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Forum » ***Official Language Learning Thread 2019***
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Thread: ***Official Language Learning Thread 2019***

post 1572647291 02-01-2019, 12:50 PM
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#301
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S´up miscers...

You can find chatrooms and language partners here...

https://www.hellolingo.com

Edit: Site is in it's early stages. Talkative people I've found though, even if there are only a handful of people in a room.
If You Don't Like To Talk About Your Feelings, This Might Help...
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The Most Heartbreaking Thing That I've Learned About 'The Elite'.
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Bitcoin And 'The Elite' - Why Bitcoin Is Not Revolutionary
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post 1572677791 02-01-2019, 07:55 PM
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#302
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Hey boyos been out of wack for about 3 days due to a particularly hectic schedule, and my italki teacher had to cancel last minute on Wednesday, but I'm back on the ball.

With it being a new month, I decided to pick up my next level Assimil book. first level is the "With Ease" series. next level is "Assimil Using French" and wanted to share a little excerpt which is a good reminder for the posters ITT

[QUOTE]Rule two: Do something each day even if you do not have time to complete a whole lesson. Take the book and reread something you have already seen.Listen to a recording. Do a set of exercises. Remember, it is counter productive to do a 2 hour session once a week than it is to do 10 minutes every day[/QUOTE]FACTS. Kicked off with Lesson 1 of this book and already love it way more than the beginner book. A lot of idioms and more realistic speaking


[QUOTE=TwoHumpChump post_id=1572584131]The guy is English first language so some of his accents seem a little bit off, but I feel like it is a good place to start if you don't have a clue where to begin - not comprehensive by any means but is easy to follow.

[url]https://m.youtube

Last year my routine consisted of 15 minutes of duolingo or memrise a day, 30 minutes of YouTube lessons and the odd day of flashcards. Still remember quite a bit of vocab[/QUOTE]went to lesson two and skipped around various points of the audio. It sounds almost exactly like Pimsleur or Michel Thomas. Should be a good starting point
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post 1572687441 02-01-2019, 10:44 PM
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Originally Posted By W1LLW⏩
Hey boyos been out of wack for about 3 days due to a particularly hectic schedule, and my italki teacher had to cancel last minute on Wednesday, but I'm back on the ball.
Want to try italki, but feel like I should learn more first.
post 1572700221 02-02-2019, 07:25 AM
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#304
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Originally Posted By RoyalRyy⏩
Trying to learn Spanish before I move on to French. Pretty fookin tough if you don't stick with it and really give it your all.
Been with a Mexican girl for 5 years.

Mi hablo un pocito, yo entiendo mas

Can prolly take a class and learn it a lot quicker since I'm around it so much.
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post 1572710631 02-02-2019, 10:37 AM
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Originally Posted By sg1976⏩
Been with a Mexican girl for 5 years.

Mi hablo un pocito, yo entiendo mas

Can prolly take a class and learn it a lot quicker since I'm around it so much.
If I was with a Mexican girl for 5 years I’d probably be fluent hah. Can’t ask for a better way to learn!
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post 1572717771 02-02-2019, 12:41 PM
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#306
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Originally Posted By TwoHumpChump⏩
Want to try italki, but feel like I should learn more first.
I agree - learn enough for a 5 min conversation atleast first. Or it will be you just trying to make a sentence for 15 mins
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post 1572864241 02-04-2019, 12:00 PM
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Can anyone recommend any good Spanish shows on Netflix or online?
post 1572866491 02-04-2019, 12:24 PM
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#308
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Originally Posted By TwoHumpChump⏩
Can anyone recommend any good Spanish shows on Netflix or online?
La Reina del sur is a classic soap opera. (The lead actress has been in a bunch of other things. )

Narcos.
If You Don't Like To Talk About Your Feelings, This Might Help...
https://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showthread.php?t=178926621

The Most Heartbreaking Thing That I've Learned About 'The Elite'.
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Bitcoin And 'The Elite' - Why Bitcoin Is Not Revolutionary
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post 1572887531 02-04-2019, 05:08 PM
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#309
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Originally Posted By TwoHumpChump⏩
Can anyone recommend any good Spanish shows on Netflix or online?
I heard good things about El Ministerio del Tiempo on Netflix. I haven't got around to watching it but if you end up seeing it, lemme know how it is!
HTC
post 1572890221 02-04-2019, 05:55 PM
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Weekend I slacked hard
Did some talking today and that’s it
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post 1572903161 02-04-2019, 09:10 PM
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Daily Update:

