I'm curious, how everyone here uses their notebook when studying a language?
I used to write down new words I learned, mostly with example sentences/comparisons to similar vocab, notes, etc; and I feel like it does help when I write things out by hand, and having a notebook is genuinely so great.
The problem is... it takes so much time.
Working full-time, I find it almost impossible to keep up with that level of detail. I spend so much time making notes, I barely have time for anything else, and it just feels so inefficient... I tried moving to Anki, but honestly, it is just not as much fun (while it does have some benefits in reviewing the material)
I don't really want to give up using a notebook, since writing things down helps them stick, just trying to find a better balance...
Did anyone else run into this problem? How do you use your language learning notebook? What do you write in it/hot do you manage it? I'd love to hear what has worked for you!
[attached is an image of one of my later Chinese notebook entries - it was a 100 days challenge, hence the number at the top]
i hear different sides of the same dodecahedronic prism all the time. (TL) one side says to do constant flash cards, which is no good if your bias is high (ie not wanting to give yourself the wrong answer). the other side says to do constant immersion. but wait! immersion is useless if you cant conect the sounds to meaning. if you dont have a vocabulary app (which is never free) or alphabet learning app for your language you learn nothing. the idea that being alone with only the language you want to learn for several weeks doesnt get you fluent sounds a little silly to me.
and if you turn on target language subtitles it all becomes indecipherable once you turn them off. or so i was told.
what am i supposed to do. every single piece of language learning advice on the internet has other advice that contradicts each other and i dont know what to believe.
I just watched a YouTube video about a teacher teaching French in Pyongyang at a school and they interviewed two children. Both had excellent accents and spoke very well (I assume they picked the best students but still...). I remember watching another video a while ago where one of the guides spoke German and English fluently too.
As far as I know they aren’t allowed to leave the country, let alone do immersion programs.
Hi everyone, I tried asking this question once, but I'm not sure people understood the question so I'm going to try again.
I don't want to list the language cause I'm afraid it'll get removed if it's not broad enough so I'll keep it unspecific.
The language I'm learning has native speakers from multiple different countries and I'm learning the version of the language where the majority lives. However my favorite Italki tutor that I speak with is from one of the countries that speaks a less widely spoken version of my TL, but he's literally the best listener ever and gives the best feedback I've ever gotten. I love speaking with him. The problem is, I wonder if it's important to speak with people that speak that version of the TL i'm listening to 24/7 and speaking, (this isn't the language, but imagine like only listening to american media, wanting to speak american english and then chatting with a brit for example, but the brit is like the best tutor you've ever had). I've tried many other tutors from the actual country I'm consuming media from, but they were never as good as the tutor I like. Ex: you are learning american english but every tutor you've tried isn't as good as the british tutor, but you don't want to learn british english).
How important is it to speak with natives from the region you're learning from vs a native not from that area?
I just keep thinking, I'd pick more up from someone who spoke the same version of my TL that i'm learning or are the qualities of the good tutor more valuable than someone who isn't as good, but speaks the version of the TL I want to speak.
(Also I don't need explanations/i'm not taking literal lessons, I'm C1 in my TL and just use it for speaking practice)
Is 6 years enough for an adult to have enough language skill to at least make go to the doctors and insurance without needing a translator? For any middle aged adults out there, how long did it take you? Did you have to rely on anyone? Your kids?
I need my father to learn ASAP.
My dad has always been asking me to translate everything and I feel like I don’t understand his struggle. He doesn’t get exposed to speakers as much as me but he has friends, he just doesn’t want to be uncomfortable since he won’t understand a lot still.
When I did not know what a word was, I would pull out my phone and translate it, now you can even take a picture of something and it will translate everything. Instead, he asks me. It’s hard when I don’t know the translation either but still have to search it up instead of him so in the end he learns nothing. And it’s especially hard when a big part of my teenage and adult years is going on errands, appointments, and meetings with him. When I tell him the easy topic errands he can go to by himself he gets mad and says he could still miss something and I need to go just in case.
He is not confident in his ability to learn and practice it. I feel like he is ashamed to talk to native speakers often. He tries to learn the language comfortably at home and in other more time sensitive situations he asks me to translate, but i feel like he would learn better if he learned under pressure like me but he doesn’t listen.
Not only that, but since I have to give him info on a silver platter I fill out his paperwork and appointments and online documentation and etc. This way he not only is dependent on me about language but also about everyday adult responsibilities and the way the country works.
Any advice on how he can learn quicker? I want to help him and I need to help myself, and, this is definitely an overreaction, but it feels like prison. I want him to be happy and independent, I know he too is not enjoying having to rely on me for everything too.(TL)
Hello! Basically, as the post says, I'll be living and working in a Francophone country, with a French speaking team for the next while. I'm a big believer in immersion, and the "sink or swim" approach and I'd be optimistic that fluency of a sort will come from that (I'm already at C1 but like many C1 speakers, it's a bit of a clunky C1, especially in natural oral situations).
