Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Having had a fair amount of experience in language learning with lots of different people, the key thing, I think, is to find the learning method that works for you. Some people can learn from simply reading, some (including me) have to write things down in order to make them "stick", others learn through listening or reciting words.
With myself, for example, I can read vocabulary lists until the cows come home and still they don't "stick". But write something out a few times, and it's soon memorised.
We all have different methods of learning - people need to find out what works for them as an individual.
|
It's also the case that different people have different strengths in learning. I learn well using text materials, and I can sound out Cyrillic fairly easily, even though I've never formally studied any languages that use it. On the other hand, I don't learn well by listening. I tend to have to take notes and then read them, even during class or meetings (or when I was working in phone tech support).
I agree with HarryT that in general alphabetic or syllabary systems are easier to learn than pictographic systems (and I think even Japanese people, who have to learn both, will readily admit this). When I teach kids Chinese characters, I have them color in outlines, make the characters out of clay or pipe cleaners (fuzzy craft wire), and form them with their bodies. Or we might go outside and write them large on the sidewalk with chalk or large brushes and water. (Adults practice calligraphy this way in China, too.) It does help to learn the system that characters are based on, as well. In Chinese, there are about 230 "radicals" of which most characters are composed. I tell my adult students to think of them as being comparable to Latin roots we learn in school-- one can figure out the meaning of a word one has never seen if one knows common Latin roots used in the word, and characters are the same way. (However, one might still have a bit of trouble figuring out how to pronounce the word-- there are some tricks, but they are less regular than the connection between radicals and meaning.)
I'd like to learn to read Arabic. I know the general principles, but haven't had time to put into studying it, and since it has no relationship to the Latin alphabet (unlike Cyrillic and even Greek), it will take a bit more attention on my part to pick it up. But it's such a beautiful written language, I think it would be worth it.
