There are plenty of aspects that pose difficulties in our journey in language learning.One of them which is rather annoying for me is that when reading a text I encounter words which I’ve learned them in the past but I can’t remember their meaning. Another one is to find resources for languages that are less popular ( such as for Hungarian for example).
I am curious to find out what other difficulties my fellow Lingqers have and also to find together what are the possible solutions to avoid these pesky obstacles .
Of course, there are a lot of problems of each language learning like in all other our new activities.
If we’re speaking about the beginners the common problem is an abundance of new words. Some of learners hope that they can remember them during a lot of repetions in different lessons. I prefer to choose the most important words and to learn them specially using flashcards etc (although it’s a bit boring)
Another important problems depends on the certain language:
For English & French it’s the pronunciation and writing, for Russian and German is the unusual grammar with cases and endings. However, I believe that the difficulty of Russian or German grammar is grossly exaggerated because if you say something with the wrong endings or with a wrong case the people would be able to understand you.
What about resourses - for the main languges there are so many resourses in Lingq libraries and in the Internet, that it isn’t a big problem now, maybe only for some small languages.
But the main problem for almost all learners (I say it as a teacher with 25 years experience) - we are too impatient, we would like to have results too soon; and if we have no results or only small results, a lot of us are ready to give up the learning than to continue a long, but an interestuing way of mastering a new language.
@MADARA
“One of them which is rather annoying for me is that when reading a text I encounter words which I’ve learned them in the past but I can’t remember their meaning.”
In language learning is a bit difficult to remember vocabulary, so you need a way to learn them. You can learn them in context, listening and reading, or you can force yourself to learn them. If you rather to force yourself, you can use the Lingq’s tool for it or use a SRS software.
“Another one is to find resources for languages that are less popular ( such as for Hungarian for example).”
For this question, I recommend you to google it in the target language, eg:“curso de español” for spanish. Or you can look the language list in Omniglot, there is some resources for “less popular languages”
@danilobito: Thank you for your advice and for the link . The thing is that I realize that I need another method than adding words in lists in order to reach the level I need to be in my Hungarian ( I’m also learning Japanese but I need to improve my Hungarian as fast as possible because its my major at university and I’m in my last year ).
I have to say that listening is really one of the major keys that can enable us into acquire lots of vocabulary items ( I noticed how effective this is via Pimsleur ) but I believe that it will take some time until more and more people who are involved in language learning will realize it and start working in creating as much podcasts ( graded if possible ) in as much languages as possible so as to not complain that we lack content in this or that language .
The hardest part of language learning for me is at the very beginning; the sub A1 level area. The problem for me is finding interesting material.
I just started learning German, and I feel myself to have wasted about a week spent in a mood of frustration. Even the beginner lessons on Lingq were a little above my level, and finding meaning in Assimil texts was a lot of work after the first few lessons. I just got my hands on Living Language German, and I think this is going to be a good introduction.
@djvlbass: You find the beginner lessons to diffcult in German? Have you checked my profile?
There you find this link: Beginner: Helpful to start learning German (Beginner in English): http://learninggerman.verasblogs.com/beginner-in-english
Best course for absolute beginners is:
Ab jetzt lerne ich Deutsch! German Now!
I’ve created this course especially for LingQ and for learners without any knowledge of German. It starts very easy and introduces new words and structures step by step with some repetition. You should start with lesson 01.01 and follow the given order.
The lessons are not hard anymore, but on the first day they were pretty scary. I think that, like a lot of people, I am not yet confident enough to start from the very beginning without some sort of structure. For me this structure has come in the form of the Living Language book.
Not knowing exactly what constitutes a case on the first day made things pretty confusing even in the basic lessons. I bet if I started lingq without knowing the basic structure of French, I would never have acheived whatever modest level in French that I have since.
@David:
Definitely a kind of structure helps at the beginning. That is why I also buy books, and do not use LingQ alone. And Steve also use books in addition to the Lingq website.
You can also try my German courses for the beginners - ‘Deutsch von Angfang an’ and ‘Schritt für Schritt’ - besides the words I pay attention to the common structures and to main grammar rules.
I know that you don’t like listening to the ‘non-natives’.
I can assure you that 95% of my German lessons are written by me, but corrected and read by the German native speakers.
Good luck with German! - Vier Erfolg!
I would almost always prefer to listen to native speakers over non-native speakers, but I have enjoyed a lot of Evgueny’s intermediate stuff where he has conversations with Reinhard. These were probably the first real conversations I was able to listen to in a meaningful way in German. I think in general, non-native speakers are easier to understand, so I found it very motivating to listen to these discussions.
I would certainly recommend Vera’s ‘Ab jetzt lerne ich Deutsch’ series. It is at a good level for a beginner and has the greatest advantage of all: there is loads of it!