So this is the first post in about a year of being silent. What has been happening? Well, life really. Just been so busy with work and other things that I have put a lot of my own learning on hold for a while. But I'm back and feeling excited :)
The new journey:
My fiancee and I are motivating each other to learn languages, so I'll be helping her with Spanish and she'll be pushing me to continue with my Spanish too. I think a good bookmark to have would be 3 months of learning and then have a review of everything that has happened in this time.
I would like to take the B2 common European Framework test at this time. I think my fiancee would like to just be more informed and conversational at that point. However, I am a little more excited about her learning than about mine. Why? Here's why.....
The new and improved formula:
Thanks to modern research into languages, we know that most language depends on frequency. This means that popular language is more useful than little known/ seldom used vocabulary. Basically we must pay attention to what the speakers use in the target language. The good thing about this is that there is a good target here.
According to the research, a person learning English would only have to study 2000 words to have the ability to understand 80% of the conversation or text. Please note that this is the 2000 most common words in the language and the combinations of them.
For Russian, it's a little more, approximately 3000 words, but the principal is the same really.
As a result, we are looking at the most common words in Spanish and making sure we know them and the translations, the combinations too. But that's not all. Accelerated learning guru Tim Ferriss recommends translating 6 key sentences to be able to see how the language functions with different grammatical rules. Using these sentences, the corpus data (frequency lists), a home-brewed memory technique and some personal preference; we will attempt to memorise and practise highly frequent sentences which utilise the most common words in the most common ways. The aim is to accelerate and minimise the learning process.
but what about grammar?
While I think grammar is over-taught in most schools and universities, I also think that an overview of the systems helps incredibly! As a result of this need, we have a few conjugation charts up on the wall and a free website explaining some fundamental grammar (which is read at a speed of 1 page per week).
and that's it pretty much.
Oh! wait!
2 more things
1st - we will also be looking at speaking functions/ a.k.a. functional language. This will help increase communication. Check out the image for a better idea
2nd - we will also be using a muscle training approach to pronunciation and speaking. Basically, we speak aloud when practising our expressions. Speaking aloud helps get the mouth used to sounding the language and as well as helping you feel stupid, which helps reduce this feeling when actually speaking (well, it's a theory waiting to be tested at least). The routine is repeating the phrase aloud 7 times slowly and well-pronounced and then 3 times fast (to simulate normal conversation and test the muscles). Repeat this process 4 times per day. Sounds complex? It's not really.
So that's it!
Will write more soon. Feel free to comment or ask questions.
Ciao
