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Lang-8 & Assimil Books

Let me show you laying eight would love that ling is the main way I'm learning hungarian is with ling I I used a textbook a little bit and then as soon as I had enough to kind of sort of write anything like I am student I went straight to litigate and I've been teaching myself hungarian with laying a pretty much exclusively for the last five months it's been all ing a I just love it and google images thinking google images I'm laying it when you go to laying eight you will uh it will say you know sign in with facebook blah blah, blah once you sign and you will see this window this window is clutter there's a few things going on here um basically the important things that are the post button or the post in entry now button there the same button I don't know why they have to and the correct button we'll talk about the correct button in a moment and you'll see some journal entries from friends if you have friends there otherwise you'll just see journal entries from random people ah you wi...

ll see your profile which will say will ask you you know what language are you do you speak? What language are you learning languages are you learning uh and it will give you sort of appoints thing because everything should be competitive you should always be able to beat someone else viewpoint the points actually the point system is good I love I'm glad that they added it allows you to what we'll talk about it a second um so these are the post and correct buttons these the points I guess we were going to talk about that now the more points you have the higher your entry is up on a list the sooner someone will correct it and the way you earn points is by correcting other people's work so if someone writes something in english and you correct it you will get points which would mean that someone will correct your french faster and so generally what I do from like a karmic standpoint is that if I write something I correct something one for one and that's usually enough usually means I get a correction within an hour too sometimes there are three or four depends on the languages actually russian is amazing if you put something up in russian you have a correction in like thirty minutes and then you will have five other russians chai ming and being like no that's not the way you do it do it this way it's wonderful it's great! So if you hit the post button this one up here or that one there the same button you will be you will see this this screen will say help me with my what and you tell it what language you're learning helping with my italian in this case and you will start writing an article and you will write it with mistakes. This is an article I wrote back in the twenty second of november back in two thousand eleven writing I think on the way I was on the subway, I think I was about to start teaching some kids I was terrified because they would freak out if I didn't give them enough entertainment and so I started and I was writing to a pen pal actually had in italy thiss family I stayed with these wonderful, wonderful people and so I wrote this letter to them, but I didn't want to send it to them in terrible italian because I wanted to learn from my telling I wanted to get corrections and so I started writing out this thing the text you just ride it out in here uh they have an option to write it out in your native language I would skip that it is optional and I don't think it's a good thing I don't think you should write the southern english you should be thinking in italian and there's there's access settings if you're writing something that's really you know personal, then you should probably set it to friends on lee or something like that then on ly friends khun see it though it only friends can correct it so public is the most public. You can share this on facebook if you feel like it, you can put tags saying that this is a thing about italy, I just skip all that stuff. Just write down your text and submit it. Press the published button once you do, you wait a few hours and while you're waiting, you don't just sit there by your computer waiting you go eat food and do things with your life, but at some point just for karmic standpoint and also to give yourself enough points such that your thing will be corrected, you will see a list of journal entries that are waiting your correction. You hit that correct button up top and you can click the show only uncorrected journals so you don't have to re correct something someone else has looked at and you will find a list of a bunch of things many of these corrections you will have a little red thing says if you correct this one, you will get two times the normal number of points you will get six times the normal number of points we'll get even ten times the normal number of points they have a ten multiplier I usually do those just cause I like having points um and what you'll see when you go there is that they will you'll get each sentence one by one and if you click the correct button, you can write out what your correction would be and you don't have to be a master english teacher you just kind of have to figure out what you think they meant if I were a competent for english writing with uncommon words make my sentence is more interesting however, since I'm beginner and I should write in english in easy english so you're like, well, I think they probably meant if I was more if I were more competent english I could use some uncommon words that might make my sentence is more interesting you think that's probably roughly what they mean you're trying to aim for is just how would you kind of say what they're trying to say and you're guessing