defferent languages - no, you're not learning four languages at the same time. You're learning one word in four languages. And probably end up mixing them up.

What I strongly agree with is that when you learn a language you should speak it whenever possible. Speaking is the most important aspect in my opinion. If you're about to use a language in daily life it's definitely going to be the spoken language. And because of that I don't like the way we're taught languages in schools. It's focused on grammar too much. Of course basics are necessary but the rest should come somewhat naturally. 'Cause seriously, who's going to check our grammar? Only tests we sit in schools or to get certificates.

As for my tricks to learn languages - I love listening to music, I always listen to music. And I sing along. This way I get a grasp of accents, at least a little. Plus checking for translations can boost one's vocabulary.
22 October 2015 at 13:33
Unknown said…
This article reminded me that my german is going to be totally neglected if I don't start do anything about it... Let's say this was a reminder that I should start working again, otherwise I will forget everything.
These are very good tips, I like the most one with getting surrounded by foreign language stuff like tv, movies, news etc. Sometimes even hearing a language in background can help you learn something new. That's something I definitely must do.

Do you know where I can find a partner for skype conversation? How does it work?
22 October 2015 at 20:35
Unknown said…
Some time age I used a site called "Duolingo" to learn/revise languages and I found it to be very helpful. First of all it's free, so that's out of the way. You just set up a daily goal of "experience" that you want to get and just do exercises. You have to write, listen and read aloud so you practice all the skills. The tests are really short so you can spend 5-10 minutes a day on the site and learn. I think it's a very good way to learn. I even know an older couple that pretty much learnt English thanks to it. There also are some features for teachers. You can start a classroom and see if your students do their exercises and how is it going. So if you are looking for a site to practice English or any other language, I recommend it.
https://www.duolingo.com
23 October 2015 at 10:16
Patrycja Marciniak said…
Besides English, I had learned German for 6 years (in my secondary school and high school). Still, I can't even properly introduce myself in German, and their pronounciation is a nightmare to me (I've never been able to say "r" they way they do and it made me really ashamed). However, I've always used English on my visits to Germany (and other countries) and I'm not really planning to change that, I think I'd rather be good at one language than know a few words in each language.

However, I agree with some of the presented methods. I think it's crucial to use the language, listen, talk. TV series or music, as Aleksandra said, are a good and fun way to memorise words and expressions. Besides, I like to chat with people from other countries online and I think it really improves your vocabulary.
24 October 2015 at 00:22
Paulina Zabokrzycka said…
Thank you for the link! I have this friend that constantly surprises me on facebook when he starts speaking yet another language. I think that by now he speaks around 7 (Polish, English, French, Spanish, Portugese, Swedish, Greek and maybe more). I think that the more languages you know the easier it is to learn another one because your brain is used to finding some patterns that are common for many languages, even if not from the same family. I speak English, French and Spanish (and in my life I was also learning German, Russian and Japanese) and I know that I could learn for example Portugese, Italian, Swedish and Norwegian pretty easily because they are very similar to the ones I already know. When I was visiting countries that speak these languages I could understand a lot of it. It has become very natural to me to understand some things everywhere I go and it was a huge shock for me to be in Finland where I did not understand a single word;) The other story is that when I was in a cafe with my mum and they were showing some interviews with Nepalis after the earthquake last year and I translated some of it to my mum. She then asked me: 'you also speak Nepalese?!' but the interviews had English subtitles which she had not noticed.
Anyway it is very important to include the language you're trying to learn to your life. Change your phone language to Swedish, put up some stickers with Japanese names all over your house, watch Spanish movies and try to find a native whom you could talk to in French. I've heard about some websites on which you may put an advertisement that for example you are searching for a Greek that wants to learn Polish - you set up a meeting for two hours, speak Greek for one of them and Polish for the other. It is beneficial for both of you and you don't pay for it.
Another very important thing is to speak a language that you're learning. In many cases people know grammar very well but they are afraid to speak a language because they're not fluent in it. It may be very helpful to put yourself in an environment where you HAVE TO speak a language you're learning, for example summer job in a foreign country. Fluency comes with practice, so practice, practice, practice!
25 October 2015 at 09:15
Unknown said…
I think the best way to learn language is to communicate with native speakers. Real situations learn better than books. When you go to the country where you want to learn language, you must speak with his natives. If you want buy something or do some business, you must talk! In my opinion there is a better way of learning than craming grammar from books. Another positive aspekt it's you could listen to people who speak this language whole their life. You could learn words or phrases that frequently don't appear in the books, you could know common language.
25 October 2015 at 11:32
Unknown said…
Someone above wrote that school makes a mistake by teaching children the grammar, instead of speaking in the language that they're studying. There's no other statement that I consider as false as this one.

