Experience Tumblr like never before
Language Learning - Blog Posts
Day 12: neugierig: Curious!!
Day 11: der Fuchs. The fox!
Day 10: Verschlimmbessern: to make something worse by trying to fix it. I think we can all relate. I had to look this one up, but it’s going to the front of my memory. I’m positive I’ll use it frequently!
My professorin always said, “DeTour, durch Die Tür.” And that is how I will always remember the gender of the door.
Day 8: Urtier, primordial beast. This was one of my German professorin’s favorite words. She always translated it as ‘monster’, but other definitions are different. Any fluent speakers have any insights?
Day 7: Fischers Fritze fischt frische Fische; Frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritze! Was it’s das?!?
Day 6: der Finger!
Day 5: Rüpelhafte. The bar scene from Inglorious Basterds is a gem. My ear always pinned this word down when Michael Fassbender’s character was scolding a German soldier. Rüpelhafte is translated in the movie as ‘boorish’ but I’ve also found definitions meaning ‘lousy’, ‘bullying’, and ‘bawdy’. It also has a way of rolling off the tongue.
Das Curry! Sehr einfach!
So I change my cellphone's language to german... I think I'm suffering...
new langblr on the block 👋
hey im aron and im a new british langblr ✨ i've been following the langblr community for a while and thought i'd make my own blog just to get some recognition and to help build up my own blog for resources n stuff :) and obviously for the memes too i speak english natively and my main target language is french which i've been learning for maybe 4 years now ?? im at a more basic level in german and im forgetting esperanto more and more every day lol im considering beginning norwegian but other languages that interest me are swedish, irish, swahili and korean. some of the blogs that have inspired me are @scottish-polyglot @sprachtraeume @langsandlit @malteseboy @languageoclock and @norwegian-wool outside of languages i love music, hamilton, youtube and art 🙌 also im not emo that's just my blog lmao -aron x
Best language learning tips & masterlists from other bloggers I’ve come across
(these posts are not my own!)
THE HOLY GRAIL of language learning (-> seriously tho, this is the BEST thing I’ve ever come across)
Tips:
Some language learning exercises and tips
20 Favorite Language Learning Tips
what should you be reading to maximize your language learning?
tips for learning a language (things i wish i knew before i started)
language learning and langblr tips
Tips on how to read in your target language for longer periods of time
Tips and inspiration from Fluent in 3 months by Benny Lewis
Tips for learning a sign language
Tips for relearning your second first language
How to:
how to self teach a new language
learning a language: how to
learning languages and how to make it fun
how to study languages
how to practice speaking in a foreign language
how to learn a language when you don’t know where to start
how to make a schedule for language learning
How to keep track of learning more than one language at the same time
Masterposts:
Language Study Master Post
Swedish Resources Masterpost
French Resouces Masterpost
Italian Resources Masterpost
Resource List for Learning German
Challenges:
Language-Sanctuary Langblr Challenge
language learning checkerboard challenge
Word lists:
2+ months of language learning prompts
list of words you need to know in your target language, in 3 levels
Other stuff:
bullet journal dedicated to language learning
over 400 language related youtube channels in 50+ languages
TED talks about language (learning)
Learning the Alien Languages of Star Trek
.
Feel free to reblog and add your own lists / masterlists!
Coucou! Je besoin de trainer mon français mais je connais personne. Si tu aprends, a déjà apris et veux aussi pratiquer, je sais pas, parle avec moi s’il tE PLAIT
Learning to read in your target language !
Learning to read in any language is difficult! There’s nothing more frustrating than picking up a book you’ve read in your mother tongue and not understanding a word in your target language. Luckily, it’s a matter of vocabulary !
You won’t understand everything
Even in your native language, you still don’t understand EVERY WORD, you use context to try to figure out something you don’t know. But you’ll find that if you keep at it, you will get visibly better.
I read Harry Potter as my first long text in French and I high lighted every single word that I didn’t know. Looking back, about 35% of the words on the first page are high lighted vs. about 5% on the last page.
To get the most our of language learning, you should start trying to read as soon as possible !
You get so much passive input out of reading comprehension. It’s easy to subconsciously pick up commonly used phrases and putting grammar points and vocabulary into application.
So, what methods can I use to get the most out my reading?
A.) Read a paragraph through and look up the words and their definitions, then read it again and really try to find the meaning of each sentence. This might be the most taxing method and easy to lose focus or motivation, but honestly it’s the best for learning.
B.) Stop at every word you don’t know and look up the meaning. I personally don’t like this method. I find myself looking more for words I don’t know than the meaning behind the whole sentence. I also don’t like stopping and starting and stopping and starting.
C.) Skim the paragraph or page for words you don’t know, highlight them, define them first, THEN read the whole piece of text. This is my favorite method. I like looking back at the beginning of the book and seeing all the words I didn’t know then but I know now.
D.) Try to gather context of sentence without looking up any words. This is what native speakers do, and it is, of course, the best method but it requires a deeper meaning of the context that most A1/A2 learners have yet to understand.
You might be struggling learning through textbooks because the vocab lists prioritize subjects like “body parts” and “animals” over giving you basic tools to describe things. It’s great to know words like “knee” and “candle” but how often do those really come up in conversation? Instead of finding random lists that might be useful one day, I suggest creating a list of vocab based on your reading content! When you see a word that has come up a few times and you still can’t gather from context what it means, look it up, then every time you see it in the text from now on, it’ll enforce that knowledge in your brain.
