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Marouen
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Best ways to learns foreign languages
June 5, 2004 - 05:09 AM
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I think it's a good thing to share also ideas and experiences about the best ways to learn, develop and maintain foreign languages skills. Fast and expensive courses are a good or a bad way to learn a new language. Do you think that TV is enough to do it ? What is the impact of the foreign nationalities contacts in empowering language skills.
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grandma
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Re: Best ways to learns foreign languages
June 5, 2004 - 07:21 AM
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DIRECT CONTACT CAN GIVE LANGUAGE FOR EACH OTHER BUT NEED TO BE SUPPORTED WITH EDUCATION TO KNOW WRITING
I KNOW SOME ONE TRY TO LEARN ARABIC FROM 6 YEARS OLD GIRL TRANSLATING TO HER THIS MADE BOTH BETTER
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Sammy Vital
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Re: Best ways to learns foreign languages
June 5, 2004 - 08:53 AM
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Tv isn't the fastest way to learn a new language. It work but it require time, frustration and effort. I think that Cultural Immersion is the best way, not the cheapest trough.
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Marouen
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Re: Best ways to learns foreign languages
June 6, 2004 - 04:05 AM
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I'll take my example.
I was very young when my parents saw that I stop crying in frot of the TV, especially italian TV (Since today it's RaiUno) because it hase a lot of colors and always animated. By the time I discovered that I learned well italian language but there is two parts I ignore : Bad words and How to write in italian. It's obvious as TV cannot help to learn two things. That's why I choosed italian as an optional lessons in school. I was the first in oral participation but not very well in writing even I was very good in grammar but it's the orthograph that was very bad.
Now TV is my unique way to not forget this language as I don't practice it in dayly life.
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NesreeN
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Re: Best ways to learns foreign languages
June 6, 2004 - 04:27 AM
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I think the best way to learn any language is if its taught to you by a friend or a relative. I am now trying to learn French on my own, using cassette tapes and a book. When I turn on the TV to watch any of the French channels, I fail to understand anything.
So I've been looking for some people to help me communicate with them in French so I could improve my language skills. I think that this has been working best for me. Because there is no point of learning a language if you are not going to practice it!
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arief
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exposure
June 6, 2004 - 05:12 AM
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I think the best way to learn a language, is to have exposure to the language in everyday life.
When I first came to Mexico, I knew zero spanish, absolutely nothing. But because everyone around me spoke the language, it made it easier to get acquainted with using expressions and gestures.
And by having exposed, there's no option to actually try and speak the language, so we'll keep practising everyday. I still think my spanish suckz :P but i think this is a pretty effective way to learn the language
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grandma
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Re: Best ways to learns foreign languages
June 6, 2004 - 05:17 AM
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by marouen
[B]I'll take my example.
I was very
YES YOU GOT THE POINT KIDS ARE FASTER AND BETTER LEARNING LANGUAGE AND COLORED CARTOON HELP THEM ALSO
THE PROBLEM OF TV IS THE TRANSLATION
FOR MARK I WILL HELP YOU IF YOU WANT
OR I SEND YOU LINKS
IT IS AMAZING LANGUAGE
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SLOVENC
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Re: Best ways to learns foreign languages
June 6, 2004 - 09:00 AM
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tv,radio and internet! so you can find yourself some friends abroad and they speak the lang. u wanna know! i practise french that way!
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Helga
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I've worked as a langauge teacher
June 6, 2004 - 10:28 AM
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Langauge teaching is one of my many hats...
The best way to learn is to be brought up speaking that langauge 
Failing that get as much contact as you can with the langauge, TV, books, internet, lessons, visit the country... grap whatever opportunities you can.
But the thing you need, and it doesn't matter what language you're learning, or how old you are, or how good you are, is motivation. You need to have a reason to learn. That will get you through the tough times and the boring times.
My motivation is I want to be billingual. I think languages are the passports to other cultures, and if we're to get along in life, we have to understand how the other person sees it.
Helga
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markanthony lyon
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i need to be taught arabic i never learned arabic
June 6, 2004 - 10:53 AM
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Originally posted by DrBadr
DIRECT CONTACT CAN GIVE LANGUAGE FOR EACH OTHER BUT NEED TO BE SUPPORTED WITH EDUCATION TO KNOW WRITING
I KNOW SOME ONE TRY TO LEARN ARABIC FROM 6 YEARS OLD GIRL TRANSLATING TO HER THIS MADE BOTH BETTER
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markanthony lyon
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Re: I've worked as a langauge teacher.
June 6, 2004 - 11:00 AM
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Originally posted by Helga
Langauge teaching is one of my many hats...
The best way to learn is to be brought up speaking that langauge
Failing that get as much contact as you can with the langauge, TV, books, internet, lessons, visit the country... grap whatever opportunities you can.
But the thing you need, and it doesn't matter what language you're learning, or how old you are, or how good you are, is motivation. You need to have a reason to learn. That will get you through the tough times and the boring times.
