# Language learning tips



## Rilan (Nov 8, 2017)

Guys, what is the best way to learn a language? Any tips, apps, services?


----------



## Desaleupho (May 12, 2018)

Go to the country that take it as mothertone and try to survive there.

Sent from my F3111 using Tapatalk


----------



## Hollie Beth (Apr 15, 2018)

I think it depends on the type of learner you are. I've tried teaching myself foreign languages. Never worked. I need a classroom setting for the initial learning. Once I have the basic foundation of the language, I can maintain my learning on my own. To maintain, I memorize vocabulary (I like memrise. you can use it online or download it as an app), I read articles online to practice my reading, and I watch movies or shows in the foreign language or find short clips on youtube to practice my listening understanding. 

For other people, they can just sit down, buy some sort of language learning kit and be good to go.


----------



## Blazkovitz (Mar 16, 2014)

Try finding similarities between the new language and your native language.

For example, the Russian phrase _kol' skoro_ is an equivalent of English "as soon as". The word _skoryi_ means "fast", so there is a connection to speed here, just like in the English phrase.

Then you can find humorous connections. Russian numerals 11-19 end in -tzat' (odinatzat', dvenatzat', trinatzat'), which sounds similar to "chat". Don't teens love chats?

Try to translate everything: bits of conversations, adverts, songs.


----------



## SirCanSir (Mar 21, 2018)

For me i guess watching series/movies by those specific countries made me interested in learning more connecting subs with voices and such.
Its not a way to learn the language of course but it can serve as a drive.


----------



## Ariviel (Jun 30, 2017)

Okay do you want to hear the best advise? :wink:

It's a turkish saying :" Dil dile değmeden dil öğrenilmez." In other words, one does not learn a tongue(means language in turkish) without one's tongue touches another tongue h: Find yourself a flirt who will speak the language you are learning with you, and you will make the biggest progress you can make in the shortest time roud:


----------



## bbrackman (Jun 24, 2018)

Find a native speaker of the language who you can speak to every day on the phone or via skype


----------



## NathanD3V (Jun 24, 2018)

I would say that immersion helps the most for me, unsure whether it'd work for others, but I can still give my experience. When learning German in high school, I understood the basic concepts of the language but struggled with vocab and what was (at the time) complex structures. To overcome the difficulty, in 2011-2012, I made a German friend online and still speak with him to this day completely in German.

My point being, once you know the very basics of a language, practicing over and over again with native speakers, you subconsciously pick up on their grammar and word choices which improves your vocabulary and general flow of using the language.


----------



## knitsix (Jun 21, 2018)

Duolingo imo is a great app. Instead of mechanically learning about grammar you get a "feel" for the language. Just have to keep the practice up - was very good with french but then stopped learning it unfortunately. now starting with spanish.


----------



## flamesabers (Nov 20, 2012)

Desaleupho said:


> Go to the country that take it as mothertone and try to survive there.


That's the same thing one of my high school foreign language teachers said. It makes sense how constant immersion in another language literally forces you to learn it.


----------



## SpaceMan (Dec 11, 2014)

Exposure and application. 

Mingling with people would probably be the best way to learn spoken language, and teaches you other dynamic subtleties such as tonality, pauses, emphasis and etc. This is my most preferred choice.

If mingling/socializing is not an option, I would suggest listening to audiobooks, watch television and if possible read books/magazines/newspaper for exposure to the language. 

In terms of practicing the language, I would recommend you try "vlogging", pretending to speak on the phone (with an imaginary "local" friend), and journaling. These things allow you to fully express yourself at the comfort of your own privacy and "hopfully" without the potential of feeling embarrassed. It's always a good idea to somehow record, or collect data on your current progress, something you can use as a basis to improve upon, as you review your past mistakes.


Learning a new language is somewhat 50/50. It can either be a painful experience or the most fun shit you'll ever have.


----------



## Siggy (May 25, 2009)

knitsix said:


> Duolingo imo is a great app. Instead of mechanically learning about grammar you get a "feel" for the language. Just have to keep the practice up - was very good with french but then stopped learning it unfortunately. now starting with spanish.


I use Duolingo also, and indeed you need to keep practicing. You are able to test out of skills with Duolingo which is good. 

Tinycards has been helping with vocabulary.


----------



## 460202 (May 22, 2017)

Watch YouTubers in that language, watch movies and series, listen to music ... just anything that involves working on your listening comprehension and trying to make sense of what you hear based on the context. That's how we learn our first languages as children, and why we struggle to become fluent in the languages we learn in a classroom.