The first thing to consider it if we want only to be able to comunicate with the forigners or we want to really know this language. I can't imagine talking with someone in the language which grammar I didn't tackled. Before I take classes with native speakers, I learn the whole grammar rules, I watch films in this language, I read books and watch TV. Then, when I'm fully aware of my skills, I use it in comunication with foreigners. I never use the language, when I know only the basis of it. When it comes to vocabulary, I try to practice it in every free moment, for example when I'm coming back to Warsaw from my hometown (it's about 3 h), I use the application which is called 'Quizlet'.

With this simple method (firstly grammar & vocabulary which is constantly boosted by natural forms of studying like books/movies etc. and then comunicating with others) I've learned English, German and French, and lately, I've began Norwegian. The most important is the inner motivation, the most suitable form of leaning will come itself.
25 October 2015 at 18:20
Unknown said…
Everything they said is true. But I know from my own experience that the best wasy to learn foreign language is to: move to the country where you can only use the language you want to improve. In the past i moved for 2 month to Germany and for a month to Uk. it was the best lesson i could ever had. When you are alone , away from home you have to speak with people to survive. And that's how i learn languages. Of course i spent a lot of time with native speakers in Poland. And that gave me a huge boost .
25 October 2015 at 18:32
Unknown said…
That was a very interesting article, because languages are not my the strongest point. I could find out what can help. In my opinion, regularity is the most important thing, while you are learning a language. We need to study small parts of material every day, what wouldn'tt take us much time. The result should be visible after some time of hard work. Another thing is to hang notes in places where we spend a lot of time, they would remind us about useful words. Studying in another country or language camps are also a helpful thing. After returning we can keep in touch with people that we met and continue practicing the language. To summarize continuous contact and usage of language is the most important in learning.
25 October 2015 at 18:56
Unknown said…
I fulfil some of the tricks mentioned in the article e.g. I set my operating system’s language to English and watch English scientific videos with English subtitles on YouTube. I wish I had foreign friends with whom I could speak. For most of the time I’m a language consumer and that’s unfortunately the biggest blocker for my lingual progress.
25 October 2015 at 19:35
Unknown said…
For me the best ways to learn foreign languages are:
1. Moving to the country where you can talk only this language. I think it is one of the best ways to learn it fast. After few weeks you will clearly understand oral language and after other few weeks you will brake language barrier.
2. Connecting to native speakers. If you don't have the opportunity to move to another country you can always find some friends that speak this language. Today there are a lot of web sites where you can find people from the other countries and just start chatting.
3. Reading, listening to music, watching videos. However, vocabulary is a very important thing. The more you know the easier you express your thoughts.
25 October 2015 at 22:06
Michal Kulesza said…
I like all of these ideas from the article. After learning spanish for 3 semesters I realized that I know nothing. About year after I went to Spain and... after a week I was able to communicate in Spanish and fluently order some things at restaurant or communicate at shop.
So I believe that best method to learn new language is to move to country that uses chosen language and just have native speakers all around so you can have that 'background noise' talk to you in foreign language.

I've also used Duolingo app and it's great - it allows you to learn language and reminds you about your daily dose of vocabulary. Also, what's missing when you buy 30 days course paperback edition, it helps you to learn basic pronunciation and signals you when something is wrong.
25 October 2015 at 23:05
Julia Osiak said…
This was a very interesting article for me. I heard about many of those tips but to hear about learning languages from polyglots made them more appealing. Unfortunately, it requires a lot of self discipline and I usually fail at this stage... The best technique for me was being thrown into an environment where I was forced to use a foreign language. It's amazing how fast we start absorbing the grammar and vocabulary without even noticing it.
25 October 2015 at 23:27
Aleksander M said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
25 October 2015 at 23:51
Aleksander M said…
All those tips are spot on and explain most important things to do while trying to learn a language pretty well.

My personal favourite trick is forcing my brain to switch to thinking in another language - I believe that's the only way to get comfortable with any language and you will have to do that sooner or later anyway if you are trying to speak fluently.

However, by trying to do that at an early level of training you risk having problems with pronunciation - there's usually nobody to correct speaking mistakes inside your brain after all - something to remember!
25 October 2015 at 23:51
Unknown said…
The best way to learn a foreign language is moving to the country in which that language is used. Of course, if removal isn't possible it is worthwhile to get to know people who fluently speak the language and start talking together.
Watching movies with subtitles or reading books can also be very helpful.
25 October 2015 at 23:52
Unknown said…
I agree with Marcin - the best way to lear some language is not by reading books or doing excercies but by using it every singel day. it is helpfull but it wont let you fully undestand the language without using it by yourself.
ON YouTube i have found very interesting lecture about learning languages (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0yGdNEWdn0).
26 October 2015 at 10:45
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