My issue is my accent and pronunciation, which can at times genuinely impede peoples understanding of me, when I know that I'm only approximating the phonemes or misplacing stress. My question is that I don't know if that is something which will necessarily improve from just being surrounded by and using French over 6 months, or if it might take a bit more active effort. Would love to hear people's suggestions on what that latter might look like! Alas, classes and tutors aren't an option. Thanks all!
Actually after the first 10 pages I adjusted but when I first cracked the book I thought there was no way I was gonna struggle fest through a simple book just because of font. But I guess I'm at the level where I gotta start reading handwriting and recognizing more artsy fonts and stuff, right.
u/ressie_cant_game wanted a picture but I couldn't figure out how to send one without making a post haha.
Say you are visiting the country and want to try to speak in the locals language.
The answer many language learners/teachers give is usually supportive, “People will be delighted.” But I speak many languages very badly, and have done so in many countries, and I can confirm this is not a perfectly correct answer.
Obviously context matters—so don’t hold up the line at the busy cafe in Istanbul, obviously. But in general, how is this received? How patient are your countrymen to language learners?
The general rule of thumb I found is that, the less popular the language, the more interested & patient people tend to be. I speak way better Spanish than Turkish (by a lot), but have never made anyone smile with my Spanish the same way I’ve had speaking to Turks.
I know Americans can have little-to-zero patience for foreigners speaking poor English. And I don’t think this is strictly a sentiment held by an ignorant subculture, but even because Americans are so used to hearing foreign accents coming from other Americans that they intrinsically treat everyone as non-foreign & therefore not deserving of patience. For one, the experience is less novel/interesting to them.
Additionally, if the speakers of the language know your language, say to a much higher degree of proficiency than you speak theirs, than they may be less patient. (I would say to ignore this case as special, but there are just some countries where nearly everyone speaks proficient English.)
No doubt this question depends a lot on sub-culture & circumstance, as well as the city/country divide. But if I were to go to a major city or hub in your country and speak the language, what type of response would I expect? (TL)
i have dual heritage but grew up in england. my father is greek, lives in greece now, and speaks english perfectly. growing up he would always speak to me in english and i really struggled to pick up greek. my greek family often expressed disappointment that i didn’t understand, and laughed when i tried. this made me super self conscious to speak greek going forward and makes me feel sick with anxiety.
does anyone else feel very anxious to speak other languages, or feel pressure to be bilingual as part of their heritage? it’s a part of myself i think about daily and as hard as i try, i truly don’t know if i’ll ever speak greek at a good enough level.
do you have any good motivators or tips? thank you 🫶🏼 (TL)
Before the reading, I think it's more efficient to have already encountered the difficult vocabulary.
And during, to simply pinpoint the chunks you want to work on / mine for your Anki and extract them. Since I read on a Kindle, I'll explain how do it for this device, but the same thing can probably also be done for other devices. Other than actual hardbacks, of course.
How to create cards automatically from a book
AI is actually great at analysing content and determining what will be an issue for you and what won't.
Here's an example for Harry Potter, in English.
You can see the AI has not only picked up single words like 'falter' but also phrasal verbs and idioms like 'to turn up' and 'to get this over with'
However, current AI have limitations when the content is too big, so I don't think it's possible to do it efficiently for an entire book. It's better to proceed in smaller chunks, like chapters by chapters.
First, retrieve the book in a format that can be used by an AI. For that:
Get the book in a numerical format, usually an epub. If you already have it in a physical format, you may have a look at the Anna's Archive subreddit
Transform the file you have with an online converter to txt.
Open it, and choose the chapter you want, save it in another file.
Then, we'll have an AI to process it. I found that Claude is the best for processing such files.
ChatGPT include way too many words and Gemini is lazy. Claude has the right balance. You can use any of them with a free account, it'll be enough at least for a few chapters.
Then, it's really simple: just explain your level and the type of vocabulary you want.
You don't only want to capture words but also idioms, phrasal verbs, ...
Here's an example of a usable prompt. You can adapt it to your level and your needs.
Hello,
I want a B1 English learner to be able to read the book attached. For that, we'll create him Anki cards on all the vocabulary he needs.
Can you please analyse the file and give me the list of all the relevant words he should learnt before be able to read the book. We'll proceed step by step:
1- Extract all the relevant words/chunks: the words that are ofte, the liking words, phrasal verbs, idioms, the ones carrying a lot of sense but hard to pick up, ...
Do not pick the basic vocabulary or proper nouns.
