dlg@philabs.UUCP (Deryl Gaier) (01/11/85)
During the short time that I have been reading net.nlang (approx. 3 months), I have not seen much discussion regarding this subject. If it has been thoroughly covered before, could someone bring me up to date. For those of you who decide to learn to speak and write another language, how do you go about learning it? At present, I am working full time, and working on a master's degree in the evening. However, the school I attend does not offer foreign language courses. My question therefore is: What are the various ways to learn a language that some of you have used (or haven't used, but think might be good), and what types of success have you had with them. I am looking for the unusual methods (ie. other than classroom) since I do not have a large amount of time, but I would be interested in some type of self-study course where I could adjust it to my schedule. Also, once a language has been learned, how do you get enough practice in the language to retain your familiarity with it. This has been a difficult part for me. When I graduated from college 5 years ago, I had a minor in German, but over the years, I have not had enough chance to practice it, so I am gradually forgeting most of what I have learned. I realize that with some serious study I could bring most of it back, but I would be interested in some way of keeping my knowledge of the language fresher. So, how about it? For those of you who speak several languages, how did you learn them in the first place, and how do you keep in practice? If there is sufficient interest, I will do a short summary.
barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Barry Gold) (01/16/85)
I've found the following principles help a lot while acquiring a language.
1. Don't try to learn vocabulary as <foreign word> = <English word>
Instead try to tie each new foreign word in to the same sort of
referents you have for the English word. (Thus, instead of saying
"fune" is Japanese for ship, associate "fune" with a mental picture
of a Japanese ship, and only secondarily with the way the equivalent
word is pronounced/spelled in your native language.)
2. One of the best textbooks I used introduced each grammatical
principle with "pattern sentences" to be memorized and used as
bases for variations. Devise something like this, and then run
changes on the pattern with all relevant vocabulary. Try to use
sentences which tie in to the culture in which the language is
used.
3. Most textbooks don't give you a feeling for what diction level words
are. In your own language, you know what words/phrases/grammatical
patterns are formal/colloquial/slang, but it's hard to figure that
out for foreign languages. You might supplement formal study by
buying comics in the foreign language. Seeing movies and television
shows helps too.
Hope this has been of some help.
--Lee Gold