The Word Cloud

5 Comments

• 

  by Jak 1 year ago

  Simply - everyone is different. What works for you might not work for someone else. Personally I would say that if it's not broken don't fix it.
  Jak
• 

  by Tony 1 year ago

  I think the best way to learn a new language or improve at it, is the same way a baby learns it's mother-tongue. Listen to others talking in that language as much as possible. I'm hopeless at languages, but I did learn a bit of French at school and I can just about get by in France. (I certainly couldn't even begin to write a novel in French!) However, when we once spent a longer vacation in the country, I noticed my conversation was definitely improving by the end our holiday. I don't think there's anything to beat hearing the language being spoken continuously to help you improve your own use of it.
• 

  by Has'san 1 year ago

  Thanks for the help Jak and Tony, that was certainly very helpful.
• 

  by Kate.J 1 year ago

  The best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it, and whether you play safe and take great care to get your message across, or whether you sail in regardless is going to depend both on personality and situation. Where are you when you are practising, who are you practising with, how serious are the consequences of getting it wrong, what sort of person you are yourself, all sorts of things.
  But from your very well-written post whatever you are doing obviously works for you!
  You do get to a stage in language learning when you feel you are no longer a complete beginner and then you can start judging yourself too harshly. When you're a beginner you feel a glow of satisfaction being able to speak and understand a few words, or read a few words in a non-Roman script, but then you start getting frustrated because you THINK you should be able to speak better than you can. And because your comprehension is generally far better than your ability to speak the language, the frustration grows.
  And as Tony says, actually being in the language area and having to speak the language is a great boost to learning. Singing in the language is good too, because a major problem for language learning is intonation, and you don't have to worry about this in songs, you can just practise the sounds.
  I have to work with lot of different languages for my job, and I am good at picking up the basics very quickly - but then instantly losing them when I no longer have the exposure.
  And remember your mistakes can bring joy to others - I once had a whole German tour bus in stitches by proclaiming solemnly that I had fallen in love with my lens cap, when I meant I had lost it. (well the words are similar!)
• 

  by Has'san 1 year ago

  Thanks for the help Kate.J, this was certainly quite worthwhile knowing that what I most of the time think about it is right.