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How to Learn Grammar Fast – How to Learn a Language on Your Own (Part 4)

Can you feel it? We're going on an adventure! By now, you should have everything we need to start learning.

If you've read the first part of this guide you should have some grammars book. Internet sources are also acceptable but book is always more reliable.

But before we start, just a small disclaimer.

THE SMALL DISCLAIMER

The process which I'm about to present work like a charm for me. But we're all different, so remember that your approach might vary from mine. That's why you should consider tweaking them a little bit so they're more tailored for your needs.

This part of the guide will seriously get you started but of course, it's not possible to cover all complexities of particular languages. I'm selective.

I don't give a damn about being 100% correct at the beginning because nobody cares. You know what is really tiring? Stuttering with perfect grammar every second word.

Sure, you'll make mistakes but it rarely happens that they are serious.

- "I really do love rapes officer!"
- "Pardon me? You are a sick and twisted person! Oh, wait! Did you mean grapes?"
- "Oh yeah, me thanks and love you long time!"

You see? At least you're politely making a conversation.

TWO MAIN BRICKS OF YOUR LEARNING FOUNDATION

There are two things which you should know before learning anything - your baseline and general outline of the subject you're about to learn.

So what's baseline?

This is the manner in which you can refer what you already know to the material you want to acquire.
It's possible most of the time. However, sometimes you have to be really creative!

When you learn a new language, you can, of course, compare it to the ones you already know.

General outline

You should know more or less what the given language consists of. Why? Very important part of learning is knowing what you don't know.

Skimming through a grammar book can give you a pretty good picture of the language. You can learn how many tenses there are or conjugations.

Now the real art is to pick grammar constructions which are the most useful to us and will enable speaking as quickly as possible while maintaining a relatively high level of grammatical correctness.

I'll stress just for clarity's sake - you need a general outline of a language. You're not learning at this stage.

WHAT'S THE MAIN GOAL?

I'll try to describe in as many details as it's only possible how I usually approach learning languages.
Once again - my goal is to start speaking as soon as possible.

If yours is only to read or write - it's still the approach I would choose as it helps you to build a grammatical scaffolding where you can later set vocabulary.

Grammatical correctness usually follows quickly once you start speaking. To depict the said process, I'll use Esperanto as an example.

It's much easier than most languages and that's precisely why it is perfect. Just like scientists who use simple organisms to understand more complex ones. I'll use an easy language as an example so you can later transfer this knowledge to more complex ones.

HOW TO USE THIS PART OF THE GUIDE?

I suggest the following - go through it (more or less) step by step. It'll set you on the right path.

But the most important advice which I can give you is - ignore ALL the other things from further steps until you cover the ones you're actually trying to learn. It takes the burden of overthinking off of you.

When should you move to the next step?

Once you can use the structures from the current one with confidence.
Of course, feel free to change the order of these steps and adjust them to you if you feel it suits you better.

FIRST BABY STEP- Personal Pronouns

The first question which we have to ask ourselves is: what elements of language are the most important? The answer is - the ones which you can't substitute with anything else.

That's why I always start with personal pronouns (subject pronouns). For the sake of brevity, I'll limit my examples to a singular form.

mi	I
vi	you
li	he
ŝi	she

Step 2 - PRESENT TENSE

Once we get a grasp of subject pronouns we can move to present tense. This choice begs the same question as before.

Why present and not past or future tense? Assuming that we have really little time at our disposal, we can always say something like:

"I eat dinner yesterday"
"she goes there in 3 days"

Sounds terrible - I'm pretty sure we all agree here BUT It helps you to get your message across! If there are more than 1 present tense in your target language, it's better to choose the one which's used for general events

Step 3 - CONJUGATION

Esperanto makes everything simple. All verbs in present tense have endings -AS.

Obviously, in a language of your choice, you'll face more conjugations. And the great thing is that you know how many because you learned beforehand what the grammar outline of your target language looks like. (You READ it, right?)

Now we have to learn how to construct:

affirmative sentence
negative sentence
questions

Questions are least important as you can always ask one using an affirmative sentence and changing your tone of voice.

AFFIRMATIVE SENTENCE (in present tense)

POSSIBLE TRAPS: In many languages the order of the sentence is fixed - e.g. The conjugated verb is always the second sentence element in German.

Be aware of it.

