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Learning a language. - JAX010800 - 01-18-2017
Hi all!
I was just wondering if anybody on the forum has taught themselves a language and as to what method did they use to do so. I myself am wanting to learn Greek as it is apart of my culture. If anyone has learnt Greek or any other languages and has tips please don't be afraid to let me know below!
Kind Regards,
Jax
RE: Learning a language. - PhargedPhreak - 02-08-2017
Memorize the shit out of the top 5000 words (which will cover about 95% of every conversation you're ever likely to have).
Then watch a bunch of kids TV Shows over and over. Also babble like a baby to try to mimic the sounds. Once you've got all of that, read grammar books. Then start watching TV news. When you can understand TV news you've got it down.
I did this exact thing to teach me Spanish except I watched telenovelas for a year. Plus I eat a shit ton of Mexican food so I can talk to los Mejicanos when I order.
Other thing I did was call 1-800 numbers in Spanish and ask random shit to practise.
RE: Learning a language. - Nyx - 02-08-2017
They say immersion is the best way to learn a language. I'm bilingual (French and English, with the latter being my native language) and I learned French from the 1st grade by being put into French Immersion, which is literally being tossed into a classroom that is French only with punishments for speaking English for anymore than to find out a word I didn't know. I'd say I'm very fluent in both English and French (I'd say I became fluent in about 6-7 years) so I wholeheartedly believe in immersion being the best way to go. I'd say go with Pharged's advice.
If you don't want to do immersion, Duolingo or Rosetta Stone could be an alternative. I'd go for downloading a bunch of movies with subtitles and just trying to pinpoint out common words and phrases and build from there. Go on Greek only forums and read posts and if you don't understand, throw it in Google Translate and try and decipher the mess of a sentence it spits out. People who watch Anime with subtitles usually end up with a very basic understanding of Japanese just from watching the show and reading the subtitles without any intention of actually learning Japanese.
We spoke English a lot when the teacher wasn't looking in my immersion classes as a kid, so if you put in a serious effort and dedicated like 3-4 hours of watching movies and talking in Greek exclusively on forums every day I'd estimate you could be fluent in a year or 2 (depending on your competency and dedication). That's just my two cents.
RE: Learning a language. - Hoss - 02-08-2017
I've been learning Spanish on duolingo and I really like it. I used Rosetta Stone to learn German and that was great too, but I have to pay for that one (duolingo wasn't around yet).
RE: Learning a language. - protonrotuing - 02-20-2017
I'm bilingual between the two languages of French and English, I memorized English by rewriting phrases, forcing myself to speak English, and participating in the NA district for League of Legends to get use to seeing other English writing.
RE: Learning a language. - Lokes - 06-20-2017
I am currently trying to learn japanese, but I noticed when you are starting out, it's pretty hard, because even the "letters" are a bit hard to memorize... and everyone knows that learning a language without knowing the letters is kinda meh, lol.
But yea, I am still at it, just not that intense, since I get bored often, and without a learning buddy, I lack the motivation too sadly.
RE: Learning a language. - anastasia - 05-14-2018
Hey, I am currently independently studying five languages - Spanish, Russian, German, Ukrainian, and French - it is very intense 
I completely understand the struggle of finding resources to build a foundation, and moving forward, however, I have picked up kind of a strategy for how to approach languages, and this is what I found to be most efficient for myself: 1. Learn the absolute basics - this includes the alphabet, numbers, colors, basic conversation, etc., because it will be easier to understand context and apply other topics you learn when you know the basic vocabulary and such.
2. Memorize vocabulary - look up lists of vocabulary for the language you are studying online, anything from clothing articles to toiletries, the more, the better, I promise.
3. Pronouns - before you learn verbs and begin forming sentences, this is obviously necessary.
4. Verbs - memorize important verbs, make sure to mark the irregular ones, because they will be approached differently.
5. Conjugations - this will make up the majority of learning the actual language, because understanding how verbs apply to specific pronouns is extremely important when formulating sentences - make sure to learn the conjugations of both the irregular and regular verbs, as they will differ - make sure to understand the tenses that are within the conjugations (e.g. present, conditional, etc.)
