For history, I'm pinning gobborg's post that was written in response to this post of mine. It shares a great perspective on learning languages, and I encourage you to read it!
Generally good advice, and I mostly agree with you.
I'll add:
Reading books is good because you can choose your medium. You needn't even start with novels- comics, short stories, et cetera will do. Nonetheless, reading is good. I advocate consuming any and all media in the target language. You don't need to understand it 100%. Start with a children's picture book.
Throughout your daily life, try to think of how you would narrate in the target language what you're doing. This is a great opportunity to build some vocabulary- when you encounter that you don't know a word, look it up. I recommend also writing it down. I've kept a pocket-sized notebook where I noted direct translations of words, and when I had a spare minute here and there, I would flip through the notebook and review it. Phil's advice to use a dictionary of the target language is also very good because it forces your brain to use (and add more) target language nodes.
When we learn a second language, it's natural to start by direct translation, one:one mappings of words, but this is only sustainable for so long. We're using heuristics, cheats. However, the more languages you know, the more nodes exist in your mind to map, and this facilitates continued language acquisition.
I also find it helpful, when making notes such as in the aforementioned notebook, to write the translations in my nonnative language, bypassing the native language heuristic, but still using heuristics. This reinforces the neural network of languages. Take for example, "a ball," as in the object, the noun, the round thing that is used in sports and as a toy. When learning target languages, it is more effective to map the new word to the object instead of the translation, the same way as you map the word to the object in your native language. You're then achieving a many:one mapping.
I find it helpful to think back to how I acquired my first language: when I consumed media then, I didn't know every word, but context allowed me to pick up a lot of meaning. If I really didn't know, I inquired. When I learned my 6th language at 17, I struggled a bit at first because I was trying to directly map everything. Once I decided to pretend like I was learning language for the first time and lacked heuristics, things were easier.
Thank you for a great comment! I agree with all your points, will reply in the same order:
Yes, reading does not necessarily mean serious novels (even though I think that's a must at some point of learning a language). And it's very important that you don't have to require 100% understanding from yourself — that's the crucial point I failed to mention.
I usually don't write words down but then, I only learned English, and even that was happening haphazardly when I had no unified vision of the process of language acquisition. I think when I will study my next language, I will certainly use that method.
I totally support the idea of employing an already learned foreign language in learning a new one. I'm currently observing a student doing precisely that, and they are making progress in both of them simultaneously (they also report easier absorption of material which may be not that obvious).
Great point about mistakes, too! They are like scars in some sense, marking your personal history with the discipline (not necessarily only a language, I presume).
I learned a language (Spanish) by reading and it was a lot of fun actually, but I still had trouble with a lot of accents. Mexico was very tough. I couldn’t easily pick out words from the flow of syllables, though I could read the newspaper.
Yes, books certainly don't teach us listening skills, but they allow us to know enough language to start making informed guesses when we start talking to people. And then, enough talking will do its trick. (I don't know when that "enough" will happen as I still struggle sometimes with understanding English from hearing it, especially in song lyrics.)
For history, I'm pinning gobborg's post that was written in response to this post of mine. It shares a great perspective on learning languages, and I encourage you to read it!
https://www.archox.net/Real/projects/writing/phillang.html
Generally good advice, and I mostly agree with you.
I'll add:
Reading books is good because you can choose your medium. You needn't even start with novels- comics, short stories, et cetera will do. Nonetheless, reading is good. I advocate consuming any and all media in the target language. You don't need to understand it 100%. Start with a children's picture book.
Throughout your daily life, try to think of how you would narrate in the target language what you're doing. This is a great opportunity to build some vocabulary- when you encounter that you don't know a word, look it up. I recommend also writing it down. I've kept a pocket-sized notebook where I noted direct translations of words, and when I had a spare minute here and there, I would flip through the notebook and review it. Phil's advice to use a dictionary of the target language is also very good because it forces your brain to use (and add more) target language nodes.
When we learn a second language, it's natural to start by direct translation, one:one mappings of words, but this is only sustainable for so long. We're using heuristics, cheats. However, the more languages you know, the more nodes exist in your mind to map, and this facilitates continued language acquisition.
I also find it helpful, when making notes such as in the aforementioned notebook, to write the translations in my nonnative language, bypassing the native language heuristic, but still using heuristics. This reinforces the neural network of languages. Take for example, "a ball," as in the object, the noun, the round thing that is used in sports and as a toy. When learning target languages, it is more effective to map the new word to the object instead of the translation, the same way as you map the word to the object in your native language. You're then achieving a many:one mapping.
I find it helpful to think back to how I acquired my first language: when I consumed media then, I didn't know every word, but context allowed me to pick up a lot of meaning. If I really didn't know, I inquired. When I learned my 6th language at 17, I struggled a bit at first because I was trying to directly map everything. Once I decided to pretend like I was learning language for the first time and lacked heuristics, things were easier.
Lastly: mistakes make memories.
Thank you for a great comment! I agree with all your points, will reply in the same order:
Yes, reading does not necessarily mean serious novels (even though I think that's a must at some point of learning a language). And it's very important that you don't have to require 100% understanding from yourself — that's the crucial point I failed to mention.
I usually don't write words down but then, I only learned English, and even that was happening haphazardly when I had no unified vision of the process of language acquisition. I think when I will study my next language, I will certainly use that method.
I totally support the idea of employing an already learned foreign language in learning a new one. I'm currently observing a student doing precisely that, and they are making progress in both of them simultaneously (they also report easier absorption of material which may be not that obvious).
Great point about mistakes, too! They are like scars in some sense, marking your personal history with the discipline (not necessarily only a language, I presume).
I learned a language (Spanish) by reading and it was a lot of fun actually, but I still had trouble with a lot of accents. Mexico was very tough. I couldn’t easily pick out words from the flow of syllables, though I could read the newspaper.
Yes, books certainly don't teach us listening skills, but they allow us to know enough language to start making informed guesses when we start talking to people. And then, enough talking will do its trick. (I don't know when that "enough" will happen as I still struggle sometimes with understanding English from hearing it, especially in song lyrics.)