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Are you multilingual?
Topic Started: Nov 16 2010, 07:07 AM (511 Views)
Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
The key to remembering new vocabulary, is to pair it with images that are silly, sexual, or violent. This is why people, when they are learning a new language, learn the basic niceties, and then learn how to swear. The associated images are powerful, so they stick.

Using this principle: The word in Japanese, for rain, is "ame." The word for candy in Japanese, is also "ame." So, imagine candy raining from the sky, and presto: You've learned two new words that you will never forget.

The word for chopsticks, is "Ohashii." The word for bridge, is "hashii." So, imagine a pair of chopsticks "walking" across an ornate Japanese bridge. Presto: Two more new words. :)

There is active listening: When you're in a public place and hear people around you talking, eavesdrop. Listen to their conversation. We've been conditioned to view this as rudeness in our own culture, but if you are inconspicuous about it, then you can pick up a lot of conversational things that textbooks won't give you. Ditto for watching TV. (and keep your dictionary handy.)

There is active speaking, too: When you've learned a new word and want to cement it into your consciousness, start conversations with people and work your new word into the conversation.

Lastly, (and this was the most effective technique that I came up with), was to talk to myself in my head, the way we all do, in the target language, no matter how imperfect. What this allowed me to do, as I became fluent, was to practice in the privacy of my own thoughts, and to slip into the target language "mode," rather than constantly translating back and forth, betwixt what I was hearing versus what I wanted to say.

By the time I got done translating what I was hearing and what I wanted to say, the conversation was already miles ahead. Now, when I'm speaking Japanese, for instance, I slip into Japanese "mode," and there is no translation happening. It's on a 1:1 basis, just as it is, when I'm conversing in English.
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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LWpianistin
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HOLY CARP!!!
I can get around fairly easily in Germany (well, last time at least, which was 5 years ago), but I definitely need to read up a bit. Once I read or hear some French, a bit comes back - enough to slowly get around France. I can understand some Latin, but not much as I only took a year of it about 11 years ago.
And how are you today?
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KlavierBauer
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HOLY CARP!!!
Frank: This is one of the big differences between learning from books, and learning via immersion - the ability to speak/comprehend without translating both ways.
You literally have to begin thinking in the other language to be able to form sentences and dialog the way the native speakers do.
What you say is so true - being able to slip into that "mode" is imperative to speak fluently.
"I realize you want him to touch you all over and give you babies, but his handling of the PR side really did screw the pooch." - Ivory Thumper
"He said sleepily: "Don't worry mom, my dick is like hot logs in the morning." - Apple

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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
I took five years of French in middle and high school. Sadly, I don't remember very much at all but I was fairly fluent by my senior year.

One of my friends growing up came to our school my Sophomore year. His parents were from Paris and the whole family spoke fluent French. In his own way, he gave me the best advice I ever heard regarding language learning (which you guys already hit on): "no no no, you're thinking American again! Don't do that sh!t, think French when you read and write in French, that's what you do." My French classes became a whole lot easier after that.

(Sadly, he failed French I when he took it, got a D the second time and eventually gave it up. The problem as that even though he was fluent in the language, had spoken it since birth, he had never once had to write it down.)
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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sue
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HOLY CARP!!!
Frank_W
Nov 16 2010, 10:38 AM
Lastly, (and this was the most effective technique that I came up with), was to talk to myself in my head, the way we all do, in the target language, no matter how imperfect. What this allowed me to do, as I became fluent, was to practice in the privacy of my own thoughts, and to slip into the target language "mode," rather than constantly translating back and forth, betwixt what I was hearing versus what I wanted to say.

That really makes sense, Frank.

I realise that's what I try to do with my French (which is by no means fluent), but I have a lot of opportunity to read and hear it, so often play with it in my mind.
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