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How do you start learning a language from scratch and what is this starting phase so delicate in the general language learning process?
I mean if I understand you correctly, your schedule is the following:
You have the text in the native language, you are still an absolute beginner,
and you are trying to translate the native text into your own language, into Italian
Yes, actually I get hold of a bilingual resources, meaning that I have
the text in, say, German, the target language that I am learning, and I have it in Italian,
so that I can compare the 2 systems and then I do this back-and-forth translation
so I make sure that first I understand it and then I absorb it
So, to answer your question "how do I learn a language from scratch?"
I have to say that my strategy hasn't changed that much in the course of time,
but I refined it
So first of all I use this technique, if somebody asks me
"how do you learn a language from scratch?"
first of all my first piece of advice would be: get hold of a language series that you
like on market.
Now, one other important thing to say is that
the language series that you use IS important obviously,
because if you like the material that you are using, it is a plus
but it is also paramount that you learn HOW TO USE IT,
because books, such as books that you see here for example
they are books, they are pieces of something, but u have to absorb the content
if you want them to be useful for you, because books were written not only for you to enjoy them
some were written to acquire an ability, like a manual.
So, first of all, learn how to choose language learning material
and I am not just talking about searching on the Internet, but also
if you go a library and you leaf through a book and you like it visually for example
This is one of the very first things that "meets the eye", as they say
and then obviously you have to figure out how
the best way to use, to make the best out of it.
So, this is the very first step that I take,
and the second step - and this is a refinement step that I added in the last 5 years -
I find myself a language partner as soon as possible.
So, the search, the "quest" to find a language partner is also important,
because I think that nobody has ever learned a language totally by themselves just with books.
You have to interact with human beings, and when that happens
that's the moment when your language skills acutally take off
People go to foreign countries and the reason why a lot of them - even if not all of them -
end up speaking the language well is because they are forced to use it, since they live in the environment,
they are forced to speak the language on a daily basis.
So if you don't have the chance to live in a foreign country,
you still have the Internet, which is a treasure trove,
it is absolutely amazing what you can do with the Internet, so
what you should do is going to some language websites
where you can find language partners, a couple of examples come to mind, for example Sharedtalk,
is very famous as well conversationexchange.com
and you can actually select the male female, target language, native tongue
and then you just send an email, a message and say "hey, I am Luca, I want to learn this language, I am a begginer, intermediate, I would really like to talk to you
and then it is very easy because a lot of people actually do reply,
and then you just start having conversations on Skype, but
once again, it is important to know HOW to have conversations on Skype
for the sake of language learning.
Right, ok, so to wrap this up,
in order to start learning a language from scratch 3 things are important:
first of all, to identify textbooks or language series that are suitable for you.
My question is: how do I know that?
Because I am an absolute beginner in a language, how do I know that this particular textbook is the right one for me?
There are a couple of things, for example as I said before the very first aspect is the visual aspect.
If I don't like a book visually - and that happens obviously -
I am not willing to use it.
Secondly for me it is important that the book..it has to have a bilingual version, it has to have
your target language as well as your native tongue or another language,
it doesn't necessarily have to be your native tongue, it can also be for example a language that you know well.
I learned quite a few languages through French and English because the versions in Italian were not available.
So this is the other important thing.
And then for me it is important that the book is not charged, overloaded with grammar,
meaning that to me it is important to have some grammar notes along the way, the path,
but it doesn't have to hinge on grammar, the course has to be about communication and conversation.
Fourth, it is important to have some phonetics explanations in it.
Assimil, one of the series that I like the best provides some good explanations in this regard.
For example they add STRESS PATTERNS to sentences, for those who don't know what stress means,
some words in every language especially in English,French, Italian, they are "stressed" because they convey more information.
If I say for example, say, Italy is a great country,
you have Italy and country that are highlighted in pitch because they are the important elements of the sentence.
So it is not just the stress or main stress of words but also the stressed syllables within words,
because every word, in English,French or Italian have some parts that are stressed
they have the accent which falls on certain syllables, and ASSIMIL provides that as well as other features.
Another very important thing - because I do care about pronunciation and intonation -
is that they give you the tools to figure the phonetic patterns of a language.
And possibly even vocabulary, I don't like vocabulary lists but there are a lot of people who like them, so
if you also like vocabulary lists that's a plus for a lot of people
and there is another thing that I wanted to add.
ASSIMIL has another amazing features that is not discussed that much,
together with the main dialogue you also have an exercise
after the dialogue in which they assemble the words, the pieces together in a different way than it was done in the main dialogue.
So you learn some words within the context of the main dialogue, of a conversation,
and then you can actually see how these words are used in different contexts and sentences.
And this is quite important because it relates to, as I was saying before,
it is not just about learning words, which is pretty important,
but also how to assemble them together, which is one of the main features to build the so-called language core.
Ok, got it. Let's move on to the next question
Learning a language, especially at the beginning take a lot of time, right?
Most people fail in maintaing a daily language routine, one of your core principles that you preach so to speak
is to learn a foreign a foreign language every single day.
So, how can people do that, how can people learn a language every single day or maintain a language learning routine
if they are working full time, or studying full time, and there are other things in life
like doing sports, meeting friends and so forth
How can we pack language learning into that schedule?
Well, let's say that modern times have given us beautiful things, such as the Internet
but they have also given us the curse of hurry, we are constantly in a hurry,
life is so much faster than before, I would say that
first I would say that no matter what method you use,
because the method IS important,
there are some cognitive principles that are extremely important.
First and foremost I would say that THE most important one is:
stick to your routine every single day.
Now as I said before, it might sound a little bit trite
but learning every day gives us the possibility of feeding our brain
Now the problem is as you said before that a lot of people
don't stick to it because they "don't have the time".
