posted
English is my mother tongue, and I speak reasonably good German. I recently decided to learn some foreign languages, so I picked up some books on Russian and French. Then I decided that anything worth doing was worth overdoing, so I picked up some books on Spanish and Japanese as well. All this meant is that I would spread my studying so thin I would learn nothing. Sooo....
I decided to learn just one new language - Russian. (I am not sure why I picked Russian - just seems cool.) Here is my plan of attack. A person can have a working vocabulary with only 1000 words or so, and with 3000 words a person could likely claim fluency in a language.
To that end, in addition to studying Russian grammar and phases in a book, I have decided to make sure I memorize 10 new words every day. This means in one year, I will have learned 3650 words, which should be cool. To make sure I learn them, I am using 4x6 index cards.
Each card will conatain maybe 5 words. Nouns will only go on a card with other nouns of the same gender, regular and irregular verbs are separated, colors are on one card, and so on.
I will quiz myself with these cards every day, to refresh everything I have learned. (I won't do every card every day; I will just give myself a pop quiz with cards picked at random in an attempt to insure that I remember what I have learned.)
What do you think of my system? Any other suggestions?
From: Cincinnati | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
I've never used it, but I've heard really good things about Rosetta Stone.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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future king
Excuse me but can you please direct me to the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles?
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I recommend that you record your voice speaking all the new words you learn, and then erase them later as you go. It has something to do with memory retention being better when you hear yourself speak.
Don't ask me why this works but it sure helped my brother and I re-learn Greek 6 years after we moved to Canada (having forgotten almost everything in the six years we were living here and then had to go back and learn it again). Our parents did this with us at our teacher's request.
Small children are such cyphers!
From: ontario | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
I've been studying Mandarin using Rosetta Stone. I think it's an awesome method because it avoids translations altogether; you work with the foreign language and pictures, nothing else. And you hear natives pronouncing things, which definitely helps.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Pov: What's Mandarin for, "Thank you to our new Overlords! Allow me to bend forward and grab my ankles while you collect ourdebt!"
No idea. I'm at the 'this is a green apple' level.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
If the price of Rosetta Stone seems too much, see if your public library offers access to Mango Languages, a web-based language-learning program that is available for free.
-------------------- The only character in all of literature who has been described as "badnass" while using the phrase "vile miscreant."
From: The Pyngwyn Colonies of Planet Hyustyn | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Pov: What's Mandarin for, "Thank you to our new Overlords! Allow me to bend forward and grab my ankles while you collect ourdebt!"
awl hale inn-sewer-ants kompa-knees
*Phonetic mandarin.
-------------------- Damn you, you kids! Get off my lawn or I'm callin' tha cops!
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
All joking aside, I took french in highschool way back when. I remember zero of it. I would like to learn spanish and possibly a little bit of some other language.
-------------------- Damn you, you kids! Get off my lawn or I'm callin' tha cops!
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