Re:Rules for Learning Foreign Languages in Record Time
by poissonpie on Friday March 14, 2014 @04:44AM
(#7397539)
Michel Thomas is excellent - I learned enough French from his course (having never learned any French before) to have some basic conversations with people I was staying with in France. Nothing groundbreaking or deep, but general basic chit chat about the weather, what to do, where to go, how to get there etc.
One thing we should shy away from is the marketing message of "learning like children", like Rosetta Stone is doing. It is fairly well documented that adults can learn languages at least close to as well as children [0][1], but adults learn differently.
Here's something you can do as an adult which a child lacks the prerequisite hooks to do:
- English words ending in -ible or -able – possible, table, comfortable, probable – have the same meaning in French. They're pronounced differently (ending sounds like -sibl or -abl in French, not -səbl̩ or -eɪbəl)
- Same with -ent and -ant: important, different, etc. Usually adds an -e when writing. (pronounced with -ɑ̃ not -ənt)
- Also words ending in -ary: Military, necessary. Change the ending to -aire when writing. (pr. -ɛʁ not -ɛɹi)
- Lastly, -ence + -ance: Difference, importance. (pr. -ɑ̃s not -əns)
Congratulations, you now know well over 1000 words in French.
0: http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/myths.html 1: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/life-bilingual/201309/ho...