dlg@philabs.UUCP (Deryl Gaier) (02/07/85)
A few weeks ago, I posted an article to this group asking for people's suggestions on how they learned a new language, and having once learned a language, how they went about retaining their knowledge of it. I received only a few replies, but here is what they had to say: Learning a language: By far the best method (with the most lasting results) was to immerse yourself in the language by either living in a country that spoke the language or taking a language intensive course where you are forced to speak the language exclusively. Next best method is a classroom situation. One tip for reaching fluency quicker was not to memorize vocabulary by associating the foreign word with its equivalent in english, but rather to associate it with a mental picture of the object it describes. Retaining a language: Once a language has been learned, most people found that lack of practice caused them to loose their ability very quickly, but this ability would come back very fast if they were again immersed in the language. Ways of maintaining the language included intensive courses, watching movies, reading books, conversing with others who speak the language, and traveling to a country which uses this language. I would like to thank all of the people who replied, and if anyone else has any further suggestions, be sure to drop me a note. Deryl Gaier