and that's fine, we're not we're not looking for quality quality like the best possible way this is not you know I'm writing a novel in english and it needs to be perfect and sell a thousand copies a million copies they just want to know how you say what you're trying to say however, since I'm beginner and I should write in england easy english, I think probably what they meant was, however, since I'm a beginner I should write in simple english are simpler english one of those too you put in these corrections you have these sort of options for making these bold or multi color if you wish and then you hit the preview button, and then you had the submit button and then you've given someone else a correction in your language. It took you usually takes me three minutes to do this three to five minutes. Just do something quick and then within an hour or two you will get this back. This wonderful, wonderful thing I'm trying to write, you know, tuesday the twenty second of november month a d and I wrote november in english by accident and they said no, no, no, you spelled it wrong say, I'm you know, I'm at the audible stop the film out of the lotto boost on now mixing italian and french accents that's great aspect thean, sanya, you know, waiting for the start of teaching and they all said no and this is they all meaning two different italians came in and corrected me within those few hours and they disagreed just great. Get more content. Okay, uh, they're two different ways of saying the same thing they said no, no, no, no, no, you were at the stop of the out of us in weight of starting to teach and the other one's like no, no, no in the process of waiting off to start to teach, well, my great here two options I could do whatever when I want I would suggest one thing is don't use both I've done this before I thought it would be a good idea like a like I think of all different ways of saying the same thing. It turns out to be confusing because there's one story you were trying to tell you you're trying to tell the story about waiting at the bus and being freaked out about teaching these kids so choose one way of saying it you'll learn another way another time it's fine so you choose one, choose whichever one you want and learn that one in terms of how do you learn this? Well, we can do that right now go back see if we can I would add a card I would put in my sentence I think I can read it so no parramatta a lot of those in the audience and this was the first option in weight of starting to teach and before what I wrote was waiting the start of teaching and this was just wrong what is wrong in a number of levels I put d just kind of liken of instead of odd says I chose the wrong proposition here I said waiting the start and they said no no no waiting to start we use the verb don't use the noun I said, okay it's new all right and this is a new form I was I was familiar with the suspect condo in waiting I am waiting and they see this person suggested a completely new form in weight gives me a noun form of waiting it's totally new information so I'm getting all these little bits of things that are all kind of cool I know exactly what I meant to say I'm sitting at the bus and waiting so have a lot of stuff to learn from here um this isa in weight this is a phrase I'm gonna learn all at once I'm going to hopefully do I have some buses and things were going to go to google images sneakily um I'm gonna grab don't do this from firefox uh we'll do the open six tabs because it opens up there anyway and hopefully I'm not gonna get any illegal buses but I got the first one we see without thinking you know stick it there I'm at the bus stop I'm waiting hamza uh tanya do you need seattle hoops you need see adi I believe let's double check that you need a good uh hamza I'm using this formula in days full sentence am I going to make two cards yes I want to have a card that has a blank that just has enough faiza because I want to think what is he not things I mean oh yeah that's the thing I used to wait for the bus great I have this thing that's a fill in the blank has a picture of a bus has all of this stuff right here this is exactly what I want and so I could make that card I can use this for this proposition this odd and I would switch out the bus for some other bus or for teachers or for students or for whatever um again I would use the full sentence here um you know there's a d I used the wrong one last time I said aspect and only needs are they saying that is a d why don't I learn I just keep moving the blank around I keep changing the picture and I keep learning different aspects of the words different aspects of the sentence it focuses might the reason why using one sentence a whole bunch of times is actually useful is that it focuses your attention in different ways at the same information and so you actually pick up different bits of information every time you look at the sentence because the blanks in a different place this isn't just reviewing the same sentence over and over again it's reviewing a sense with a new picture with a new concept with a new idea of like wait wait wait what part of the story am I trying to be able to tell here that I'm missing? What were do I need to tell this part of the story am I waiting how do I connect waiting with starting I'm waiting to start I'm waiting start well what goes there? The thing that goes on italian is deep and if I have to start I'm waiting to start start what? Start teaching okay we'll start teaching what goes in between starting teaching and italian it's and so all of these little pieces every time you focus your attention on a different piece you learn a different piece of that sentence you learned a