4 ms·

A lack of suitable resources is often a problem at the lower levels. FWIW, I experienced this first hand as the first foreign language I learned to a relatively

A lack of suitable resources is often a problem at the lower levels. FWIW, I experienced this first hand as the first foreign language I learned to a relatively fluent (~B2 level) was Japanese and that was from 2000-2002. Graded readers are ideal early on, but if the language you're learning just doesn't have them, then going through multiple textbooks aimed at your level (e.g. an intro textbook from publisher A and another intro textbook from publisher B) is a good strategy. Materials aimed at 5 or 6 year-old native learners are also often a decent path. It's not exciting but there's a lot of repetition, there are a lot of pictures and if it's a character-based language, there will be a syllabary like hiragana/zhuyin/pinyin to help you.

csa 2y ago
> Graded readers are ideal early on Depends on learner. I’ve seen people really love graded readers from an early stage. I personally can’t stand them until the 1000-2000 word or more range. Note that I am a big fan of extensive reading, but the lower level stuff just makes my eyes bleed, and in some cases is just bad (e.g., graded English readers that use lower frequency meanings of common words to meet a word limit). > going through multiple textbooks aimed at your level (e.g. an intro textbook from publisher A and another intro textbook from publisher B) is a good strategy Very underrated, imho. I wish more folks would do this. > Materials aimed at 5 or 6 year-old native learners are also often a decent path Again, this makes my eyes bleed. There is often quite a bit of words that are aimed at children that maybe aren’t the best for beginning learners. I can’t remember what they were with Japanese, but I’m pretty sure a lot of them were onomatopoeic words that every Japanese kid knows but non-native speakers do not… and probably should not learn that early in the process. Iirc, third grade is when the language becomes more “standard” and less kids talk, middle school stuff is godly for beginning mid-range fluency, and high school content fleshes out mid-range fluency (as one might expect). Books and online content aimed at teenaged readers can be surprisingly accessible, with the main challenge being to find material with substance (imho).

csa 2y ago

> Graded readers are ideal early on Depends on learner. I’ve seen people really love graded readers from an early stage. I personally can’t stand them until the 1000-2000 word or more range. Note that I am a big fan of extensive reading, but the lower level stuff just makes my eyes bleed, and in some cases is just bad (e.g., graded English readers that use lower frequency meanings of common words to meet a word limit). > going through multiple textbooks aimed at your level (e.g. an intro textbook from publisher A and another intro textbook from publisher B) is a good strategy Very underrated, imho. I wish more folks would do this. > Materials aimed at 5 or 6 year-old native learners are also often a decent path Again, this makes my eyes bleed. There is often quite a bit of words that are aimed at children that maybe aren’t the best for beginning learners. I can’t remember what they were with Japanese, but I’m pretty sure a lot of them were onomatopoeic words that every Japanese kid knows but non-native speakers do not… and probably should not learn that early in the process. Iirc, third grade is when the language becomes more “standard” and less kids talk, middle school stuff is godly for beginning mid-range fluency, and high school content fleshes out mid-range fluency (as one might expect). Books and online content aimed at teenaged readers can be surprisingly accessible, with the main challenge being to find material with substance (imho).