My motivation is I want to be billingual. I think languages are the passports to other cultures, and if we're to get along in life, we have to understand how the other person sees it.
Helga helga help my friend to learn he has no language teacher
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Laouini Amel
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Re: Best ways to learns foreign languages
June 7, 2004 - 06:17 AM
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I think -regarding my own experience- that direct contact is the best way to learn a language.
i've been learning english at school for aproximatly 9 or 10 years. i was good at school but my problem was spoken english 'caus at school we do more writing than oral. When i had english-speaker friends, as i talk with them i felt i'm emproving my english. it was (and still be) really a relevant experience.
TV can help learning a language but it's not enough althought i learned Italien thanks to RaiUno (like Marouen) but then i studied it and speak it almost good.
At the same time, for french TV is not helping no more 'caus it's not good french that we see on TV, it only spoken french that differs a lot from written which we need at school. the best way is reading french books!
So books with direct contact could be the best formula to learn a language. And good luck to those who love foreign languages like me! ;-p
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Anna Yershova
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Re: Best ways to learns foreign languages
June 7, 2004 - 10:19 AM
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I guess in this world, foreign languages a a necessary thing, especially for a person who wants to work with any kinds of international projects.
In my humble opinion, the best way to learn to speak foreign language is to go to the country where it's spoken. Being exposed to the language on a daily basis, you learn it. You have to if you want to survive :-) Of course, not everybody have an opportunity to go to a foreign country and study language; plus, you have to spend enough time there to actually learn it; just a regulaer sightseeing tour will probably give you a knowledge of some words, but it will hardly improve your language in general.
If you really want to study language, there are tons of ways to do it. Every year, new methods appear; people make money by conducting surveys on wha thte best way to learn a foreign language is.
According to my experience, (which, of course, is strictly personal, and may differ for eveybody) there is only one way to study a foreign language - hard work. There are lots of good textbooks, and they are good to eb used to provide the basic knowledge of dictionary and gramamar. However, you have to keep in mind that the real language is different from that proper one that is in your textbook. THe textbook don't usually have the slang words; and can you imagine speaking your own language without any slang terms? When I was studying German, I had a really good modern textbook, (not to mention my Mom, who is a professor of German, and who helped me a lot it the everyday German)but I still had hadr times during my first couple of days in Germany. People used some weird words, and their pronunciation was totally different form what I learned. Well, after a few weeks, my German got really better. I've learned all the slang words and began to use the pronunciation which as typical for the area where I lived.
I spent a lot of years studying English, and I did lotsof things to improve it: watching the English movies, reading the English books, practicing, practicing, practicing...It took lots of hard work, but at least the results were pretty good - when I went to America on an exchange program, I've never had any problems expressing myself. Here's the thing I don't like - I guess I've been studying English for 10 years; don't you thing it is too long? I guess I could have worked harder on it.
You know, the only piece of advice I cand ive to anybody ho wants to become fluent in a foreign language is PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Learn books in this language, surf the Internet and find articles written in it, make some friends from the countries where it's spoken and write to them in this language. The human possibilities are unlimited, and I do belive that once we overcome our own laziness, eveything is possible.
Good luck!
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Pui San Whittaker
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Re: Best ways to learns foreign languages
June 9, 2004 - 06:35 AM
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Do you think it is possible to learn languages at an older age? What about when the written characters and pronunciation are very different to your first language?
My first language is English, by my mother's family speak Cantonese. I studied Cantonese when I was young at Saturday classes, but then stopped and can't remember much now. Cantonese is no longer taught in Chinese Schools in Australia as Mandarin is now the official Chinese language. Learning Mandarin is difficult as it is not the language of my family. The pronunication of Chinese languages is very particular as the tone changes the meaning of words.
I agree that being immersed in the country helps, but it is expensive and time-consuming!
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Anna Yershova
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Re: Best ways to learns foreign languages
June 12, 2004 - 01:44 AM
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You know, I'd say it's possible to learn a new foreign language at any age. The only problem is, it's schientifically proven that the younger one is, the easier it is to learn the languages. When you are a child or a teenager, you're eager to learn new things, not to mention the fact that children nd teenagers usually are able to remeber a larger amount of information at a shorter period of time.
It's usually harder to study a language that has a very different grammar structure and even alphabet. If you study a language that belongs to the same language group as your mother tongue, it makes the whole process easier. Let me give you an example: there are tons of the exchange students in the US that come from different countries and continents. When I was an exchange student there, I got to meet lot of them. It's usually almost a ruke that the exchange students from Germany are able to speak English best, because German really has a lot in common with English. Students from the orient countries usually could speak English a little bit worse, but it's easy to explain - they said that English was extremely different from there mothertongues; not to mention the fact that the letters were extremely different to write and for lots of them, the Americans wrote "backwards".
It really gives you a benefit if you study a languahe close to your on, but what a challenge it is to learn something completely new, where even the letters are something you've never faced before.
Once again, everything is possible if we really want to od it; if you really want to speak foreign language, then you can learn it at any age, no matter how differentit is from the language you're used to.
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