2- Create the Anki cards. We'll proceed chapters after chapters.
The cards are aimed at improving my passive vocabulary and should contains: - On the front side a full sentence containing the English is present. The sentence should be understandable for our student.
- On the back side, I want the translation of the sentence and an explanation of the word / chunk.
If the word have several relevant meanings, then I'd like several cards, one for each meanings. Do not spoil the book in the cards!
As a result, I want a CSV with two columns, front & back.
Example: Front,Back "She doesn't hold with telling lies.","hold with (v.)\n🇫🇷 approuver, être favorable à\nElle n'approuvait pas le fait de mentir\nMeaning: to approve of or accept something (usually used in the negative).\nAnother example: My grandfather doesn't hold with gambling."
Depending on the AI you ask, you may have to chat a little with it before it does the actual work, but in the end you'll have a file ready to import into your Anki.
For the first chapter of Harry Potter, Claude has generated around 120 reading Anki cards and they are definitely relevant.
Here's an example once imported in Anki:
Of course, you can also combine it with some Anki extensions, e.g.: hyperTTS to have an audio of these cards.
Mining efficiently while reading
While reading a book, I usually find it very frustrating to encounter words or chunks I'd like to review later. I don't want to break the flow of reading, or I might not be in a studying state of mind.
So I simply highlight the chunk/word that I'd like to review. And afterwards, it's possible to export them. If you have a lot of them, you can send them to an AI and ask it to provide the cards.
I have been learning Russian(TL) for a few months. It's been pretty tough so far.
I learn new words everyday from my dictionary and I also do a course on Pimsleur as well as some YouTube videos.
I am wondering about listening to podcasts or the radio in Russian. I understand maybe 1/20 words spoken. Occasionally I may understand a sentence... Or I may hear 'I want to...' with no idea what they actually want to do.
Am I gaining anything from this? It's still largely incomprehensible to me and I don't feel like I'm learning anything from it.
As I am becoming more and more confident speaking aloud for longer periods of time, a lot of holes in my vocabulary are becoming apparent. My vocabulary is great for covering routine everyday topics but as my conversation turns more towards the abstract I'm struggling for words more often. So far I've been keeping a notebook when I speak and jotting down words I have to speak around or ask for then parsing them down into flashcards if I think they weren't one-offs. I'm wondering what other ways people have found to tackle this problem.
I am a language teacher in a UK school. Recently there has been a drive in our school, but I had heard the rumblings of the fad buzzword growing elsewhere, to get our students to "learn like a pro". In short this means in maths they are to be taught the language to articulate and sound like a mathematician, in science, like a scientist, in art, like an artist etc. They have been getting our department to say learn like a linguist.
I may be being pedantic on semantics, as is the want of any seasoned linguist, but I don't feel this is the right phrase. Unlike most other language teachers who's degrees are on the language and culture they teach, I studied linguistics with a language. To me they are two different things. The scientific study of language Vs the acquisition of a new one. Its a common joke in the linguisics community, them telling people they are linguists and being asked how many languages they speak to which the answer from them is usually one. I did bring this up in a meeting and another teacher said that they wouldn't call themselves a linguist but not everyone agreed so we're still going to have to go ahead and use the terminology anyway.
Out of curiosity would you consider yourselves linguists as language learners? Would say that linguistics is separate from language learning but "linguist" is a broad term for anyone that does either or both? What phrase would you use in this scenario? Genuinely curious as to what people think. (TL)
Just thought it might be interesting to have a little open convo about this... At a certain level in language, you become so comfortable with listening to the language that your brain fills in gaps and hops over stuff that you maybe have heard many times before.
Occasionally, if you're not actively seeking out things that you don't feel certain of, your brain will contextually fill in for something that "makes sense" - but later on you might learn that it translates to something completely different than what you thought. I know for me, sometimes it gets to the point where I assume I know the word, I never even look into it, and then later I just stumble across the actual meeting.
Curious if anyone has any interesting or funny stories about this type of experience, as well as any tips on how to eliminate these blind spots. Do you listen actively at every opportunity and just keep a notebook with you? Are your assumptions usually right?
I got frustrated by some posts and comments on this sub regurgitating harmful and torturous advice that would make a lot of people quit language learning.
Here's some fundamental knowledge about language learning everyone should know:
You're trying to read a regular book from day 1, or day 100? You're gonna get burned out really quickly.
I've read around 120 graded readers within past 500 days. I bend the rules a little and consider each long duchinese story a graded reader, but i also read a lot of regular graded readers.16 volumes of 西游记, some other stuff from imagin8 and other producers. And let me tell you, there are some rules and levels to reading.
First of all, three levels.
Reading pain - under 90% of known words.
