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Language Learning - Blog Posts
Pour ceux/celles avec une deuxième où plus langues comment se fait-elle changer votre métacognition quand vous interagir avec les idées dans cette langue?
For those who speak a second or more languages how does it change your metacognition when you interact with concepts in that language?
Trois mots/expressions français qui j’aime plus que leurs équivalents anglais:
- l’internaute: joli, marrant, sens comme je suis dans une grande aventure.
- un.e colocataire: mieux son quand je le dis. En plus colocataire peut-être raccourci à coloc.
-en soi. Moins d’un virelangue que ‘in and of itself’
Quiz for people learning/have learned a second language. For fun please leave in the tags what language!
ok, this is amazing. I found a great site with short stories in 34 languages!
"WorldStories is a growing collection of stories from around the world. The collection includes retold traditional tales and new short stories in the languages most spoken by UK children.
We are adding new stories, translations, pictures and sound recordings every week. So keep coming back to enjoy new content!"
constantly torn between "i wish I could magically learn this language immediately and speak it perfectly" and "part of language acquisition is the process, and learning it immediately wouldn't have as much meaning or significance to me"
my friend and i were going to study a language together and wound up having to cancel our plans due to scheduling pressures, but! through research we came across a really cool resource for reading in a TON of languages: bloom library!
as you can see, it has a lot of books for languages that are usually a bit harder to find materials for—we were going to use it for kyrgyz, for example, which has over 1000 books, which was really hard to find textbook materials for otherwise. as you can see it also has books with audio options, which would be really useful for pronunciation checking. as far as i can tell, everything on the site is free as well.
Learning a language and slang at the same time is crazy bc i‘ll use a phrase and be like „is this a slang term and acceptable in casual conversation, a rare but correct phrase, or absolute bullshit that makes me look like an idiot“
Do Europeans (and do Ukrainians) criticize for low foreign language skills?
Today, I found a post of a non-European who complained about how the Spanish criticized foreigners for nor speaking Spanish. It reminds me of posts about how Europeans hate when Americans are not bilingual or are not speaking their mother tongue.
As an Eastern European, specifically, as a Ukrainian, I personally give no sheesh whether you speak Ukrainian or not. However...
First, not all Ukrainians speak English/Spanish/French/German etc.
You cannot simply come here and expect us to speak English fluently. Elder generations speak English badly, my generation (um...actually, I am not gen Z according to our generation theory...I am Y...uummmm...however!) also refuses to speak (but learns), the youngest gen Alpha cannot speak English yet. Why? Because we cannot practice it, we have no extra money to travel all around the world (even before the war, ye know), and as an English language teacher, I have to say the methods of teaching English in Ukraine are...particularly ineffective. Same situations with less spreaded languages.
Second, we want you to speak Ukrainian.
It is a common situation (especially before the war) when a foreigner surely learns French or German but thinks English will be enough in Ukraine. You may say that is because Slavic languages are hard to (at least) speak, but many of you choose russian to learn. Moreover, there are absolutely brainless and somehow pragmatic people (yeah, Chinese, I am speaking about you) thinking it is enough to speak russian in Ukraine, the mother language of Ukrainians does not matter.
We want you to speak Ukrainian. We do not really care how bad you speak. We will surely (try to) understand you and correct if it is necessary. Our language is unique, and we want not only all the Ukrainians to speak it but also foreigners to learn.
btw how did I learn English...? well...I am a philologist of English and Chinese languages, and I have a bachelor degree (yet).
теє-то, кулєги, поширюйте допис, я пітнів і без перекладача писав, як справжній профі!
current frenchy read: La chauve suivi de la leçon by Lonesco Cantatrice
it is originally a play however it was $5 at my local bookstore so i couldn’t resist
people being shocked that the duolingo owl is now dead is silly. my powers of precognition informed me that duo was doomed the moment they gave him a gyatt
you are kidnapped by aliens and they are going to do an anal probe, do you extend your duolingo streak yes or no
Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide
Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:
"I just want an identical experience to DL"
Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)
"I want a good audio-based app"
Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)
"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"
Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)
Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)
*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.
"I have a pretty neat library card"
Mango (Languages: So many and the endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)
Transparent Language: (Languages: THE MOST! Also the one that has the widest variety of African languages! Perhaps the most diverse in ESL and learning a foreign language not in English)
"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"
AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)
"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"
AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone
"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"
lingory
"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"
ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)
"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"
Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)
Masterlist for learning languages
Brick-by-brick language learning challenge
Best language learning tips & masterlists from other bloggers I’ve come across
my tips for a language study plan
topics for new vocabulary
how to find a language partner
my tips for how to practice writing in your target language
Recommendations for Learning Languages & Other Stuff
Learning a language = learning a culture
Vocab list templates: #1, #2, #3
Some easy Fantasy books to read in your target language
Language Learning Tips: #1, #2
6 tips for learning languages
App for organizing your language-learning (and anything else): Trello
Apps i use to learn languages
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Requests / Asks:
-> you can find all my answered asks by searching for #ask, #ask response or #request
Indo-European Language Families
Improving your vocab
German infinitive & when to use it
English word order
How to find a language learning partner
Changing a game to your target language & "harmful" learning strategies
Can you get away with just using "das" the majority of the time in Germany?
Do you have any tips on how to improve your writing in your target language?
Do you have any resources/methods about how to reach an academic level in the language you’re learning (& how to improve your writing)?
Do you have any linguistic recourses on Ruhrpott-Deutsch?