5 ms·

I "Blitzed" 50 Books in 50 Days – My Experiment in Language Learning

51 points by fluentbyfire 2y ago

blackhaj7 2y ago
When learning Spanish, I found it very useful to re-read books I had originally read in English in Spanish. You already know the context so can fill in the gaps. Something about this process felt closer to the natural way you learn language growing up and helped develop my intuition for the languages grammar and vocab. I quickly found myself saying words I didn’t know I knew and using tenses I hadn’t yet started actively learning. Reading aloud was also great for pronunciation as your mouth/tongue is effectively doing “reps” for kind of sound combinations of the language (which are often different to the sound combinations of your own language)
ericzawo 2y ago
This is very relevant to me, I am also in the middle of learning Polish and in attempt to fast-track learning, I've started watching cartoons in Polish with polish captions on (The 90s cartoon X-Men is particularly great po polsku!) I am not quite at the level of full reading books in Polish but am about to take a full-time summer course in Krakow and I'm really hoping to come out of it a couple levels higer.
mtalantikite 2y ago
I've done something similar in the past with Spanish, but I found it difficult since I wasn't at the appropriate level for what I was consuming. You really need content that is at your level, or maybe just a massive amount of patience and time. What the author is basically describing is a poor approximation of an Assimil course -- listening to the audio while hoping some ML translations give them the gist of what's going on. It's probably fine, but it just seems like a lot of wasted effort. With Assimil I've gotten to B1 reading/listening (but not speaking) in a little over 3 months with 30-40 minutes a day, and that's because it's designed to build you up from complete beginner. I'd be curious to know where they're at after 50 days and how many hours they've put in for comparison.
SuperNinKenDo 2y ago
Hard to evaluate given the author doesn't talk about the rationale or what exactly their goals are with this method. Also what is the author's first language? Polish seems like a weird fit for a method like this if you were a native English speaker. All-in-all a bit strange. Feels like picking up a conversation half-way through, but it's the only post on the site.
kebsup 2y ago
I've tried learning German with 45 min podcast + 1h netflix every day, but the acquisition of new vocabulary was just sooo slow I've switched to flashcards.
- gastlygem 2y ago
  Indeed, I have a feeling that I kinda understand the material I'm listening, but the vocabulary I hear doesn't automatically become my own...
TillE 2y ago
I'm a little puzzled by this because if you understand the language well enough to comprehend the meaning of sentences, I don't think having the text in front of you is adding much. Unless you just really struggle with listening comprehension. What I have done is listen to a foreign language audiobook while having the text in English, which I find extraordinarily helpful at an intermediate level where you understand most of the words but may not catch the full meaning.
- penjelly 2y ago
  > you understand the language well enough to comprehend the meaning of sentences, I don't think having the text in front of you is adding much. Unless you just really struggle with listening comprehension. disagree. from what i experience, some of the most helpful parts of reading are when you stop and take a minute to ponder the words, or write it in the side column. Thats the main downside to audiobooks imo, you dont have time to stop and think. That applies whether you just use audiobook or audiobook + reading text, but not in the caze of just reading.
- zamadatix 2y ago
  Wow, even with subtitles vs movie audio I have a hard time not just turning it into a reading session where I forgot the voice audio is there. Maybe it's different without the visual element behind the subtitles, I'll have to give it a try.
  - glandium 2y ago
    Heck, even with English audio and Japanese subtitles, I end up reading (Japanese is my third language).
  - justsomehnguy 2y ago
    Well, it takes a habit not to read them all the time. One thing what helps a lot is .. turning the subtitles off. Or just make the video run at the background, where you can occasionally glimpse it, but it's not your primary activity.
- tempaccount1234 2y ago

51 points by fluentbyfire 2y ago

When learning Spanish, I found it very useful to re-read books I had originally read in English in Spanish. You already know the context so can fill in the gaps. Something about this process felt closer to the natural way you learn language growing up and helped develop my intuition for the languages grammar and vocab. I quickly found myself saying words I didn’t know I knew and using tenses I hadn’t yet started actively learning. Reading aloud was also great for pronunciation as your mouth/tongue is effectively doing “reps” for kind of sound combinations of the language (which are often different to the sound combinations of your own language)

ericzawo 2y ago

This is very relevant to me, I am also in the middle of learning Polish and in attempt to fast-track learning, I've started watching cartoons in Polish with polish captions on (The 90s cartoon X-Men is particularly great po polsku!) I am not quite at the level of full reading books in Polish but am about to take a full-time summer course in Krakow and I'm really hoping to come out of it a couple levels higer.

mtalantikite 2y ago

I've done something similar in the past with Spanish, but I found it difficult since I wasn't at the appropriate level for what I was consuming. You really need content that is at your level, or maybe just a massive amount of patience and time. What the author is basically describing is a poor approximation of an Assimil course -- listening to the audio while hoping some ML translations give them the gist of what's going on. It's probably fine, but it just seems like a lot of wasted effort. With Assimil I've gotten to B1 reading/listening (but not speaking) in a little over 3 months with 30-40 minutes a day, and that's because it's designed to build you up from complete beginner. I'd be curious to know where they're at after 50 days and how many hours they've put in for comparison.

SuperNinKenDo 2y ago

Hard to evaluate given the author doesn't talk about the rationale or what exactly their goals are with this method. Also what is the author's first language? Polish seems like a weird fit for a method like this if you were a native English speaker. All-in-all a bit strange. Feels like picking up a conversation half-way through, but it's the only post on the site.

kebsup 2y ago

I've tried learning German with 45 min podcast + 1h netflix every day, but the acquisition of new vocabulary was just sooo slow I've switched to flashcards.

gastlygem 2y ago
Indeed, I have a feeling that I kinda understand the material I'm listening, but the vocabulary I hear doesn't automatically become my own...

TillE 2y ago

I'm a little puzzled by this because if you understand the language well enough to comprehend the meaning of sentences, I don't think having the text in front of you is adding much. Unless you just really struggle with listening comprehension. What I have done is listen to a foreign language audiobook while having the text in English, which I find extraordinarily helpful at an intermediate level where you understand most of the words but may not catch the full meaning.

penjelly 2y ago
> you understand the language well enough to comprehend the meaning of sentences, I don't think having the text in front of you is adding much. Unless you just really struggle with listening comprehension. disagree. from what i experience, some of the most helpful parts of reading are when you stop and take a minute to ponder the words, or write it in the side column. Thats the main downside to audiobooks imo, you dont have time to stop and think. That applies whether you just use audiobook or audiobook + reading text, but not in the caze of just reading.
zamadatix 2y ago
Wow, even with subtitles vs movie audio I have a hard time not just turning it into a reading session where I forgot the voice audio is there. Maybe it's different without the visual element behind the subtitles, I'll have to give it a try.
- glandium 2y ago
  Heck, even with English audio and Japanese subtitles, I end up reading (Japanese is my third language).
- justsomehnguy 2y ago
  Well, it takes a habit not to read them all the time. One thing what helps a lot is .. turning the subtitles off. Or just make the video run at the background, where you can occasionally glimpse it, but it's not your primary activity.
tempaccount1234 2y ago