Wednesday, 27 May 2020

how to learn a completely new language

There are some good tips out there on how to learn a language:
Jay Doubleyou: How to learn any language in six months
Jay Doubleyou: How to acquire a language in one year - and not 'to learn a language'!

Here are a few practical steps on how to learn a language that is very different to your own mother tongue...

ALPHABET:

Firstly, you need to learn the alphabet:

And you need to be able to use a keyboard in that alphabet:

Plus here:

PRONUNCIATION:


It helps to have the phonetics:

Here is an excellent resource:

For example:

PRACTICE:

Then you need to have a way to practice for a short time EVERY DAY:

It doesn't have to be for too long every day:

"The bottom line: whether it’s five minutes or two hours, choose a learning strategy that fits into your daily routine and that you’ll actually commit to following."

It needs to be at a regular time - the first thing you do in the morning, or when you have a coffee:

PLATFORMS AND APPS:

And you need a good platform or app to do it:

This platform is not perfect, but:
> there are forums where people (learners, native speakers, experts) discuss a question;
> you can practice by looking at the 'More' tab for work on words; plus the little 'weights' icon for more practice;
> you are 'rewarded' if you practice every day - and you are penalised if you don't!

But there are other platforms:
Top 10 Duolingo Alternatives for Language Learning (2020) | Beebom
20 best alternatives to Duolingo as of 2020 - Slant

DICTIONARIES:

A standard place to go is Google Translate - which gives you alternatives if you look for them and the pronunciation in two speeds:
Google Translate

A very good dictionary with the etymology and other stuff is also free:
Wiktionary, the free dictionary

For example:
зеркало - Wiktionary

And there are other excellent dictionaries:
DeepL Translator
Linguee | English-Russian dictionary

GRAMMAR:

You don't need to 'learn the grammar': you will learn it as you go along:
How To Learn Russian Without Grammar - YouTube

"And it's not about words and grammar rules. It's about expressing ideas. "Не надо." [No need.] (Don't. / Stop it/that. / That's enough. ; No need.) Many simple expressions can be used to express various ideas and 'feelings' that are easy to learn with good examples, and difficult to figure out on your own if not pointed out in your language program"
Learn Russian with the best program online

"Many people think Russian grammar is complex. It is no more difficult than other languages such as French or German. Quite often it is just not clearly explained. At RussianLessons.Net we understand that many English speakers don’t even remember English grammar very well. We will teach you the basics of grammar without getting too technical, just some basic rules to point you in the right direction."
Russian Language Lessons - Learn Russian For Free

"I had ignored grammar rules while learning Mandarin Chinese and Japanese. Could that approach work for learning Russian? I wanted to test that out. The result was that it worked. No, grammar can’t be ignored when it comes to Russian, but it can be treated lightly. There are things we need to be vaguely aware of as we listen to the language and read it. But we don’t need to nail anything down until much later. In saying that, LingQ’s free Russian grammar guide is perfect since it’s not too detailed and has just enough information to help you understand."

SKILLS:

You must decide if you want to speak it - or just understand the written form:
How to Read Russian Like a True Russki in 8 Painless Steps | FluentU Russian
Reading in Russian: Text for reading: Introduction

Anyway, we need to start with reading and listening:
Get input. Lots of it. | Antimoon

To improve your listening, you need some very simple dialogues:
Russian Language Beginner Listening - YouTube
5 YouTube channels to help you learn Russian - Russia Beyond

Some stories:
Russian Reading Practice for Beginners: Репка - YouTube
The Greatest Treasure: Learn Russian with subtitles - Story for Children "BookBox.com" - YouTube

For children:
Learn Russian for Kids - Numbers, Colors & More - YouTube
Russian for kids - Learn Russian for kids - Russian language for children - YouTube

And some music:
8 Best Russian Songs to Learn Russian

FINALLY:

Some very interesting videos:
3 Reasons why Russian is more Difficult than you Think! - Learn Russian DAY 5 - YouTube
How I'm Learning Russian (видео по-английски) - YouTube
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