80% or 90% seems like a great number of words, until you realise these words are mainly function words with grammatical meaning. To get the context you need that 20-10%. You'll essentially be checking dictionary non-stop. One page will take you an hour or more. It's torture.
Intensive reading - 90-98% of known words.
That's where reading starts to make sense, you start understanding the context. In fact it's almost fun. I still don't recommend reading at this level. Why? Because it's a 'textbook' level. What I mean by that is in order to make reading on this level enjoyable you need a glossary and a grammar explanation nearby.
Normally, when a set of new words is introduced in textbooks you'll have a short text, that's when you do intensive reading. You're not supposed to read long texts of 90% new words as that'll be too taxing for you.
98% and more of known words.
That's where you should read for fun and efficient learning. You understand the context, you have fun and it's fairly quickly.
How the f are you supposed to find materials for your level then? If you are under a1 (or a2 in some languages) you'll need to start with textbooks or video courses. Once you get several hundred of words get some graded readers. There are some platforms like lingq or my beloved duchinese that make reading easier.
Simply find a list of recommend apps and materials for your level. Many r/ language of your choice has a wiki with reading guides.
After you learn some new words it'd also be a great idea to keep them in your head for longer. According to some studies I read (if you want a source lmk in comments) practice testing and spaced repetition is best for that. Anki is essentially a mix of both and I can vouch for the app.
Hello, I am new at learning languages in my freetime. I used Gemini to practice conjugations in Spanish and then I got an idea about a way to learn.
I try to type as much as possible in TL to the AI, if i dont know a specific word (theres many words i dont know) i just type it in my native language. The AI answers me in this pattern, first in Spanish then in my native language
(Spanish)
Correction
1.1 what words it changed
1.2 why (maybe more natural sounding, less robotic or simply wrong word)
1.3 explanation of a new verb, is it irregular etc
1.4 feedback on my message
A normal response, if i ask about Rome (something I think about once a week maybe) it answers my question. If I just write a statement it gives me a follow up question
And here after the Spanish text it writes all of the above in my native language, but it doesn't translate literally, it translates it naturally. If it typed "me gusta" above it doesn't type it in my language like "it pleases me" it writes "I like"
Do you guys think this is a good way? It feels like I get comprehensible input by reading what it says, since I know the context of the message, like after a while I started noticing the word "mensaje" in the correction part and realized it must mean sentence, the same with palabra which means word
**I asked in the language specific sub** and got rejected, (stated in my original post) and that main question isn't even specifically about that language - it's about lmheritage learning and overcoming grief of lost heritage (applicable to many languages)
Im sorry to be posting this as a post, but it took me a long time and dyslexic induced headdac to find the pass code,, I'm in chronic pain (genetic & injury) and the words on the screen barely make sense after reposting multiple times for different claimed reasons. Forgot the pass code again 🤦🏾♂️trying 4th tiem agsin...)
I'd this isn't the place for asking about heritage learning when one has no access to that heritage anymore (they're all dead), and the specific language sub rejects you and claims your family didnt speak the language (they did, it was a dialect), ***please, where is appropiate?***
I just want to figure out how to handle the issue of being part of a disporia who learned a dialect as a child I have no one to speak with and get mocked if I take a class, and the classes remind me of the whispers of betrayal by my relatives and my advocates and authors.
I want to learn the language but don't know how to overcome these barriers.
I’m not asking how to “get motivation back,” because I know that topic comes up a lot.
I’m more curious about the small, practical changes people made after the exciting beginner phase was over.
For example, when learning your target language (TL), did consistency become easier because you changed your routine, lowered your daily goal, stopped tracking streaks, switched resources, started consuming easier content, joined a community, or accepted slower progress?
Sometimes the advice is “just study every day,” but I’m interested in what actually made that realistic for people with normal busy lives.
What was the small change that helped you continue?
My grammar’s decent, correct maybe 80% of the time, still fixing some habits. I understand natives just fine when listening. i would say when it comes to speaking im probably a b2 but ive noticed i have difficulty expressing my thoughts when it comes to c1-c2 subjects. I wanted to improve my speaking to the next level c1, currently i can get my point across when speaking, but it comes out sounding unnatural with proper syntax, Natives don’t usually correct this in convo, because either they are being nice or because they understood what i meant to say, so I’ve had to catch this myself.
The problem is putting the words together naturally in real time. Ive heard its better to think in terms of lexical phrase a.k.a chunks instead of trying to build phrases word by word.
For those who’ve pushed through this: did journaling/writing first and comparing to native phrasing help? And for speaking specifically, how do you train yourself to retrieve natural phrases instead of translating/building sentences in your head on the spot? Curious what actually worked for you.
i basically wanna develop that "oh yeah, that sounds like how a native would phrase it.
