Moving from Intermediate Toward Advanced.avi

Alexander Arguelles presents discusses steps and techniques for moving past the intermediate stage of foreign language learning toward higher levels of mastery.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• foreign
• language
• learning
• study
• mastery
• intermediate
• advanced
• Assimil
• Linguaphone
• autodidactic
• polyglot
• polyglottery
• polyliteracy
• Alexander
• Arguelles

[Nevertoto]

Professor, how do you manage to memorize words and phrases as you don't use flash cards? Thanks for your excellent help.

[ProfASAr]

@Nevertoto There is absolutely no need to spend time memorizing words and phrases in isolation if you learn them by seeing them often enough in context, as you can by doing the other things I mention in this video. I know it might be hard to get away from this legacy of classroom learning, but the idea that one must memorize words and phrases in order to learn a foreign language is not true, and I do not believe that doing so is a particularly efficient autodidactic technique.

[damon899]

I personally find it effective to use programs like Anki - but instead of using it with word lists or things like that (which I dislike very much), I put in sentences I find during reading.

In this way, Anki serves me as a sort of 'condensed re-reading': I already know the context, so they're not isolated sentences, and I don't need to re-read all the other parts I already know, but the ones I want/need to learn pop up at optimal intervals so that I don't forget it even if I read it just once.

[eugrus]

LingQ and LWT are the best "READERS"!

[eugrus]

Gosh! Why are your videos always that long? Could you do it in a nutshell?

[cathrynm]

@chrdauph I'm studying Finnish also, and I've been translating the Selkouutiset news broadcasts to English using an online dictionary. If the conjugation is unknown, I use a site called Fintwol which is able to reverse conjugate. I find that Selkouutiset is simple enough that most things I can work out the meaning, and that my passive abilities are increasing.  I'm still not fluent but do feel like I am retaining new words.

[chrdauph]

Thank you so much for this post! I have taught myself the basics of several languages, especially Finnish, and I've reached a road block with the books I currently have, so I had been looking for ways to improve my vocabulary especially.

[nneuhaus84]

learning the word for tree, dog, and apple are a waste of time to rapid fluency. It's better to learn words such as plant, animal, food/fruit, it, that, etc... In other words, generic concepts that can be learned quickly to get the student speaking and thinking in the language rapidly... Then afterword you can learn the words in real time. EXAMPLE: i like that very much. what is that called? An Apple? i like apples very much...

[nneuhaus84]

Thus i think the best way to learn a language, is learning how to speak, listen, and above all think in a language on a basic level first (maybe 3 months), and then (cram) study around 1000 words a month that can be integrated quickly without having to worry about pronunciation, tone, confidence. etc... This is how i learned Vietnamese in 6 months time to a degree most people think i learned the language from my parents. Also word choice is super important.

[nneuhaus84]

Personally, i have found with most polyglots on here (which i do not mean you, i think you might be different in this respect) that they can speak, read, and write just fine, however when it comes time to understand what is said in rapid conversation in a group of people... they cant follow along. I think this is due to strong emphasis to learn languages via book, cassette, or any other unnatural way of learning as appose to just jumping into the language via immersion. Do you also see this?

[nneuhaus84]

@ProfASAr: I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "the idea that one must memorize words and phrases in order to learn a foreign language is not true", can you clarify? To me if you are not learning words and phrases... you really aren't learning the language... In my experience (which is humbled by yours) i have found, with tonal languages at least, it more important to stress learning words through speaking and listening initially, then move on to memorizing around 1000 words/m (33 words/d)

[yurismir1]

@jac0411 I agree. I mentioned that on one of his other videos a while ago.

[AlbertHamik]

@PetraeKo Angry spirits, definitely. :P