Yes, of course there are printed books for frequency lists, but today we can benefit from using lists available on the Internet for most any language.
Having a computer readable version means we can convert this to most any form, the obvious being Anki or another flashcard system, or LingQ.
On occasion we cannot find a frequency list, especially for less common languages and may have to revert to a printed list or even a reference grammar and extract the vocabulary ourselves.
We also might want to supplement the list with more relevant words but this was more a requirement when the idea was to ālearn the languageā from flashcards.
Weāve pretty much given up the idea of learning the language this way even though I am promoting the idea of using the flashcards and memorization techniques.
The key differene being to use the memorization to obtain enough ārecognition vocabularyā to read and perhaps to listen to interesting material as rapidly as possible.
Grammar is evil. āLearningā grammar as such, in isolation before knowing how to speak will literally stop your speaking while your brain searches for the correct grammar rules.
No one learns grammar per se in a way that it can be useful for speaking ā including native speakers until long after they already know most of it implicitly.
Grammar is for later, and to improve writing once we are reasonably competent.
That might be the key to whatās holding you back.
Even at 3 months, I was speaking with my tutor in French for the entire 45-60 minute session, and doing most of the talking.
It was terrible. It was poorly formed grammatically. It was lacking in precise vocabulary. I was repeating my ideas multiple times to make it truly representative of my ideas and for my tutor to actually understand my intended communication.
However, it was French. It was continuous. It was understandable (with effort).
Critically I was mostly ānot translatingā English to French but mostly stumbling through in French only about any subject I find interesting so this was far beyond stock phrases and āhello how are you.ā
Some of the subjects included (just for reference) Commercial Deep Sea Diving, Direction Drilling for oil and gas, ideas on learning languges and my current diverse study practices, my time in the Army, my family of course, the instructors occupation as a firefighter and paramedic, firearms laws the actual results of allowing law-abiding citizens to own and carry firearms as well as how this varies between the US and France, current US politicis.
(To be clear, the the diving and drilling were due these being careers I had long ago and the political subjects were because my instructor actually asked me to explain these topics. Basically I pay him to listen to me ramble but I do want it to be as interesting as possible for him as that is a key component of communicating in any language.)
I wouldnāt say this method would be learning grammar rules specifically. Iām thinking more of being exposed to lots of grammatical situations and being able to navigate them. You could even just memorize/get used to the different scenarios without trying to actively learn the grammar. Either way, it would have a heavy focus on grammar with less words. Then after having a strong grasp on core grammar one could start adding more words. It would be approaching language learning from both ends of the spectrum: acquiring words using LingQ and then direct focus on a small set of words but with heavy grammar use.
There are also those same lists on Wikipedia. I imported them into LingQ to see how many of those words Iāve covered from reading. Iād recommend doing that. Itās nice to see those percentages change every month.
I try to quality ālearning grammerā with āper seā or learning it āexplicitlyā as it is commonly taught in schools or when many people self-teach.
My thinking is like yours that we want to be exposed to a lot of contexts that use the grammar.
Some people donāt do it that way and now some people avoid any study of grammar (or vocabulary.)
However, if we view, review, browse grammar almost like casual vocabulary to focus our attention on grammatical structures that we already can hear or read (or better speak), then we can accelerate the effect of the āmassive comprensible inputā through some cursory grammar and vocabulary review.
Yes, I have been importing freguency lists and vocabular lists from specific reading and listening material we enjoy.
Grabbing all the subtitles for all seasons of the NetFlix shows we watch or grabbing all the vocabulary for a particular author and just loading it both into LingQ AND āloading it into my headā seems to work pretty well for me.
Before LingQ I was collecting those conten lists and using them mainly with video to understand better at full speed (where a dictionary is often impractical.)
This can be done by memorizing sentences that focus on basic activities and cover all important grammar. Learning word lists and grammar rules separately wonāt work (after all, thatās what so many schools do), but learning sentences works. Thatās how I started speaking English, after memorizing a large part of a conversation-based course (although it was not from scratch, Iād already studied English in traditional school setting).
I think any good conversation course can be used to mine such sentences for memorization. They are already built around most frequent words and common situations, and include a lot of the most usable grammar. Thatās what Alexander Arguelles does, according to his own description - he memorizes an Assimil course, listening and repeating until it becomes natural. Beginnerās content here on LingQ can provide material as well.
Itās important not to become bored though. Not everybody can do this relentless repetition and memorization, it can quickly become exhausting, especially if you are doing nothing else.
What do you mean by " though in my opinion he slightly over-complicated the simple idea "? How do you do it differently? I also bought the Rode USB mic and pretty much use it as he suggests: Noise cancelling headphones and beneath that one ear bud headphone in one ear. How can I simplify this?
