as easy as ABC...
There are different ways how to learn foreign language. Sometimes you may come across quite intricate ones. Once upon a time I was familiar with certain polyglot. The dude who really knew about 13 different languages, including dead and exotic ones... But as related to modern languages of Indo-European group, he said that if you have learned several languages, so since from a certain moment it's no matter already how many of them would you know in real... And to acquire knowledge of the next language is an equivalent of reading a pair of books in it. The knowledge of the allied ones would be enough for him to feel ease within this new language. That's only a question of wasting time. Thus, if he set himself the task he could be proud of
the knowledge of not 13, and maybe even 20 languages... But all this would make no sense already...
Nevertheless, that's not the very story of mine which I was going to tell you. It was a time when I only started my study of English. And naturally I asked an advice from my buddy-polyglot. How may I make a go of this optimal way? He explained me: that's as easy as ABC. You should simply take a book (it's desirable something of classic) and learn it by heart, to memorize the whole book from cover to cover. Ha-ha! And you say: cards for words learning, grammar rules... Considering carefully idioms and attempts to deep into aspects of word formation, and all other trash... You should only take the book and learn it through and through. After that take another one and learn it by heart too. And you will find with surprise that you already know the language.
As I was quite young and ambitious that times, I had tried to do this. :)
I remember now it was a story «The Canterville Ghost» by O.Wilde. Well, what can I tell you... After 2 weeks I have finished somewhere about half of the First Chapter. Approximately 15-20 pages of the text (today I even can't believe myself I was able to carry out such deed!). And since from page 21 I already started to forget the first and intermediate ones were mixed up for good. On the whole, I had understood that something wrong with it. I had to back down and decided that I have marginal abilities for languages and that I may relax then.
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as easy as ABC...
There are different ways how to learn a foreign language. Sometimes you may at times come across quite complex ones. Once upon a time I was acquainted with a certain polyglot. The dude who really knew about 13 different languages, including dead and exotic ones... But in terms of modern Indo-European languages of Indo-European group, he said that once you have learned several languages, it doesn't really matter already how many of them would you actually know... And to acquire a knowledge of another language is basically tantamount to reading a pair of books in it. A knowledge of the related languages would be enough for him to feel at ease with this new language. It's only a question of wasting time. Thus, if he sets himself to the task, he could possibly boast be proud of the knowledge of not 13, but perhaps even 20 languages! But so much would make no sense already...
Nevertheless, that's not the actual story of mine which I was going to tell you. It was a time I had just started to study of English and naturally I asked the advice of a polyglot buddy of mine. What is the best way to go about this? He explained to me: It's as easy as ABC. You should simply take a book (preferably a classic) and learn it by heart - memorize the whole book from cover to cover. Ha-ha! And you say: flashcards, grammar rules... Considering carefully study idioms and strive to delve into the aspects of word formation, and all that other junk... All you have to do is take the book and learn it through and through. After that take another one and learn it by heart too. And you will be surprised to find with surprise that you already know the language.
As I was quite young and ambitious at the time, I had tried to do this. :)
I remember now it was «The Canterville Ghost» by O.Wilde. Well, what can I tell you... After 2 weeks I have finished somewhere about half of the First Chapter. Approximately 15-20 pages of the text (in retrospect I even can't even believe myself I was able to carry out such a task!). And since from page 21 on, I already started to forget the initial pages and the ones in between became mixed up for good. On the whole, I realized that there was something wrong with his method. I had to give up and decided that I have limited language learning abilities, which actually came as a relief.
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