Let's select some verbs, so we can start creating sentences.

Short list of the most useful verbs:

an = povi
must / have to = devi
should = devi
might / may = povi
have = havi
be = esti
get = ricevi
give = doni
take = preni
want - voli
need = bezoni
buy = aĉeti
sell = vendi
go = iri
come = veni

and 3 nouns

money = mono
time = tempo
book = libro

Now the best part - building sentences:

mi prenas libro = I take a book
ŝi vendas mono = she sells money
vi havas tempo = you have time

Please note that these sentences are incorrect (we should add -n to nouns in this case) - I'm trying to show the process of grammar acquisition as precisely as it is only possible.

As for now, we know nothing about declension. Nevertheless, such sentences can be understood without any problem.

NEGATIVE SENTENCE

Typically, we can negate either a verb or a noun. The most important for us is how to negate verbs. In English, we use the adverb "not" to do so. In Esperanto, we can do it using "ne" before verbs.

Examples:

Mi ne havas mono = I don't have money
ŝi ne vendas mono = she doesn't sell money
vi ne havas tempo = you don't have time

QUESTIONS

Close-ended questions

Some most popular ways to form a yes-no (i.e. close-ended) question in many languages is to use intonation, inversion (present in English), inflection, auxiliary verbs (do, have, etc. in English) or a grammatical particle.

The latter is true in, among others, Polish, Esperanto and French.
In Esperanto, we use the particle "ĉu".

Examples:

love = ami
Do you love money? = ĉu vi amas mono ?
Do you have a book? = ĉu vi havas libro?

Open-ended questions

If we want to learn some more details, it's great to know the most popular interrogative words:

List of interrogative words

which
what
whose
who
whom
where
when
how (much, many, often)
why

Examples:

Who = kiu, what = kio
Who do you love? = Kiu vi amas?
What does he want? = Kio li volas?

Step 4 - OTHER USEFUL PRONOUNS

The final step to make our sentences clearer and fancier is to learn some more personal pronouns

POSSIBLE TRAPS: You have to be aware that in some languages you can encounter many categories of pronouns depending on the case.

POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS

my - mia
your - via
his - lia
her - ŝia

Examples:

Let's add two adjectives to spruce things up a bit:

big - granda*
cheap - malmultekosta*

* All adjectives in Esperanto end with -A

My book isn't big - Mia libro ne estas granda
His time isn't cheap - Lia tempo estas malmultekosta

OBJECT PRONOUNS

me - min
you - vin
him - lin
her - ŝin

She loves you (yeah, yeah, yeah) - ŝi amas vin
Do I need her? - ĉu mi bezonas ŝin?

DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS

Why are they so great?

Because you can simply learn them, point at some object and grunt:

"This!"
"Not this, that!"

Lovely, right?

this - (ĉi) tiu
that - tiu
these - (ĉi) tiuj
those - tiuj

This person is stupid - Tiu persono estas stulta
He gives that money - Li donas tiu mono*

* I still make mistakes on purpose. It should read "li donas tiun monon".

INDEFINITE PRONOUNS

List of indefinite pronouns:

enough
little
less
much
more
most
several
few
fewer
many
more
most
no one
nobody
neither
none
everybody
everyone
all
both
someone
something
some
anyone
anything
either
any

Examples:

Someone = iu, everything = ĉio
She knows everything = ŝi scias ĉio
Someone wants you = iu volas vin

I've decided to skip reflexive pronouns. But feel free to read about them.

Step 5 - CONJUNCTIONS

Long and (almost) complete list of conjunctions:

after
although
as
as far as
as if
as long as
as soon as
as though
because
before
even if
even though
every time
if
in order that
since
so
so that
than
though
unless
until
when
whenever
where
whereas
wherever
while
and
nor
but
or
yet
otherwise
so
either...or
not only...but (also)
neither...nor
both...and

whether...or

just as...so

The ones that are the most important to me at the beginning are:
because, and, but, or, after, before, that, that's why, to, although, if, until, since, although, otherwise

Conjunctions give us this nice feeling of confidence when we speak. They combine two or more sentences and add a great touch of logic and cohesion to them.

Examples:

because = ĉar
I love you because you're pretty = Mi amas vin ĉar vi estas bela

understand = kompreni
I understand that's why I sell = Mi komprenas tial mi vendas

That's it when it comes to grammar basics. More to come!

