All Questions
1,407
questions
3
votes
0
answers
51
views
how to acquire a certain sound which lack in my mother tongue?
In my mother language, there is a lack of the N sound as an initial consonant. Every time when I say English words like nature, new, it will naturally or unconsciously be pronounced as lature, lew.
...
- 131
4
votes
2
answers
75
views
Finding direct translations for foreign words in English
Is there any tool or method of searching for the direct translations of foreign words that have made their way into English? Google translate and other translation services will translate the meaning ...
- 161
4
votes
0
answers
49
views
How to go about learning a heritage language that I lost as a child?
I used to be bilingual in French and English when I was very young but when I began school in Australia, I stopped speaking French so I could get better at English and now at 16 I can understand the ...
- 41
0
votes
0
answers
76
views
Does immersion actually work?
I’ve heard people say constantly that “immersion is great and you’ll learn a language that way”. Some even go as far as saying that immersion is the only way to learn a language. But is it really true?...
- 1
2
votes
2
answers
55
views
Online Portuguese [PT-PT] language course
Duolingo has Portuguese in its program, but is built for [PT-BR], Brazilian Portuguese. I’m looking for quite a while to find an online language course in European Portuguese [PT-PT].
In general, ...
- 123
3
votes
0
answers
31
views
How does the proportion of Chinese-language students who learn handwriting change with level?
Many students of Chinese as a second language opt out of learning handwriting characters. My impression (from my personal experience) is that the proportion of beginner students who learn handwriting ...
- 2,530
3
votes
4
answers
103
views
How can I practice speaking English by myself?
Currently I'm learning by myself with videos but mostly with textbooks. I have no much people to speak with and I'm trying to find some ways to practice conversation. Do someone have any hint?!
4
votes
1
answer
85
views
Are there effective ways to improve oral English or a platform which emphasizes students' improvement?
Am I the only one who feels that these English-teaching websites are just a way for teachers to make a few bucks here and there?
It seems that the majority don't really focus on the intricacies of ...
4
votes
0
answers
158
views
How many words give 98% coverage in Mandarin?
For Chinese characters, Jun Da's dataset implies 1566 characters gives 95% coverage, 2285 characters gives 98% coverage, and 2838 characters gives 99% coverage. I'm wondering if there's a similar ...
- 2,530
1
vote
1
answer
160
views
Is it Worth Trying to Learn a Pair of Languages at the Same Time?
Good day, I am focusing on learning Arabic ... but I see that there are many similarities with Hebrew. Would this be a good pair to learn at the same time? If so, why? If not, why not? Thanks.
- 13
2
votes
1
answer
83
views
Are word translations adequate when starting to learn a new language?
Being a native Spanish speaker, I've learnt English as a second language since I was a child, starting at age 5, (I'm 23), and when I was 14-15 I started to learn German at a language school, with ...
- 21
3
votes
0
answers
57
views
Is the HSK exam easier outside of China?
It's been known (at least in Confucius institue in my country) if you take HSK test outside of China, it's easier and the grading is pretty lenient.
u/Marizza_Tan, comment on "hsk 6", Reddit ...
- 2,530
4
votes
0
answers
60
views
Is this a good way to learn English?
In the anime Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai, there's such a scene of a notebook.
As you can see in the picture, it's almost barely a list of vocabulary, I mean, there's no example sentence. Besides, ...
user13474
7
votes
1
answer
151
views
How to learn a niche language, i.e. Kazakh?
I am learning Kazakh.
There are maybe a total of 10 teachers of this language with a curriculum and none of them know grammar past declension.
Google translate is no help either.
I've had to use ...
-1
votes
1
answer
65
views
Is it possible to learn Hebrew or Greek without a teacher or an online course?
My first is a latin-based language, and I know just the latin script, I have no experience writing in cyrilic script, greek script, and hebrew script. Is it possible to learn Hebrew or Greek from ...
- 11
2
votes
0
answers
39
views
Vietnamese children's stories with audio and text
I'm looking for children's stories (stories with an easy vocabulary) in Vietnamese, with the text and the audio, so that I can listen to the story and follow the words on the text.
An example would be ...
- 121
1
vote
3
answers
152
views
Is Mandarin and character writing easier for people who know Japanese?
I've been planning to study basic Mandarin for some time. Today I had to write neko (the word for cat) in Japanese using Kanji.
I just noticed that Simplified Chinese uses the same characters to ...
user1801060
0
votes
2
answers
131
views
What is the most efficient set of languages needed to easily become proficient in any language?
