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Six Months into Learning French and Slovak
It ain’t that hard. Tips and tricks.
Earlier this year, I decided to finally learn French and Slovak. I started both languages as a complete beginner, and I think I’m doing well so far. I can read and listen to more accessible texts in both languages (like news, magazines, documentaries, youtube videos, etc.). Movies and TV series are still incomprehensible to me in both languages, mainly because the colloquial language differs significantly from the proper one (especially in French) and because the spoken dialogue is more often than not divorced from video. Documentaries and youtube videos tend to visually present whatever they speak about while characters in movies or TV series just sit there and speak, so it is harder to guess what they say. However, my writing and speaking abilities remain relatively poor due to a lack of practice.
During this time, I not only studied these languages but also inspected the process of learning itself.
What is the most effective way to learn a language?
I learned this:
stay away from linguists and language teachers as much as possible and approach them only when other methods are exhausted.