REMEMBER:

You can create your own context and the world within a language. You'll have time to adjust the accuracy later.

As long as use logic and try to avoid any idiomatic expressions you should be understood.

CONCLUSION

Know the general outline of grammar before you start
Learn grammar step by step, once you feel quite comfortable within some grammar structure - move on
If you want to start speaking as fast as possible, learn the thing which can't be substituted with anything else first
Your brain craves sense and meaning - create your own context, have fun, start saying some silly stuff!
Embrace imperfection, we all have to start somewhere

Languages

Master Pronunciation Of A Foreign Language – How To Learn A Language On Your Own (Part 3)

Bartosz Czekala 21 comments

Why even bother with studying pronunciation?

Well, as always, there are no easy answers. Some say it's important to master the pronunciation of a foreign language. Some say it's a waste of time

The question is - why should beginners and semi-advanced learners care?

There are some obvious benefits - the better your pronunciation, the bigger a chance that native speakers will understand you. It means that there is always some minimal amount of work that has to be done in order to talk with native speakers.

Otherwise, each person will soon get discouraged from talking to you and leave or get black-out drunk to match your level of mumbling.

But what comes next after you reach the level, where native speakers have no problems understanding you? Does it make sense to reach for the Holy Grail of learning languages - speaking with no accent?

Considering the amount of time needed, I dare to say no. It's better to spend this time mastering grammar and vocabulary. I have never seen any point in pronouncing everything perfectly while still mixing up words and butchering grammar.

Many people claim to have achieved the level where there is no difference between them and native speakers. I believe that very often this is simply an exaggeration.

Typically, the longer someone talks to a native speaker, the bigger the chance that "the truth gets revealed".

Ultimately, I'll leave that for you to ponder. So what should you do to achieve good pronunciation as quickly as possible?

And to avoid such mistakes:

0. Brief (And Not So Boring) Theoretical Intro

It won't take long, I promise. If you're interested in practical tips, move to point 1.

To speak clearly, we must first understand what the (highly simplified) building blocks of pronunciation are:

Phonology - can be seen as "abstract, grammatical characterization of systems of sounds or signs". Which means - what is the difference between sounds. What makes French language French and English English (and Hodor, Hodor, Hodor)
Phonetics - deals with "physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory perception, and neurophysiological status" of sounds. Basically, how to produce sounds.
Prosody - is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. Well, this is kind of self-explanatory.

As you can see, mastering pronunciation requires learning the aforementioned elements of a language of your choice.

Now, how to do it practically...

1. Identify Alien Sounds

As children, we have the ability to distinguish different sounds and "assemble" them into words (in other words, we combine phonemes into morphemes/words).

The sad part about learning new languages is that we mostly lose this ability when we grow up.
It means, that without preparation very often we won't even know that we pronounce something incorrectly.

That's why the first step to get familiar with pronunciation is to identify the sounds which you might even be not aware of.

How to do it

Look it up in a dictionary

Every good dictionary has a description of sounds typical of the given language. What's more - as I've written before, always try to choose a dictionary which includes phonetic transcription of words.

Google it

" Language x (e.g. Swedish) phonology" will usually deliver best results.

Visit mylanguages.org

It covers 80+ languages. Choose the one you want and click "alphabet".

Now, after using any of these methods, you'll end up looking confused at the strange set of characters. They are part of the International Phonetic Alphabet. They look scary but are not so difficult to learn.

To become even more aware of the differences between your native and target language, you should learn the sounds of English language.

Here you can find an interactive phonetic chart for English.

2. Train Your Mouth To Pronounce Sound

Congratulations, by now you should know more or less, what sounds you should pay attention to. To imitate them as precisely as it's only possible, you need (ideally) combination of a couple of methods.

Learn how to produce sounds mechanically

It's a great starting point - grab a dictionary or some textbook and read a description of how you should pronounce given sounds. If the description is accompanied by a picture - even better.

Usually, the biggest problem is how to pronounce vowels. Since your tongue moves up and down, forward or backward, you have plenty of positions to experiment with.

Once (it seems that) you nail the target sound, try to memorize what the position of your tongue and lips was. And don't be too quick thinking that it is over. You have to check it first. (see feedback)

Start small

Choose only one or two sounds to begin with. Let's say that you have no idea how to pronounce /æ/.