In my case I see no need for bud-headphones, and instead of noise-cancelling headphones I use just good phones (by beyerdynamic) that provide me with sound of excellent quality and enough isolation. I have noise cancelling headphones, but personally, I do not particularly like this effect and see no reason to eradicate external sounds so much.
Rode USB mic works as a sound-card, so I can hear the content and myself at the same time. Also, if I wanted to route the sound in only one of my ears, I could do that in windows sound settings (but I donāt).
I have to say, that I started to practice it only recently - so Iām not giving advises here. What I do now is that when I watch a youtube video, I listen to a speaker, remember a sentence, pause the video, repeat the sentence myself paying close attention to the sound of it, resume the video or go back 5 second. And so on.
I guess his idea of using this ācomplicatedā setup is to hear your voice as āother people hear itā or as you would hear it if you recorded it and played it back. Most people, when they hear their voice on a recording think āI do not sound like that!ā. I am also not sure, his setup is essential.
What do you mean with " Rode USB mike works as a sound-card"? Where do you plug your headphones into, the Rode headpohne port or your PC port?
In the mike, so I can monitor the sound of my voice without delay. Sound from the PC also can be played there, thatās what I mean by āsound-cardā - Rode USB mic monitoring output registers as a sound-card in Windows.
I see. With such a setup would it not be even easier to just put one ear bud headphone into just one ear to listen to the Youtube video and speak freely without mic and listen to your own voice? What is the benefit of the mic in your setup?
Benefit of mic for me is in hearing myself loud and clear, as if I was listening to myself in a record. The initial problem that all this setups should solve - is that we canāt hear ourselves well enough.
Hearing yourselves allows you to instantly monitor and fix pronunciation and other problems.
Sure, I can put another earbud, but why would I do that if Rode USB mic gives me the sound from PC.
It should be pointed out that some methods and courses are more designed to get you ready for speaking earlier, as opposed to the reading / listening method most of us do here, which is meant to build up your comprehension faster.
A course like Assimil, for example is more geared towards building up basic speaking abilities faster, and it tends to build up confidence for basic conversations sooner.
With the reading / listening method, you wonāt be so encouraged to speak early, BUT you will build up comprehension of native speech faster, so when you do end up speaking, you will probably be at a higher level. There are pros and cons to both approaches, and of course one can combine them for optimal results.
But the idea that you should have a minimum of X words, and X hrs of listening, etc. just seems overthought for me. We all start speaking under two circumstances, either when we want to, or when we have to.
If you want to start speaking at day one, you can, and if you have to start speaking on day one, you will. But if you want to wait 2 + years, thatās fine as well. I can pretty much read a book and watch a movie in Spanish, but I still havenāt had a conversation in it. Iāll end up doing it one day, probably when I have to. I kinda donāt care when it happens. I did the same thing in German, pretty much no speaking, until started having long conversations in it at Meetups.
How difficult did you find speaking in German after waiting so long (about what known words did you start doing the Meetups)? Did you feel like you could get your points across from the start even if not with correct grammar or sophistication? Did it feel difficult and do you feel quick improvements once starting? Do you feel it wouldāve been better to include speaking early on or did the acquisition of vocabulary and listening comprehension skills early on help more, in your experience.
I was past completing the Advanced 2 word count here when I started going to meetups. Iād say that the quality of my speech actually depends on the type of event. If Iām at a German only Meetup, I tend to do better, more consistent quality. But more often Iām at a general language exchange where I often switch back and forth between German and French conversations, which of course brings up additional challenges. I do ok with those, but I stumble more, for obvious reasons. But yeah, improvement in inevitable after some practice.
I try not think too much when I talk ā meaning I donāt really evaluate how Iām doing, I just talk and try to just be as fluent as I can. I think the best evaluation of my speaking / communication ability is the apparent ease of my conversation partner. If I feel like they donāt hold back, slow down, tone down their speech etc. then Iām doing good. In my experiences, my partners feel comfortable having a ānormalā conversation with me, so I guess Iām doing good. Thatās all I care about.
Today I initiated the conversation and the lady at the bakery actually spoke pretty fast at a native level and to my surprise, I understood her and replied with my limited vocabulary stock. So I got some more listening practice done. This mini immersion thing(spending 8 hours a day) really gives you a boost to your listening skills. Moreover, this German lady was so happy that she charged me less for an extra brotchen. Germans feel proud if a foreigner tries to learn their language. Understanding her is a very motivating experience for me and helps me to stay afloat on my German language learning journey. At the end of the day, As Belmondo, said earlier, I have to take initiatives and start conversations whenever possible.