Re: alcohol - in my experience, it depends. For the first year or two of learning German, a beer or glass of wine helped me relax and speak more effortlessly, as suggested. But now, as a fluent speaker -- I've passed a C2 exam, i.e. "mastery" on the CEFR scale, with a good score -- I definitely notice that any amount of alcohol hurts more than it helps. In the same way that any amount of alcohol makes my English worse: I have trouble with recall of even basic words.
Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
61–70 of 166 posts
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#62Someone 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.
I’m not one of the down voters, but it’s likely because adding that word doesn’t really add anything - foreign can mean that something is strange or unfamiliar.
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#63> Evening learning probably isn’t ideal for teenagers either. In a study published in 2012, Johannes Holz at the University of Freiberg, and colleagues, found that 16- and 17-year-old girls performed better on tests of factual memory if they’d learned the material at 3pm than at 9pm. > However, another study, published in Psychological Science in 2016, suggests that evening learning can be beneficial – especially if…
Exactly. The only somewhat sensible advice in the article is not to focus on grammar.
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#64I learned how to turn a stream of nonsense (from my perspective) into words by listening to hundreds of hours of Spanish TV that I didn't understand. Spanish audio + Spanish subtitles (to figure out how to parse sound, and to map sound to writing), and then Spanish audio only (prevent reliance on reading). Surprisingly effective. Incomprehensible input appears to be quite valuable. At some point I'll try applying my…
Just bear in mind that there's a huge difference between being able to get the gist of something spoken in a foreign language and being able to convey your thoughts effectively in that language. Even after man-years of study I still sound like an idiot when trying to speak English in conference calls, even though I can understand nearly 100% of written and spoken English.
You can't rely on it as the only means of learning, but it makes for the foundation. Conversation is hard to begin with, but conversation when you don't understand what is spoken quickly enough to begin to form a response is impossible.
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#65> Evening learning probably isn’t ideal for teenagers either. In a study published in 2012, Johannes Holz at the University of Freiberg, and colleagues, found that 16- and 17-year-old girls performed better on tests of factual memory if they’d learned the material at 3pm than at 9pm. > However, another study, published in Psychological Science in 2016, suggests that evening learning can be beneficial – especially if…
Or those to experiments simply measure completely different things.
One is time of day, the other is review + good sleep.
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#66> Evening learning probably isn’t ideal for teenagers either. In a study published in 2012, Johannes Holz at the University of Freiberg, and colleagues, found that 16- and 17-year-old girls performed better on tests of factual memory if they’d learned the material at 3pm than at 9pm. > However, another study, published in Psychological Science in 2016, suggests that evening learning can be beneficial – especially if…
Also why bother with microoptimizations? Just sound like easy ways to justify excuses — “Welp my 3pm window passed, maybe tomorrow!” The best method is the one you actually do.
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#67I learned how to turn a stream of nonsense (from my perspective) into words by listening to hundreds of hours of Spanish TV that I didn't understand. Spanish audio + Spanish subtitles (to figure out how to parse sound, and to map sound to writing), and then Spanish audio only (prevent reliance on reading). Surprisingly effective. Incomprehensible input appears to be quite valuable. At some point I'll try applying my…
Well that's pretty much how you learned your first language already! You didn't even need subtitles.
Yes, but they had to teach me how to read later in life. This is a two-for-one strategy, because the reading skill transfers much more easily.
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
just because it doesn't align with what you've observed doesn't mean it's "mental". that's rude. please be constructive.
I think he means it's mental to imagine Christians actually doing that. I agree. No judgement in if you do that, good for you. However the point is not that it's too much reading or w/e, but rather that it's far more than the typical christian cares to do. To assume christians actually do that is the mental part, but you choosing to do; if that makes sense. edit : To the downvote, do you honestly think the majority o…
Not a downvoter, but you're probably being downvoted because it's clear that "mental" IS being used to mean "crazy", and quite obviously so.
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#69> Evening learning probably isn’t ideal for teenagers either. In a study published in 2012, Johannes Holz at the University of Freiberg, and colleagues, found that 16- and 17-year-old girls performed better on tests of factual memory if they’d learned the material at 3pm than at 9pm. > However, another study, published in Psychological Science in 2016, suggests that evening learning can be beneficial – especially if…
Also why bother with microoptimizations? Just sound like easy ways to justify excuses — “Welp my 3pm window passed, maybe tomorrow!” The best method is the one you actually do.
Took me song long to realize this. Just * do it is so often a more effective/efficient methodology than "optimize first". Once I have a strong understanding of scope, marginal adjustments carry more weight when starting something new.
Re: Unusual, evidence-based ways to get better at a new language
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
just because it doesn't align with what you've observed doesn't mean it's "mental". that's rude. please be constructive.
I think he means it's mental to imagine Christians actually doing that. I agree. No judgement in if you do that, good for you. However the point is not that it's too much reading or w/e, but rather that it's far more than the typical christian cares to do. To assume christians actually do that is the mental part, but you choosing to do; if that makes sense. edit : To the downvote, do you honestly think the majority o…
Of that 70% is a large chunk who never even attend church, who claim to be Christian for reasons unclear to anyone.
It turns out about 27% of Americans[0] read their Bible several times per week, with more than half of those reading it daily.
[0] https://www.barna.com/research/state-of-the-bible-2018-seven...