I’m not familiar with the terminology to ask this question properly, so I’ll do my best in laymen’s terms.
I’m a native English speaker, so I find certain elements of other languages particularly ...
- 117
-1
votes
1
answer
88
views
What is the output-equivalent of the term "exposure"?
We often discuss how many "exposures" we need to learn a word (and depending on your style and definitions, it could be 8 to 12 or even 50+). My impression is that we typically envisage an &...
- 2,530
2
votes
0
answers
52
views
How long between each TOCFL level for learning Mandarin?
This is the same question as How long between each HSK level for learning Mandarin? but for the Taiwanese test rather than the mainland one.
A common question among language learners is how long will ...
- 121
0
votes
2
answers
59
views
Where to learn Français with certification?
Bonjour,
I want to learn Français because my Université requires B2 level Français, I have done a ton of searches and found the following details:
Language Levels
A1, A2 - DILF
B1, B2 - DELF
C1, C2 - ...
user13359
1
vote
2
answers
123
views
Does the usefulness of Anki vary between languages?
This question is motivated by this Reddit comment where the author has had success learning Spanish via Anki:
I've been using Anki for about a year (the time it took me to reach C1 in Spanish from ...
- 2,530
5
votes
1
answer
82
views
How can a YouTuber demonstrate that they are actually fluent in a language?
There's a bunch of YouTubers nowadays who claim to speak fluently in some second language. Some can; some can't but pretend to. I've noticed some YouTubers use a lot of techniques to inflate their ...
- 2,530
-1
votes
1
answer
133
views
Swedish vs Norwegian vs Danish. What the easiest language to learn for a native-Russian speaker with C1-level English? [closed]
Swedish vs Norwegian vs Danish, What's the easiest language to learn, overall?
I am native in Russian, but pretty good at English (C1).
The purposes of learning new language would be to be able to ...
2
votes
0
answers
24
views
Controversy & Debate in SLA: Can I ever get concrete takeaways?
I learned Mandarin in high school and later in life (now) started becoming interested in how I was able to acquire it, i.e., the study of SLA.
My goal: As of now, I hope to have concrete strategies ...
- 455
1
vote
1
answer
31
views
How can I improve my native language skills as someone with an immigration background?
My parents immigrated to Germany in the 70's and I was born and raised in Germany. Although I attended German schools like any other German child and even studied in Germany, I do not feel confident ...
- 111
1
vote
0
answers
14
views
Is there research into the phenomenon of "increased skill leading to decreased attention" for L2 learning, and what can a student do about it?
User phills at chinese-forums.org describes their experience learning Chinese through listening to audiobooks:
Paradoxically, I couldn't do these other things before when I was worse at the skill. I ...
- 2,530
-1
votes
1
answer
31
views
Where can I find "categories" which I can use for L2 practice by listing words in those categories?
A Reddit post has an exercise of listing 5 different things in each category:
A1: colors
A2: rooms of a house
B1: sea creatures
B2: chemical elements
C1: ways to cook an egg
C2/impossible: ...
- 2,530
1
vote
0
answers
17
views
Is it common for teachers to take standardized language tests in order to memorize them and post YouTube videos giving their contents?
In preparing for the Chinese HSK6, I stumbled upon videos such as these: 1, 2, 3. In these videos, Chinese teachers take the HSK6, then upload videos describing its contents and giving answers. ...
- 2,530
3
votes
1
answer
43
views
Is studying speeches by e.g. Kevin Rudd especially beneficial for improving one's Chinese speaking skills?
On YouTube you can find speeches in Chinese by former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd (Chinese name 陆克文), such as this and this and this. Now I'm tossing up whether or not this (or some similar ...
- 2,530
1
vote
0
answers
72
views
How does Anki vocabulary relate to reading vocabulary?
Sometimes I see people online say they have an e.g. 15000-word vocabulary on Anki. It sounds impressive, but it's not clear to me that such a student can utilize that vocabulary for actual reading. ...
- 2,530
0
votes
0
answers
58
views
After 6 months of studying German, I still struggle to speak; how do I make progress?
So, It has been 6 months since I started my Journey with German. It's been really fun, and I really like the language, but I am starting to feel like all this time that I have spent isn't giving me ...
- 1
0
votes
0
answers
77
views
Language activator or conceptual dictionary for French
Is there a language activator or conceptual dictionary for French? I haven't been able to find a printed or online one.
More specifically, I am looking for a dictionary that gives related words to a ...
