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Here's a tip that my sister told me. When you're learning a language, in order to boost your fluency, you don't want to be translating every word in your head back to your native language. When you learn a word you want to try to picture what the word means in your head. For example, the French word chat means cat in English. When you learn that word, you should try to picture a cat in your head, not translate it back to English.
I might not have done a good job at explaining that tip, but hopefully it makes sense.
Please share whatever tips you have as well, ^̮^
Have a good day and happy learning! -3rdButterfly
Edit: To the people who gave me lingots, thank you!!
Edit: To all the people who commented and shared more tips, thank you!
Responses:
Do tiny random bits of practice dozens of times a day, by translating random tiny things into your target language. Hear an ad on the radio? Translate it. See an ad slogan on the side of a bus? Translate it. Walk past a news stand and see a headline? Translate it. Overhear a bit of conversation? Translate it. How's your day going? Translate it. Read my tip here? Translate it. :-)
When you find a new word in your target language that you want to know what it means,read its definition in your target language not what it means in your language
Learn new vocabulary in short three or four-word phrases like:
sur la table
toute la journée
à la question
It can help to get the sound of a phrase in your mind, and help when later you start speaking sentences because you aren’t translating word for word. It can also reinforce plural and gender agreement and other usage rules.
Or if possible,
when the words become more complex see if there is a link to a simple 'root' word.
I often try to associate new words with something that I can envisage. And not in relation to its English translation.
I always write my grocery list in Finnish. I started that very early in studying the language. Also years and years (and years cause I'm really old) when I was taking French in college (long before the existence of the internet) one of my brothers had to take a business trip to France and while he was wandering around a French residential neighborhood he stumbled on a yard sale (we call them garage sales here even though people usually don't have them in their garages) and bought about 20 Agatha Christie mysteries in French for me. I was a huge Agatha Christie fan and had already read all of her mystery books in the original English and I had great fun reading the French versions. 40 years later I still have those books even though they are disintegrating.
watch movies in your target language with the subtitles off
I heard a lot of suggestions that one should try to read books or other material in the target language, which makes sense. But when I looked for books appropriate for learning French (those at a reasonable length and difficulty level), I found mostly titles that I would have zero interest in.
So instead, I picked a fantasy novel I read and loved in English (Magician: Apprentice by Raymond E. Feist for the curious). It's a full length fantasy, so not short, and it has a lot of terminology that I wouldn't know... but I'd read it before and it's a story I enjoy, which are two huge advantages.
I'm about halfway through that now and while I won't pretend it's going quickly, my memory of the story (from something like 15 years ago) means I tend to get the gist of what's going on even when there are several words I'd not seen before (and can often guess at their meaning or make do without looking them up), and because it's a story I love, it doesn't end up feeling tedious or boring. (It's been fun rediscovering the old book honestly.)
So when you're looking for serious reading to enhance your immersion or breadth of input, consider a book you already know you love that's been translated to (or if you're lucky perhaps from) the target language.
eBook retailers are a good way to find such texts. I picked up Magicien l'Apprenti from Kobo for C$10, and pretty much any eReader will have translation dictionaries built-in. (I use a Clara HD - small, light, simple, no frills, but still has basic stuff like dictionary.)
Switch to the target language and just talk to yourself, pretend you're a Youtuber doing a vid in a foreign language or something. Whenever I go on a long drive somewhere, I narrate the whole thing in German and just talk about whatever I want, even if no one's listening
In accordance with this post I'd like to add that seeing the words as synonymous could help you reach fluency! I suggest seeing them as synonymous because, truly, we're learning new words for the exact same things (most of the time, unless there's a word you're learning that doesn't translate to your first language).
In our mother tongue we often know a lot of words for the same thing anyway - like how in English you can say angry, mad, or upset to convey the same emotion of similar degree. To me, a new word in another language is no different, except that I probably won't use it when speaking to someone who doesn't know that word in my target language, of course. This can also make it easier to start thinking in your target language, which is something I find tremendously helpful.
One more thing that's very helpful is switching your phone or computer to your target language if you feel comfortable with that, or at least comfortable enough that you know how to switch it back if necessary!
Learning Languages:
I often hear people claim that the problem foreign language students make is that they spend too much time studying a language by learning words and grammar.They say you don't learn a language by studying it and their advice is to just speak it. That advice never made sense to me because a language is made of words and grammar so how does a person speak a language if they don't know any words or grammar of the language? How can a person say, "Go to the store and buy me milk" in a foreign language if a person doesn't know the words for "go", "store", "buy" and milk? You may say that obviously a person has to learn a few words first and then they should start trying to have conversations in that language. However I don't think that learning a few words is good enough to make a conversation.
Imagine if you learn a few thousand words in a language and know 80% of all common words. That may sound like a lot but it still means that if you have a conversation, you won't understand or express 1 out of 5 words. That means that you won't be able to understand the conversation nor will the other people be able to understand you. The words you don't know may be very important. For example, in we look at my example sentence ("Go to the store and buy me milk"), imagine if you know how to say everything else in the sentence except for the word "milk". How can you ask for milk if you don't know how to say "milk"? People think that I am stubborn when I make these points but I don't understand. Am I not making a legitimate point and asking a legitimate question? Perhaps I am misunderstanding people's advice and if so can you clarify what people mean?