If you aren’t sure what kind of texts you should be reading or want more information and tips, check out my other post.
- take an ebook in your target language that you wanna read - convert epub to txt - copy txt into unique wordlist maker (http://caerphoto.com/uwc/) - remove words in the list you already know - maybe focus on keeping the high frequency new words - make this list into flashcard deck badda bing badda boom
I did this with my Turkish copy of Animal Farm and pulled 212 new words for my Quizlet deck
Language learning recommendation
Let me tell you about I website I just found. It's called mamalisa.com and it has lullabies and children's songs in every language. Here are just some of the languages;
Arabic
Ukrainian
Korean
Welsh
Swedish
Romanian
Spanish
Danish
Next to the lyrics of the song, it also has;
the English translation
if it is part of a game, the explanation of the game and its instructions
any relevant context/history
whether the same song exists in another language
the mp3 download
relevant youtube clip
sheet music
You can sort the songs by language, continent, country or type of song!
Hey did you know I keep a google drive folder with linguistics and language books that I try to update regularly
how to learn french (a step by step guide)
so, the title is maybe a little misleading since i’m not fluent in french or anything, but i’ve been studying it for a year and i’ve made a bunch of progress. there are a ton of ways to learn a language but i’m going to put the way i’ve been doing it. i’ve seen a lot of masterposts with lots of resources and i want to make my own with the things that i liked and thought worked well. also, this could be good for someone who has never taken a french class, like me. this is going to be long, so i’m going to put it under a read more.
Keep reading
how to get the most out of duolingo
duolingo is a great app/website that you can use to begin learning a foreign language, but unfortunately you most likely won’t be able to fully learn the language if you only use duolingo. so, here are some things that you can do to get the most out of duolingo and to learn your target better.
1. read the lessons - most of the languages (especially if you’re learning in english) have little lessons. however, these are only available on the website, so if you use the app, you might want to occasionally check in online and click on the little lightbulb to read the lessons. they usually aren’t super in-depth, but for beginners it is super helpful and not as heavy as a textbook grammar guide.
2. don’t work too fast and always revise - if you’re knocking out a bunch of lessons a day thinking you’ll learn faster, this could be true, but most likely it’s not. if you work at a steady pace and remember to do it once a day (preferably at the same time – they say this is better for memorization) you will learn it better. if you do one lesson or maybe two a day and you still have time for more, go ahead and revise a little. when i first started french, i did two lessons a day and then always revised to make sure i remembered everything.
3. study the vocabulary - not all of the courses have this, but on the online version some of the courses have a tab on the top that says “words” and this is a great place to find all the vocabulary that you’ve been learning in your courses. go through the list and find all the words you don’t know that well or at all and make some flashcards or a set on quizlet and study them. learn how to spell them, pronounce them, conjugate them, and use them within a sentence. if you do this, you’ll always have a solid base to fall back on. this goes for learning conjugations, as well.
4. start learning your native language in your target language - after you’ve finished all the courses in your target language, feel free to revise daily. you might want to, however, start learning your native language in your target language. this might not be an option for all the languages offered on duolingo. for me, i learned english in french. this was helpful for picking up more phrases and seeing more common ways that french people write. if you’re feeling particularly confident and know your stuff really well, try learning a new language in your target language. for example, i did the spanish course in french, which definitely helped with my french phrasing while translating.
5. don’t stop after you finish your course - if you’ve done it right, finishing your course on duolingo will give you a really good start to the language you’re learning. after you’ve finished, keep revising, but also go ahead and start learning your target language in different ways. i made a whole in-depth post on how to learn a language online here. some ideas are reading children books, watching youtube videos and movies, and talking to natives all in your target language. never give up because it will be worth it.
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)
What they can see:
What they can’t see:
me watching Narcos and making a little mental note whenever I can identify a new swear word or expression
Trying to study amid self-conflicts and doubts. I'm so depressed and worried about my future.
Analyzing past papers to get a sense of what to expect in the entrance exam amid the tensions throughout the nation.
bro i’m fuckin stupid the russian exam i had wasn’t even my final it was a unit test and the final is next week i’m gonna pass away
i had my russian final exam and i spent like HOURS studying and i like. i’ve never studied i don’t know HOW to.. but i tried so so hard and everything was going so well i knew everything except for this ONE question and it was so frustrating because i felt like i tried so hard and still couldn’t do it. it turns out i knew the answer but i was doubting myself and i didn’t put it down. i’m so frustrated :^(
Sitting by the fireplace and learning a new language… There is nothing better than that!💖
I have to admit, since I started learning Spanish a few days ago, I’m even more motivated to do my university assignments✨
Follow me on Duolingo and let’s expand our horizons together!!🥳🌅
day 3 / 15th of september / Thursday
today i woke up feeling so much better. since im still feeling sick i decided to skip today's lecture but im gonna get some studying done so i dont use my time on tiktok and netflix :P
things i need to get done today:
internship work
math problems for college applications
portuguese test for college applications
write an essay for college applications
things i want to get done however it doesnt really matter if i dont do them:
excel course
see ya laterrrr <3
335 minutes = 5 hours, 35 minutes.