Actively listened for about an hour today to podcasts. Total time listened (passive+active) equaled to around 3 hours or so. Phucking proud of myself for breaking out the rut.
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post 1572907601 02-04-2019, 10:42 PM
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#312
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Originally Posted By Bigdumogre⏩
Weekend I slacked hard
Did some talking today and that’s it
We're all gonna make it brah. Keep pushin!

Update the past week:
-Completed a bunch of Duolingo lessons
-Actively listening to Spanish music
-Constantly talking and learning new things for friends

pretty much the same as last week and will be the same as every other week lol.
HTC
post 1572913581 02-05-2019, 01:49 AM
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#313
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Hi, brother and sisters!

When I started learning English and other languages, there were no electronic dictionary, no internet, no DVD/Blu-ray with multiple language subtitles which could be on and off, no MP3 player to listen audiobooks, no kindle with Gigabytes of books in foreign languages and most of all no friends to speak with about language learning.

Most of people here in Japan at that time, had to go to a language school paying tons of money which I couldn't afford. $50 dallars an hour for English lessen from non native speaker of English teenage tourists to Japan with no credentials of language teaching? No way! what I did? Just tried my best, with whatever available at the time with no substantial costs.

Shadowing is one of them, which is different from and far practical than a normal "listen and repeat" technique many are used to. (You may remember when you were a small child, you mimicked your sister/brother saying exactly what they said. It's annoying the hell our of them. This time you do that to a speaker on the screen instead of your sister!)

It is often practiced by simultaneous interpreter/translator, repeating just millisecond after the speaker. You must not wait and listen to the whole sentence and then repeat. You repeat as soon as possible actually at the same time as the speaker starts to speak. You never stop the video or audio media in order to get it perfect, you just have continue. Don't worry too much about pronunciation or the new words you've never encountered before.

And it's important that you don't peek at subtitles of the video/movie you watch or the texts of the audio programs you listen. If the content you choose is too fast and you cannot keep up then push the pause button . Then take a breath or a sip of coffee and regroup/reorganize yourself. When you are ready, re-start the process. If you are using a MP3 player, you can adjust the speed. (I was doing this with a VHS video tape player which is now obsolete.... *shrug* )

Movies or any other videos are more preferable than just audio media because you can watch speakers' mouth which could be a big give away of what they are speaking.

Shadowing works very well on not only pronunciation, but also rhythm, intonation and your language reaction speed. (though it depends on one's current level)

Of course, many of you here may well be aware of this. If that is the case please forgive me for this unsought advice. But if you are not familiar with this method, I recommend you to try it.



P.S.Headphones will help you, preventing your own voice from drowning out the speaker's voice.
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post 1572920411 02-05-2019, 06:29 AM
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ive been learning spanish for about 3 years now on duolingo, also been watching netflix shows with spanish dialogue(narcos) and paying close attention to their words and it really does help

it really helped me when i was on vacation in spain
post 1572982081 02-05-2019, 08:31 PM
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#315
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Originally Posted By Samraiwise⏩
Hi, brother and sisters!

When I started learning English and other languages, there were no electronic dictionary, no internet, no DVD/Blu-ray with multiple language subtitles which could be on and off, no MP3 player to listen audiobooks, no kindle with Gigabytes of books in foreign languages and most of all no friends to speak with about language learning.

Most of people here in Japan at that time, had to go to a language school paying tons of money which I couldn't afford. $50 dallars an hour for English lessen from non native speaker of English teenage tourists to Japan with no credentials of language teaching? No way! what I did? Just tried my best, with whatever available at the time with no substantial costs.

Shadowing is one of them, which is different from and far practical than a normal "listen and repeat" technique many are used to. (You may remember when you were a small child, you mimicked your sister/brother saying exactly what they said. It's annoying the hell our of them. This time you do that to a speaker on the screen instead of your sister!)