You check how to produce this sound on Wiki. Then you pick up a word or two and try to pronounce this sound as closely as possible. Say, this word is "tab".

Once you are sure that the sound is pronounced decently, you can move on to other words.
Sounds like a lot of work but I assure you it's not.

When I was a child I suffered from a really bad speech impediment and couldn't pronounce a truckload of sounds in my native tongue.

Can you imagine how I talked to my parents or friends?
- "mc wohn sdno"
- "Yes honey, of course, we love you"

I used this method to learn how to express myself like a normal human being.

Record yourself

Find some interesting text, grab a microphone or use your mobile and start reading aloud using the aforementioned rules.

How can you tell if you produce new sounds effectively?

It won't be difficult - assuming that you did everything right, your mouth will hurt.
It means that you use muscles which haven't been used before.

Of course, If you're learning a language with a different alphabet, you should learn how to read it first.

3. Learn How To Hear The Sounds

Now, you can start practicing your hearing. You've successfully identified the sounds which are new to you. It's time you started noticing them in sentences!

Such knowledge gives you immediate head-start when it comes to listening to and communicating with foreigners.

Remember, however, that grammar rules concerning your target language might alter your understanding of speech. Some sounds blend, others are silent or reduced.

For example, in French "à" followed by "le" combine to form "au."

4. Be Aware Of Mistakes

It's always safe to assume that you pronounce sounds at least partially incorrectly until you receive some kind of feedback. Such assumption can save you hours and hours of tears and frustration.

5. Feedback

You need final confirmation of how awesome your pronunciation is. And who's better to do it than native speakers?

If you have a tutor or friends who can help you - then great. Ask them all the questions you have and to correct you if there's something wrong.

If you are on your own, try www.rhinospike.com
You can ask native speakers there to record some text for you and then you can use it to compare it with how you speak.

You can also use Google Translate or http://www.forvo.com/ to compare pronunciation of single words. But how will you know that you sound good enough?

You will sound in unison with the recording. Simple as that!

FINAL WORDS

As you can see, learning how to pronounce sounds can be turned into a relatively easy to execute the process. However, as always when it comes to mastering such complex task, the better you try to be, the more time-consuming it is.

And don't beat yourself down, if it doesn't work right away. Good things take time.

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to share it with your friends and join our community!

Done reading? Time to learn!

Reading articles online is a great way to expand your knowledge. However, the sad thing is that after barely 1 day, we tend to forget most of the things we have read.

I am on the mission to change it. I have created over 10 flashcards that you can download to truly learn information from this article. It’s enough to download ANKI, and you’re good to go. This way, you will be able to speed up your learning in a more impactful way.

Languages

Do’s and Dont’s of Learning Languages – How to Learn a Language on Your Own (Part 2)

Bartosz Czekala 2 comments

By now you should know clearly why you want to learn a language. Don't you ever forget about the source of your motivation! Let it be your guiding light and fuel for what's about to come. Now it's time to get familiar with do's and dont's of language learning

Do's and Dont's of Language Learning

1. Get Ready

Describing what it means to be ready is always quite tricky. The reason is simple - there won't be many situations in your life when you feel really ready and the conditions are conducive. However, in the perfect sugar-coated world your readiness should involve three elements:

Being ready physically

Comfort is important. Before you start learning, make sure that you're not hungry, tired or sick.Get some snack or a nap if you have to. Otherwise a few minutes deep into the learning you will start having dirty fantasies about rubbing a chocolate on your chest while being wrapped up in sheets.

Being ready mentally

"Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair." - Edmund Burke

Do your best to clear your head before you get down to learning. Stress is probably the worst enemy of effective studying. It dumbs you down drastically. Meditate, take a walk - do what it takes to unwind.
Anything is better than suddenly realizing that instead of being focused on learning you catch yourself plotting against your boss.

And come to terms with the fact that you'll probably never be able to speak a language like a native speaker. Let go of the ideal you nurture. I know it all too well. I combat my anxieties and fears on a daily basis.

Being ready emotionally

Incite emotions and get excited. Think about all the things you'll be able to do with your newly acquired language! Imagine the world of possibilities! Make it vivid, so vivid that you almost feel that it's real. Get yourself pumped.

Watch some motivational videos (like this one - Rise and Shine) or read an inspiring article.Or maybe create a set list which gets you in the mood. Survivor's "Eye of the tiger" seems like a natural choice here!

