Language/Multiple-languages/Culture/Techniques-for-learning-languages

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Here are techniques for learning languages effectively. It is currently under construction.

Bilingual conversation

When you are talking with your language & culture exchange partner, make them bilingual for each sentence.

Let's see which language to speak first, and which second:

If you want to focus on understanding,

  1. If your speaking skill is good and your partner's listening skill is bad, you speak your target language first.
  2. If your speaking skill is bad and your partner's listening skill is good, you speak your partner's target language first.

If you want to focus on training,

  1. If your speaking skill is good and your partner's listening skill is bad, you speak your partner's target language first.
  2. If your speaking skill is bad and your partner's listening skill is good, you speak your target language first.

But if it's a chat on computer with text, it doesn't matter which one first, which one second.

If your partner can't speak a sentence well, you should say how to do it, with grammatical assistance, and your partner should repeat it fluently.

Mistake log

Keep a log about which type of mistake you tend to make, and pay more attention to it.

Language/Multiple-languages/Grammar/Common-Mistakes This page is also incomplete.

Parse and categorize

Find sentences, and parse them with tools such as

http://www.mapsofspeech.com/2017/10/02/treeform/

Then categorize those sentences with the trees' pattern, then you will have a really better understanding of the sentence structures.

Tandem

This method is not what you do in the app named Tandem.

In tandem, you and your partner are native speakers of the target language of each other. In a period, you both only speak one's native language. In the next period, you both only speak the other's native language. Then the next period, and so on. The lengths of the periods are equal.

Synonym groups

When you find a word, try to find its synonyms, as many a native should know as possible, make them a group, mark their usage differences, and name the group with the word most frequently used or the one you know best.

If you like, you can also have antonyms. But I guess too many words may discourage you.

Morse code training

“Are you serious?”

Creativity comes from deviation.

It helps to train concentration for listening. Maybe it's concentration, not limited to listening.

Morse code training software is not hard to find on every common operating system.

Surrounding vocabulary

Yes, right now, from words like “computer”, “screen”, “lesson”, “technique”, “polyglot”, “club”, “website”, “browser”, “grim”, “pixel”. What you can see will be on your vocabulary list to memorise.

This method can be combined with “synonym groups”.

Instant sentences

Write down whatever sentence you can make up instantly, on the text bar of Google Translate.

Its accuracy is not guaranteed for all languages. You can translate back to check it.

Echo

Record your voice when your are reading an article, play the recording to see how you pronounced and if you can understand yourself.

You may have met English teachers who can point out your incorrect pronunciation and have incorrect pronunciation themselves. They lack this type of training.

Keep in mind that your recognising your words doesn't mean that your pronunciation is correct.

Text emerge

Listen to a text and look at the translation of the text. Try to recognise every word you heard with the help of the translation.

You may wonder where to find such listening materials with translation. Find a text in your target language, translate it with Google Translate, then listen to the TTS voice.

Reversed flashcards

When creating flashcards, write the word on the back, the definition on the front. In this way, you will consider how to express something instead of guessing the meaning of a word.

Affix and root groups

Put the words with the same affix or the same root in a group, and memorise them with Anki or something alike.

This helps you to build a solid impression of an affix or a root.

Say the sequences

Try to say the number in your target language following the sequences:

  1. n[k] = k * 5 (0, 5, 10, 15 ...)
  2. n[k] = -(k * 5) (0, -5, -10, -15 ...)
  3. n[k] = 1 / ((k + 1) * 5) (1/5, 1/10, 1/15, 1/20 ...)
  4. n[k] = -(1 / ((k + 1) * 5)) (-1/5, -1/10, -1/15, -1/20 ...)
  1. n[k] = k * 2 (0, 2, 4, 6, ...)
  2. n[k] = k * 2 + 1 (1, 3, 5, 7, ....)
  3. n[k] = -(k* 2) (0, -2, -4, -6, ...)
  4. n[k] = -(k * 2 + 1) (-1, -3, -5, -7, ....)
  5. n[k] = 1 / ((k + 1) * 2) (1/2, 1/4, 1/6, 1/8 ...)
  6. n[k] = -(1 / ((k + 1) * 2)) (-1/2, -1/4, -1/6, -1/8 ...)
  1. n[k] = k * 3 (0, 3, 6, 9, ...)
  2. n[k] = -(k * 3) (0, -3, -6, -9, ...)
  3. n[k] = 1 / ((k + 1) * 3) (1/3, 1/6, 1/9, 1/12 ...)
  4. n[k] = -(1 / ((k + 1) * 3)) (-1/3, -1/6, -1/9, -1/12 ...)
  1. n[k] = 2^k (1, 2, 4, 8, ...)
  2. n[k] = -(2^k) (-1, -2, -4, -8, ...)
  3. n[k] = 1 / (2^k) (1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, ...)
  4. n[k] = -(1 / (2^k)) (-1/2, -1/4, -1/8, -1/16, ...)
  1. n[k] = k + 1 (0, 1, 2, 3, ...)
  2. n[k] = k - 1 (0, -1, -2, -3, ...)
  3. n[k] = 1 / (k + 1) (1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, ...)
  4. n[k] = 1 / (k - 1) (-1, -1/2, -1/3, -1/4, ...)
  1. n[k] = k * 11 (0, 11, 22, 33, ...)
  2. n[k] = k * 11 + 1 (1, 12, 23, 34, ...)
  3. n[k] = k * 11 - 1 (-1, 10, 21, 32, ...)
  4. n[k] = k * 11 + 2 (2, 13, 24, 35, ...)
  5. n[k] = k * 11 - 2 (-2, 9, 20, 31, ...)
  6. n[k] = k * 11 + 3 (3, 14, 25, 36, ...)
  7. n[k] = k * 11 - 3 (-3, 8, 19, 30, ...)
  8. n[k] = k * 11 + 4 (4, 15, 26, 37, ...)
  9. n[k] = k * 11 - 4 (-4, 7, 18, 29, ...)
  10. n[k] = k * 11 + 5 (5, 16, 27, 38, ...)
  11. n[k] = k * 11 - 5 (-5, 6, 17, 28, ...)
  1. n[k] = k * 9 (0, 9, 18, 27, ...)
  2. n[k] = k * 9 + 1 (1, 10, 19, 28, ...)
  3. n[k] = k * 9 - 1 (-1, 8, 17, 26, ...)
  4. n[k] = k * 9 + 2 (2, 11, 20, 29, ...)
  5. n[k] = k * 9 - 2 (-2, 7, 16, 25, ...)
  6. n[k] = k * 9 + 3 (3, 12, 21, 30, ...)
  7. n[k] = k * 9 - 3 (-3, 6, 15, 24, ...)
  8. n[k] = k * 9 + 4 (4, 13, 22, 31, ...)
  9. n[k] = k * 9 - 4 (-4, 5, 14, 23, ...)
  10. n[k] = k * 9 + 5 (5, 14, 23, 32, ...)
  11. n[k] = k * 9 - 5 (-5, 4, 13, 22, ...)
  1. n[k] = k / (k + 1) (0, 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, ...)
  2. n[k] = (k + 2) / (k + 1) (2, 3/2, 4/3, 5/4, ...)
  3. n[k] = -(k / (k + 1)) (0, -1/2, -2/3, -3/4, ...)
  4. n[k] = -((k + 2) / (k + 1)) (-2, -3/2, -4/3, -5/4, ...)

Vocabulary division

The words to memorise looks too many, which frustrates you all the time.

Now, divide them into many small groups, complete smaller goals and make yourself confident:

  1. Find a number of words according to frequency;
  2. Divide them with the the traits. If a word has two or more, place it into each of the corresponding groups;
  3. Memorise the words with a same trait, one trait by another, one frequency level by another.

For example:

part of speech part of speech ... affix affix ... irregular inflection irregular inflection irregular inflection ... collocation collocation ...
adjective noun ... with prefix “ab-” with prefix “for-” ... irregular verb plural with “-es” plural with “-a” ... collocate with “to” collocate with “at” ...
1-500 a group of words a group of words ... a group of words a group of words ... a group of words a group of words a group of words ... a group of words a group of words ...
501-1000 a group of words a group of words ... a group of words a group of words ... a group of words a group of words a group of words ... a group of words a group of words ...
1001-1500 a group of words a group of words ... a group of words a group of words ... a group of words a group of words a group of words ... a group of words a group of words ...
1501-2000 a group of words a group of words ... a group of words a group of words ... a group of words a group of words a group of words ... a group of words a group of words ...
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Learn them grid by grid. It's better to have hyperlinks for “a group of words” and direct to another page, if you are going to build webpages or create e-books for it.

This index is very useful for doing this:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Lemmas_subcategories_by_language

This can be combined with Vocabulary matrix.

Syllable familiarisation

We have a frenquency list, we have controllable TTS, we have Google Translate. What will happen?

If you don't know how to get them, you need to read Language/Multiple-languages/Culture/Internet-resources-for-polyglots and Language/Multiple-languages/Culture/How-to-use-SR-and-TTS-on-Windows.

Just copy a bundle of words and paste on Google Translate and TTS, translate 'n' play. Through this you can be familiar with the words in listening and learn a meaning of each word. There are polyphones and polysemes, so this is not for learning vocabulary.

Don't forget to adjust the rate of TTS.

Language comparison

Compare your target language with languages you have learned.

It means that you will need to learn your native language as a non-native speaker, recognise your native language from outside.

-- AUTHOR --

GrimPixel

Contributors

GrimPixel, Vincent and Maintenance script


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