How to learn a language?

[Anonymous No.10646768]

Does Duolingo actually work? I want to learn French/German and fixup my Spanish thats rusty but I can't tell if its a meme or not.

The app displays pictures for the words and has pronunciations played out for you so its ok? How would I go about learning French/German and working on my rusty spanish? I'm minoring in French but had to Transfer and the new school im at is way by far more Study-at-Home type of class. Any help?

Do I watch movies or shows in French/German? I heard it helps

[Anonymous No.10646783]

>>10646768
>>>/int/lang

[Anonymous No.10646796]

Don't know about those languages, but I don't like how they teach with Chinese. They just throw a bunch of words at you and you just have to guess and check until they formally introduce you to the word. It'd better to use programs dedicated to the language

[Anonymous No.10646809]

>>10646796
This sometimes the things that they teach for Chinese are utterly retarded

[Anonymous No.10646815]

>>10646768
>German
pol will tech you

[Anonymous No.10646819]

>>10646768
I like duolingo, maybe you should take a real course alongside to learn the basics of sentences structures and shit like that
btw if you plan learning languages, learn about the propedeutic value of esperanto, it could be useful

[Anonymous No.10647069]

Duolingo is fine if you use it with other resources and use the site itself correctly
>don't memorize or copy paste answers
>spam test out to 5 after completing a lesson while adhering to the above
>don't use the app since it forces the word bank and lacks a lot of features, the mobile site is fine
>don't use the word bank
>Google any concepts you don't understand, duolingo should essentially be a guide to what to study and a review, not the lesson
In addition duo lacks a lot of native > target language challenges so some people like to flip duo for "target > native" courses to avoid this

Pronunciation should also be studied religiously and independently of duo while a beginner, also

[Anonymous No.10647095]

>>10647069
Also listening comprehension done elsewhere is necessary

[Anonymous No.10647445]

>>10646815
No
t. German

[Anonymous No.10647540]

>>10646768
No duolingo doesn't actually work but it's a great introduction. See it as the absolute 101 more there to peak your interest. If you finish the course you can go and actually start to take it seriously.

Download anki decks with vocabulary and download some grammar books and start to do exercises.

Immerse yourself by downloading tv shows in the language you want to learn and watch 1 thing a day in the language you want to learn. After finishing the 2-3 grammar books and mastering the ~5000 most common vocabulary words through anki you can do multiple things.

1: go to specific language forums and try to converse with people in their language. I actually came to 4chan to master English and I think it did its job
2: go on holiday to a country that speaks the language you want to learn and try to survive speaking only that language which is usually how you should "end" your language learning journey and it gives a huge payoff when you realize you can actually understand and speak the language.

[Anonymous No.10647971]

>>10646768
immerse, as long as you can, do not give up, it takes time and persistent,
for the start is kind of problematic watching a movie with subtitles stopped every 30seconds and check what does it mean, but finally, it will give you an incredibly good understanding of language, also buy a grammar book for your taught language

[Anonymous No.10647974]

>>10646768
Lang on /int/ has a good sticky visit that

[Anonymous No.10648067]

>>10646796
>I don't like how they teach with Chinese. They just throw a bunch of words at you and you just have to guess and check
But that's literally how asians learn things.

[Anonymous No.10648077]

>>10646796
That's how I learned Chinese. Just memorize ~6000 hanzi and you'll understand the entire language immediately.

[Anonymous No.10648080]

>>10648077
if not joke, how long did you spend to learn 6k characters?

[Anonymous No.10648089]

>>10646768
same why you do anything. by wanting it really badly thence figuring it out. if you 'want to' (i.e. would kind of like to) no method will work

[Anonymous No.10648098]

>>10646768
>How to learn a language?
Move to the country and speak to people. Everything else does not work well

[Anonymous No.10648108]

>>10648080
>if not a joke
This is actually normal if you want to learn mandarin. I'm surprised you never heard of it. It took me 2 years of about ~2 hours of memorization a day every day. I also consumed Chinese media and books in that time that I didn't count but also reinforced it.

University takes about 6 years to teach you this amount. It's far better to do so in your own time with help of anki decks and going to your local chinatown and paying some middle aged gambling addict some money from time to time to help you learn that shit.

[Anonymous No.10648124]

>>10648108
Interesting, btw why not Japanese or Korean? Chinese seems to be the hardest to learn among all those 3 languages.

[Anonymous No.10648136]

>>10648108
Any good resources you'd recommend besides the stuff listed on /lang/?

[Anonymous No.10648212]

>>10646796
there's a little button you press for each lesson which gives a proper overview of the new material

[Anonymous No.10648288]

>>10648124
not him but chinese is easier grammarwise, maybe even easier than english, the difficulty of tones exaggerated.
From hardest to easiest
Grammar: Japanese>korean>chinese
Reading: Japanese>Chinese>Korean
Speaking:Chinese>Korean>Japanese

[Anonymous No.10648293]

>>10648124
I also speak Japanese. Chinese is a lot more useful to have on your resume and it's way easier to jump from Chinese to Japanese than the other way around. I just happen to also have weeb taste which is why I also learned Japanese since I knew 90% of the Kanji already anyway.

>>10648136
Honestly fuck resources. Immersion and daily practice are tantamount. focus on memorizing and recognizing hanzi and using radicals those are the most important aspects. Watch Chinese media with subtitles etc and when you are feeling like you are getting the hang of it start trying to speak to local Chinese. Either tourists or Chinese immigrants in Chinatown.

[Anonymous No.10648309]

>>10648288
>>10648293
I get it, thank you

[Anonymous No.10648315]

>>10648124
>>10648288
Yep this is correct it even goes so far that I haven't even genuinely practiced Chinese grammar and just gave it one cursory read and afterwards it felt natural. English has the most ridiculous grammar because it has a lot of exceptions.

