Language acquisition can be broken down into phases. There may be many ways to differientiate phases, but I find stages of frustration the most revealing. Each stage is frustrating in a different way based on patterns in language learning, and thus requires adjustment in focus. While the entire process will always have you [...]
If you’ve followed the earlier parts to this series, one, two and three, you are ready to move on to actual learning! Ideally, the early game should last no more than 3 months, meaning that you are ready to start sounding like an idiot in front of groups of strangers native to the language within [...]
I’ve recently discovered a blogger at http://thelinguist.blogs.com/. I added Steve’s blog recently and was drawn to his newest post called “the real secret to language learning success - intensity.”
The main difference that I’ve found from his language learning and mine is that he focuses on INPUT while to I focus on OUTPUT. I recommend getting [...]
*This was written mostly in response to Chinese readers’ comments
I’ve been asked this question many times after my post about setting up for success. I mentioned that you should buy a plane ticket and go to another country. But what about those who don’t have the money, or don’t have the legal ability to leave [...]
After you’ve gotten through 1-3, you are ready to finish up your preparation and then get on to the actual learning process. Let’s finish getting set up for success.
4) Choose a subject and gather relevant materials
While the top 300-700 most common words for your selected language will get you far, fluency is still [...]
