4 ms·

Can you expand on your "very different methodology"?

zzzcpan 7y ago
Sure. I was watching tv shows with english subtitles and was looking up every word I didn't understand in a dictionary for an hour or more every day. Some days much more, if the show was interesting to me, so it was kind of motivating. At the beginning pausing video and switching between media player and dictionary proved to be a bit too exhausting, so I also wrote a tiny program that did that with a single hotkey before I really started doing all this. A few months later I got to comfortable enough level to start reading a book, it was a bit harder with a book, because not only there was much more new words, you also need to listen to pronunciations to make sure you don't learn the words incorrectly with your own pronunciations, luckily my dictionary program had that built in. That's about it.
- JoshTriplett 7y ago
  > At the beginning pausing video and switching between media player and dictionary proved to be a bit too exhausting, so I also wrote a tiny program that did that with a single hotkey before I really started doing all this. That sounds like a great idea for a service to help learn languages: subtitled videos with links from each word (or idiomatic phrase) in the subtitles to dictionary definitions.
  - Nadya 7y ago
    I'll try to find the name of the program - but this already exists and made rounds a while back for Japanese learners where looking up words in a dictionary isn't always as straight forward as it is for latin-based languages. (a few minutes of sitting on this post later...) And... found it! Or at least, a very similar idea. https://github.com/juliango202/jijimaku https://github.com/juliango202/jijimaku
  - Mikulas0 7y ago
    For anyone interested in Japanese (and anime), there is a website called animelon that does this.
  - amiga_500 7y ago
    Yabla
  - jbaudanza 7y ago
    My website, www.captionpop.com, does this with YouTube videos. It allows you to watch videos with multiple subtitles at once, look up individual words, and built interactive flash cards out of video snippets. There are also Chrome extensions that do similar things for Netflix. For example, Subadub. Next to interacting with native speakers, I think consuming a ton of media is the best way to learn a language.
    - senorsmile 7y ago
      Do you know the names of any of the extensions for Netflix?
      - jbaudanza 7y ago
        Yes, Subadub. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/subadub/jamiekdimmhnnemaaimmdahnahfmfdfk?hl=en-US https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/subadub/jamiekdimm...
  - swordsmith 7y ago
    > subtitled videos with links from each word (or idiomatic phrase) in the subtitles to dictionary definitions. I'm not sure having a easy link is necessarily a good thing. The act of typing the characters and opening up the page, especially multiple times (it's rare you'll remember a word after looking it up one time), form a strong anchor in memory. This is the similar effect to having google maps vs. looking up direction before driving on remembering your route.
- kradroy 7y ago
  I believe it's even better to watch dubbed shows that you already know very well. I greatly increased my spoken German comprehension by watching dubbed episodes of the Simpsons. I had seen most of them a dozen times in English and knew much of the dialogue by heart. It can also help with your pronunciation if you speak along with the dialogue, but you have to be careful you're not mimicking a "substandard" accent. You don't want to end up sounding like Cleetus when talking to business partners.
- d0mine 7y ago
  Is it "comprehensible input" method? https://youtu.be/NiTsduRreug https://youtu.be/NiTsduRreug
  - zzzcpan 7y ago
    I guess it is. Interesting that people knew about in the eighties already, but time wasting teaching methods are still dominant.
- ummonk 7y ago
  Well English has very limited inflections so most of the work in learning English goes into vocabulary, pronunciation and idioms. Thus, just experiencing it and looking up words when you need to is a really easy way to learn the language. Not so with highly inflected languages.

Sure. I was watching tv shows with english subtitles and was looking up every word I didn't understand in a dictionary for an hour or more every day. Some days much more, if the show was interesting to me, so it was kind of motivating. At the beginning pausing video and switching between media player and dictionary proved to be a bit too exhausting, so I also wrote a tiny program that did that with a single hotkey before I really started doing all this. A few months later I got to comfortable enough level to start reading a book, it was a bit harder with a book, because not only there was much more new words, you also need to listen to pronunciations to make sure you don't learn the words incorrectly with your own pronunciations, luckily my dictionary program had that built in. That's about it.

JoshTriplett 7y ago
> At the beginning pausing video and switching between media player and dictionary proved to be a bit too exhausting, so I also wrote a tiny program that did that with a single hotkey before I really started doing all this. That sounds like a great idea for a service to help learn languages: subtitled videos with links from each word (or idiomatic phrase) in the subtitles to dictionary definitions.
- Nadya 7y ago
  I'll try to find the name of the program - but this already exists and made rounds a while back for Japanese learners where looking up words in a dictionary isn't always as straight forward as it is for latin-based languages. (a few minutes of sitting on this post later...) And... found it! Or at least, a very similar idea. https://github.com/juliango202/jijimaku https://github.com/juliango202/jijimaku
- Mikulas0 7y ago
  For anyone interested in Japanese (and anime), there is a website called animelon that does this.
- amiga_500 7y ago
  Yabla
- jbaudanza 7y ago
  My website, www.captionpop.com, does this with YouTube videos. It allows you to watch videos with multiple subtitles at once, look up individual words, and built interactive flash cards out of video snippets. There are also Chrome extensions that do similar things for Netflix. For example, Subadub. Next to interacting with native speakers, I think consuming a ton of media is the best way to learn a language.
  - senorsmile 7y ago
    Do you know the names of any of the extensions for Netflix?
    - jbaudanza 7y ago
      Yes, Subadub. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/subadub/jamiekdimmhnnemaaimmdahnahfmfdfk?hl=en-US https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/subadub/jamiekdimm...
- swordsmith 7y ago
  > subtitled videos with links from each word (or idiomatic phrase) in the subtitles to dictionary definitions. I'm not sure having a easy link is necessarily a good thing. The act of typing the characters and opening up the page, especially multiple times (it's rare you'll remember a word after looking it up one time), form a strong anchor in memory. This is the similar effect to having google maps vs. looking up direction before driving on remembering your route.
kradroy 7y ago
I believe it's even better to watch dubbed shows that you already know very well. I greatly increased my spoken German comprehension by watching dubbed episodes of the Simpsons. I had seen most of them a dozen times in English and knew much of the dialogue by heart. It can also help with your pronunciation if you speak along with the dialogue, but you have to be careful you're not mimicking a "substandard" accent. You don't want to end up sounding like Cleetus when talking to business partners.
d0mine 7y ago
Is it "comprehensible input" method? https://youtu.be/NiTsduRreug https://youtu.be/NiTsduRreug
- zzzcpan 7y ago
  I guess it is. Interesting that people knew about in the eighties already, but time wasting teaching methods are still dominant.
ummonk 7y ago
Well English has very limited inflections so most of the work in learning English goes into vocabulary, pronunciation and idioms. Thus, just experiencing it and looking up words when you need to is a really easy way to learn the language. Not so with highly inflected languages.