6. Grammar - different languages have different grammar technicalities, however, there are several resources available on the internet - the most productive approach to grammar is definitely by practice, practice forming sentences with different pronouns and situations.
7. Adverbs, adjectives, etc - after covering the most essential parts of a language, you can begin to learn descriptive and more conversational vocabulary.
8. Practice, practice, practice - this is something that I have myself made a mistake in, and that is after mastering the language, I simply stopped bothering to practice it and review it, and now my Russian is substandard, and I must refresh several concepts
Please keep in mind that this is what works well for me, this may not be the ideal method for learning a language for you, this is just simply my approach, but I hope I helped a little bit
RE: Learning a language. - Telybell - 05-17-2018
Thank you all for the input, I feel like I might take another crack at learning Spanish now
RE: Learning a language. - msch0ft - 07-06-2018
(02-08-2017, 03:32 AM)Tarew Wrote: They say immersion is the best way to learn a language. I'm bilingual (French and English, with the latter being my native language) and I learned French from the 1st grade by being put into French Immersion, which is literally being tossed into a classroom that is French only with punishments for speaking English for anymore than to find out a word I didn't know. I'd say I'm very fluent in both English and French (I'd say I became fluent in about 6-7 years) so I wholeheartedly believe in immersion being the best way to go. I'd say go with Pharged's advice.
If you don't want to do immersion, Duolingo or Rosetta Stone could be an alternative. I'd go for downloading a bunch of movies with subtitles and just trying to pinpoint out common words and phrases and build from there. Go on Greek only forums and read posts and if you don't understand, throw it in Google Translate and try and decipher the mess of a sentence it spits out. People who watch Anime with subtitles usually end up with a very basic understanding of Japanese just from watching the show and reading the subtitles without any intention of actually learning Japanese.
We spoke English a lot when the teacher wasn't looking in my immersion classes as a kid, so if you put in a serious effort and dedicated like 3-4 hours of watching movies and talking in Greek exclusively on forums every day I'd estimate you could be fluent in a year or 2 (depending on your competency and dedication). That's just my two cents.
You are completely right. The best way to learn is to completely immerse yourself in the language and actually try to speak it, that is how I learned English. Also, I heard some people first learn Esperanto, which is one of the easiest languages in the world in order to get used to learning new languages, because, the first language you learn is always the hardest.
RE: Learning a language. - Blink - 07-06-2018
(07-06-2018, 02:15 AM)msch0ft Wrote:(02-08-2017, 03:32 AM)Tarew Wrote: They say immersion is the best way to learn a language. I'm bilingual (French and English, with the latter being my native language) and I learned French from the 1st grade by being put into French Immersion, which is literally being tossed into a classroom that is French only with punishments for speaking English for anymore than to find out a word I didn't know. I'd say I'm very fluent in both English and French (I'd say I became fluent in about 6-7 years) so I wholeheartedly believe in immersion being the best way to go. I'd say go with Pharged's advice.
If you don't want to do immersion, Duolingo or Rosetta Stone could be an alternative. I'd go for downloading a bunch of movies with subtitles and just trying to pinpoint out common words and phrases and build from there. Go on Greek only forums and read posts and if you don't understand, throw it in Google Translate and try and decipher the mess of a sentence it spits out. People who watch Anime with subtitles usually end up with a very basic understanding of Japanese just from watching the show and reading the subtitles without any intention of actually learning Japanese.
We spoke English a lot when the teacher wasn't looking in my immersion classes as a kid, so if you put in a serious effort and dedicated like 3-4 hours of watching movies and talking in Greek exclusively on forums every day I'd estimate you could be fluent in a year or 2 (depending on your competency and dedication). That's just my two cents.
You are completely right. The best way to learn is to completely immerse yourself in the language and actually try to speak it, that is how I learned English. Also, I heard some people first learn Esperanto, which is one of the easiest languages in the world in order to get used to learning new languages, because, the first language you learn is always the hardest.
Esperanto's pretty neat, in that it's an artificially created language designed specifically to be learned as a secondary language