different way to express yourself that's dicks one thing I just noticed this deck up here is still minimal pairs I should always switch that over everything else um anything else I care about in this sense not really um this is generally how you use like a go back for a second we're prepared you will get all of these corrections ah you're going to take every single correction and stick them into your deck it's your flash card deck and what you'll find is that it's an extraordinarily rapid process which is surprising um google images usually seems like the fastest way to do it you just sort of you get some sentences you stick him in your flashcard dex you're done and when it turns out is that when you written your own stuff you kind of go faster and so even with the writing of my own material turns out it takes the exact same amount time to write it and then take the corrections that put them in my deck and to find someone else's sentences and put them in my desk because the finding process ends up taking about the same amount of time as the writing process. Oddly enough, uh, long as you are just sort of writing off the cuff, we're trying to write something very, very specific. I must translate this book. Yes, that will take you a long time. But if you just kind of saying now today I went to the store of love love la that ends up taking you about the same amount of time is looking for someone else's sentences, and so I don't find that to be a waste of time and all. I find them to be actually equal amounts of time. Uh, and I find them to be really great. Um, let's see how far he said basically should make cards for a mistake. I've already said you should always use pictures. We already talked about that sort of ice cream example of if you don't know which of the specific flashcards styles to use, just put in to fill in the blank with the picture if you're not sure, just do that. Um, and again, if you have two italians correcting you and saying two different ways of doing it, just choose one. Otherwise it turns out to be confusing. It's just a thing from practice. I don't have any research back it up. I have I've done it sex. I can't remember which one is which and so I get them confused. It's much better just have one. I'm the senior books is just something I kind of want to talk about a little bit because they have a lot of the content I want exactly the way I wanted. So I just kind of like them. They're a little bit expensive, but they really have a lot of good content and they often come with cds you can have them in with or without cds. They will have cds sort of reading through all of all of their content. The way they work is that they will give you this. They will on the left side of every page. They will give you a dialogue, one of the corniest dialogues you will ever see. And on the right side they will translate that dialogue word for word. And so you have this wonderful little dialogue open, madam willamette, wholesome michelle. And we'll read the english version basically because it's so quirky you know excuse me but I'm where's the metro station saw michel she's like the metro stations on michel wait wait we're at the boulevard san michel the fountains over there like the founds over there it's a ridiculous response to that and he goes yeah okay but where's the metro she goes but of course there is the senate here is the bridge and the guy's like that's pretty but where is the metro and she's like she goes well it's not on the right so it must be to the left they're actually on the left so must be in the right there we are the metro must be on the right and he goes are you sure and she goes no I'm just a tourist and this is the thing is completely ridiculous stories there's actually was the name of the unesco is a french playwright he's a modern playwright and he took the a senior siri's he took the ridiculousness of this siri's and he made a series of plays about it what least one play like contact please show the bald singer where all of the dialogues air just like this it's this complete absurd play it's wonderful actually we did it in french school I was one of the characters um but all of these dialogues are you read them through and you just laugh because they're ridiculous I mean, they're they're wonderful french the french is beautiful, the sentences all make sense but the responses are all insane I mean it's it's just a bunch of insane people trying to talk to each other so they're fun it's one of the things I really like about them you read through and you're like once that's what jamiel you had that expression I said that thing in english and you're like what that's exactly what you want do you want this sort of experience of looking at this and be like, why does she say that? And then it keeps going this like and then the other characters like why did you say that you're like yeah that's what I meant and then you're interacting with the french you're having a sort of emotional react you get this sort of personal connection with him is exactly what you want but the nice the other nice thing is that this is really beautiful content it's really funny and stuff and you already have the explanations and translations in english you don't need to go to google translate and get their crappy translations you get really good ones right here they give you word for word translations pado madam it says excuse me and in parentheses pardon madame so it's it's sort of telling you okay, this is kind of what the french word means but this is how it's used it's used for excuse me but it does kind of mean pardon me you know where is the metro station but she's and saying station william it'll limit hole he's just saying where is the metro sammy