I agree that it could be misleading to suggest that people could use the language straight away and have a conversation. I think that being made aware of some of the building blocks of the language as you are learning can be helpful though. This can help you to notice some of these structures as you are doing your input activities.
I am definitely more of a fan of doing a lot of input before concentrating on output, but I think when starting out in a new language it helps to build up a framework for the language as well as just listening and reading. It means that there are fewer things that I am uncertain of when I come across new material.
I agree that it could be misleading to suggest that people could use the language straight away and have a conversation. I think that being made aware of some of the building blocks of the language as you are learning can be helpful though. This can help you to notice some of these structures as you are doing your input activities.
I am definitely more of a fan of doing a lot of input before concentrating on output, but I think when starting out in a new language it helps to build up a framework for the language as well as just listening and reading. It means that there are fewer things that I am uncertain of when I come across new material.
What surprises me about this article is that it is a publicity piece for the Noble Language School complete with links to their web site. They sell 2 day classroom sessions for 199 and 299 pounds, and offer one on one sessions, altho the price is not mentioned.
Maybe LingQ should offer a two day crash course in a language as a starter to a LingQ program.
I agree Peter, that a brief description of what to expect in the language can help, but we are only able to retain relatively few concepts until we have actually experienced the language. You cannot remember the tones of Mandarin words after two days, any better than you can remember case endings or verb endings in inflected languages.
Some of what Noble says rings a bell with me, such as avoiding grammar terminology as much as possible. However, to speak and understand we need words, lots of words, single words and chunks. This takes time,there is no getting around it. And our brain takes time to get used to a new language.
£200 for the course! That’s a bit extortionate, considering the audio courses, which sell for £17, are apparently the same.
I bought the audio course for Spanish, and also have the pdf for the booklet. If you like, I can post that here (I may need help doing so. I’m not sure what to do).
But after almost two years of study, after getting 4th level of HSK (B2), I still have some problem when I pronounce 3+3 tone type or the tone-changing of “一” or "不“. My brain can not react quickly when I produce new sentences including such special tone combination.
And I find that there is a certain intonation rule when chinese people speak naturally. I can imitate it sometimes but it is quite difficult to do it perfectly when talking about relatively complicated things.
In my experience, I can not repeat perfectly quite long sentences just after listening to ones including more than 13 characters when it comes to ones including unfamiliar sounds.
Yes, as Steve said, I think that we need words, especially in chinese many traditional idioms called 成语（cheng2 yu3), which I never learned, is necessary in order to continue to speak of something.
An interesting article on tones. I certainly wasted a lot of time worrying about tones, trying to pronounce each one clearly, even when I couldn’t really hear the tones clearly, the 4th one is definitely the most clear to me but the others (perhaps 1 is quite clear too).
If I hear of someone who’s wants to learn Chinese, I definitely recommend that they listening a lot at first and with tones, I think the rhythm is perhaps, more important.
Steve, you need to know that ‘The Guardian’ is a loss-making low-circulation leftist rag. In Conservative and Neo-Con circles, people who read it are widely jeered at as sandal wearing fools…
If you’re looking to get an Interview with a decent UK newspaper, try ‘The Daily Telegraph’ or ‘The Times’ or, for the slightly lower brow option, ‘The Daily Mail’.
(These are newspapers which actually have a significant readership - unlike The Guardian.)
You must be joking! The proportion of people interested in a language other than English will be much higher among Guardian Readers - and, while you may call me a fool, I do not wear sandals!
I am not interested in the political orientation of the Guardian, just whether they would be interested in writing about LingQ and I will send them and email. Thanks Sanne.
I don’t think it really matters what newspaper Steve is interviewed by. It’s publicity. An extra few users for LingQ. And those who make generalisations about readers of certain newspapers, in my experience, are those who read Jeremy Clarkson too much, and have never read the paper they are criticising.
Sanne, I cannot figure out how to email anyone at the Guardian and I doubt they would do another story so soon. I f you have a chance to talk to your son at some later date, that might the best path. Thanks.
The Guardian is probably going to have more readers interested in languages, as Sanne_T says.
It’s actually a quality paper, as are the Times and the Telegraph, irrespective of what you think of their politics. The online version is massively popular.
They may well be interested. It’s certainly in line with the `international cosmopolitan’ image.
“But seriously, Steve, these Guardian-guys are anti-enterprise, anti-nuclear, anti-Israel, pro-climate doomsayer, etc. So you really need to know this.”
You didn’t seem to be pro nuclear last time we discussed this. You didn’t seem too supportive of Wall Street either.