It is often practiced by simultaneous interpreter/translator, repeating just millisecond after the speaker. You must not wait and listen to the whole sentence and then repeat. You repeat as soon as possible actually at the same time as the speaker starts to speak. You never stop the video or audio media in order to get it perfect, you just have continue. Don't worry too much about pronunciation or the new words you've never encountered before.

And it's important that you don't peek at subtitles of the video/movie you watch or the texts of the audio programs you listen. If the content you choose is too fast and you cannot keep up then push the pause button . Then take a breath or a sip of coffee and regroup/reorganize yourself. When you are ready, re-start the process. If you are using a MP3 player, you can adjust the speed. (I was doing this with a VHS video tape player which is now obsolete.... *shrug* )

Movies or any other videos are more preferable than just audio media because you can watch speakers' mouth which could be a big give away of what they are speaking.

Shadowing works very well on not only pronunciation, but also rhythm, intonation and your language reaction speed. (though it depends on one's current level)

Of course, many of you here may well be aware of this. If that is the case please forgive me for this unsought advice. But if you are not familiar with this method, I recommend you to try it.



P.S.Headphones will help you, preventing your own voice from drowning out the speaker's voice.
Yo kaz! Thanks for sharing your experiences. $50 an hour is a ridiculous amount to charge someone for language lessons, I've never heard of any language class costing that much.

I'll start shadowing when I get to a higher level of comprehension in my language ability. I estimate it'll be around 6 months from now.


DAILY Update:

Listened to podcasts en Espanol for about 2 hours today. Making sure to get that listening time in. I'll probably try and find some new resources soon to add to the collection. Although, I'm a bit wary about jumping around. It's a bad habit.
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post 1572996071 02-06-2019, 01:55 AM
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#316
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Bump. Who knows some good TV shadows in Spanish (preferably Netflix). I've seen Narcos, and I really liked La Casa de Papel, so I'd like something like that.
post 1572999291 02-06-2019, 04:41 AM
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#317
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Originally Posted By Tickyouup⏩
Bump. Who knows some good TV shadows in Spanish (preferably Netflix). I've seen Narcos, and I really liked La Casa de Papel, so I'd like something like that.
You can change many of the shows languages to Spanish or other languages. I’m watching kingdom in mandarin and I saw they have several language options
50% of my posts are 100% factual
post 1573021341 02-06-2019, 10:50 AM
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Originally Posted By BetaAsPhuck⏩
La Reina del sur is a classic soap opera. (The lead actress has been in a bunch of other things. )

Narcos.
Originally Posted By RoyalRyy⏩
I heard good things about El Ministerio del Tiempo on Netflix. I haven't got around to watching it but if you end up seeing it, lemme know how it is!
Will watch both. Will update once finished, might take awhile...I'm always slow with watching series.


Thanks to the people earlier in this thread recommending Duolingo on PC web browser. It is much quicker to get through typing on a keyboard than phone and you can switch from using the suggested answers to only using keyboard - which I find way more beneficial. It also has a link to the discussion board for each question. Now use Duolingo on PC (about 30 minutes every 2-3 days) and memrise everyday on mobile.
post 1573023191 02-06-2019, 11:15 AM
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#319
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Originally Posted By TwoHumpChump⏩
Will watch both. Will update once finished, might take awhile...I'm always slow with watching series.


Thanks to the people earlier in this thread recommending Duolingo on PC web browser. It is much quicker to get through typing on a keyboard than phone and you can switch from using the suggested answers to only using keyboard - which I find way more beneficial. It also has a link to the discussion board for each question. Now use Duolingo on PC (about 30 minutes every 2-3 days) and memrise everyday on mobile.
Duolingo on PC browser BLOWS mobile out of the water. It's definitely the better choice thanks to that discussion which really freakin helps.
HTC
post 1573027041 02-06-2019, 12:09 PM
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#320
  1. BetaAsPhuck
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Originally Posted By Samraiwise⏩
Shadowing works very well on not only pronunciation, but also rhythm, intonation and your language reaction speed. (though it depends on one's current level)

Of course, many of you here may well be aware of this. If that is the case please forgive me for this unsought advice. But if you are not familiar with this method, I recommend you to try it.



P.S.Headphones will help you, preventing your own voice from drowning out the speaker's voice.
I've heard good things about Shadowing and Chunking (ie. The Lexical Approach), I do that whilst using Duolingo (desktop version).

