How /lit/ likes to learn their languages?

[Anonymous No.11959833]

I want to learn French in three years. For a month now, I have been doing the FSI public domain thing.
The idea was to solo now and, later, enter a classroom. But maybe classroom is better for beginners rather than intermediates. I feel kind of lost...

Also, those Verbling/itaki sites, are they worth it?

[Anonymous No.11959869]

>>11959833
if you've been putting in the effort solo mode, you're going to be much better off by time you do get to the classroom. Keep up with the preparatory work and then by time you can get into a class for it, you'll get outlasting questions & confusions you've had cleared up. But also, don't push yourself way beyond your comprehension along the material in your solo study; take your time at the beginner level, especially so that (in case your Uni/school makes you test into what level language course to take) you don't mistakingly test yourself into a higher level intermediate course than you should actually be in.

[Anonymous No.11960478]

I learned Japanese by just picking up a book and looking up every single word. It actually worked pretty well, I was able to easily read Murakami after about 6 months. I did this for 1-2 hours every day.

[Anonymous No.11961023]

Currently learning Latin. I'm working through a set of textbooks and struggling through content originally written in Latin.

[Anonymous No.11961069]

>>11960478
Would that work with Hebrew?

[Anonymous No.11961167]

I really only have one piece of advice, from someone who tried to learn French and gave up. As a romance language for grammar you want to focus on tenses above all else, how verbs fit into them and when each tense is used. It's boring as hell going through charts but if you master all of the common tenses your language comprehension will skyrocket. This is hell to look at in the beginning, but if you master the tenses you can do so much more with the language, just bite the bullet and grind it out.

[Anonymous No.11961174]

>>11959833
Abstain from sex/masturbation.
Inject Cerebrolysin.
Stimulants/Coffee/Nicotine
Then intensive study for 12 hours a day.

[Anonymous No.11961205]

>>11961167
to comment a little—if you think about what verbs are irregular in your native language, as long as your target language is somewhat close to your native then it's usually the same verbs—so common verbs in English like to eat or to run usually change their vowel instead of appending -ed; and more generally for non-English Indo-European languages verbs of being, knowing, and motion. you should mostly do this sort of analogical guesswork when you're reading on your own, and make a point of checking any conclusions you draw from this, but the process of making an educated guess helps you make your own mnemonics, even if you guess wrong.

[Anonymous No.11961823]

>>11961023
I took a semester on latin in college, then I bought the Vulgate, which is the first latin translation of the original Greek works that make the new testament and the Hebrew of the old testament, with the english side by side text, way easier than having a dictionary alongside, and by the time I finished reading it I pretty much never needed to refer to the english. The hardest bit of latin is first figuring out the shot ton of conjugations for almost every part of speech.

I'm learning japanese now. I guess I like the complicated languages. I started learning the the katakana and hiragana, their two sets of alphabets, by just copying it, then writing them out over and over till it was like second nature. The kanji is way harder, there's like thousands of symbols that each can have multiple meanings and pronunciations depending on intent, and then there are kanji combinations which just complicate things more. For kanji they have either groupings of n5-n1 or grades 1 and up, and I'm pretty much doing flash cards of kanji & meanings, then kanji & main pronunciation, then the pronunciation and I come up with all the meanings and draw the kanji according to its stroke order, because if it wasn't complicated enough there is a particular stroke pattern which is considered correct. Apart from that the 100 most common words and 100 phrases. Then I just watch a shit ton of of japanese movies, tv, and anime, obviously in japanese but also with japanese subtitles when available. Its helpful if it's something you've already seen so you're not completely in the dark but even if you haven't seen it it's amazing how much you can pick up from context. And it's way better to hear the language used conversationally rather than stiffly like a lot of recorded lessons.

All in all, the best technique for learning any language is immersion. If you can't be in a place everyone speaks the language then just try to create your own environment of immersion.

[Anonymous No.11961846]

>>11959833
I've done this in German, coming up to three years, and I'm pretty good but not fluent. I started with 6 months of study, took some private lessons, then classes, then italki via skype, then trips to DE.

Looking back, the study period was valuable, but despite my best efforts I wound up with some deep seated pronunciation problems. The classes really didn't help there because the teacher mainly corrected grammar errors and not shit like vowel sounds. That wasn't bad teaching, she just didn't have the time to break us down over every single word we said.

If I did it again I would subdivide my 'periods' of learning less and try to take a few classes earlier plus force myself into consuming media earlier even if I couldn't parse it well.

[Anonymous No.11961862]

Please study on your own. I learned almost no English in however many years of public education, and when I started using it a lot and studying on my own I was able to get a C2 level score on the CAE with no problems in about a year

[Anonymous No.11961863]

Please study on your own. I learned almost no English in however many years of public education, and when I started using it a lot and studying on my own I was able to get a C2 level score on the CAE with no problems in about a year

[Anonymous No.11961888]

>>11960478
same desu

[Stop posting anime !QkRJTXcpFI No.11961889]

>>11959833
Shut up

[Anonymous No.11963228]

>>11959833
>>11959833
bump

[Anonymous No.11963248]

>>11959833
i like getting grammars, autistically copying down the entire grammar into a notebook or two, rereading the grammar every day, then getting dual-language texts to familiarize myself, then just jumping into short stories.

However I was made aware of this Lingua Latina per se illustrata, which is fucking based, it just immerses you immediately in it. I have already done a fair amount of Wheelock's latin grammar so it is a bit easier than for someone completely foreign to it, but it is still very cool.

[Anonymous No.11963318]

>>11960478
How do you do this? I've tried doing this multiple times, and having to constantly pause to look up words kills any enjoyment in reading.

Also, how good would you say your spoken Japanese is?

[Anonymous No.11963339]

I’m learning French right now. Duolingo is what I use to help practice pronunciation and learn words. For grammar I just look up guides on YouTube or Google. I’ve been thinking about buying a book wtritten in French and trying to read it. Any good recs for moderately difficult French books? Maybe Camus?

[Anonymous No.11963374]

>>11963339
You could try Maupassant by reading a very short story online (check maupassant dot free dot fr), and see if it fits your taste and level.
I don't think Houellebecq would be very difficult, probably not more than Camus. Among the easy-but-good stuff, there's also Agota Kristof, short stories by Supervielle, smart crime stories by Jean-Patrick Manchette, or even La Planète des Singes by Pierre Boulle

[Anonymous No.11963389]

>>11963374
>You could try Maupassant by reading a very short story online (check maupassant dot free dot fr), and see if it fits your taste and level.
Not that guy, but thanks, this was a good suggestion.

[Anonymous No.11963844]

>>11963339
Fuck Duolingo, You're retention and rate of learning and understanding pronunciation will be far less adequate than using old anki for spaced repitation.

Here's a method that can get you far

Download anki

Download this deck and finish it, only about 600 words (don't hit good unless you remember both the word and pronunciation): https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/397151029

download this deck and stick with it for as long as necessary:
https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1089240419

During this continually watch French shows/movies with either French subtitles or none, and pay good attention the pronunciation, pacing, and intonation. Find a sentence spoken in the movie that you can handle and continually replay and mimick it for about 5 minutes.

[Anonymous No.11964031]

>>11961069
not him but it could work for anything i suppose

[Anonymous No.11964039]

>>11959833
Why not Latin though?

[Anonymous No.11964070]

>>11960478
how do u type the kanji tho