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I don't want it to translate to my native language. We happened to have a teacher who was an old Esperantist with some quirky ideas, so I learned English with

I don't want it to translate to my native language. We happened to have a teacher who was an old Esperantist with some quirky ideas, so I learned English with the so-called direct method. That means that after the first class, the teacher and everyone spoke only English in class. The textbook relied heavily on pictures. Lots of people don't like the direct method, and I can understand why it's unpleasant, but it worked really well for me. I had German lessons in school for a long time, but never gained anything like the fluency I got in English - the German teachers varied from some very archaic grammar-translation stuff ("durchfürgegenohneum", "ausbeimitnachseitvonzu" etc.) to the ones who seemed to have no plan at all. LLMs should be able to teach me with the direct method, though fine-tuning would help.

aleph_minus_one 3y ago
> the German teachers varied from some very archaic grammar-translation stuff ("durchfürgegenohneum", "ausbeimitnachseitvonzu" etc.) to the ones who seemed to have no plan at all. Native German speaker here: such grammatical structures are really how I think about my mother tongue, thus I do believe these are good exercises: always have the grammar tree in the back of your mind when you speak German "and then speak this grammar tree". :-) In opposite to English, in German grammar is quite important.
- vintermann 3y ago
  Maybe it's how you think about it today, but it's not how you learned it, and it wasn't a way I succeeded at ever becoming fluent in it. Grammar is just as important in English, it just hides its complexity elsewhere.
  - aleph_minus_one 3y ago
    > Maybe it's how you think about it today, but it's not how you learned it, and it wasn't a way I succeeded at ever becoming fluent in it. Because of this less efficient learning method, it took a whole childhood to become fluent in German. :-)

aleph_minus_one 3y ago

> the German teachers varied from some very archaic grammar-translation stuff ("durchfürgegenohneum", "ausbeimitnachseitvonzu" etc.) to the ones who seemed to have no plan at all. Native German speaker here: such grammatical structures are really how I think about my mother tongue, thus I do believe these are good exercises: always have the grammar tree in the back of your mind when you speak German "and then speak this grammar tree". :-) In opposite to English, in German grammar is quite important.

vintermann 3y ago
Maybe it's how you think about it today, but it's not how you learned it, and it wasn't a way I succeeded at ever becoming fluent in it. Grammar is just as important in English, it just hides its complexity elsewhere.
- aleph_minus_one 3y ago
  > Maybe it's how you think about it today, but it's not how you learned it, and it wasn't a way I succeeded at ever becoming fluent in it. Because of this less efficient learning method, it took a whole childhood to become fluent in German. :-)