Trellum

On 10/25/2015 at 10:16 PM, Anju said:

Deliberate practice. I'm currently taking an online course about learning how to learn. It's a combination of using the pomodoro technique, spaced repetition and applying what has been learned with other people. I use HelloTalk and iTalki to do that. The pomodoro technique and spaced repetition is mainly for memory, so grammar and words. 
Other then that when I have spare time i've bought a graded reader in korean on google play and i'm going through it, figuring out what i don't know and broadening my vocabulary. 

Have you heard about mind maps?  Those can also be used to learn a new language, I'm using them to help me remember and learn some Dutch grammar key points.  It does work, but it takes a while to get used to it. 

I had a taste of this when I was younger and worked as a teacher.  I wasn't supposed to speak Spanish at all, that was the hardest part, because the youngest students always tried t make me explain things in Spanish.  It's so hard when they know your native language  is also Spanish   They think this is done to annoy them, but we did this for their own good.  The good part was that I planned my classes way ahead, we worked with a really nice book full of visuals and we focused mostly in active learning.  I'd never work as a teacher again. 

Children learn languages by just ''listening'', we all did   Waaaay before we knew anything about perfect grammar or how to write.  I learnt English in a similar way, just listening and watching, yeah, I'd have never imagined that I'd learn anything by just sitting in front the PC   I was 16 years old though, when you are younger you learn languages more easily, the younger the better actually. 

I have yet to watch Dutch YouTube videos, but I've been seriously considering the possibility of creating a channel where I can share Vlogs and that kind of thing.  Mostly targeted at Spanish speakers living in the Netherlands or wanting to learn dutch   I'd like sometime create videos about the Dutch language, share some tricks and tips in my channel as well. Because you know what they say... teaching something to someone is the best way to reinforce your own knowledge. I'm truly considering it. 

10 hours ago, Blaveloper said:

I don't know about Mexico, but it's certainly true in the Netherlands.
While walking around the streets speaking Polish to my mum, nobody cares.
But when I'm in a much smaller group (at work, at school, with guests, etc.), most people instantly get mad.
I even had one moment somebody asked me I was by any chance talking about them, but I said "no" and they were OK with me again.

So speaking a language others don't understand has both good and bad sides, my favourite good side would be the fact you can hold a private conversation in public.

It is also true in Mexico   But people generally don't take it so seriously, unless you start excluding people from the conversation on purpose, then it's considered the rudest thing ever.    I had something like that last time in the Netherlands,  but I am getting better at just letting that kind of things pass.  I've so much to learn about the Netherlands    Do people where you live use a lot sarcastic humor? 

@reverserewind  I've a friend with whom I've that kind of dynamics with.  In that case we both joke about it,  and have a good laugh, but never at my own expense or his.   This person did this kind of thing very openly (jokes at my expense), I felt kinda disappointed about that   I thought we had gotten through that. 

To be honest I don't take that as an insult    I was told that several times whenever my mom told people I learnt English completely on my own without books or a language course.  I didn't use a dictionary either. I learnt English thanks to Yahoo chat rooms.  First I was just paying attention to what people wrote and said, after a bit I started participating and then I started exchanging e-mails with native English speakers.  After 6 months I already wrote English decent enough, speaking it took me a bit longer because I've always been a shy person.  Then I met my now ex and I started to feel more confident, I was 17 years old.  I'm still improving my English   Some people are good with languages, specially if they are young, but I believe anyone can learn a language if they truly want it. 

13 hours ago, VinayaSpeaks said:

I attended a college in India. Even though English was the teaching method, Kannada (a regional language in India) was in the primary language of the people in the town where my college was located. In order to acclimatize with the locals, I decided to learn the local language. My local friends were willing to help me. After learning few words and sentences, I was ready to test my language skills. However, I became a joke. The boys had taught me cruse words and vulgar sentences. This was so frustrating.

That sounds awful. Did you manage to learn the language in the end or not?  Because in my experience this kind f incident are common in the beginning, but people usually come back t their senses after a while  

@darkchild  It's considered very rude in my country for two or more persons to start speaking another language if they are excluding another person. Specially if this done on purpose knowing beforehand the person in question doesn't speak the language   Sadly I got that done a lot in the Netherlands.  I knew I was being talked ill of, I tried to control myself that one time though, but what I really wanted to say was:  ''If you are so brave why don't you say it n my face in English?''. 

Well, you could definitely meet a lot Spanish speakers in sites like ''Speaky''.   Last time I checked there were a lot people there, lots of profiles and it seems they have changed a lot things in the site. It looks prettier    There are a lot Spanish speakers trying to learn or practice English, so I am sure you will have no trouble  

If you can't or don't want to practice daily at least try watching videos or TV shows in Spanish. There are so many interesting videos on YouTube you might find interesting. I specially like to watch vlogs   I can say that watching videos and listening to Dutch language has helped me stay sharp and not to forget the word order that took me a while to grasp!  I know this can work for other languages as well, it did for me with English  

I kind of learn English that way, but in an online setting. Basically I was 16 years old, spent a lot time in the Yahoo! chat rooms just listening to people talking and reading what they wrote.  That is how I learnt, it took me to actually start writing e-mails back and forth to native English speakers in order to improve my language. Then I moved onto voice chats...  It took me 6 months to speak it, but it took me a couple years to be fluent in it.   So basically yes, I'd say it's possible, specially if you are young enough. 

This is my opinion... I honestly wouldn't like it if we all spoke one language... it sounds almost as ad as having a single world government.  Imagine that?  My biggest fear... yikes!  Plus what would happen with our cultures?  Because our mother languages are a big part of our cultures...   so if we had a single language being spoken all around the world I think we would be losing so much.  Plus where would be the fun in that?  Can't think of anything more boring that one single language for everyone     I hope that never happens to be honest. 