2. Create a Supportive Environment

Each one of us should have a safe haven. A place which immediately can be associated with learning.
The place which immediately triggers the willingness to learn in you.

But it's hard. It's hard to draw a distinct line between your working and play space and the one for learning.
Still, try to find yourself a nook you can call your own. Go to café or library if you can't find it under your roof.

Once you have it, get rid of all the potential distractions. Turn off the music*, put aside anything that may distract you.
And don't get too comfy. If you sink into an armchair it will smell your weakness and lure you into the oppressive clutches of sleep!

A supportive environment means also one more thing. Tell your beloved ones to give you some space and keep everything relatively down.

3. Focus And Have a Reminder

Now you have a place where you can learn! Congratulations! There shouldn't be many things left which may distract you.

Next thing on the checklist - stop multitasking. Decrease your cognitive load. Regardless of what you've heard - that's another thing which dumbs you down. If you do two things at once, divide your attention and intelligence by two. It basically makes you equivalent of a retarded shrimp. And I can tell you they're not very good at learning languages.

Get yourself a reminder of why you want to learn. It can be a piece of jewelry given to you by your ancestors/wife/husband. A picture of your dream house. Anything which gets you going is just fine.

If you're single, hang a picture of some person who inspires you.

Whenever you find yourself distracted let your reminder work its magic.

4. Be Regular

The chance is that if you've ever stuck to some routine I don't have to convince you why it's so extremely important to be regular.

If not, let me tell you what has been told thousands of time - it's better to learn 10 minutes per day than to do it once per week for 2 hours.
But why? The numbers don't add up. Well, math is a cruel mistress.

There are dozens of rules which govern learning. One which is (probably) the most important for you is:

Spacing effect - you remember things better if they are distributed over a long time span and the bigger the number of repetitions

If learning each day is not a habit for you, you should do all in your power to develop it.
Set some time aside every day for learning - e.g. 25 min at 19:00.

5. Learn In Small Doses

You might have heard this saying before - learning is a marathon, not a sprint. Truer words have never been said. But ...

When it comes to regular learning, try to slice your learning time into pieces if you plan to learn for more than 1 hour.

We're only human. Our attention span is anything between 20 -40 min. After that time your thoughts start wandering into unknown directions. That's perfectly ok. Just be aware of this fact and prepare beforehand.

Take a 10-minute break every 30 minutes. This is, of course, a mere suggestion.
You have to experiment a bit to see what works for you.

Also, don't forget about the Serial Position Effect. We tend to remember the most items from the beginning and from the end of our studying It means that the more breaks you have the better you take advantage of this phenomenon.

6. Create Systems (and why they beat goals)

I believe that goals are a great starting point. But it's only a first station in your journey.
They won't carry you very far. However, as great as they are, they have their limitations.

Let's assume that your initial goal was to learn 10 words per day or 15 min per day. If you fail to stick to this goal, you'll start feeling bad. "I can't even do this one thing right". Every time you fail, the chance that you'll return to your learning schedule decreases. After some time, caught in despair, you stop learning.

What if you manage to actually follow through? You might be so content with yourself that you'll stop there.

And this is a gist of problems with goals. They limit you in one way or another.

So why are systems better?

A good system is characterized by two things. It facilitates wanted behavior and makes it difficult to yield to unwanted one. Who needs strong will when you have systems?!

Example

I know that I have a very strong inclination to browse various websites after a few minutes of working on my computer. That's why I downloaded the app which blocked these websites for better part of the day (here you can find other blocking apps):

Leechblock - for Mozilla
StayFocusd - for Chrome

Thus, I increased my chance to stay focused while learning. What's more, the only objects which I keep on my desk are books and dictionaries. It considerably decreases the risk of getting distracted.

So go ahead. Think about how you can create the system to facilitate your learning.

7. (Learn How To) Love The Grind

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work." - Stephen King

Discover an appreciation for what you have to do. Anybody could learn in perfect conditions. But as I said, it rarely happens. Grit is born out of pain. Every time you force yourself to learn you build your habit. Brick by brick.

And don't compare yourself to others and their progress. Everyone has his own fight to do.
And we all start with different gear and skills.

Just show up. Day by day. That's the secret.

"If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." ― Martin Luther King Jr.

Languages

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