A former coworker learned English almost exclusively by watching the TV show, Family Guy. (Needless to say, he’s not the most tactful speaker now, but hey—it got the job done!) Others swear that you have to completely immerse yourself in the foreign place/culture if you really want to learn the language. Curious to know what helped you hone your fluency in another language?
Despite Having a Spanish-Speaking Family, I’m One of Those “Dumb (Unilingual) Americans”
You’ve probably heard the joke:What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual.
What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual.
And what do you call someone who speaks only one language? American.
Yeeup. Until about a year ago, I was one of those single-language idiots ... and I’m perfectly fine making fun of myself for it.
Despite the majority of my family on my mom’s side speaking Spanish, I wasn’t taught the language growing up. My mom wanted to teach my sister and me when we were little, but she didn’t feel comfortable conjugating verbs. She thought it would be better for us to learn proper Spanish later in life if we wanted to speak it. Wish she would have taught us a little more than basic vocabulary like “llaves” (keys) and “zapatos” (shoes) though. Lol
After Meeting @Shenanigator, We Decided to Learn Spanish Together
Now, it’s been a little over a year that we’ve been doing daily, 30-minute Spanish lessons through Pimsleur. We’re feeling comfortable enough to watch movies in Spanish to reinforce what we’re learning in our lessons.
(source)
And I can kinda write that paragraph in Spanish now…
A hora, desde hace un año y un poco más hemos estado practicar lección de Español de Pimsleur todos los días. Estamos (feeling) sufficiente cómodo a veremos películas (to reinforce) que aprendemos en nuestro lecciones.Hopefully that’s at least partially correct. ;)
What Tricks Helped YOU Learn a New Language?
My high school Spanish teacher said the best way to learn the language was by watching dubbed Disney movies. I’m sure there are other creative methods out there.I would LOVE to hear ... what funny, practical, or outrageous methods you have used to learn another language?
I like a combination of 3 approaches:
Deconstruct - what are the minimal learnable units you should start with?
Selection: pick the 20% of the language that is used the most frequently.
Sequencing: how do you choose the order you want to learn things? (this is covered well by programs)
Stakes: How do you set up stakes so that you have incentive to learn? i.e. plan a trip to visit another country that speaks the language, make a bet with a friend, etc
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
That seems like a solid approach. Do you have any personal experience with this?
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
A little, but I always fall off the wagon. To me the most important part is stakes: having a reason to continue studying is pivotal.
Question though: do you prefer 30 minutes a day or a longer session a few times a week? It's easy to get into a rhythm with 30 minutes a day but I think longer sessions are more likely to promote flow states that may lead to better retention.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
That's a really good hypothesis. A lot of times, we end up doing more than one 30-minute lesson per day, but at different times throughout the day. As a general rule, I'm doing it every day of the week, though. I think it ensures that the lessons don't get forgotten from day to day.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Ah, Tim Ferriss, gotta love that guy! He knows how to hack the hell out of everything it seems lol. Interestingly enough, @shenanigator and I did add stakes to our Spanish learning. We said every time we don't do a daily lesson, we have to contribute $5 to our travel fund. That fund could ONLY be used to travel to a Spanish-speaking country.
I'll have to see if switching social media sites to Spanish is doable at this point. I remember doing that for fun in high school once and couldn't figure out how to switch it back! lol
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
The method your Spanish teacher suggested is helpful. I've watched movies in the languages of my choice to help me pick up words and phrases better, too! When I took 18 hours of college Spanish, I used some mnemonic techniques for faster memory recall. I also wrote some language learning suggestions in my article called https://steemit.com/culture/@poetrychick/tips-on-communicating-with-chinese-in-laws-and-relating-to-their-culture-story-alert-my-personal-experiences-included :) If it helps you, check it out. :)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Do you notice it getting gradually easier after watching movies? So far, we've just figured out that some actors/actressese enunciate and others don't...that tends to be the determining factor on how much we pick up throughout the film. ;)
Just checked out your article and I love your point #2 on just getting the vocab down and worrying about correctness later. The more I talk to people who speak Spanish, the more I hear: it doesn't matter if you're speaking correctly, most people are glad you're trying and they'll figure it out! lol
P.S. looks like we have a lot in common! Following you and looking forward to reading more. Let me know if you need any help navigating Steemit!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Yes, I have found that watching movies helps me pick up more easily. I'm glad you found something interesting and helpful in my article! I'm following you too! I'll let you know if I need help, thank you. I appreciate it. :)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Oooh dubbed Disney could work. I am trying to get my way around hindi but it's super hard!
Also,
French too :)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Is that right?? I've never been to France, but I do hear that many of the people there get highly offended/disgusted/annoyed when people "dare" to come there without knowing perfect French. That would kinda make sense if they choose not to learn other languages. ;P
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
They don't even try to understand you :l
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Sad! Their loss. :)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
You can just force yourself to learn the language by changing the language while your gaming or the language on your phone for example. At first it'll be really tough but after a while you'll get the hang of it.
The most effective way however probably is just living in a foreign country for some months to learn the language. Nothing helps better than forced communication for a while. (You will have to want to learn it of course and not just approach everyone in english.)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Great suggestion! And that's super true about being in another country and avoiding the familiar language. It's so easy to default to what you know really well, but that's obviously not going to help. What language did you learn by doing these things? :)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
https://steemit.com/education/@llange/what-s-the-best-international-language-to-learn
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
No te olvides de poner el tag spanish en tus posts.
Si tienes dudas acerca del funcionamiento te invito a que leas las Steemit FAQ:
Steemit FAQ #1
Steemit FAQ #2
Hemos creado tambien un chat en discord donde interactuamos los unos con los otros y nos promocionamos.
Y no te pierdas los audioconferencias entre los miembros cervantiles y los canales de promocion por categorias
Tambien estamos en Steemitchat https://steemit.chat/channel/HispanoHablantes
valorado en 2000 SBD!!!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Nice post
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
good, mi ingles no es bueno jeje
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Esta bien! Entiendo usted mas o menos. :)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I take advantage of Memrise's offline mode while I take the underground subway. Currently working on French & German.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit