Also, a lot of language challenges started. I'm not going to participate in any of them. Most of them cost money which I don't have. I mean, I want to use it for other things. And there are quite enough resources for free. Especially considering that libraries exist and libraries have language courses.
So - the
Add1 challenge might be interesting, but - I don't chat, and it costs, and it seems to be really complicated anyway, so - I'll probably hack it and do something of my own, with no sparring partners and so, so it's not the same thing at all. A lot of people use it and like it, so if you have the money, courage, and bother, go for it! It IS worth it.
LingQ's challenges...
So... OK, I get it, you need to live, too, and I have absolutely nothing against paying members getting benefits non-paying members don't get... but... as a non-paying member, I can create 20 lingqs.
That's it.
I can delete them and create 20 new ones, and that way learn 20 words at a time, so it's still a good program, and I recommend it for language learners. It really is very good. BUT - this means I, as a non-paying member, cannot participate in the challenges.
This makes me feel like a freeloader.
Instead of a poor cousin, I'm a moocher, a leech, a cadger, a beggar, a sponger - a parasite, taking something that doesn't belong to me. A do-nothing, good-for-nothing, ne'er-do-well. Someone hanging on hard-working, honest, good people's clothes, forcing them to work harder to support lazy bum me.
And that makes me angry.
I work as hard as anyone else for my languages. You can't steal languages. You don't benefit from other people's studies. Not one second of your study time benefits me in any way. I CAN'T mooch languages.
Now, I haven't done anything to create the material, and for that, I think the creators deserve all the praise and benefits that are reasonable.
On the other hand, as far as I know, everything I upload is for my personal benefit only, and it doesn't help me that I could read (read out loud) a lot of copyright-free material. I mean, everything Zacharias Topelius wrote is in the Public Domain. A lot of it has been translated. Minna Canth, Aleksis Kivi, Runeberg... Finland might not be a big country with a lot of literature, but there is some, and it would be wonderful for Finnish learners. I COULD help create content.
But... no. I'm poor, and I should feel bad because of that? Or, because 10 dollars a month isn't that much, and I do have that, but I choose to use it on other things - I should feel bad for that?
What do I get with that 10 dollars? Unlimited amount of lingqs and better statistics? Ability to import wordlists? Not worth it. I make my paper flashcards myself anyway.
The only reason I would pay is to be able to participate in challenges and to get my learner to grow. I kind of like that little thing. Neither of these is worth paying for to me.
You can join my
"learn a language in 10 days" challenge.
For free.
Amazing benefits. You'll learn a language for free in 10 days
and have a solid base on which to build by reading books and
newspapers and magazines and whatever you like to read, and by
listening to radio and music, and watching movies and television, or if
you're really adventurous and brave (or social) you can learn more by
talking to real people!
It will be a challenge, that I can promise you.
It is 10 days of hard work. But - even if you fail, it has not been in
vain. You will learn SOMETHING if you stick to it for 10 days. And,
yes, it is just 10 days. (You could round it up to two weeks or down to
one week if that fits your schedule better. Or spread it over a month, or
90 days, or whatever time period sounds good to you.)
Now, however you decide to do this, don't use more than a week to learn everything I put in on day 1.
One thing you should learn on
day 1 is the alphabet.
Also,
learn to say something useful the first day you study the language.
Be
it the usual "Hi! My name is Ketutar. What is your name? I am a woman, I
am 50 years old, I am Finnish."
Also, learn the "good morning, day,
afternoon, evening, night" phrases, and use them.
Learn also the common
courtesy words, thank you, you're welcome, please, excuse me, I'm sorry,
pardon.
It doesn't take long, and you will be able to speak the
language from day 1.
On
day 2 learn the numbers and get
comfortable using them. Learn to tell the time and date in your
language, and learn the lingo of buying and paying for things. Keep counting
everything in the language you are learning.
Learn the rest of the list of phrases on Omniglot on
day 3.
Find
other lists of phrases on the internet and learn them. There's
something like "phrases in ---" on YouTube in a lot of languages. Repeat
after the speaker and record yourself, until you can detect any
difference.
On
day 4 you'll hunt down a frequency
list of the most common words in your target language, with 3000 words.
If you can't find one, find one in English and find the equivalent in
your target language. At this point, it is quite OK to translate the list
with Google Translate or something similar. You will learn the correct
meaning and usage of these words later if you get something wrong.
Don't worry.
Learn 1000 words a day. Yes, it is quite possible.
It takes an hour to learn 100 words, so it takes 10 hours to learn 1000
words.
Handwrite flashcards for the words. Divide the pile in 100
words. Carry with you two piles, one you are learning, and one you will
start learning when you have learned the first pile. If you need to be
outside the home for several hours, take the whole pack with you.
Use any mnemonics that work to learn them.
Yes,
it is cramming, it's not a good way of learning words, and you would
probably forget everything, EXCEPT THAT YOU ARE USING THEM FROM NOW ON
ALL THE TIME. There is no chance for you to forget them.
Also,
it will take you FIVE MINUTES to go through your 1000 flashcards in the
morning, after you have learned them, because it is just to read them
through, and the average reading speed is 200-250 words a minute. You
can do that while you take your morning leak.
Days 4-6
you will learn the 3000 most used words of the language. That is the
size of the vocabulary Native speakers use every day.
Now, their active
vocabulary is a lot bigger than that, it's about 15.000-25.000 words.
But one can manage fine with just 3000 words.
These 3000 words will also
give you enough understanding of the language that you can recognize if
a word is a verb or adjective or something else, and guess the meaning,
or be able to find it in a dictionary because you will be able to
deduct what is the basic form of the word.
As you learn the words, you are to learn:
- definite and indefinite form, singular and plural, all case declension of nouns
- comparison forms of adjectives
- conjugation in all persons, present and past tense of verbs
So, you will learn:
"I, me, my, mine" instead
of "I"
"un día, el día, días, los días" instead of "día"
Sein; Ich
bin, du bist, er/es/sie ist, wir sind, ihr seid, Sie sind; ich war, du
warst, er/sie/es war, wir waren, ihr wart, Sie waren" instead of "ist",
"gros, grosse, plus gros, le plus gros" instead of "gros".
The
first day is the worst because you are not used to this, but as these
are very regular, you will learn the rules very quickly, and do this by
automatic.
Keep
in mind that you might not be able to separate the bits of information
AT THE MOMENT, but you will be able to do that in the future. It's like
learning the multiplication table by heart. At first, you might need to
go through the whole table, but the more you use it, the more automatic
it becomes, until you just KNOW what 4 times 6 is. The same thing with
languages. At first, you might need to go through the whole list to get
to how to say "he is" in German, but the more you say it, the more
automatic it becomes until one day you speak fluent German :-D
And
to those people who say "Babies don't learn it that way!", I would like
to say "Babies take several years before they start speaking. We have 10
days." (or whatever time frame you have :-D)
So, from day 7 and on, you will be using these words you just learned.
Try to read, write, listen, and speak the language every day. Just something, if it's just 10 sentences.
ideas:
reading: not just books, magazines, and newspapers; try Wikipedia articles, blogs, social media, comic books and cartoons, recipes
writing: journal, copy texts, write letters, write short stories, movie or book reviews, blog, social media updates, song lyrics, collect poems or quotes...
listening: music, radio, movies and TV shows, dictation, audiobooks, shadowing, mimicking, news, podcasts
speaking:
shadowing and
mimicking, here too, make videos of you speaking, read out loud, talk to yourself, repeat what you hear, narrate your life. learn poems or plays (or parts of them) by heart and recite them
Also, use all the different learning and thinking styles.
For example:
visual learning: make illustrated flashcards
verbal learning: copy texts
logical learning: etymology and grammar rules
auditory: read aloud, sing; put word lists into jingles, children's songs and carols
social: find people who speak the language in your neighborhood, video chatting
intrapersonal: write a diary, read your favorite books in the language
physical/tactile: take your flashcards for a walk with you; follow tutorials in the language, for example, cooking, try teaching the language to someone else, even if it just words or sentences
naturalistic: describe things in the new language, learn the names of animals and plants, and take the language out to nature with you