0
votes
2
answers
154
views
How to decline Czech words
The following page lists Czech declensions, which can be memorized by heart.
Czech declensions
However, once I come across a word, and look it up in a Czech dictionary or Czech-English/English-Czech ...
1
vote
2
answers
141
views
How long does it take to learn Brazilian Portuguese if I speak Spanish on a B2 level?
I speak Spanish on a B2 level. How many months does it take to learn Brazilian Portuguese if I already speak Spanish?
- 21
1
vote
1
answer
66
views
Resources to learn Norwegian grammar, conjugation and vocabulary?
I want to learn to write and read Norwegian. And of course to hear and pronounce it.
I would like to do this in a safe way, that is to say, to learn Norwegian as it is currently written and spoken. ...
2
votes
1
answer
176
views
How developed are Duolingo courses for each language?
Many of the [Duolingo] "courses" are so heavily underdeveloped to the point of being useless. You lucked out that Spanish is one of the actually legit ones (French being the other main one).
...
- 2,530
1
vote
1
answer
118
views
Improving English language at B1 level
I'm an English learner, starting from two years ago and with self-study and want to know how? Just with Google Translate when reading articles and translating words I don't know, and after some time I ...
- 111
2
votes
0
answers
42
views
Tongue positioning for Serbian ć and č [closed]
I know that ć and č are different sounds as ć is softer than č, but do not know how the tongue should be positioned to pronounce them.
Is ć pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the back of ...
- 21
0
votes
0
answers
33
views
Where can I learn by example how to create custom flashcards using random numbers and persistence
Anki version: 2.1.49 on Windows / Linux / Android
I'm following a guide on how to create persistent, random numbers using Anki. The guide is here I can't get it work because the author doesn't tell ...
3
votes
1
answer
88
views
How can I practise my French with inaccurate subtitles?
I speak French but want to improve my listening ability and learn some new words (maybe to put into Anki). I decided I would watch one of my favourite Netflix shows in French, however the subtitles ...
- 133
1
vote
0
answers
51
views
Any apps for "progressive" language learning like Toucan?
What I mean by "progressive" language learning:
The student starts by learning a small amount of vocabulary and grammar.
When practicing the foreign language, the student replaces the ...
2
votes
0
answers
24
views
Is it best practice for a L2 textbook passage to re-use vocabulary from previous passages?
Almost all L2 textbooks contain passages which use new vocabulary. There seems to be two ways to go about this (both with pros and cons):
The vocabulary of every passage is independent of previous ...
- 2,530
5
votes
2
answers
559
views
Are there any good resources for learning Thai stroke order?
Because I am learning Pāli, I am also trying to learn the different writing systems associated with it. Learning the Thai script, I did not find any good resources on how to write the different ...
- 53
2
votes
2
answers
34
views
What are some effective options for an American with no nearby Korean-speakers to learn Hangul?
After studying the evolution of language at a very superficial depth I've decided that I want to be able to communicate using Hangul at something like the conversational level. There seem to be no ...
3
votes
2
answers
165
views
Why don't Chinese people who are eager to practice English simply practice with each other?
If you've ever been a "foreigner" in China (especially in major cities), you may have encountered the intensity in which some Chinese people try to practice English with you. I certainly ...
- 2,530
1
vote
0
answers
31
views
Many Chinese students don't continue past the intermediate level (~HSK4); do other Asian languages have this same phenomenon?
If you've studied Chinese, you quickly discover that many students don't follow the HSK beyond HSK4. It seems a lot give up, or at least, find some private method to continue their studies. There ...
- 2,530
3
votes
0
answers
18
views
What scores should a student get on the Chinese HSK(x) exam before moving onto HSK(x+1)?
Disappointingly, I recently failed the HSK6 (listening: 52; reading: 63; writing: 55); usually 60% is considered a pass. (Yes, I'm quite aware it's insanely hard.)
I previously did well on the HSK5 (...
- 2,530
0
votes
3
answers
92
views
Learning German for everyday situations
I already have a C1 level in German (Goethe C1); however, it is still very difficult for me to express myself in everyday situations. I suppose it has more to do with my lack of vocabulary.
What could ...
- 1
1
vote
0
answers
23
views
Where to find good Dravidian language sources to translate words like இர்ரேண்டம்? [closed]
I am interested in studying ancient trade between Egypt and India.
I found this word to describe the sea as "burn red"?
The word is இர்ரேண்டம்
Google translate will pronounce it but will ...
- 111