Focus on listening comprehension first, and after you feel you've picked up on some of the language / repeated phrases, you can start to focus on the technical aspect.

EDIT: Duolingo is good for keeping you in practice every day, but I'm not sure if anyone can achieve fluency with Duolingo (unless they're extremely motivated and are using othe rmethods in addition to that). My issue with that app is that it relies very much on translation, so you're not going to get used to thinking in that language.


----------



## TallGreen (May 6, 2017)

Language is more repetitive that you think. As you go through your day, keep a journal of the things you are usually saying (or thinking about), then translate them intowhater language you want to learn. Practice those phares, (ex what's for dinner) and you are fluent in a basic level foreign language. Once you have some basic vocabulary and gramar, you can continue reading a listening to depelop more complex crative thoughts. 

The majority of my classmates got through middle school french class with just "puis je aller au toilet". Its the only thing they needed.


----------



## Aiwass (Jul 28, 2014)

I am a native Portuguese speaker and close to the advanced level in both Spanish and English. Learning Spanish was easier to me, as it is a language very similar to my mother tongue (both are Romance languages); learning English was a somewhat tougher process, but I did it. To keep my brain in tune with the three languages, I try to practice all of them every week. 

I am a very curious person who generally researches about a couple of subjects on the internet every day, so I try to use this opportunity to read articles in English, for example (instead of searching for articles in Portuguese). This simple activity does wonders for me and helped me a lot with vocabulary expansion. I recommend it to everyone.

Now I'm trying to learn German and I know it is a whole new level of difficulty. I am beginning to read Wikipedia articles in German, but I use the dictionary all the time.


----------



## valosagutas (Nov 5, 2017)

The most common mistake people make when learning a language is translating the language they learning to their native language. You have to be able to think in the language you learning to really learn it.

When you learn your native language, you learn it by understanding people. So you copy how they use language like you copy how they behave. Then you make sense of what you copied. You use it to satisfy your needs. It's a matter of survival so this information is very important to you. It will be important as long as you use it constantly.

It doesn't matter that much how you learn the language (I recommend repeating what you learned in your daily life) but it does matter much how you practice it. Best way to practice is communicating: It will make you better at understanding and using it. If you don't use the information, your brain will think it's not important and you will forget it. So make it important by using it constantly. Foreign forum(s) and chat room(s) will highly help.

Listening foreign language by watching something or playing video game(s) without subtitle will help you to understand it vocally, get a grasp of the accent and how to properly pronounce words.

Yes, living in the foreign country is the best way but it's not every people can/would do. People here gave great advices. I have nothing else to add (all I did was mostly resonate and agree with what have been written) but I can recommend a game I used for learning Japanese: My Japanese Coach - Learn a New Language (it's part of the My Coach series that also includes French and Spanish) for NDS (handheld game console). If you don't have NDS then you can run it on pc using an emulator (NO$GBA). There should be NDS emulator for smartphones too. If you can't play these game I suppose anything fun, proper and that make you repeate what you learned should help you greatly.


----------



## Blazkovitz (Mar 16, 2014)

Aiwass said:


> I am a very curious person who generally researches about a couple of subjects on the internet every day, so I try to use this opportunity to read articles in English, for example (instead of searching for articles in Portuguese). This simple activity does wonders for me and helped me a lot with vocabulary expansion. I recommend it to everyone.


Nice! I may try reading Tsiolkovsky's philosophical writings since few of them have been translated, I'll be forced to read them in Russian.


----------



## anaraqueen (May 14, 2015)

I started completing crosswords and it's helping me expand my vocabulary (which is one of my problems)

I'll start dutch tomorrow. wish me luck.


----------



## James Smith (Aug 6, 2018)

Well there is some types of language, from the famous one which one you're asking about, the programming or communicating?


----------



## myruk (Jul 30, 2018)

shadowbroker said:


> The most common mistake people make when learning a language is translating the language they learning to their native language. You have to be able to think in the language you learning to really learn it.


I don't think of it as a mistake, but just a natural way of learning any secondary language, at least at the early stage when you lack basic vocabulary. It's the case how I learned English. I didn't think in English for years, until I went to study in US. But then again, it's much easier when you have a supporting (or like forcing) environment.

You got plenty of good advice from others already, and I would just add this: just expose yourself to the language as much as you can. You could even imagine you're talking to someone in the language, and have the discussion in your head. Be creative and have fun; this way you'll learn the language fast.


----------

