Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
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Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
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Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#2That's how I managed to learn spanish: immersion. To watch movies, series, music, jokes, websites, everything in spanish, with my Google Translator buddy by my side.
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#3At least for Christians a good way to learn a foreign language is to read the Bible in that language, because
(1) they are probably used to read a chapter or two on a daily basis (thus, the routine is already there),
(2) and they probably remember some passages in their native tongue (thus, already having a translation of the text).
This helped me. YMMV.
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#4"Don't pay too much attention to grammar."
Breaking that rule is one of the ways my high school failed to teach much German to most of its students.
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#5"Don't pay too much attention to grammar." Breaking that rule is one of the ways my high school failed to teach much German to most of its students.
As with most things you want to learn you need both - immersion as well as deliberate practice.
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#6 Good read. I like to think it's just life getting in the way, and if you are in the right circumstances and environment you could achieve respectable level of proficiency in almost anything, even later in life.
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#7I just recently started learning Swahili and found some amazing classes from Language Transfer[0]. (I have no connection with them.) I've spent a lot of time learning languages, including tricky ones like Mandarin, and this is by far the best learning method I have ever come across.
The "class" takes the form of a dialogue between teacher and student where the student is an actual learner unfamiliar with the language and you try to learn with them. Each new word is introduced with a short but thorough explanation of how it fits in with everything you have learned so far and sometimes a mnemonic or story to help with recall. You are always prompted to try and construct new sentences yourself with the new words, without being told how, so that you are naturally exploring the grammar and idiomatic structure of the language and building an intuition for it. You are also prompted intermittently to recall previously learned words.
Within just an hour or so, I felt comfortable creating many sentences. I think this style of teaching helps build confidence in the language quickly, which is really important for making progress. They only ask for donations for their content and all of it is on soundcloud and youtube. I really recommend trying it out.
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#8Someone should edit the title to say "... at a new foreign language"
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#9At least for Christians a good way to learn a foreign language is to read the Bible in that language, because (1) they are probably used to read a chapter or two on a daily basis (thus, the routine is already there), (2) and they probably remember some passages in their native tongue (thus, already having a translation of the text). This helped me. YMMV.
This is good advice, but
> they are probably used to read a chapter or two on a daily basis
This sounds mental. Reading the Bible on a daily basis? I’m pretty sure that this is not the norm for the vast majority of (devout) Christians (at least in Western/Central Europe).
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#10Someone should edit the title to say "... at a new foreign language"
I'm not sure why your comments are attracting downvotes; from the title I assumed programming language.