I think for language learning we need to imitate those that are best at learning languages: babies. They progress through listening a TON, then dabble in speech, then into writing. If the goal is to become fluent (speak and respond entirely for a day), then I think you’ve got to first do your best to increase the percentage of your day you’re listening and speaking that language.
I took Spanish all four years of high school. One of the most helpful things in the class was the reading. Middle-grade (if one was fluent) novellas written for language learners. To top it off, once a week we were tested on our comprehension by talking in Spanish about what we had read. https://www.tprsbooks.com/shop/?_product_category=spanish&_product_type=novel
This is where most of the books were from if that interests you.
I'm currently working on learning Russian so that I can eventually read some of those classics in the original. I've been using Duolingo but it's frustratingly slow and the "gameification" earning points and climbing the leaderboard makes for a very shallow (and unrewarding) reward system. I think I'd go much faster and get more satisfaction if I were to get a textbook, a dictionary, and some novellas
Novellas for language learners sounds fantastic! I'll definitely look into that, thanks. I have some Spanish novels but I'm not capable of tackling them yet.
Duolingo is definitely subpar. I ended getting lingodeer at a discount and I like that app pretty well.
Russian is on my list! I plan to start adding to Russian into my studies later this year or next.
Check out Dreaming in Spanish. Full on Immersion rather than acquisition, grammar drills, etc.
Thanks!
Love this!
I think for language learning we need to imitate those that are best at learning languages: babies. They progress through listening a TON, then dabble in speech, then into writing. If the goal is to become fluent (speak and respond entirely for a day), then I think you’ve got to first do your best to increase the percentage of your day you’re listening and speaking that language.
I love that! Gotta crave that pure spiritual milk.
I took Spanish all four years of high school. One of the most helpful things in the class was the reading. Middle-grade (if one was fluent) novellas written for language learners. To top it off, once a week we were tested on our comprehension by talking in Spanish about what we had read. https://www.tprsbooks.com/shop/?_product_category=spanish&_product_type=novel
This is where most of the books were from if that interests you.
I'm currently working on learning Russian so that I can eventually read some of those classics in the original. I've been using Duolingo but it's frustratingly slow and the "gameification" earning points and climbing the leaderboard makes for a very shallow (and unrewarding) reward system. I think I'd go much faster and get more satisfaction if I were to get a textbook, a dictionary, and some novellas
Novellas for language learners sounds fantastic! I'll definitely look into that, thanks. I have some Spanish novels but I'm not capable of tackling them yet.
Duolingo is definitely subpar. I ended getting lingodeer at a discount and I like that app pretty well.
Russian is on my list! I plan to start adding to Russian into my studies later this year or next.