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How To Refresh Language After Break?


Katrink

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Hello!

It is a well-known fact, that foreign language is easy to forget without constant practice. Did you have long pauses in using foreign language? Possibly, someone can share own experience … 

There are many methods how to learn foreign languages. 

One of them is reading popular newspapers. For instance, when I studied English, I read the Forbes, the Economist and The New York Times of course. Also, bbc channel was very useful. Now, I can say that content from the New York Times and the Forbes was much easier to understand comparing to the Economist.   

What about learning German? Which newspapers can be the best for people with middle level of German? I just know about Die Welt and Die Zeit. Who can offer other newspapers, that will be easy for comprehension?

I studied German several years ago, but then I stopped… :sad:

Surely, I do not remember a lot of things and my level is not even advanced. 

How to refresh old knowledge? 

Can be reading newspapers in original effective in my case?

How did you refresh language skills after certain break?

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The first time after coming back form a break, but the longer you've known a language, the longer breaks you can take without forgetting. I would just go through a newspaper or tv show and pick out what you've forgot, memorise them with flashcards or audio practice and repeat until you are back up to scratch.

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  • 2 months later...

I think a small session of practicing the basics always helps to freshen up rusty knowledge - It takes a while to move back into it, though.

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  • 1 month later...

I think it all depends on how interested you are in the language that you have been learning. I studied French several years ago, but never had much opportunity to practice it, hence I forgot a lot of what I learnt. I can still understand about 70% of what I read, but I can't speak French very well. I know that I could relatively easily pick up on it again, but to be honest, I lack the interest as at this stage in my life I have no or very little use for the French language.

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  • 2 weeks later...

What works for me is that I watch movies or tv shows. I also listen to music. There are many free websites that can be used for practice test. Lastly I try to read my notes. After a while of not using the language there are many words that I can't recall. Even in a break, it is important to put even a small time in using it. like watching or listening to a music. That will make a big difference.

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  • 8 months later...

For me the best way to freshen up my language skills in a particular language (after a long break, like I did with dutch), was to actively watching and listening TV shows and movies in that language.  That is a great way to remember some words and sentences with almost no pressure, you can also see how much you have forgotten.

Last time I took a long break from Dutch, I was surprised to find out (after watching some videos) that I haven't forgot a lot!  I might have forgotten a few things, but after some days of active listening I could remember it all :)

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What works for me is that I watch movies or tv shows. I also listen to music. There are many free websites that can be used for practice test. Lastly I try to read my notes. After a while of not using the language there are many words that I can't recall. Even in a break, it is important to put even a small time in using it. like watching or listening to a music. That will make a big difference.

That is what works best for me as well!  Watching movies and TV shows, it's even better if they have subtitles, but if they don't i just pause the video and repeat the part I couldn't quite understand... then I try to write it. If I still can't do it, then I ask my boyfriend to write it for me!  It really helps having a native speaker close to you :) But again, he is the sole reason I'm learning that language... if it wasn't for him I'd not be learning it. No way!  I never liked the language... not even when I was learning languages for fun! I had my eyes on indo-european languages mostly... the Germanic branch to be more exact.

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  • 3 months later...

I like reading through my old work or my old notes. Sometimes I watch movies or read magazines in the language. I also like to go onto language websites (like duolingo or babbel) to refresh, they help quite a lot. It is a bit of a pain at times to go back after a long time and try to remember what you used to know so well, and it may take a while to get back up to speed, but you'll get there eventually!

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  • 2 months later...

If you want to stay motivated or to start again after a long break, you could use Wikivoyage for a start. It's a website which talks about countries, cities, regions ... and it's very interesting to read the topics. Here is an article on the CourseFindersGermany blog how to deal with it in German:  http://coursefinders.com/de/studentlibrary/1520/wikivoyage-sprache-und-urlaub-zu-hause

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