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Here is my trick: I take a recording of a conversation in the language, one that's made for language learners. Then I listen to it until I know it BY HEART.
by konschubert 2y ago
Here is my trick:
I take a recording of a conversation in the language, one that's made for language learners.
Then I listen to it until I know it BY HEART.
Usually that takes about 100 listens.
Every time I listen, I understand a bit more. Sometimes I look at the transcript to understand a section that evades me.
I don't move on until I can recite the whole thing BY HEART.
Then, I take the next dialogue.
- yurishimo 2y agoThis is next level! Thinking back to my language textbooks, this would be brutal for me on a mental level. Do you think it could work as well with a short story or novella? Perhaps one of the books by Olly Richards? I find the dialogues in textbooks absolutely mind numbing most of the time and while easy books for learners aren't that interesting anyway, at least it's a full story and not people ordering lunch or a trip to the doctor for the 99th time!
- konschubert 2y agoThe thing is, the dialogue has to be short to really stick to your brain! Like, less than a minute. Repetition is key, and if the text is too long, it’s not repeated enough. To me, it’s not mind-numbing until I can “sing along” because I know it by heart. And then I move on to the next, slightly harder, text. You don’t have to always listen to it actively, you can put it in while doing other work. Some language self-learner books are better than others.
- yurishimo 2y agoAh okay. I think most of the dialogues from the books I'm thinking of were between 3-5 minutes. Something shorter might work better, indeed.
- maxquinn 2y agoI'd really like to give this method a go. I'm trying to learn French and struggling with the listening component. Do you have any sources for dialogues that you used?
- konschubert 2y agoI used the Langenscheidt and PONS courses for Polish in the past. But I think they are only available in German.