Brute Force Memorization
The other day, I was going through my bookshelves and stumbled across an old Berlitz Western European Languages cassette pack and phrasebook. I was curious about whether I could do with audio what I'd done with playing cards. So I moved the Turkish audio to my computer, put it on my MP3 and listened according to this schedule:
Day 1: 5 listenings
Day 2: 4 listenings
Day 3: 3 listenings
Day 4: 2 listenings
Day 5: 1 listening to confirm I knew everything
There were around 75 items. Granted, I knew about half of them anyway. But by the last listening, I was mumbling the next Turkish phrase before the English prompt - the pattern was drilled in.
Is this the way to learn languages? No. Michel Thomas rightly says that what you understand you know and don't forget. But when you're starting in a language, this is a good way to get just enough words and phrases that when you crack a textbook the language doesn't look quite so unfamiliar.
Similarly, if you're reading a short story in a language where you've got a good foundation, it might be useful to make yourself an audio of the words you don't know and their translations, then go back to it when you've learned the unknown words, that way your second reading - your first real reading - will be focused on the text. (Hint: if you need more than 75 words, you are either looking at too long a piece of text to confront at once or too high level a text - break things into manageable chunks.)
Day 1: 5 listenings
Day 2: 4 listenings
Day 3: 3 listenings
Day 4: 2 listenings
Day 5: 1 listening to confirm I knew everything
There were around 75 items. Granted, I knew about half of them anyway. But by the last listening, I was mumbling the next Turkish phrase before the English prompt - the pattern was drilled in.
Is this the way to learn languages? No. Michel Thomas rightly says that what you understand you know and don't forget. But when you're starting in a language, this is a good way to get just enough words and phrases that when you crack a textbook the language doesn't look quite so unfamiliar.
Similarly, if you're reading a short story in a language where you've got a good foundation, it might be useful to make yourself an audio of the words you don't know and their translations, then go back to it when you've learned the unknown words, that way your second reading - your first real reading - will be focused on the text. (Hint: if you need more than 75 words, you are either looking at too long a piece of text to confront at once or too high level a text - break things into manageable chunks.)
2 Comments:
Funny stuff, I just started with Turkish (hardcore, so to become fluent) :-). Will you continue with Turkish or are you giving priority to Uzbek (the two are pretty related I think?).
My priority is Uzbek and I've just started working through a pretty weighty textbook to get a more precise picture of the mechanics of it. But Turkish is good fun and a good way to practice getting my mouth around those long words.
Good luck with the Turkish, though. It's a fascinating language.
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