Language Learning Tips
I was commenting in reply to a blogpost (http://gakuranman.com/flutter-japanese-goods-home-giveaway/) on tips for language learning... and being the teacher that I am, it turned out to be an essay. So I thought I'd post it here for my own future reference.
Tips for learning language:
1) To sound most like a native, learn the language like you would learn a song to get the intonation right. This works well for getting accents right and is crucial in tonal languages like Chinese, where a difference in tone could mean a totally different (and sometimes offensive) thing! So whenever I learn another language (or just a phrase), I always try to remember the "tune" of the phrase, so even if I can't get some difficult parts of the pronunciation right (eg. still not good at rolling my "r" for languages like Espanol or Bahasa Indonesia), there's a higher chance of being understood. If I DO get the pronunciation right, I sound just like a native (at least for that phrase).
2) Tape record yourself and see how different you sound from a native, then change accordingly.
3) Try not to learn too quickly before you get your accent and pronunciation right. If you continue to practise with a wrong/unnatural accent or pronunciation, as the saying goes, practice doesn't make perfect... practice makes permanent. It'll be harder to shed a bad accent. If you just want to be fluent and have a deadline to meet, and you don't mind not sounding like a native, of course this wouldn't matter.
4) Don't practise by translating. For example, if I'm an English speaker trying to learn Japanese, I wouldn't practise (whether to improve grammar or vocabulary) by translating English passages into Japanese. This is because I would end up practising the bad expressions imported from literally-translated English... and since practice makes permanent, I'll have those bad English-imported expressions stuck in my head and will be more likely to use them more whenever I'm scrambling to express myself (which makes them more stuck in my head). Instead, construct essays / blog posts from scratch, using the grammatical forms and expressions that you have been taught or that you have observed from other native speakers. That way, you'll train yourself to be using Japanese (or whatever language you're learning) from the start and won't keep resorting to translation in your head. In other words,
Bad process: English sentence >> chop into segments >> translate each segment >> combine into Japanese sentence.
Good process: Start with the Japanese expressions you already know >> select appropriate ones >> insert appropriate vocabulary (with the help of a dictionary or maybe katakana !!!) >> and you already have your Japanese sentence without having to rearrange stuff.
5) With step 4 in mind, start thinking in that language! Translating is a bad way to learn a language, in my opinion. When you learn an new expression / grammatical form, just start applying it everywhere in your head.
Tips for learning language:
1) To sound most like a native, learn the language like you would learn a song to get the intonation right. This works well for getting accents right and is crucial in tonal languages like Chinese, where a difference in tone could mean a totally different (and sometimes offensive) thing! So whenever I learn another language (or just a phrase), I always try to remember the "tune" of the phrase, so even if I can't get some difficult parts of the pronunciation right (eg. still not good at rolling my "r" for languages like Espanol or Bahasa Indonesia), there's a higher chance of being understood. If I DO get the pronunciation right, I sound just like a native (at least for that phrase).
2) Tape record yourself and see how different you sound from a native, then change accordingly.
3) Try not to learn too quickly before you get your accent and pronunciation right. If you continue to practise with a wrong/unnatural accent or pronunciation, as the saying goes, practice doesn't make perfect... practice makes permanent. It'll be harder to shed a bad accent. If you just want to be fluent and have a deadline to meet, and you don't mind not sounding like a native, of course this wouldn't matter.
4) Don't practise by translating. For example, if I'm an English speaker trying to learn Japanese, I wouldn't practise (whether to improve grammar or vocabulary) by translating English passages into Japanese. This is because I would end up practising the bad expressions imported from literally-translated English... and since practice makes permanent, I'll have those bad English-imported expressions stuck in my head and will be more likely to use them more whenever I'm scrambling to express myself (which makes them more stuck in my head). Instead, construct essays / blog posts from scratch, using the grammatical forms and expressions that you have been taught or that you have observed from other native speakers. That way, you'll train yourself to be using Japanese (or whatever language you're learning) from the start and won't keep resorting to translation in your head. In other words,
Bad process: English sentence >> chop into segments >> translate each segment >> combine into Japanese sentence.
Good process: Start with the Japanese expressions you already know >> select appropriate ones >> insert appropriate vocabulary (with the help of a dictionary or maybe katakana !!!) >> and you already have your Japanese sentence without having to rearrange stuff.
5) With step 4 in mind, start thinking in that language! Translating is a bad way to learn a language, in my opinion. When you learn an new expression / grammatical form, just start applying it everywhere in your head.
Labels: language
posted by herzfeuer at 9:51 PM
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