Ways to become a polyglot (please, help me with corrections!)
(the rest of the text is in the comment below)
Learning new languages is very interesting. When asked “Why do you learn a foreign language?”, a lot of people answer: “Because I want to improve my career wise” or “Because I want to get a nice job”.
But not so many people realize that learning foreign languages gives much more benefits. Learning a new language makes you more efficient in tapping into your intellectual capabilities and gives your brain the exercise it needs in order to develop furthermore.
After some time, when you enlarge your vocabulary, the word selection becomes very easy. This gives you more flexibility in thinking and also improves your ability to come up with analogies, stories, and better ways to correlate or interpret things.
Moreover, knowing foreign languages gives you ability to experience other cultures by your own, and that is the way that culture is being supposed to be experienced.
Learning new languages gives so many opportunities. How to learn them? How to learn more than one or two languages?
If you were not born in a multilingual family, you father doesn’t speak Malayalam and your mother doesn’t speak Malagasy, then learning new languages is more difficult, but neither is it impossible.
First of all, in order to learn many languages, try to learn similar ones. Many languages share a common grammar with neighboring languages, and at least a portion of their vocabularies. Learning languages in order of similarity greatly increases the fun factor and reduces stress.
For example, native Kannada speakers might consider learning Telugu first. Like Kannada, Telugu is a member of the Dravidian family of languages. To some extent, both share a similar grammar, have many similar words and even the writing system is almost same. Native Kannada speakers may find Telugu relatively easy to learn.
Second, build the vocabulary in the right way. Don’t learn lists of words by rote. You will forget them easily and won’t be able to use them in sentences. Every word has different meanings and nuances. The best way to remember them all is to read full paragraphs of text and look up words in a dictionary as you go along.
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Corrections · 4
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(part 2/2)
Thirdly, speaking and writing come as a result of passive reading and listening a lot. Your brain is wired to learn languages that way. As babies, we used to listen to our moms and dads speak for years before uttering our first full sentences. As adults, we still learn languages best that way. Immerse yourself into a language. Listen as much as you can. Use your “busy” time for that. Waiting for a friend? Cooking in the kitchen? Cleaning the house? Put on the headphones and listen to something in the language you're learning/you want to learn. Fourthly, a nice way to immerse in the language is to go to a country where the language you learn is spoken, and to study there. But not everyone has this opportunity. Hosting couchsurfers from around the world is a nice idea. And speak to foreigners as often as you can. Don’t be afraid of making a mistake. No one is immune to making mistakes; it is inevitable. We all learn from our mistakes. And, finally, the best way to give you brain a mental exercise and make it work better is to study every day. Practice makes perfect.
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= correction (capitalization, spelling, etcetera)
= rewording
= suggestion (for flow, sounding natural, etcetera)
? = (after the sentence) "I do not understand what you are trying to say here."
/ = you can pick either of the corrections
(part 1/2)
Learning new languages is very interesting. When asked “why are you learning a foreign language?”, a lot of people answer: “because I want to improve my career wise” (?) or “because I want to get a nice job”.
But not many/a lot of people realize that learning a foreign language gives many more benefits. Learning a new language makes you more efficient in tapping into your intellectual capabilities and gives your brain the exercise it needs in order to develop furthermore.
After some time, once you enlarge your vocabulary, the word selection becomes very easy. This gives you more flexibility in thinking and also improves your ability to come up with analogies, stories, and better ways to correlate or interpret things.
Moreover, knowing foreign languages gives you ability to experience other cultures besides your own, and that is the way that culture is being supposed to be experienced.
Learning new languages gives so many opportunities. How do you learn them? How do you learn more than one or two languages?
If you were not born in a multilingual family, and your father doesn’t speak Malayalam and your mother doesn’t speak Malagasy, then learning new languages is more difficult, but it isn't/that doesn't mean it's impossible.
First of all, in order to learn many languages, try to learn similar ones. Many languages share a common grammar with neighboring languages, and at least a portion of their vocabularies. Learning languages in order of similarity greatly increases the fun factor and reduces stress.