I press the button repeatedly (sometimes for a few minutes) shadowing the audio, whilst reading the script.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGl1YGwlVtA




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHYDBYHi2bc
If You Don't Like To Talk About Your Feelings, This Might Help...
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The Most Heartbreaking Thing That I've Learned About 'The Elite'.
https://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showthread.php?t=178536851

Bitcoin And 'The Elite' - Why Bitcoin Is Not Revolutionary
https://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showthread.php?t=179820783
post 1573057051 02-06-2019, 07:32 PM
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#321
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Monday completed Lesson 2 in Assimil "Using French" course. Nothing Tuesday. Today I sat down and tackled "the subjunctive" in French, and finally had the epiphany that cracked this tense open for me. found some great youtube videos that explain it well and so happy at breaking through this barrier.

There's 2 things that mark you as a noob in the French language. the first, forgetting the de, la, le, les, des prepositions in speech (super noob), and then not using the subjunctive tenses of words when you are speaking in the subjunctive and not the indicative.
Originally Posted By TwoHumpChump⏩
Want to try italki, but feel like I should learn more first.
Originally Posted By Bigdumogre⏩
I agree - learn enough for a 5 min conversation atleast first. Or it will be you just trying to make a sentence for 15 mins
I second what Bigdumogre said. I wouldn't recommend italki until yourspeaking@ A2 level. This usually comes after finishing an entire Pimsleur 1 or Michel Thomas course in your target language. Alternatively, finishing a "With Ease" assimil book.

Additionally I would highly recommend listening to basic cartoons, news casts, etc with subtitles from day one of learning. Not trying to scare anyone from italki because every teacher I've had was very nice and will mix up English with target language.

But you there is no skimping on active listening. Can't just play a movie in your target language and just read the subtitles the whole time, you have to actively listen to what is being said. Not a fun feeling when someone asks you a question in a stripped down, super beginner friendly way and you still don't understand simply because you've spent all your study time writing and speaking but not listening all.
Originally Posted By Samraiwise⏩
Shadowing is one of them, which is different from and far practical than a normal "listen and repeat" technique many are used to. (You may remember when you were a small child, you mimicked your sister/brother saying exactly what they said. It's annoying the hell our of them. This time you do that to a speaker on the screen instead of your sister!)

It is often practiced by simultaneous interpreter/translator, repeating just millisecond after the speaker. You must not wait and listen to the whole sentence and then repeat. You repeat as soon as possible actually at the same time as the speaker starts to speak. You never stop the video or audio media in order to get it perfect, you just have continue. Don't worry too much about pronunciation or the new words you've never encountered before.

And it's important that you don't peek at subtitles of the video/movie you watch or the texts of the audio programs you listen. If the content you choose is too fast and you cannot keep up then push the pause button . Then take a breath or a sip of coffee and regroup/reorganize yourself
I wish I could rep you every time you post. you always have gems.
Kobe Forever
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post 1573059671 02-06-2019, 08:09 PM
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#322
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Originally Posted By W1LLW⏩
Monday completed Lesson 2 in Assimil "Using French" course. Nothing Tuesday. Today I sat down and tackled "the subjunctive" in French, and finally had the epiphany that cracked this tense open for me. found some great youtube videos that explain it well and so happy at breaking through this barrier.

There's 2 things that mark you as a noob in the French language. the first, forgetting the de, la, le, les, des prepositions in speech (super noob), and then not using the subjunctive tenses of words when you are speaking in the subjunctive and not the indicative.




I second what Bigdumogre said. I wouldn't recommend italki until yourspeaking@ A2 level. This usually comes after finishing an entire Pimsleur 1 or Michel Thomas course in your target language. Alternatively, finishing a "With Ease" assimil book.

Additionally I would highly recommend listening to basic cartoons, news casts, etc with subtitles from day one of learning. Not trying to scare anyone from italki because every teacher I've had was very nice and will mix up English with target language.

But you there is no skimping on active listening. Can't just play a movie in your target language and just read the subtitles the whole time, you have to actively listen to what is being said. Not a fun feeling when someone asks you a question in a stripped down, super beginner friendly way and you still don't understand simply because you've spent all your study time writing and speaking but not listening all.