Hi guys!  Sorry if the title of this thread sounds  confusing,  but today something happened and made me feel upset.  Do you guys think that name calling while practicing a language, even if done as a joke is acceptable?  To me this behavior is not acceptable at all. Specially if it comes from someone who is supposed to help you learn/practice the language, when you respect someone you don't randomly utter disrespectful names like ''stupid''. That is just a big no no.   This is not acceptable in any other circumstance either. 

 This is specially bad if it's done in a language you are just learning!  Not very motivating, is it?  So this person (won't say who it is) thought that because I'm not fluent enough he could get away with calling me names in Dutch. No matter in what language you do it, calling someone stupid out of the blue just like that, even if it's done as a ''joke'' is so disrespectful.  

I'd normally think nothing of it, but this was done by someone close to me.  If it had been done by a random stranger well... It'd not have affected me at all.   Has something like this ever happened to you?  How did you react (supposing you realized you were being insulted, of course)? 

On 3/13/2016 at 7:51 AM, Blaveloper said:

Having English as your native language doesn't make you the sage of everything regarding the English language.
I often find myself in situations where I even have to teach Americans or Brits some English, because they "don't care about spelling and/or grammar".

In many cases, non-natives can even get more knowledgeable to a given language than native speakers, because native speakers generally never learn super complicated words or rules while a non-native speaker does (unless the native speakers have to, like studying law for example).

LOL, agreed.  So many native English speakers out there don't seem to know the difference between ''they're and ''their'', it does get in my nerves, but I understand this is very common specially among English native speakers.  It's the same with Spanish speakers, I think most people have doubts regarding to their own mother language sometimes, I actually have  grammar and orthography books (2) . I've them just in case I get stuck with something   I bought them a long time ago, because I figured out I could always improve my Spanish.

I believe you can train your memory and improving it, but in my situation... losing bits of memories and even forgetting words I use often is common.  All thanks to my neurological issue. I'm not sad though, because despite my huge memory issues I've managed to learn dutch   I will improve it soon, right after I get my MVV I will start working on it    I believe leaning languages is good for people like me, because I get my memory to work harder! 

I loved the world map one, mind blown   Sometimes it's hard to imagine how things were many centuries ago... just amazing!  Thanks for sharing   I'll now share my absolute favorite: http://www.factslides.com/     I love facts and slides   This site has both, basically just a bunch of facts separated by specific categories or topics, it's addicting  because of the slides format  

8 hours ago, reverserewind said:

It's a great way to train your listening skills. The language in movies is a little bit of fake. However, if you watch TV live, it feels totally different. 

I personally prefer movies with subtitles   But yeah, sometimes the language used is kind of odd.  That is why I don't find most movies so useful to learn new vocabulary.  I personally prefer talk shows and so on, even cartoons   I love watching cartoons in Dutch because they use a very simple and basic dutch, that makes it so easy. 

For me the hardest and most boring part of learning a new language has always been reinforce the weak grammar points.  Studying grammar in general is kind of slow and dry for me.  My favorite part is learning new vocabulary though flash cards or mind maps, because then I can draw and color them!   That is what makes mind maps more effective and engaging  Right now I'm not studying dutch though, it's on a hiatus until I get the approval for my MVV from the IND. 

I started to learn Dutch because I am moving to the Netherlands with my fiance. We want to start a family, and I want to find a job there as soon as possible.  Currently we are waiting for the approval of my MVV (so hard!).  Once the waiting is over we can be together   But I really need to learn dutch well in order to integrate well to the country.  That and i want to be able to understand my children fully (once we have them) when they speak dutch to their dad. 

If you really want it you will find the time to practice     It's all a matter of priorities, even studying for as little as 15 minutes daily makes a huge difference as long as you are persistent.  I plan to take 15 minutes to study a bit Dutch in the morning before work and other 15 minutes at night before bed  

For me the biggest achievement was learning English completely on my own,  I was 16 years old or so, it took me 6 months to start actually speaking English, but took me a bit more than a year to be fluent in the language. I learnt it online, mostly by practicing it, once I was fluent in it I could learn more when I watched movies or read books in English.  My mom thinks it's amazing, I do so as well, because English opened so many doors for me!

I told my fiance to stop mocking my accent   He did it a couple times and it really hurt my self-esteem.   I told he he had to stop that, because that didn't help at all with my desire to learn and improve the language. Thankfully he has stopped   I hope it continues like that. 

Honestly I have seen how people who try to learn a language they don't really like fail.  It happened to my mom trying to learn English and french.  I think that English is a must for most people out there, but  then the question gets trickier.  I'd say that learning an extra language (apart from English - if you are not a native English speaker, of course) is a very personal choice.    One should always learn a language one truly likes for whatever reason, like for example when you like a country or culture. Another good reason is moving to a different country   just like me. 

I'm from Mexico and over here expressions like ''Que hubo'' are rarely used by young people, or even middle aged people. The only person I know who sometimes uses this is an 89 year old woman    ''Que onda'' is losing the favor or young people, but is still used by some people.  ''Que tal'' is a bit better,  and can be used when you don't know a person so well.  ''Que pasa'' can be used as a simple question to ask what is going on, but also something as a very informal greeting used with people you know well.  

Here in Mexico most of the times when we greet a friend we just say something like: Hola! Buenos dias/tardes/noches!  ¿cómo estás?  And then we kiss on the cheek.  That's it    That being said this is applied to Mexico, not sure about the other countries in latin America.