Comments on: 5 Tips for self-studying a foreign language

By: waitinginthedark

waitinginthedark — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:37:59 +0000

Great tips, Celine!
I would also suggest a few additional possible tricks that can be useful once you have gained a minimum familiarity with the language
a) read books with original text on the opposite page
b) watch movies in original version with subtitles
c) use holidays to practice, e.g. by joining a group/tour operator of the country/language you are learning instead of one of your native country. I did this in Venezuela. Instead of travelling with Italians, I went all the time around with Venezuelan. A great opportunity to practice Spanish and to discover something more about the country
d) read regularly some articles. it wont’ take you more than 15 minutes. chose a topic that you like. gossip is absolutely fine. learning is so more effective if you’re having fun!
Cheers!

By: Italian Learner

Italian Learner — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:33:26 +0000

Wow Celline, Really Its a nice post as You are talking about self study. In my opinion it is really very helpful for the children studying foreign language moreover this could be fun also. Great tips and ideas, would like to hear more about this…

By: Benny the Irish polyglot

Benny the Irish polyglot — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:00:57 +0000

Those are quite the best concise tips I’ve seen!
I also agree with Renato’s #6 – I combine learning languages with hobbies like making videos and cooking etc.
I’ll add my own to the mix (I have already successfully learned 7 languages ) #7: Keep a positive attitude and be confident! This is extremely important because you can feel discouraged when you can barely communicate, and feel like you are making it awkward for the other person. It’s better to have fun, appreciate that you sound silly at first and go with that.
A very important #8 is: DON’T SPEAK ENGLISH. Even if you apply all of these other methods perfectly, but spend all of your time abroad with expats, only using the language when necessary (asking directions etc.), you won’t actually make much progress. You should convince your English speaking friends to speak the language with you, or if they don’t understand anything and you really do have to hang out (boyfriend/girlfriend etc.) then use as many pleasantries (please, thank you, see you!) as possible in the other language so you are getting into the mix. When we keep switching back to English we lose our momentum in the other language.
I’m trying to write about learning methods myself (having learned 7 languages). I’m currently on a mission to learn Czech (apparently Europe’s hardest language) in just 3 months!! Follow my blog to see if I make it and for other language learning tips!
Thanks

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:02:00 +0000

Celine, thanks for these tips! I think your advice is right on, and I especially like the idea of having measurable goals. I minored in French in college, so I have the grammatical underpinnings of the language in my remote memory. I had decided to practice my French this summer by participating in a French book club. Since I had decided to practice French, I had also taken advantage of signing up for a free, weekly Spanish class at my church. I may continue this class just to absorb some facts about the Spanish language, but I quickly realized that I can only intently focus on one lanuage at a time. I’ve decided I’m going to put the focus of my energy into my French. I also have a friend is a fluent French speaker who emails me (in French), so that I have to just give it my best shot at responding to her in written French. Another thing I do, to practice and renew my French vocabulary, is to write daily notes to myself in French (e.g., my grocery list, “to do” notes to myself).

By: Caron Margarete

Caron Margarete — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:41:19 +0000

Celine, great tips and great timing!I was just saying to a friend earlier how hard a time I’m having learning Chinese- even though I live in China! As an English Teacher I’m surrounded by English and all the Chinese want is to speak English! Aaahhhh… so now I’m taking a step out of the English speaking community more often, putting myself in situations that force me to speak natively but I have also begun reviewing my Chinese lessons just before I go to sleep… funny things happen in my subconscious! =) Must add, I love Renato’s tip about listening and running… will be trying that one!

By: Nora

Nora — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:14:51 +0000

On my last trip to Southeast Asia, the airline (which had interactive screens on the back of every seat) had a language instruction program among the movies, television shows, and selection of kitschy games.
On my flight, I learned to count to 1 million in Thai, as well as mastering a few basic phrases. Once on the ground I learned a few more tidbits from locals, and after a week or so I was able to converse and negotiate with vendors solely in Thai. It was great fun!
So check out ALL the programs available on the seatbacks on planes: you never know what you’ll find.

By: Renato

Renato — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:17:01 +0000

Tip #6, combine your self-studying with one of your passions. I like running and I am studing German: I found an amazing free podcast (german-podcast.blogspot.com) and I now go running every day with my iPod and keep going until I grab the basics of every lesson. Much better and with obvious goals than the evening lessons I used to take. Next weekend I am going to enjoy a half marathon in Hamburg (www.hamburg-halbmarathon.de): one of the goal is to talk for the entire race to other runners only in German. Silly, but it should work.

By: Andreas

Andreas — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:19:04 +0000

oops typo, “… but I have NOT succeeded in this passive approach so far.”

By: Andreas

Andreas — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:17:08 +0000

Well, I have been trying to learn German for a while. I am from Sweden, and from a historical perspective, Swedish is a distant “dialect” of german. It has Germanic roots, at least. I have been living in Austria since 6 months, but I was going back and forth between Sweden and Austria for about two years before that. I thought learning German would be real easy for me, and I was thinking I would kind of absorb the language after a while, but I have succeeded in this passive approach so far. I normally learn new languages easy, but with German it just wouldn’t stick. The main reason I wouldn’t learn it, is because I have been talking English all the time, since most people here understand it. So I took one month’s course in a volkshochschule, a kind of post-gymansium school, which gave me the basic grammatical structure, after that I started to catch up more much faster. And I am now forcing myself to not speak English, anywhere, anytime. So lessons learned: it requires a LOT of practice and even if it comes out all wrong it is better to just try it out.

By: Nomadic Matt

Nomadic Matt — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:19:06 +0000

these are great tips Celine!