I think that in order to learn a language, a person must speak, read, write, and listen to the language but it is best if it is done in an organized way. It is pointless to try to speak a sentence if you don't know most of the words in the that sentence and it is pointless to follow a conversation if you don't know most of the words used in that conversation. I think that a teacher must first teach a student some basic common words and grammar rules. Then the student must do exercises which only use the words they were taught. They must be given a sentence in their native language and translate it to a foreign language and vice versa. This process must be done by speaking, listening, reading, and writing in the language. Then the teacher must gradually introduce more words and grammar rules and the student must do new exercises with the new words as well as review the old words.
This process repeats until a student knows about 99% of all common words and then the student should now try to have a real conversation with people in the foreign language. This process seems to be how Duolingo works and it makes sense to me. If you disagree could you kindly tell me the flaw to my argument. I don't wish to argue but to understand and learn.
I don't really have a header for this:
I hope many of you will consider joining the forum at forum.duome.eu. [edit: we currently don’t have down-voting there and strive to be a positive community of mutual encouragement for enthused language learners] It was started as a possible alternative to this site’s forum (after it was announced this site’s forum will be closing toward the end of March), and I think it’s coming along beautifully.
I’ve been a member of Duolingo for many years but only applied myself off and on.
Last year, I was especially active because of a new year’s resolution to remain number one in the diamond league every week.
Even though I’m approaching a million xp in Swahili, I still haven’t even mastered the course. (i have purplified it and written out the sentences but still struggle here and there). But when I see some things like a giraffe, I won’t necessarily think “giraffe” I’ll think “twiga.” I am so excited about learning more of the language and visiting people who speak it. They seem like family to me now.
I want to learn a language the way a child learns a language. With the same brain pathways. With the same child-like innocence.
Duolingo may not be “the best way” to learn a language but there is no best way. If it can build enthusiasm and a working knowledge it can’t be totally invalid.
If you are learning a language from your native language, aren’t you subvocalizing your own language half the time? What good does that do? That’s one reason it may be good to learn a language from another language. For example, (if your native tongue is English) try learning Italian from Portuguese or Chinese from Japanese. Then you are more likely to be thinking in a language you’re trying to learn.
Poetry Translation Center online has a lot of bilingual poetry. I memorized a poem in Swahili there and have recited it in public more than once.
I have no negative feelings towards duolingo or any of its changes. Sometimes it will evolve for the better sometimes for the worse.
What is the purpose of language? Is it to communicate? Or more to obfuscate? I tend to think the latter and that’s why languages tend to proliferate as in New Guinea or the Aleutian Islands. Interesting to see how different aspects of Latin shattered into the various Romance languages.
Mathematics is the only truly universal language, in my opinion. Even music is an acquired taste for the most part.
But conlangs (like Ithkuil - see Joshua Foer’s Utopian for Beginners article) can be specially designed to do what we want them to do.
As Mister Rogers says, “The alphabet is fine but it’s what we do with it that matters most, making words like friend and love. That’s what really matters.”
Much love to all of you on your language journeys. I look forward to purplifying as many languages as I can over the years to come and talking with as many of you as I can!
Responses:
Yes. [edit: on the duome duolingo swahili forum, people have posted some amazing non-duolingo resources too! https://forum.duome.eu/viewforum.php?f=40]
There are some great bilingual Swahili poems (and poems in many other languages) at the Poetry Translation Center. Try googling that! A wonderful, free website.
I’m also exploring Swahili on the Drops app.
I agree that it’s completely crazy.
Thank you for the reasoning for learning one language from another, I just hope my basic french is up to the task of learning another language from it! I do agree that learning to 'think' in a language is the best way, and you are so right, as I'm reading the French I'm automatically translating at the same time, and not thinking in French
As you probably already know there are right now two languages that you can only learn via Spanish. I consider this a very difficult task but also rewarding. My suggestion though is really learn e.g. German from English before (or while also) learning German from French.
It’s very fascinating to think how our brains process language and language learning. I read that one of the greatest polyglots in history - a cardinal in the Catholic Church - used flash cards a lot and that was his secret. I was disappointed duolingo stopped tinycards but there is nothing to stop me from making them myself with scissors and paper!
Tips for learning languages:
Tip #1 Study before you sleep. It may seem like a bad idea but going to sleep after you study helps you retain information through the night. It's a proven method of studying called polysomnography.
Tip #2 Write down certain words that you have trouble remembering in notebooks and flashcards. It's a good way to memorize certain words you have trouble with.
Tip #3 Get help from somebody that has the language you're learning as their native language. You can get help from someone that knows the language you're trying to learn if you can and ask them questions and how to pronounce words in their language.
Tip #4 Use social media apps with the language on. (Use if you know enough words) Doing that can help you learn new words just by using it on a daily basis. That can help you learn new words and you can practice writing sentences in the language you are learning.
Hopefully this helps. Have a good day
LINK: http://www.fluentu.com/
FluentU is a language learning site that uses real YouTube videos with optional subtitles to help you improve your listening skills. The languages included are Chinese, Spanish, French, German, English, and Japanese. There are different language levels so that you can find videos that are just right for stage in learning—from "Newbie" to "Native"—so those of you who are highly advanced speakers may also like to give this site a try, as many of the videos are quite challenging, introducing vocabulary that you may never have heard before. Since these videos are real videos right from YouTube, you can find videos on many different topics, so you'll never be bored. The site is free, but there is a completely optional paid membership. Try out the site now! I recently learned of it from a fellow Duolingoer, and it has served me well thus far.
Hover over a word/symbol to see it's meaning or even add it to your flashcards for later study!
Thanks so much. I've just signed on for the Spanish course and watched a video of Maradona doing an ad for McDonalds. Classic :-)
Edit: This is the third site that I've joined today, the others being http://www.lingq.com/ and https://lingvist.io/ There is just so MUCH out there :-)