I wish I could rep you every time you post. you always have gems.
Wait, i'm a bit confused brah, I thought you were already fluent in French, and now learning Russian?


Daily Update:

Listened to about an hour of podcasts and about an hour of music in Spanish. Also had a conversation that went smoother than I expected it to go. Good day of language learning in the books.
*Reps everyone who negs crew*
*Track Crew*
post 1573064531 02-06-2019, 09:37 PM
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Originally Posted By Uber_Dad⏩
I have been on a Duolingo for German for the past month...only missed a day.

What other passive tricks are you guys using? Podcasts? What am I missing?
I tried watching South Park in German after completing the duolingo lessons and all I could make out was "schwein sheisse" every few seconds.

Actually the progression that I tried after Duolingo was to find German forums like the Misc and I found that half of the posts on German forums are in English. IE young Germans speak perfect English to the point that they often prefer to converse in it and that killed my motivation to learn the language.
post 1573070031 02-06-2019, 11:53 PM
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Originally Posted By W1LLW⏩
I second what Bigdumogre said. I wouldn't recommend italki until yourspeaking@ A2 level. This usually comes after finishing an entire Pimsleur 1 or Michel Thomas course in your target language. Alternatively, finishing a "With Ease" assimil book.

Additionally I would highly recommend listening to basic cartoons, news casts, etc with subtitles from day one of learning. Not trying to scare anyone from italki because every teacher I've had was very nice and will mix up English with target language.

But you there is no skimping on active listening. Can't just play a movie in your target language and just read the subtitles the whole time, you have to actively listen to what is being said. Not a fun feeling when someone asks you a question in a stripped down, super beginner friendly way and you still don't understand simply because you've spent all your study time writing and speaking but not listening all.
Thanks for the feedback. Planning on watching the shows that the other posters mentioned above. Like you say - I feel like I'm doing a lot of speaking practice (solo) and vocabulary memorization, but haven't been getting a lot of listening time in. I have tried the "news in slow [insert language here]" programs before, but I just find them too dry. I don't understand much when watching tv shows, but I like being able to pick out different words and hear how they are pronounced.
post 1573082011 02-07-2019, 07:00 AM
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Originally Posted By KingofLifts⏩
Wait, i'm a bit confused brah, I thought you were already fluent in French, and now learning Russian?
Incorrect. My french reading, listening, and speaking skills fall in various levels between B1 and B2. New foreign lang learners don't realize how big the gap between beginner and native fluent is. A1 to B1 is fairly easy, but B1 to C1 takes a pretty strong dedication of practice.

For example with my level, I can go to France and buy train tickets at kiosks, go into any shop and have basic "buyer and seller exchanges", or chat about my day with friends. When sitting at a dinner table though and every one is shooting the chit in fast street slang french i get lost easily.

I also havent started thinking in the language yet which is a shame given my level. I still have to "prepare myself" for a french conversation through speaking to myself in french to warm that muscle up. If i'm sitting at my office in USA after not having spoken to a french person in 2 months, despite having studied the language for years and lived in France, I would still stutter and be caught off guard if someone just started speaking french to me. These are the tiny variables new lang learners don't experience in self study.

The difficulty of Russian was crushing me so I've been rotating the beginner grind of russian, and polishing my french. Allows me to stay in language learning mode without stopping completely.
Originally Posted By TwoHumpChump⏩
have tried the "news in slow [insert language here]" programs before, but I just find them too dry. I don't understand much when watching tv shows, but I like being able to pick out different words and hear how they are pronounced.
Can't stop recommending the Easy French/Spanish/German/Italian youtube series enough







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post 1573139441 02-07-2019, 08:33 PM
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#326
  1. KingofLifts
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^ To W1ll brah: Understood. Feeling that pain with Spanish. Just continuing doing what I'm doing. Getting input daily.

Daily Update:

Listened to about 2 hours again of audio/podcasts. Listening comprehension feels like it's rising.
*Reps everyone who negs crew*
*Track Crew*
post 1573146621 02-07-2019, 10:29 PM
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#327
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Originally Posted By W1LLW⏩
Can't stop recommending the Easy French/Spanish/German/Italian youtube series enough
Awesome these seem pretty good. Just listened to 2 of them. Thanks. Less boring then the slow news
post 1573157041 02-08-2019, 04:45 AM
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#328
  1. Samraiwise
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Originally Posted By KingofLifts⏩
Yo kaz! Thanks for sharing your experiences. $50 an hour is a ridiculous amount to charge someone for language lessons, I've never heard of any language class costing that much.

