The internet has really had a big impact on our language learning. Nowadays, you can easily learn any language and find someone to study together. However, you also need to have a good strategy to maintain your learning success. A proverb says "Easy come, easy go". If you cannot maintain your language progress, you will stop learning eventually.
I usually find someone to learn a language together on the internet. I publish my request in the groups and forums, such as Facebook groups. I also ask my online friends to help me find someone that can be my language partner.
Drawbacks
The challenging part is to maintain motivation for learning together. Either I or my language partner may lose motivation anytime. Various reasons underly this lack of motivation, such as being busy with work, being busy with family, or not having the urgency to learn the language.
I used to do 30-minute or 1-hour audio/ video calls to learn languages. I and my language partner take turns learning our target language. For example, in a 1-hour language learning, we do 30 minutes of learning my target language and another 30 minutes of learning my language partner's target language.
As mentioned before, the challenge of this method is to maintain the learning together. Finally, the day that I was afraid of happened. My language learning stopped one by one because it was either I was busy or my language partners were busy.
New Method
In order to tackle this issue, I invented a new learning method. I use analyzing sentences as the foundation. I have tested this method and the result appears to be satisfying. Up to this date, I am still learning multiple languages using this method.
Here is how this new method works:
1. Find a language partner
You can use social media, such as Facebook or Whatsapp to find language partners. You also can ask your friends to introduce you.
2. Ask your language partner to give you a certain number of sentences
For example, I ask for 5 sentences each time. Because my goal of learning a language is for informal conversation, so I ask for sentences about daily life conversation in an informal context.
3. Learn the pronunciation
If you are not familiar with reading the text, you can use Google Translate to listen to the pronunciation or read the phonetic symbols. If your target language is not available on Google Translate, you may ask your language partner to record the pronunciation or write down the phonetic symbols.
4. Write down the meaning of each sentence
If your target language is available on Google Translate, you can use it to check the meaning. Otherwise, you must use another translator or you can ask your language partner to write down the meaning of each sentence.
5. Break down each sentence into words
Separate the words of the sentence. Some collective words mean one thing. In this case, you may combine them or you may also separate them if you want to know their individual meaning.
6. Write down the meaning of each word
Use the same method as checking the meaning of each sentence. You can use Google Translate if your target language is available. Otherwise, you can use another translator or you can ask your language partner to write down the meaning.
7. Send the result to your language partner for correction
After you have written the meaning of each sentence and each word, send the result to your language partner. You also can add your questions regarding the grammar or use of the words. Then, your language partner can answer your questions, explain the grammar or correct the translation mistakes.
8. Repeat this method anytime you and your language partner have free time
By using this learning method, you and your language partner don't need to have the same free time. You can do it in your free time, and your language partner can do it in his/ her free time.
Conclusion
It is easier to use this method for languages that you already can read. Otherwise, you need to learn two things at the same time: learn the pronunciation, and learn the meaning of the sentences and words. Nevertheless, this "analyzing sentences" method gives you and your language partner so much flexibility to learn anytime and anywhere.
Comments
Post a Comment