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My Journey to a Better Language Learning System

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Re: My Journey to a Better Language Learning System

#121

Post by cloverich »

tchaffee wrote: post #80
nileshtrivedi wrote: post #3

Personally, I would love to learn a language by watching movies/videos with 3 subtitle tracks: (1) What they are speaking - IN their script (this is called SLS: Same-Language-Subtitling and has been quite successful for literacy programs for one's own language) (2) What they are speaking - IN my script (3) What they MEAN - IN my language (i.e. translation) Data for (1) is easy to find. (2) could theoretically be gene…

I use movies a lot for learning a new language. Try using only the subtitles in the language you are learning. Subtitles in your own language will actually slow you way down. You'll stop hearing the words in the foreign language and just read your native language. At first it will seem very difficult to have only the foreign language subtitles, but once you start seeing the repeated phrases and see the context in whi…

It's funny because as silly as your suggestion seems, this is how real language aquisition. I'm super interested in any more info you have about your success doing this! (I.e. Language learned or how long before things started clicking etc)

Re: My Journey to a Better Language Learning System

#122

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

misiti3780 wrote: post #5

I have spent the last 10 months learning italian, spending a total of 7 weeks in the country, 150 hours studying, and 85 hours speaking on iTalki. I have been using the method's described in Fluent Forever[1] and they have been working extremely well for me. I have a speaking partner that I speak with 3-5 times a week for 1 hour each time (If you want to learn italian email me, he is awesome), and I keep track of lit…

I think the main take-away is that there is no magic bullet. No single app, class, methodology, etc - will teach you the language. I finally started being successful with Japanese when I stopped looking for a single magic bullet and started pursuing whatever leads were proving effective - now I have a varied study approach that's suited to my needs. After about 6 months of study with this approach, I can hold a conversation in Japanese and read elementary/middle school aged manga.

Re: My Journey to a Better Language Learning System

#123

Post by ddevault »

casey_lang wrote: post #58

I've always wanted to be fluent in a second language and have tried in the past, but I always end up with the same problem. While I recognize that the only way to gain conversational skills is to actually have conversations, they terrify me. Engaging in small talk with strangers in my native language is hard enough. Trying to do it in a second language seems impossible. Even watching the demo video from the link, all…

I found native speakers who are also trying to learn English. We set up a timer and switch languages every 5 minutes. This system makes it so much easier to speak with language exchange partners. Even if you're awkward and flustered in your second language, you only have to deal with it for 5 minutes. The best cure for awkward use of a second language, making mistakes and asking lots of questions, is to frequently switch to confident use of a first language - giving corrections and answering questions for your partners.

Re: My Journey to a Better Language Learning System

#124

Post by kentosi »

schacon wrote: post #34

I'm curious who else in the community here learned a new language to either comfort or fluency and how they did it.

I moved to France back in 2011 with very basic French (read: virtually none). I couldn't order, I couldn't say anything well.

My technique: - I started with children's books with audio, but ensured I read for at least 1 hour every day - I did Anki religiously every day - I changed my smartphone, laptop, etc to French - I only tried to make French friends - I only listened to French music - I only listened to French (tech) podcasts - I bought a book on how to pronounce all the French sounds

I have to say that the first 3 months were very lonely. After that, I could talk, interview, and eventually joke in French.

I'm now fluent.

What could I have done better? I should have focused more on listening and speaking than reading. I love fantasy novels, and hence had a brilliant vocabulary on esoteric words (like different types of swords, etc) that were practically useless day to day.

Re: My Journey to a Better Language Learning System

#125

Post by vram22 »

misiti3780 wrote: post #5

I have spent the last 10 months learning italian, spending a total of 7 weeks in the country, 150 hours studying, and 85 hours speaking on iTalki. I have been using the method's described in Fluent Forever[1] and they have been working extremely well for me. I have a speaking partner that I speak with 3-5 times a week for 1 hour each time (If you want to learn italian email me, he is awesome), and I keep track of lit…

iTalki seems to only support signup via Facebook. That's not so good, for those who do not wish to do it that way. I've seen many other web sites/apps that do that (or signup via Google), but most of the others also support the regular method of signing up by creating an account and giving your email address. Wish iTalki did too :(

Re: My Journey to a Better Language Learning System

#126

Post by redthrow »

bsaul wrote: post #76

That video convinced me and was ready to give you all my money since I have some time right now. But unfortunately the two languages i’d like to learn ( mandarin and hebrew) aren’t there. Anyone could recommend me a system for Chinese or Hebrew ?

"The future of Chinese language learning is now" by Prof Victor Mair

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=11580

Re: My Journey to a Better Language Learning System

#127

Post by kakarot »

andai wrote: post #116
casey_lang wrote: post #58

I've always wanted to be fluent in a second language and have tried in the past, but I always end up with the same problem. While I recognize that the only way to gain conversational skills is to actually have conversations, they terrify me. Engaging in small talk with strangers in my native language is hard enough. Trying to do it in a second language seems impossible. Even watching the demo video from the link, all…

You may be interested in AJATT [0]. It recommends a method based on the Input Hypothesis by linguist Stephen Krashen, which basically says it's better to read and listen before writing and speaking, and that producing input too early can actually be harmful in the long run (picking up bad phonetic / structural habits). In other words, find media you enjoy in your target language (books movies series music YouTube etc…

Sounds like an interesting method but I am getting php errors when I select Japanese from the list of languages.

Re: My Journey to a Better Language Learning System

#128

Post by nileshtrivedi »

tchaffee wrote: post #80
nileshtrivedi wrote: post #3

Personally, I would love to learn a language by watching movies/videos with 3 subtitle tracks: (1) What they are speaking - IN their script (this is called SLS: Same-Language-Subtitling and has been quite successful for literacy programs for one's own language) (2) What they are speaking - IN my script (3) What they MEAN - IN my language (i.e. translation) Data for (1) is easy to find. (2) could theoretically be gene…

I use movies a lot for learning a new language. Try using only the subtitles in the language you are learning. Subtitles in your own language will actually slow you way down. You'll stop hearing the words in the foreign language and just read your native language. At first it will seem very difficult to have only the foreign language subtitles, but once you start seeing the repeated phrases and see the context in whi…

The problem is that you have two things to learn: Foreign script AND foreign language. Subtitles in foreign language will also use their script which makes it completely incomprehensible to you. The barrier is too high. You're right though: At some point the support rails need to be taken away.

Re: My Journey to a Better Language Learning System

#129

Post by nileshtrivedi »

skosch wrote: post #63
nileshtrivedi wrote: post #3

Personally, I would love to learn a language by watching movies/videos with 3 subtitle tracks: (1) What they are speaking - IN their script (this is called SLS: Same-Language-Subtitling and has been quite successful for literacy programs for one's own language) (2) What they are speaking - IN my script (3) What they MEAN - IN my language (i.e. translation) Data for (1) is easy to find. (2) could theoretically be gene…

Yes! I found https://github.com/oaprograms/lingo-player , but it seems to have a broken dependency. For (1), I have considered using https://cloud.google.com/speech/ because it's so cheap. I am learning Cantonese, and Cantonese subtitles virtually don't exist – frustratingly, everything is in Mandarin.

Very useful links these two. Google speech would produce text in the native script (1). Know of any tool that can transliterate that to your script (2)? Google translate might work (with some errors) for (3).
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