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From: barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Barry Gold)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Learning/Retaining a Language
Message-ID: <1673@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Jan-85 22:29:48 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.1673
Posted: Tue Jan 15 22:29:48 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 18-Jan-85 01:23:57 EST
References: <208@philabs.UUCP>
Reply-To: barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Barry Gold)
Distribution: net
Organization: System Development Corp. R+D, Santa Monica
Lines: 26
Summary: 

I've found the following principles help a lot while acquiring a language.

1.  Don't try to learn vocabulary as  = 
    Instead try to tie each new foreign word in to the same sort of
    referents you have for the English word.  (Thus, instead of saying
    "fune" is Japanese for ship, associate "fune" with a mental picture
    of a Japanese ship, and only secondarily with the way the equivalent
    word is pronounced/spelled in your native language.)

2.  One of the best textbooks I used introduced each grammatical
    principle with "pattern sentences" to be memorized and used as
    bases for variations.  Devise something like this, and then run
    changes on the pattern with all relevant vocabulary.  Try to use
    sentences which tie in to the culture in which the language is
    used.

3.  Most textbooks don't give you a feeling for what diction level words
    are.  In your own language, you know what words/phrases/grammatical
    patterns are formal/colloquial/slang, but it's hard to figure that
    out for foreign languages.  You might supplement formal study by
    buying comics in the foreign language.  Seeing movies and television
    shows helps too.

Hope this has been of some help.

--Lee Gold