[clever alias]

you get out of classes what you put in. i know people who have studied chinese for 3 semesters in china and they still suck. i also kmow a guy who passed the highest proficiency test in under 2 years

[369eyedea]

Do you think in getting a tutor to improve your conversation, it's better (or is it important at all) to have a female or male tutor? I don't want to run the risk of picking up more feminine way of talking, since most of my russian/french teachers have all been woman.

[PoosyWrecker]

(06-13-2013 11:09 PM)Seadog Wrote:  

Yah, so I touched on in previous threads, but my life is about 1/3 living in some middle of nowhere oil camp, 1/3 living in some middle of no where town with no grocery store let alone a bar or university. So logistics and lifestyle alone are my two biggest hurdles right now, not just to language learning but most good things in life. 2/3 of my life is basically in a work bubble. The remainder of the time, I travel, or head back to Canada, but for all intents am homeless. But anyways not here for a pity party, just to give you some info on my situation.

During that time:
How many minutes per day can you devote to focused language study in front of your computer?

How many minutes per day can you spend on 'passive' review by audio?

Do you have a smartphone or PDA such as an iPod Touch?

[Seadog]

I can generally manage an 1-2 hours a day studying on the computer, either audio or text. I've been finding memrise is actually really efficient at teaching me words. I bought a couple books two designed for English people trying to learn.

I find I'm getting better and better particularly at reading, but especially for speaking it just goes too quick. Reading and speaking I can go at my own pace, listening I'm forced to go at someone elses.

[Sargon of Akkad]

For me, at least the vast majority of my progress in any language has been through exposure. Courses and books are great for setting the foundation, but I achieved much more from learning words through context, improving grammar (or at least the informal rules of grammar for everyday use) by hearing the proper sentence structure repeatedly, and gradually improving through trial and error. This also involved repeated exposure to situations where you are forced to use a language at least or improvise, and it applied to listening comprehension, pronunciation, and speaking. Sure, you'll fuck up every second sentence in the beginning, and you'll often find yourself nodding at what someone says because 60% of it sounds like gibberish, but over time those mistakes and those uncomfortable stretches of blind nodding become fewer and farther between. I'm not saying additional help in the form of books or a tutor isn't necessary, but for me at least, practical application is the only thing that allowed me to internalise what I'd learned. Classes are good for starting out, but as with most things, I improve best by doing and learning from mistakes.

I suppose the title should be changed to: "To get good at a language, you need to practice."

[PoosyWrecker]

(06-15-2013 09:34 AM)Seadog Wrote:  

I can generally manage an 1-2 hours a day studying on the computer, either audio or text. I've been finding memrise is actually really efficient at teaching me words. I bought a couple books two designed for English people trying to learn.

I find I'm getting better and better particularly at reading, but especially for speaking it just goes too quick. Reading and speaking I can go at my own pace, listening I'm forced to go at someone elses.

Ok. First of all make sure that you're pronunciation is very close to natives, not just the words but the rhythm of the sentences. If you can't do this then lookup videos on how to form your mouth and position your tongue for the alien consonants.

Each day take an hour or 45 to learn the grammar and new words. The other 30 - 45 min is for creating audio files of all the new things you're learning. Transfer them to your mp3 for you to listen to while you're doing things like shopping, laundry, gym, facebook, rooshvfourm, anytime when your concentration doesn't have to be 100% on the task.

Get ANKI SrS for your smartphone/PDA then input the words and sentences you're learning into it. During work hours when you're on the can, smoking, waiting for someone, or during off work hours in line at the grocers, waiting for a bus, whip it out and review a twenty flash cards at a time. It's boring to sit down and review 140 flashcards, its easy to do them 20 at a time. You can also ask your natives to input new words and phrases into ANKI for you.

For example learn the phrase, "How do you say this in Indo?"
Then while you're at work you can point to a field generator, fuel can, burn pit, tools, anything in the area and find out what they're called.

At work find out if there are any Indo bands that play music of the same genre that you enjoy listening to, get those albums from your coworkers. Borrow movies dubbed in Indo with English subtitles, watch these movies and listen to this music on the days when you're too tired, or burnt out from studying Indo, in this way you don't lose momentum. The only band I know from there is A.C.A.B.

[buja]

(06-14-2013 10:51 PM)369eyedea Wrote:  

Do you think in getting a tutor to improve your conversation, it's better (or is it important at all) to have a female or male tutor? I don't want to run the risk of picking up more feminine way of talking, since most of my russian/french teachers have all been woman.

I think this is a legitimate concern...at least with my experience in east Asia.

A friend of mine with a Korean wife tends to speak with feminine inflections.

[clever alias]

speaking like a native girl > speaking like an idiot foreigner