For example, native Kannada speakers might consider learning Telugu first. Like Kannada, Telugu is a member of the Dravidian family of languages. To some extent, both share a similar grammar, have many similar words and even writing systems that are nearly identical. Native Kannada speakers may find Telugu relatively easy to learn.
Second, build the vocabulary in the right way. Don’t learn lists of words by route. You will forget them easily and won’t be able to use them in sentences. Every word has different meanings and nuances. The best way to remember them all is to read full paragraphs of text and look up words in a dictionary as you go along.
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Ways to become a polyglot (please, help me with corrections!)
(the rest of the text is in the comment below)Learning new languages is very interesting. When asked “Why do you learn a foreign language?”, a lot of people answer: “Because I want to improve my career prospects” or “Because I want to get a nice job." (You're basically saying the same thing here.)
But not so many people realize that learning foreign languages has many more benefits. Learning a new language makes it easier to tap into your intellectual capabilities, and it gives your brain the exercise it needs in order to further develop.
After some time, when you enlarge your vocabulary, the word selection becomes very easy. This gives you more flexibility in thinking and also improves your ability to come up with analogies, stories, and better ways to correlate or interpret things.
Moreover, knowing foreign languages gives you the ability to experience other cultures on your own, and that is the way that culture is supposed to be experienced.Learning new languages gives so many opportunities. How to learn them? How to learn more than one or two languages?
Learning new languages gives so many opportunities. How to learn them? How to learn more than one or two languages?
If you were not born in a multilingual family, and your father doesn’t speak Malayalam and your mother doesn’t speak Malagasy, then learning new languages is more difficult, but it is not impossible.
First of all, in order to learn many languages, try to learn similar ones. Many languages share a common grammar with neighboring languages and at least a portion of their vocabularies. Learning languages in order of similarity greatly increases the fun factor and reduces stress.
For example, native Kannada speakers might consider learning Telugu first. Like Kannada, Telugu is a member of the Dravidian family of languages. To some extent, both share a similar grammar, have many similar words, and even the writing system is almost the same. Native Kannada speakers may find Telugu relatively easy to learn.
Second, build vocabulary in the right way. Don’t learn lists of words by memory. You will forget them easily and won’t be able to use them in sentences. Every word has different meanings and nuances. The best way to remember them all is to read full paragraphs of text and look up words in a dictionary as you go along.
Thirdly, speaking and writing come as a result of passive reading and listening a lot. Your brain is wired for learning languages this way. As babies, we used to listen to our moms and dads speak for years before uttering our first full sentences as adults; we still learn languages best that way.Immerse yourself in a language. Listen as much as you can. Use your busy time (free time?) for that. Waiting for a friend? Cooking in the kitchen? Cleaning the house? Put on the headphones and listen to something in the language you are learning. Fourthly, a nice way to immerse in the language is to go to a country where the language you are learning is spoken and to study there. But not everyone has this opportunity. And finally, the best way is to mentally exercise your brain and study every day so that it works better. Practice makes perfect.
Very well written. I personally do not agree that passive learning is the best strategy, but it is a great strategy for absolute beginners.
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Thirdly, speaking and writing come as a result of passive reading and listening a lot. Your brain is wired for learning languages that way. As babies, we used to listen to our moms and dads speak for years before uttering our first full sentences. As adults, we still learn languages best that way. Immerse yourself into a language. Listen as much as you can. Use your “busy” time for that. Waiting for a friend? Cooking in the kitchen? Cleaning the house? Put on the headphones and listen to something in the language you learn.
Fourthly, a nice way to immerse in the language is to go to a country where the language you learn is spoken, and to study there. But not everyone has this opportunity. To host couchsurfers from around the world is a nice idea. And speak to foreigners as often as you can. Don’t be afraid of making a mistake. No one is immune to making mistakes, but it is inevitable. We all learn from our mistakes.
And, finally, the better way to give you brain a mental exercise and make it work better is to study every day. Practice makes perfect.
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