Understand the grammar of your own language
Understand the grammar of your own language. It offers you a sound base for any other language. I spent three months trying to learn French grammar. I realised it would have been much easier if I understood English grammar ie 'will' is future, 'would' is conditional. When we speak we don't think if it's future, past, conditional etc. It's good to understand the structure of language - in any language.
Sent by: Gill
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I agree because I know what it's like to learn another language. My mother tongue is Arabic but I'm now living in London to learn English. The fastest way to learn any language is talking to native speakers eg of French/German etc.
I definitely agree with this. However, it's not always necessary to understand the grammar of the language you're learning either. If you can learn to speak a foreign language without thinking in your native language, you're doing well, and there are no complicated grammatical names to learn! The only way to do this is to practise, relentlessly. Talking to native speakers always helps. Unfortunately the reason we're not all bilingual is because native speakers of French/German are hard to find in England/China and so on ... try chat rooms on the internet.
Definitely. In the Russian education system, for example, the Russian language subject is by far the most difficult one. Even for natives. Because we are being taught everything! Just like foreigners. The cases, the tenses, the rules etc. And since I know all this and thus know the language theory in general, I can understand the grammar of any other language.
I live in Germany. Obviously talking to native speakers is the best practice, but I think also chat channels offer help. In some ways it's easier to learn. You get to read and type at your own speed and not the native speaker's speed and dialect. Repetition for me is the way to engrain new words. Try loading up an online dictionary, then using a chat channel. I find if I need to look up a word I want to type or translate, by the 3rd or 4th time I no longer need to.
I agree. I have been watching Spanish soap operas called telenovelas for more than 9 years now. I learnt to speak Spanish, then I took a gramar book and made the conection between the sounds and the letters, pronunciation rules etc. I don't know all the names of verbal forms or the terminations but I use them easily with no problems. Chat rooms do help a lot especially with your spelling (and you learn slang). Currently I'm chatting in Spanish. :)
I definitely agree with this. However, it's not always necessary to understand the grammar of the language you're learning either. If you can learn to speak a foreign language without thinking as well as your native language, you're doing well, and there are no complicated grammatical names to learn! The only way to do this is to practise, relentlessly. Talking to native speakers always helps. Unfortunately the reason we're not all bilingual is because native speakers of French/German are hard to find in England/China and so on ... try chat rooms on the internet.
Yes I agree. For example, in my case, I am from Nepal and living in the UK for a number of years. I also graduated with 3 different degrees from the UK, but still I am struggling to speak the proper language! I do hope that will apply many people whose English is an international language and living in the UK. I think English is not only the language of communication, but it should be the survival strategy.
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