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I am a language teacher, so factor that into the advice that follows: 1. Find a language teacher that excels at teaching beginners. Tell the teacher that you on
by redsable 11y ago
I am a language teacher, so factor that into the advice that follows:
1. Find a language teacher that excels at teaching beginners. Tell the teacher that you only want to study 1 hour a week but that you promise to do 6-10 hours a week of homework (for at least 3 months). Ask for a plan from the teacher based on this schedule. A good teacher is much like a good doctor and should be able to give you a good plan. The teacher should be able to fill those 6-10 hours with productive work.
2. Do not evaluate yourself based on what you can produce (say) but rather on what you can understand. Listening in particular is the royal road to language learning. Also, if you can understand slow normal speech you will have personal proof of progress which will reduce self-doubt. Remember communication is not possible without understanding.
3. Make sure that you have mastered all the phonemes in the target language. By doing this first you can avoid many problems later.
- xaybey 11y agoIYO, what is the best audio to listen to? Tapes for language learners? Radio? Subtitled movies?
- seanccox 11y agoWhen I was learning Turkish, I spent a summer listening to an hour-long talk radio show every morning. Three guys chatting about local issues and making jokes, with callers phoning in to offer their opinions. It bumped my comprehension to effectively fluent, and I learned a lot of colloquialisms that make me sound more fluent than I actually feel when I speak.
- laaph 11y agoCan you tell me the talk show you are referring to and if it's accessible in the US? I'm trying to learn Turkish, and compared to when I was trying to learn Spanish, it feels like there are very little accessible resources.
- seanccox 11y agoSure thing. It is "Modern Sabahlar". Here's a link to the podcast archive. They are very good about keeping it current. You can also follow them on Twitter for updates. http://podcast.modernsabahlar.org/ http://podcast.modernsabahlar.org/ https://twitter.com/modernsabahlar https://twitter.com/modernsabahlar