Nobody Knows How to Learn a Language

Re:Nobody Knows How to Learn a Language by adamnemecek on Sunday February 03, 2019 @04:24AM (#19068602)

Figure out the most common 3000 words and memorize those. Practice the grammar. Read news papers in the language and try to summarize the articles in your own words. Watch YouTube videos in the language. Start speaking to native speakers. It’s not too crazy, school really dated your time. It’s funny, early on, in school you learn words like “apple” but these words don’t come up all that often.

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Re:Nobody Knows How to Learn a Language by thecleaner on Sunday February 03, 2019 @04:44AM (#19068652)

Any resource on how to get these types of frequent lists ? I am big fan of "learn words and consume media" method.

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Re:Nobody Knows How to Learn a Language by iSpiderman on Sunday February 03, 2019 @05:36AM (#19068839)

0. use Quizlet's search to find large collections of vocabulary:

1. search for e.g. french (https://quizlet.com/subject/french-basic-vocabulary/)

2. look for the list(s) with the most words

3. check quality (if you can :)

4. copy them to your language directory

5. repeat

if you speak German, the addition of "Langenscheidt" could help...

Example (contains about 6000 words): https://quizlet.com/ThomasBisig/folders/franzosisch-wortscha...

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Re:Nobody Knows How to Learn a Language by simula67 on Sunday February 03, 2019 @05:23AM (#19068788)

I think for some languages this might be problematic. I am trying to learn some Russian and the word endings changes based on how each word interacts with other words.

For example :

"I know" : Ya znayu

"We know" : My Znayem

"He/She Know" : on znayet/ona znayet

"You know" : Ty Znayesh

"They know" : Oni znayut

etc

Knowing that 'znat' means 'To know' might not be enough to place a word in a sentence

Some suggest that it might be better to memorize sentences or phrases instead

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Re:Nobody Knows How to Learn a Language by stevekemp on Sunday February 03, 2019 @05:41AM (#19068866)

Finnish is similar with the various suffixes based on context. The rules are reasonably regular, and in a classroom with a list I can make the right choices.

Doing it in real-time when speaking is more of a challenge though.

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Re:Nobody Knows How to Learn a Language by murkle on Sunday February 03, 2019 @04:51AM (#19068679)

Exam syllabuses often list them. eg search for GCSE French syllabus (UK exam) and I think you'll find a list of around 5000

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Re:Nobody Knows How to Learn a Language by thecleaner on Sunday February 03, 2019 @08:28AM (#19069451)

This is awesome !

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Re:Nobody Knows How to Learn a Language by wisty on Sunday February 03, 2019 @05:03AM (#19068725)

Any flashcard system will have shared decks of the most common words.

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