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May 5, 2021 4:05 AM
Comments · 70
13
“When you learn a language and something does not make sense in your brain, do not question “why”. Just learn that it is what it is and you will spare a lot of time.” I got this advice from my brother who speaks 5 languages. A lot of language learners tend to compare the languages they already speak to the ones they are learning. and as many of you know, sometimes things just make sense in the target language but not in your native one. So when you stop questioning “oh why this preposition is here and not there?” and just accept the fact that it is where it is even tho it does not make sense at all, you just learn way faster.
May 5, 2021
9
The best advice I ever received was to focus on being clear and understood over fluent with perfect pronunciation. They pointed out that languages are for understanding, and we all have accents so it’s ok if a few words aren’t perfect. I felt a lot less self conscious after ❤️
May 5, 2021
7
enjoying the process rather than sweating on it, don't beat yourself up over the words and phrases that you don't know yet, there will always be more things you don't know than the things you know. language learning is a life long pursuit.
May 5, 2021
4
Lydia Machova, an interpreter (and polyglot) who did a bunch of interviews with polyglots about how and whey they learn, summarized her research with this: “we aren’t geniuses... the one thing we all have in common is that we [find] ways to enjoy the language learning process... all of us use different methods, but we make sure it’s something we personally enjoy.” Anthony Lauder, author of the Fluent Czech website from way back to when, said something similar — that the key is to simply love the learning process. “[To study in such a way that] studying isn’t a chore, merely a task to get out of the way so that you can reach the fluency that you list for — no. List fizzles. But if you love the language, if you love the language learning process—those hours, those minutes and those years—they’ll fly by, and it’ll feel like minutes. And that’s the way to fluency; to fall in love with the process... and then to do what you love, for hours and hours a day, for years and years, but for it to feel like minutes.” Language is a huge, incredibly broad thing; not something that can be shoehorned into a semester or one-size-fits-all magic trick. It’s important to find a way of learning that addresses the things you personally feel are important in life.
May 9, 2021
4
Finding your own motivation for learning a language is really important. If you try to learn a language that doesn’t really interest you because you feel like you ought to then you will have a much harder time than if you pick a language that you like. The motivation can be any reason. Maybe you just know one or two cool people that speak it and you want to share it with them. The number of speakers of the language doesn’t matter.
May 5, 2021
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