Learning a new language

[anon89892515]

Learning a new language thread!

[anon89892515]

I’m working towards passing a language certification test in Japanese. Becoming fluent means that I’ll have better job options and can make more money.

Being financially unstable is one of my major depression triggers. So this is a must.

My daily plan includes:

• Speaking practice: 30min to 1 hour
• Listening practice: 30min
• Kanji writing practice: 1 hour
• Reading practice: 30min

I was able to get through everything yesterday. Speaking practice is done for now after being at work. If anybody knows any helpful tips for learning a second language, I’d love to hear them!

[anon89892515]

Thanks Cate

There is a website and book called Fluent Forever that is helpful. It has a lot of practical advice, and has helped me a lot.

I use the Anki app everyday, and it works great. Daily repitition is the key to keeping vocabulary memorized.

Anki also has a lot of pre-made community vocabulary and grammar decks. Check it out! The Fluent Forever website also has common word list decks for Anki that will help you memorise the most common 1000 words. Once you have that down you should be able to communicate well. It also has videos on how to get started with Anki. It’s great once you figure it out.

The great thing about Spainish is that there will be a lot of words that are similar to English words, and both languages use the Latin alphabet.

Some other cool apps are Drops, Memrise, and Duolingo. Let me know if you get started!

[anon44659383]

Yes. Yes, you did

[anon44659383]

Fast learner! Now into French then Italian

[anon44659383]

I see we have the same attention span. Squirrel!!!

[anon89892515]

Congrats on day one! Keep on it and you won’t believe how fast you pick it up!

I recommend Netflix too. I like to watch shows I’ve seen before with the audio dubbed in the language I’m studying. The voice acting has gotten really good! Mindhorn was hilarious in Japanese!!

You change it around too, so sometimes you can watch with just the audio in the other language. Then watch it again and add in Spanish subtitles, and look up new words. You can watch with English subtitles too, but usaIly I end up just watching the show when I do that.

MyLanguageExchange is good site too. You can find language exchange partners and make new friends.

iTalki seems good too. It’s and you can focus on just your language and skip the exchange part. I’ve met some lifelong friends on the MyLanguageExchange site though. I’ve met some crazies too! It’s kind of fun.

[anon89892515]

It worked! I got through last night and hit all my times!! Now I’m gonna add in getting my butt out of bed at 6am everyday. See how that goes.

I’ve wanted to start a thread like this for a while. It’s more fun and easier to stay on track with goals when other people are involved. I honestly don’t know if this is the right place or context to do it. I don’t want to spam the forum. I guess people can mute the thread if they don’t want to see it.

Thanks @anon51407452 and @anon44659383 for posting. I was gonna have to cry and feel sad for myself if the thread ended up empty. So you can consider that a good deed for the day!

I changed the thread intro. Mo simple, mo betta!!

[anon89892515]

I wonder if I should just change name of the thread to “Learning Second Languages” instead of “Goals”. Goals seems too broad, and there are lots of other good threads on maintaining specific goals. Maybe it’s better to go that route? What do you think??

[anon44659383]

Bonne idée​:blush:

[anon89892515]

Thanks Joanie, I think it’s better way to go. I’m still learning the unwritten rules of social media

[AppropriateStress]

Nice plan! I need to make a plan to learn manderin, I have not been making any strides even though the household I live in speaks daily manderin Chinese.

I will be in this household for five years so I do need to make a plan to learn while I’m in home with native bejing style speakers

[anon89892515]

I have a buddy who has been living in Shanghai for about 15 years. He can speak, and read and write fluently. Plus he’s a big white dude. I’ll see if I can get some tips from him to post. I think he started learning in his late 20s so it’s not impossible. Mandarin is a practical language to learn! So many Chinese restaurants

[AppropriateStress]

Id love any tips ! All of the hints and tricks lol

[anon89892515]

I’ll talk with him tonight, and post later

[anon44659383]

To the back of the class, lady

[ifs]

Language guy here!

My interest is actually in linguistics more than languages per se, to split hairs, but there’s plenty of overlap

So I’m a native English speaker, and learned a good deal of French in secondary school and university as well as working/living in Quebec, though I’ve since forgotten a lot. Use it or lose it. I’m learning Russian these days, but I’m a little behind after putting it on hold for a few weeks.

Usually I just spend an hour a day after breakfast working through my textbook. It’s actually a grammar text rather than general, but it works well for me. I’ve found that it’s much easier for me to learn vocabulary if I know the rules for using it, because it’s using it in a wide variety of situations that helps it sink in for me. I’m not the kind of person that is happy rote memorizing anything, I wanna really grok it. Learning French grammar in high school gave me the framework to pick up 90% of my vocabulary during my immersion period in Quebec and my French literature classes in university.

I generally also expose myself to a fair amount of spoken Russian as I am studying. I don’t need to pay attention to it very much, it’s for letting my brain become really familiar with the phonemes, allophones, stress patterns, etc. just subconsciously. If I do enough of that, picking out from speech the words I’ve learned from the page will just come naturally. Everything that I read or write for content and meaning I also read again to “hear” it in my head, and for me to pronounce myself.

Getting a language exchange partner is on my to do list, I haven’t had one in a long time. It’ss essential for me to ensure I’m speaking not just correctly but naturally. Word choice, pronunciation, accent, idioms, context-appropriate mannerisms. I haven’t made this step yet because I’m not ready to schedule anything regular, and the time zone thing. I’d also be lying if I said anxiety wasn’t a factor. The gold, though, would be immersion. Maybe one day.

There basically isn’t a language I don’t want to learn…

[Ehollster]

Nice! I’m currently learning Spanish. Watching free online tutorials, Duolingo, listening to Spanish music isn’t the car, watching TV shows with alternating voice dubs and subtitles and reading Spanish news articles. A little obsessed, I know. I don’t really have anyone to converse with so doing better with reading and listening comprehension.
Good luck!

[anon44659383]

Je viens du Québec!

[anon44659383]

Lol, Bootz😁