Now, when you learn a foreign language,
first you have to ask yourself, and it has to do with motivation, routine, it is all entangled,
first ask yourself a very imporant question:
WHY am I learning this language? If you start with a kind of feeble motivation, if your motivation is not strong,
and your motives and goals are kind of fuzzy and vague,
then within 3-4 weeks even if you start with a lot of energy and enthousiasm, it will wane with time.
Very quickly, and I think that it happened to quite a lot of us and in general to language learners.
So, first ask yourself the right questions, why am I learning this language?
Then you have to keep telling yoursel why you are learning that language every day.
Imagine what you can accomplish just by learning 30-40 minutes a day,
you can acquire an ability that is going to enable you to communicate with thousands and thousands of people around the world.
For example right now when I think about learning Japanese sometimes I struggle,
sometimes I tell myself "Gosh, this language IS difficult", but
the idea of going to Japan and talking to people, to thousands of people,
and sometimes, most of the time I would say, they don't even speak English,
the mind-boggligng possiblity of communicating with somebody who doesn't even speak a common language
is just very motivating in itself.
So, ask yourself the right questions at the beginning and then keep reminding yourself every single day - even if it is in the back of your mind -
if you are doing something that is going to change your life and enrich it
it is a huge motivation booster
Now, going back to the question that you asked me, how do I do it
how do you establish your routine, well
there are a few things to say
First, as I said before, start with the right mindset,
when people say "I don't have the time"
just rephrase it and try to say "I don't MAKE the time" and that would completely change your perspective.
It is not that we don't have the time, but that we make poor use of it.
Reality is that every single day Stephan, you, me, we do some things that we like.
Working out, going jogging, watching a movie, a YouTube video, whatever
so we actually do make time to do some things that we like
No matter the circumstances, even if we have a family,
and you know it is a pretty busy life, we have kids, work,
reality is that we can actually make the time.
When we talk about language learning routines we don't talk about, say, 4 hours.
Language geeks, which is not an insult by the way, they can study for 4,5 8 hours,
because they have the time, because the MAKE the time.
But one person who just learns ONE language can actually find 15,30,45 minutes,
it is not such a crazy amount of time.
What I also suggest is that
if you think about it, if you have 30 minutes a day
don't just learn a language for 45 minutes a day, but divide it into blocks, you wake up in the morning,
let's suppose that you wake up in the morning at 6.30, ok?
If you are a morning person or if you have to work
Now, try to start, wake up 15 minutes before, earlier,
and then you can study something for 15 minutes.
15 minutes you might retort
is not a long time but in 15 minutes if you stay focused you can actually learn a lot
because according to scientific research,
small chunks of information, if that piece of information is not very big
like for example reading the chapter of a book or an article,
your attention span as well as your concentration is very high and you tend to retain things much better.
So if you have 30-45 minutes a day, divide it into chunks
15 minutes in the morning by waking up a little bit earlier,
15 minutes in the afternoon,
remember that even if you work you have lunch break, and lunch break - actually some of my students do that
for example my student is a lawyer and he does that all the time,
he says "lunch break, I am going to learn with Luca"
and it is one hour, so imagine having 15 minutes,
you can not only read an article - which is called "intensive reading"
or stick to your language routine, but you also have time to actually eat
Awesome, so, in terms of learning on a daily basis it is not like
learning every day 4-5 hours a day because it is not sustainable
in the long run, it is about starting slowly
for instance, with 15 minutes a day and make it a habit,
I think it is really important, like brushing your teeth every day in the morning
and every night before sleeping, you don't think about it anymore,
the same thing kind of happens the same mechanism should be developed when it comes to learning a language every single day, and
it is important not to overwhelm yourself.
Yes absolutely and there is one more thing,
that is, you know only divide these 45 minute blocks in multilple chunks,
but you also divide it according to the amount of energy that it requires to tackle them.
When we talk about language learning, we have writing, speaking, listening and reading.
If you wake up and you are a morning person and you feel fresh,
just try to tackle acitivies that require a little bit more energy, such as
producing, like speaking and writing
If you don't have anybody to talk to, you can simply talk to the microphone
of your I-phone and create short recordings
that you can send to a native speaker.
So it is not actually true that we have to have another person to talk to if we want to talk.
Or write a text, or whatever.
You can listen and read when you are tired, for example when you come back from work and you are pretty tired,
and you don't want to create speeches or write,
you can simply listen and read, which are much easier activies than just speaking and writing.
So it is not just about dividing your payload of work into smaller chunks - which improve your memory retetion-
attention span is better, but you also have
to decide what kind of schedule you want to stick to and
try to allocate some time
in the morning,
when you are fresh dedicate some time to activies that require more mental energy
and that is quite important and that is what I do with my bidirectional technique.
When I have to translate back into the target language,
when I translate it from L2 into Italian (L1) it is kind of easy, but when
I have to translate into the targe language in order to absorb it it requires more energy
and concentration, and I tend to do it in the morning, before I start doing anything because I am fresh and it is easier.
Ok, to wrap this up, the main point that Luca is making is that
the energy that we have is not equally distributed along the day
so for instance I am a morning person and I tend to do the hardest things then
because I am fresh and focused and I am "good to go".
So, right after lunch, when my belly is full
when I am kind of feeling the "lunch fatigue"
I am sedning emails, calling people I am organizing things,
so I am carrying out mechanical things that don't require
a lot of brain power, and then in the end,
in the evening my energy level is going up again and I am doing more challenging works
so the main lesson we can draw from it is that
you have to know your own daily biorhythm , and allocate those tasks
especially language learning tasks and divide them, knowing what the most challening tasks are and
allocate time according to your bio-rhythm
Wonderful recap!