Small tip for learning the numbers

[fcuco]

If you find yourself trying to learn the language while living abroad one of the first things that you need to learn are numbers: Numbers are extremely important, if you need to take a train sometimes the platform that a train will use is announced over the speakers and if you need to give your address over the phone numbers are going to be needed, among many other things.

So a nice trick to learn numbers is to watch lottery drawings, you are going to have the visual clues, they usually are going to call the numbers slowly and clearly. It is a very nice way to learn the numbers at least from 1 to 99.

Give it a try if you are lucky enough to catch the drawing on television. 

[darkchild]

Wow! I never thought numbers were most important; I always thought it was greetings.

I would do that and thanks so much for sharing. I know it's going to help a lot of us.

[Rooks57]

It's really important to know numbers though I would go up to a thousand if you can because some airports go over the ninety-nine number.  It's also important to know how to say not just whole numbers but decimals so you can pay for food or fare. I hadn't thought of watching the lottery drawings, that's brilliant.  I usually just have an audio on my iPod that replays it.

[babelle]

Each language has a unique way of naming numbers. If you can crack it, you will not have to memorize each number from 1 to 99 and beyond. In English, for instance, you only need to learn 1 to 19 and the tens digits starting from twenty if you want to learn to count up to a hundred. That is just 28 numbers but it will give you the power to count up to 100.

[KimmyMarkks]

I always mix up the numbers in Spanish and Italian.  I studied both for a while and would constantly mix them up.  Even today I have to think about it carefully before I say or spell a number to make sure it is in the correct language.

[Lingua Franca]

That is a really great trick. I never thought of it before, but I couldn't think of a better way to learn the numbers.

[sidney]

Good idea! I would have never thought of that until you mentioned it here! I only know of Spanish numbers language, but the rest not yet, so thanks for the tip.

[Tripeo]

This is absolutely true. Numbers are some of the most important thing a person has to learn when trying to master or somehow manage a foreign language, however,I don't really believe that listening to the lottery would be the best idea ever, there are many other things you can listen to in order to learn the numbers such as YouTube videos, also, there are several songs you can listen to which say a lot of numbers and that sort of thing, you only need to be creative with it. Good luck.

[AExAVF]

That is indeed a useful method.  Though I don't watch the lottery, the idea of translating the numbers from the current language to the target language seems all right.  I am currently learning Japanese, and it is quite fun translating the lottery numbers to their Japanese equivalent.  What I find a little tricky though is memorizing telephone numbers, because of the use of "の" to indicate the dash in the phone number (e.g. 756-3478).

[poftim]

I use number plates (license plates) for this. Where I live, number plates are in ABC123 format, though they used to be in an AB1234 format and there are still quite a few of the old ones kicking around. So I can practise numbers into the thousands, and the alphabet too. Now I can read the numbers off in Romanian as they whizz by. It's also important to know *how* numbers are said in different situations. Number in full? Individual digits (one two three four)? In pairs (twelve thirty-four) like the French do with phone numbers?

[clair02]

That's a great little trick. Thanks for sharing that. I usually watch soaps, movies and news in the language that I'm currently studying, but I have never thought to watch the Lottery draws. I will now. I can see how it's going to help me with those important numbers, seeing as they hardly ever come out in movies and films. 

[cardinals27]

Thanks for the tip. It is probably going to help many people because I for one, think that learning the numbers can be hard in some languages, so this is going to be good to know.