Ask Lemmy

The key to adquire vocab is to find a method that you're comfortable with, and that you don't mind repeating in a timely manner. Two that I personally like are:

semantic map

As you learn a new word, you write it down, with an explanation (translation, drawing, up to you), and then connect it to words that are conceptually related, that you already learned.

So for example. Let's say that you were learning English instead of Korean. And you just learned the word "chicken". You could do something like this:

You can extend those maps as big as you want, and also include other useful bits of info, like grammar - because you'll need that info later on. Also note what I did there with "(ptak)", leaving a blank for a word that you'd be planning to learn later on; when you do it, you simply write "bird" over it and done, another word in the map.

It's important to review your old semantic maps; either to add new words or to review the old ones.

flashcards

Prepare a bunch of small pieces of paper. Harder paper is typically better. Add the following to each:

• a Korean word
• a translation in a language that you're proficient with (it's fine to mix)
• small usage details, as translations are almost never 100% accurate
• some grammatical tidbit (e.g. is this a verb or a noun? If a verb: stative, descriptive, active, or copulative?)
• a simple example sentence using that word
• [optional] some simple drawing

Then as you have some free time (just after lunch, in the metro, etc.), you review those cards.

Have you tried playing video games in the language you're learning?

There's a bunch of bilingual people in my life and they told me that's how they learned English.

Menus.

I find a menu from a local place and learn everything on the menu, I try to find a place with disposable menus so I can take home, and once I asked the restaurant if I could take their regular menu home to study.

Food is going to be something I experienced daily anyway when I'm in a new country so it's practical and helps me form a foundation.

Once I know the food items, common questions become natural extensions of the food items.

So menus are usually my base, and then I expand with a teaching app or YouTube videos and then I talk to people.

An incredibly effective method that is boring but quick is to choose one movie in the language you're studying, and watch it once per day, really paying attention to all of the speech.

That boosted my Mandarin like crazy in comprehension, but it can be a slog for the four to 6 weeks it takes.

The first thousand, formal learning. The next thousand, informal learning. The remainder, conversation or light reading in the language.

This is true for both of my non-native languages, Spanish and Latin. I never got past the formal learning stage in Japanese and without reinforcement it's mostly slipped away.

I've a smattering of phrases and pleasantries in French, German, Dutch, Lakota, and some Slavic languages, but that's just from exposure to native speakers.

Do a lot of reading and listening to material you find interesting. The learning happens in the background.

I've used the Pimsleur language programs for a couple languages. It's audio based: you hear a recording, and you say it out loud. A great way to get started.

Especially in a language where none of the words seem to resamle anything from my previous languages.

It's challenging, but if you can get a handle on the etymology of the language you're studying, that may help. I'm learning Chinese and the characters got a lot less intimidating once I learned about the radicals. Basically there are smaller characters embedded within all but the most simple characters, and often the character is telling some kind of story that uses all of the radicals to illustrate the meaning of the character.

For example 看 means "look", which seems pretty nonsensical. But then if you know that 手 means "hand" and 目 means "eye", then you can see that the "look" character is made up of the hand character over top of the eye character, like someone shielding their eyes from the sun as they look at something. And the hand and eye characters both look a bit more like the things they represent.

Similarly, if one was learning English, it may behoove them to learn a little bit about Latin and Greek roots, since a lot of our vocabulary comes from those. Maybe even read about some of the most common PIE roots. Once you learn about PIE roots you can start noticing them in all kinds of places in our language.

TTBOMK, there are 3 things which change-the-rules, significantly.

1. Pimsleur. Get the Pimsleur app, get the all-languages subscription, & do 1 session per day.

2. Flashcards, or Anki, to get the visual imprinted into your automatic-mind, for any language you are trying to learn

Later..

3. Tandem, where you find a speech-learning partner, you help other people learn your languages better, other people help you learn your target-language better.

Begin with Pimsleur & with some yt videos.

( they have no Sanskrit, which is the one I want, unfortunately )

Do well!

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My native language is Cantonese. Our education system has English in the syllabus. I did think I was good at it, until I became REALLY good at it after consuming English YouTube videos for an amount of time.

If you use it frequently enough, you will be good at it.

Don't know if the same applies for Korean, as the Internet is a very English-centered place.

Anki and some pre-built decks at my level. I'm sure there is something for Korean out there.

Are there any in-person classes you can sign up for? I found that to be a big help.

Babbel. Was not paid to say this.

I spoke Polish until I went to primary school as well as being a native English speaker.