[Anonymous No.10648324]

I thought /sci/ is supposed to be smart; look at this guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxAaBZNduQs

[Anonymous No.10648334]

>>10646796
HelloChinese is infinitely better

[Anonymous No.10648455]

The tool you use matters infinitely less than your desire to learn. Sounds cliche, but the only way you'll ever learn is if you immerse yourself for hours daily, you need to have a strong lasting interest in the culture and a desire that lasts a year+.

[Anonymous No.10648470]

>>10646768
Associate concepts with the foreign word like if you see red you think rojo or if you see a beach you think playa.

[Anonymous No.10648511]

>>10646768
I learnt a little French using Duolingo but stopped practising when the app decided to randomly delete my 100 day streak.

[Anonymous No.10648678]

All of the above (memorise, practice, look for native speakers/immerse yourself)

Also learn the linguistic rules of the languages youre focusing on. It will help. Grammar, general semantics, learn about phonetics and phonology to better pronounce/perceive words (useful for word boundaries).
Learning the linguistic rules of a language helps.

Also why was I banned when talking about computation linguistics/statistical language processing when talking about general language learning is fine?

[Anonymous No.10648707]

>>10646768
>I want to learn French/German and fixup my Spanish

No, you don't

[Anonymous No.10648879]

CLOZEMASTER

[Anonymous No.10648906]

>>10646796
i also hate all the repetition
level 4 blah blah
what is german for sorry 20 times in a row

[Anonymous No.10648943]

even if you memorize all chinese words, how the fuck do you suppose to know how to pronounce them?

[Anonymous No.10649562]

>>10646768
all apps and programs for language are retarded.

you have to be in the country for something like 6 months to learn a language. that's it.

[Anonymous No.10649566]

>>10649562
this is the most retarded thing i've ever heard

[Anonymous No.10649604]

>>10646768
Duolingo is an aid in learning at best. A teacher is ideal, since he can correct you and explain exactly what you don't understand (if they know their shit).

>>10649562
Living in the country is extremely useful and, unless you're learning a language that everyone's already submerged in like English, a great step in gaining fluency. Still, by itself it is not a solution. Just a few weeks ago I met a guy who spent years in Russia and his pronunciation is nonetheless horrible (though he can converse completely fine, he has the vocabulary).

[Anonymous No.10649665]

>>10647069
this basically
i use word bank because I learn Japanese (I read everything myself out loud though), but I treat Duolingo like a motivator to everyday learning and as an introduction to the language, I don't plan on forcing myself to memorize anything from Duolingo, but instead I try to understand it "naturally" so it's hard coded in my brain via fun. It helps that I have decent memory and understand language concepts fairly quickly. The time to memorize the ones I don't know yet from plain fun, will come after I have finished all lessons and be somehow "fluent", then I will be able to start on improving my vocabulary and grammar that I don't already "feel" naturally

[Anonymous No.10650053]

Michel Thomas is the best language teacher in the world. Listen to his tapes.

[Anonymous No.10650056]

>>10649566
show me a person that used apps and language programs and that can actually go into a foreign country and fluently communicate with the locals. you can't.

[Anonymous No.10650266]

>>10650056
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbRaUB7Hfe3clmKqqj8Nm1Q

this black guy knows 30+ languages and has never traveled out of the U.S. he goes to locally owned Chinese,Vietnamese,Macedonian and Russian own stores and communicates with the locals in Mandarin and even rare dialects like SHANGHAINESE heres a video of him even speaking rare CANTONESE and other shit like HINDI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHreCsm6vGI&t=25s

>INB4 WOW THAT WAS AN OUTLIER FIND ME AN AVG PERSON
Well I learned ancient greek,german and french studying humanities and go to language discords to practice.

If you've ever been involved in linguistics communities you would know that its very common to learn a language without going to the country. Even your friends can pick up a language through osmosis by being around you when you speak foreign.

You-are-a-brainlet.

[Anonymous No.10651180]

>>10650056
True, but living in the country is not the only way to learn the language.

[Red Legs No.10652502]

>>10646768
Duolingo works pretty well. I’m teaching myself Spanish, French, Irish, and German on it. It’s all a matter of how dedicated you are.

[Anonymous No.10652725]

>>10650266
>ancient greek
haha what a loser

[Anonymous No.10652916]

>>10646819
Esperanto is the world's least useful language.

> No nation
> No culture
> No native speakers
> Provides no context for other languages (e.g, like Spanish does for Italian)
> Only people to converse with are LARPyy commies

[Anonymous No.10652958]

>>10646768
Duolingo is tool, if you really want to be prolific with language you need to complement it with grammatical books, translation of stories, audio exercises, conversations with other people, etc.

Duolingo is great to have a basic grasp of a language, you may even defend yourself as a tourist with it, but that's it.

[Anonymous No.10652996]

>>10646768
use duolingo and memrise

a

[Anonymous No.10653002]

>>10652996
also immerse yourself in the language

for me that's copius amounts of anime and occasionally japanese radio stations

[Anonymous No.10653015]

>>10652916
I admit esperanto is not that useful but it's not a reason to lie.
It has a culture, native speakers, provides context (that's why I mentionned its propedeutic value)
Yes you probably won't use it much as a language, but it has a use as a language learning tool.

[Anonymous No.10653033]

>>10646768
It's not hard. But you have to practice everyday for years.

[Anonymous No.10653106]

>>10646768
>/sci/ - learning and IQ

[Anonymous No.10654360]

>>10647445
Guten tag, madchen.

[Anonymous No.10654667]

>>10646768
books.
search books to learn, duolingo will teach you words, what can you do with words without actual grammar?