Hi Keth,

You learn quite differently from me.

My stages would be:

- Finding your way around. Get a feel for grammar, word order, etc..
Pick up some simple vocabulary in the process. Requires a class or
text of some sort ... otherwise, you might as well be looking at an
impenetrable code.
- Thinking in the language. Happens after you learn its "shape" as above.
For one's _second_ language, it seems to take a lot longer than that
... you have to learn _how_ to be multilingual. Subsequent languages
have crossed this point much sooner for me; sometimes well before I
have the vocabulary to say much of anything ... or more than the simplest
of grammar, for that matter. Facilitated by trying to _understand_
rather than translate ... i.e. reading or listening to text or speech
where most of the vocabulary is familiar. Children's books, or comics,
might help here, since they use simple language. Class exercises can
also be useful, as they tend to use only the vocabulary and grammar
they have already taught.
- Vocabulary stuffing. Memorizing everything in sight. Either formally,
or just by doing a lot of reading. (Or talking, but I mostly care
about written communication.)
- Subtleties and shades of meaning. The only way to do this is to absorb
lots and lots of material in the language. And use it ... with people
who speak it well, not a bunch of fellow students.

However, I'm no expert on learning methods. I'm just someone who is working
on learning a language. And for most of the languages I've learned a little
bit of, I've never reached the subtleties stage. Certainly I'm nowhere
near there for Old Norse ... I'm sitting in "vocabulary stuffing", and
expect to be here for quite a while yet. (Though of course the stages are
also a bit circular.

On Fri, Apr 20, 2001 at 05:38:24PM -0000, keth@... wrote:
> Then here are some of the "stages" of knowing a language
> that have proven important for my own way of looking at things.
> 1) begin by learning to sing a song.
> (six or seven verses to start with maybe)
> Get a record, and listen to it every day,
> and try to sing the song as much as possible like they
> sing it on the record.
> 2)Read a short book written for childeren, say 8 or 10
> years old. Look up the words you don't know and compile
> your own dictionary. 20 - 25 pages is enough, as a first goal.
> 3)Watch a movie where they speak the language you wish to learn.
> 4)Get a simple textbook. e.g. "Swedish for tourists".
> Spend, say 3 weeks, trying to read as many chapters as you
> can. Then put the book away, regardless of whether you feel
> you learned much or not.
> 5)Get hold of some comic books in the language you are trying
> to learn. (there was something called "Les Gammas" for French
> which was very good)
> 6)Get yourself a language course on video tape.
> See one lesson each day, during a time when you have
> vacation, so that you can stay home and relax with the language.
> Try this for two or three weeks.
>
> By now you should begin you have started to learn a little.
>
> 7)Get hold of a Swedish (or Danish) book with parallel English
> text. See how far you get.
> 8)Get hold of a Danish (or Swedish) book without patralell text.
> You may scribble in the margin.
> 9)After about a year of attempts of this sort, try to visit
> Sweden or Denmark, for, say, a week or two. Rent a car and
> drive around, trying to see as much as possible. Refrain from
> ANY English. (tell them you are from Galapagos ;)
>
> Okay, and so it continues.
> The first goal is to be able to read a book in the language
> of your choice. (a simple book - a detective story maybe)
> The second goal is to be able to understand speech.
> The third gfoal to be able to buy things in a store.
> The fourth goal is to be able to converse well.
> The fifth goal is to be able to write letters in the language
> of your choice.
>
> ---------------
> So what do you think.. Eventually you will no doubt learn
> this way. But was it you who said you knew about modern'
> methods that will significantly shorten the time it takes
> to complete the different steps ?
>
> If you have any good ideas, I am sure I will not be the only
> one who is all ear.

--
Arlie

(Arlie Stephens arlie@...)