Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: mikulska@faust.Princeton.EDU (Margaret Mikulska)
Subject: Re: The (DO NOT)'s of language learning?
Message-ID: <1995Feb14.012045.9058@Princeton.EDU>
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Reply-To: mikulska@astro.princeton.edu (Margaret Mikulska)
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References: <3hbiop$sf5@masala.cc.uh.edu> <3hlk91$985@overload.lbl.gov>
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 01:20:45 GMT
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In article <3hlk91$985@overload.lbl.gov> veklerov@spindle.ee.lbl.gov (Eugene Veklerov) writes:
>In article <3hbiop$sf5@masala.cc.uh.edu> frenkel@ox.tcs.uh.edu (David Frenkel) writes:
>>
>>Not wishing to ask once again on sci.lang how to learn a languange,
>>I would really appreciate it if someone posted his pet list of things
>>NOT to do while learning a language. 
>
>Here is my $0.02 worth.  My short answer is there are many DOs and
>no DON'Ts.  But here is my long answer.
>
>[A lot of good advice deleted for brevity.  But ...]
>
>Every activity is useful and it contributes a bit to the final goal.
>There are no miracles though.  And above all, forget the notion that
>learning a foreign language is fun.  

Speak for yourself, will ya?  Just because you're sweating blood
learning languages, it doesn't mean that everybody else has to.  It
may be hard work for some, but it's pure entertainment for others.  How
do you know which it is for somebody else?

>You have to memorize every word yourself.  

Nobody prevents you from memorizing, if you want to learn languages the
hard and inefficient way.  The original poster asked for a "pet list" of
"don't"s.  I have two items on my list:

1. Don't translate.
   Translation is a separate skill and should not be used as a means to
   learn a language.  The idea is to _think_ in the foreign language,
   from the very first lesson, no matter how small your vocabulary is.

2. Don't memorize.
   Especially don't memorize words out of context.  It's boring and
   kills your motivation.  Use new words and new grammar constructs in
   meaningful sentences.  _Use_ them actively instead of memorizing.
   Listen and read a lot and they will just stay in your memory.

>Nobody will do that for you.  It is a lot of hard work
>and nothing but hard work.

It may be hard work, but it may also be fun.  It's your choice.

(OK, I admit that not everybody is _that_ much interested in learning
languages.  But the the very least, it is possible to minimize the
hard work and maximize the fun.)

-Margaret
mikulska@faust.princeton.edu

