Learning a language like a native

[ProNine]

I was thinking, wouldn't the best way to learn a language is to learn it like a native individual. Let's take Swedish for example, a language I am learning at the moment. The best way to learn the language is to take the curriculim a typical Swedish school uses to teach children the language. You might think it would take you 12 years to learn the language in that case, as there are 12 school years. Now, this is where you are wrong. School curriculimes, in general, aim to teach subject to kids at a rate that they could take it in. For example, it would take a month to teach a kid the whole alphabet for the first time. However, you're an adult, so your understanding and analyzing abilities are better in general. Do you think this method would work?

[anna3101]

That's an interesting idea. It sure is a lot of information to learn. Personally, I think it would be great even to just browse through some textbooks for children, and not only those related to language. I feel that I'm missing out on a lot of things that are natural for natives due to the very fact that I finished school somewhere else. The thought of looking closer at the Polish school curriculum has been in my head for some time but this task just seems too huge to tackle. Maybe when I retire, I'll go study the abc and the rest

[宇崎ちゃん]

Do you even realise that native speakers learn their native languages FAR before they go to school?
I always recommend people to learn like a native speaker learns his or her own language, which means speaking, listening and immersion, not with classrooms and textbooks.

Besides, the amount of years you must go to school differs in every single country.
Here in the Netherlands for example, you must go to school between the ages 4-18 (14 years), while in Belgium it's 2-18 (16 years).
Even then, the Belgians already speak their native language about a whole year before they go to school and the Dutch know their native language about 3 years before going to school.

[anna3101]

Do you even realise that native speakers learn their native languages FAR before they go to school?
I always recommend people to learn like a native speaker learns his or her own language, which means speaking, listening and immersion, not with classrooms and textbooks.

Besides, the amount of years you must go to school differs in every single country.
Here in the Netherlands for example, you must go to school between the ages 4-18 (14 years), while in Belgium it's 2-18 (16 years).
Even then, the Belgians already speak their native language about a whole year before they go to school and the Dutch know their native language about 3 years before going to school.

Of course they do, but then in most countries you still learn your own language's grammar, orthography etc. There's a lot of useful material there that could be used by someone learning the language as their second. The only prerequisite is, of course, you should know the language fairly well before trying to immerse yourself in the school programme.

[Idomama]

In my experience learning Spanish, the most effective way was being taught by a native speaker and having them speak to me only in Spanish. Any queries I had also had to be addressed in Spanish. You have to think in the language in order to master it.  Extensive exposure to the culture helped me to make thinking in Spanish a habit.  I immersed myself in Spanish movies, music, poetry, books etc. I had the opportunity to travel to a few countries in Latin America and those trips significantly improved my Spanish (especially the verbal aspect). It is a matter of survival being placed in a position where you want to order a meal and English is not widely spoken in the country. These are good methods for learning the colloquial form.

Learning according to the school curriculum would be much easier once you have a good command of the language.

 

 

[宇崎ちゃん]

Of course they do, but then in most countries you still learn your own language's grammar, orthography etc. There's a lot of useful material there that could be used by someone learning the language as their second. The only prerequisite is, of course, you should know the language fairly well before trying to immerse yourself in the school programme.

Which is my point.
Native speakers normally learn speaking and listening at home, and writing and reading at school much later on.
This is the reason why I can speak Polish perfectly fine, but my Polish writing skills are terrible.

[ProNine]

Do you even realise that native speakers learn their native languages FAR before they go to school?
I always recommend people to learn like a native speaker learns his or her own language, which means speaking, listening and immersion, not with classrooms and textbooks.

Besides, the amount of years you must go to school differs in every single country.
Here in the Netherlands for example, you must go to school between the ages 4-18 (14 years), while in Belgium it's 2-18 (16 years).
Even then, the Belgians already speak their native language about a whole year before they go to school and the Dutch know their native language about 3 years before going to school.

I agree that people learn languages before they attend school, and this is actually part of what I mean. When learning languages, people will learn a lot, then, when they're around 20% of the way, they reach a stage where only a few people keep on learning, others just feel like they're not getting anywhere. Therefor, you need to learn your target language and when you reach a halt, that's when you start looking at other school's curriculum. As for the amount of years, it doesn't matter. You choose where to stop and I simply used 12 years as an average as my current target language is Swedish.

[czarina84]

I think it's an interesting idea.  As for learning to speak the native language before going to school, do that, also.  Here's what I think you should do, learn the alphabet, then vocabulary.  Learn what a toddler would learn before moving on. For example, my daughter will be three in January.  She knows her alphabet, numbers up to 50 and can make small sentences.  Try that first.  Do your alphabet, numbers up to whatever you want to try to learn, then vocabulary, then sentences.  Once you get that down, try reading things.  Small books, warning labels, anything that will strengthen your knowledge.  I hope you post the results of your endeavor.  Good Luck. 

[宇崎ちゃん]

I think it's an interesting idea.  As for learning to speak the native language before going to school, do that, also.  Here's what I think you should do, learn the alphabet, then vocabulary.  Learn what a toddler would learn before moving on. For example, my daughter will be three in January.  She knows her alphabet, numbers up to 50 and can make small sentences.  Try that first.  Do your alphabet, numbers up to whatever you want to try to learn, then vocabulary, then sentences.  Once you get that down, try reading things.  Small books, warning labels, anything that will strengthen your knowledge.  I hope you post the results of your endeavor.  Good Luck. 

Only one thing I would say differently: you should learn vocabulary and sentences at the same time.
For the most of the time, you can't simply do a 1-on-1 translation to a different language.

"Tengo hambre" (Spanish) would literally translate to "I have hunger".
Same sentence in Japanese (お腹が空いて | onaka ga suite) would then become "belly is empty".
While in English it should be "I am hungry".

That's why it's so important to learn vocabulary WITH context, because context is king.