Introducing myself + advice for new language learners

[Aureal]

Hello, I'm new to the forum, I wanted to introduce myself, and tell you a little about my experience learning languages, and I have an advice for beginners trying to learn a language (there's also an extra one for Japanese/Chinese learners).

I'm 16 years old, and I'm fluent on English, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish, which is my mother tongue I'm also learning Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. After I mastered English I noticed something that would help anyone learning languages, and it is that, for learning a language, no matter which one it is, the best thing to do, is to forget about your mother tongue and start learning it as something completely different, associating words is fine to begin with, however the goal that you have to reach, is being able to think in that language, like, visualizing something and being able to tell what it is without thinking the word in your mother tongue, for example, seeing a drawing, and not thinking "a drawing", but thinking "絵”, saying I love you, you dont think "I love you" and then translate it to “我愛你”, you think “我愛你”, that straightforward thinking is the best way to learn a language, it takes away the unnecessary workload of translating from your brain, you'll be always fluent.

Ok, I think anyone who wants to learn Chinese or Japanese has seen those Kanji/Hanzi learning methods, where they tell you to match the shape of a letter to the actual shape of the thing they represent, excuse me if I disappoint you, but these methods dont work at all, you'll reach some point where the kanji/hanzi doesnt represent its meaning at all, take 鬱 (Japanese: うつ), it means depression or gloom. How do you associate it with that meaning?

The best way to learn Kanji/Hanzi, is to focus on radicals, I highly suggest to start practicing how to draw them, just grab a blank sheet of paper, and start writing them (For Japanese learners, there is an app called Obenkyo, which includes a comprehensive work on grammar), kanji, numbers, hiragana, katakana tests, and all Kanji included in the JPLT tests, along with it pronunciations, and stroke order).

This is actually the second time I wrote this, for some reason, I was logged off and all of the text was lost D: I also wanted to ask you if you had ever created your own language, because I did, and its becoming more and more complex! if anyone wants to learn it, its very easy, I can send you a document describing it.

[linguaholic]

4 hours ago, Aureal said:

Hello, I'm new to the forum, I wanted to introduce myself, and tell you a little about my experience learning languages, and I have an advice for beginners trying to learn a language (there's also an extra one for Japanese/Chinese learners).

I'm 16 years old, and I'm fluent on English, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish, which is my mother tongue I'm also learning Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. After I mastered English I noticed something that would help anyone learning languages, and it is that, for learning a language, no matter which one it is, the best thing to do, is to forget about your mother tongue and start learning it as something completely different, associating words is fine to begin with, however the goal that you have to reach, is being able to think in that language, like, visualizing something and being able to tell what it is without thinking the word in your mother tongue, for example, seeing a drawing, and not thinking "a drawing", but thinking "絵”, saying I love you, you dont think "I love you" and then translate it to “我愛你”, you think “我愛你”, that straightforward thinking is the best way to learn a language, it takes away the unnecessary workload of translating from your brain, you'll be always fluent.

Ok, I think anyone who wants to learn Chinese or Japanese has seen those Kanji/Hanzi learning methods, where they tell you to match the shape of a letter to the actual shape of the thing they represent, excuse me if I disappoint you, but these methods dont work at all, you'll reach some point where the kanji/hanzi doesnt represent its meaning at all, take 鬱 (Japanese: うつ), it means depression or gloom. How do you associate it with that meaning?

The best way to learn Kanji/Hanzi, is to focus on radicals, I highly suggest to start practicing how to draw them, just grab a blank sheet of paper, and start writing them (For Japanese learners, there is an app called Obenkyo, which includes a comprehensive work on grammar), kanji, numbers, hiragana, katakana tests, and all Kanji included in the JPLT tests, along with it pronunciations, and stroke order).

This is actually the second time I wrote this, for some reason, I was logged off and all of the text was lost D: I also wanted to ask you if you had ever created your own language, because I did, and its becoming more and more complex! if anyone wants to learn it, its very easy, I can send you a document describing it.

Hi Aureal! Welcome to linguaholic.com! Wow, that's really impressive! 16 years old and already a polyglot! And you even invented your own language! I am about to create a new forum section for conlangs. What do you think about sharing your language there, so that we can all see it? that would be nice.

 

 

[Filiger]

Amazing bro !!
 

I know a bit of Vietnamese as I lived some months there. But I am really fluent only in French. I must improve in all the languages I know a bit (English, German, Spanish, Vietnamese)

 

Good luck for your challenges ! See you soon on this forum !

[language_enthusiast]

hI!. send me the documentation at: [email protected] !  also I am developing ,y language learning website where any enthusiast can uploadlanguage video lessons to. If anyoe is interested- I would share a link with you guys.

 

Peace, love, care, from Vika

[Shri.mhetre]

hi guys, i am a new member of the german group i have a question. i can't find the edit box. how can i post in in the german group? kindly answer pleas

[Fastlearner]

On 10/3/2017 at 5:07 AM, Aureal said:

Hello, I'm new to the forum, I wanted to introduce myself, and tell you a little about my experience learning languages, and I have an advice for beginners trying to learn a language (there's also an extra one for Japanese/Chinese learners).

I'm 16 years old, and I'm fluent on English, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish, which is my mother tongue I'm also learning Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. After I mastered English I noticed something that would help anyone learning languages, and it is that, for learning a language, no matter which one it is, the best thing to do, is to forget about your mother tongue and start learning it as something completely different, associating words is fine to begin with, however the goal that you have to reach, is being able to think in that language, like, visualizing something and being able to tell what it is without thinking the word in your mother tongue, for example, seeing a drawing, and not thinking "a drawing", but thinking "絵”, saying I love you, you dont think "I love you" and then translate it to “我愛你”, you think “我愛你”, that straightforward thinking is the best way to learn a language, it takes away the unnecessary workload of translating from your brain, you'll be always fluent.

Ok, I think anyone who wants to learn Chinese or Japanese has seen those Kanji/Hanzi learning methods, where they tell you to match the shape of a letter to the actual shape of the thing they represent, excuse me if I disappoint you, but these methods dont work at all, you'll reach some point where the kanji/hanzi doesnt represent its meaning at all, take 鬱 (Japanese: うつ), it means depression or gloom. How do you associate it with that meaning?

The best way to learn Kanji/Hanzi, is to focus on radicals, I highly suggest to start practicing how to draw them, just grab a blank sheet of paper, and start writing them (For Japanese learners, there is an app called Obenkyo, which includes a comprehensive work on grammar), kanji, numbers, hiragana, katakana tests, and all Kanji included in the JPLT tests, along with it pronunciations, and stroke order).

This is actually the second time I wrote this, for some reason, I was logged off and all of the text was lost D: I also wanted to ask you if you had ever created your own language, because I did, and its becoming more and more complex! if anyone wants to learn it, its very easy, I can send you a document describing it.

Congratulations about your knowledge and your passion to keep learning. You have to keep going no matter what, do that you love !