I'll start shadowing when I get to a higher level of comprehension in my language ability. I estimate it'll be around 6 months from now.
Originally Posted By BetaAsPhuck⏩
I've heard good things about Shadowing and Chunking (ie. The Lexical Approach), I do that whilst using Duolingo (desktop version).

I press the button repeatedly (sometimes for a few minutes) shadowing the audio, whilst reading the script.

Spoiler!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGl1YGwlVtA




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHYDBYHi2bc
Guys, I thank you for always heeding my posts.

Actually it's (shadowing is) really fun! Personally I feel most rewarded when the language/word level is that you miss only a few words per line and the speed is just a little bit faster than you can catch up, like after every three lines you have to regroup your ear-mouth coordination!! On such a level, it's not long before you start noticing your improvement. It's that obvious, you are getting better at it and start enjoying about yourself and your language skill.
Originally Posted By W1LLW⏩
I wish I could rep you every time you post. you always have gems.
Thank you m'friend, that's the highest compliment one can receive and at the same time, the highest pressure one cannot hide from!!

To me this thread IS THE GEM, a magnet to draw people with can do spirit, motivation and the will to improve one's own life.
Originally Posted By W1LLW⏩
Incorrect. My french reading, listening, and speaking skills fall in various levels between B1 and B2. New foreign lang learners don't realize how big the gap between beginner and native fluent is. A1 to B1 is fairly easy, but B1 to C1 takes a pretty strong dedication of practice.

For example with my level, I can go to France and buy train tickets at kiosks, go into any shop and have basic "buyer and seller exchanges", or chat about my day with friends. When sitting at a dinner table though and every one is shooting the chit in fast street slang french i get lost easily.

I also havent started thinking in the language yet which is a shame given my level. I still have to "prepare myself" for a french conversation through speaking to myself in french to warm that muscle up. If i'm sitting at my office in USA after not having spoken to a french person in 2 months, despite having studied the language for years and lived in France, I would still stutter and be caught off guard if someone just started speaking french to me. These are the tiny variables new lang learners don't experience in self study.

The difficulty of Russian was crushing me so I've been rotating the beginner grind of russian, and polishing my french. Allows me to stay in language learning mode without stopping completely.
Thanks for sharing your insight! I can identify with some of the examples you mentioned. Especially "thinking in the language other than my native one" had been my main dilemma for a long time. In my daily life, I was definitly thinking in Japanese. When I forced myself to do think in English, it's a lie. I was just thinking about English not thinking in English.

After more than 35 years of learning English. now I am sure that I think in English when I read English books, when I watch English movies, when I listen English audiobooks, when I talk with Native speakers and when I was writing this post here at this BB.com forum.

That accounts for about half of my waking day, I'm thinking in English not Japanese. Took me a long time but I'm really glad I didn't quit.

Hey good luck everybody, most of you have plenty of years ahead.
🌺 Lauren Brooks Kelly (snailsrus) - Jul 25, 1991 – Jan 29, 2022
Thread: RIP Snails : https://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showthread.php?t=181070293&page=100

⭐ Samurai Break: 140kg(308lb) Failed Bench Press Recovery Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8eIkpZ29u0
⭐ Over 35 Journals > Samurai, Without Ever Having Felt Sorry For Itself:
https://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showthread.php?t=4832373&page=200
📌 Please Call me Kaz, a 65-year-old 🥋 Karate Kid in Tokyo.
post 1573357081 02-10-2019, 09:08 PM
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#329
  1. KingofLifts
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Looks like we all missed a day yesterday.


Daily Update:

Just spent around 30 minutes listening today. Something is better than nothing.
*Reps everyone who negs crew*
*Track Crew*
post 1573450281 02-12-2019, 04:19 AM
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#330
  1. KingofLifts
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Didn't miss yesterday, just forgot to update.

Update:

Did my daily anki reps. Listened for 30 minutes.
*Reps everyone who negs crew*
*Track Crew*
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