shell but we're implying station here so it gives you a very, very detailed translation which is nice it gives you notes so this is a one you go down the one that says well algoma dominates his french is very formal language and we use madam when we address strangers at almost any age gives you little comments about the grammar about the word choice it's sort of it's it's very commented french just really nice uh I mean, the only thing I don't like about the female siri's is the use of these sort of you know, silly pronunciation things ooh a little metros aw, michelle you know, uh and I believe they might have gotten better with the new versions. Um terms of the pronunciation will see now it looks like they still use the old pronunciations but that's okay, I mean, generally I'm I've been this is an older version this screen shots um but yeah, they still use these old pronunciations that's the only thing I would have an issue with but at this stage of the journey you already pretty much mastered the pronunciation. You can all ignore that the other thing I would do with with this siri's is that they have a series of exercises they have a siri's of, you know, can you translate back and forth between french an english? Can you fill in the blank, skip all that you don't need that just use it for the wonderful stories and the wonderful translations and then choose what you want go through here and say, follow, madam, okay, I'm gonna use this to learn the word cock gone. Well, um, a pool where is the metro? This is a wonderful example for where, you know, a this is another example for is, if I didn't know is already I could use it there. Um and so these are all a whole bunch of really wonderful example sentences that I would use all over the place and all the comments I would read all of those comments, they explain to you what is going on in the grammar just great. Um, the only thing I wouldn't do is what they tell you to do, which is, you know, read this and now translate this way and now translate that way and then fill in the blanks and do all these exercises ignore every instruction in that book and used the sentences because the sentences air kel ori ous these stories are wonderful and then the cds that come with them are actually really nice there few different versions of the cds some of the cities will will read this to you at, uh, painfully slowly uh, where they will be like bob don't madame and you will have to listen to them for thirty minutes to get through the end of the dialogue. Um that's some versions that depends on which language it depends on which edition some of them will read them to you slowly at a reasonable rate and then we'll read them too fast. Uh, and that's actually really nice resource tohave um it's a kind of have to shop around and see what's available, but I really do like this siri's it's it's in the sort of format that's really handy because it's it's already in story form, it already has explanations it's like a wonderful resource and the stories are so silly, but I'm at the metro let's grab questions. Well, we have great questions. We've got a vory engaged audience assaults the studentsfirst anything in this last section that you have questions on the lecter to ask now seems you're very intently for kristina. I have a question, uh, backtracking a bit um uh to how our memory works, is there a certain, uh, amount of time that is ideal? To have that tip of the time effect or teo let's tow let oneself um be frustrated and looking at a card you're saying you're looking a flash card you like things starts with a t but like what is it uh is there a certain amount of time that is ideal for that um or should we allow ourselves to really really sit there and think for a while or does it is there a certain amount of time where you get the desired effect and then you can move on generally I mean the longer you struggle if you eventually get to where you remember it, the more advantage that test is gonna have um but at a certain point you know you're just not going to get it I mean, if I'm like what you know what was the name of the jin that we've gotten? You're like tad, uh I don't have time and you're just gonna be stuck on ten crew town car or something and you're not going to get there at a certain point, you kind of know you're not gonna get there and that's the point where you should flip it over generally ia lot somewhere around five to ten seconds per card and I'm kind of aiming for around like five seconds that seems to be a comfortable amount I'm really floundering for a full ten seconds it just feels stressful so at that point, I'm just like, wow, this is too much stress, I'd rather just see what the answer is. So good question any other questions? Yeah, yeah, uh, so on the word list and on the sounds on the minimal pears, it really got me very, very excited, but at this point, I think this is like, a little bit too much work is there, like, a quicker way or like a a less amore ramping up to this point? Because I think I I would need intermediate steps rather than going for small cars, small cars, huge cards, absolutely it's a good question remember that we are we're sort of we're tryingto ramp up all the way to the full language in, like a day because we're ready a grammar and we covered words like two segments ago, which is kind of a nuts. Usually the way I do this workshop is I have this one that the simple words one on day one, grammar and date two people have a chance to kind of rest from, um, at the point where you're handling sentences, you already have a six hundred word vocabulary. You've handled one word of the time you've picked a picture that resembles that that has contains what that word means in chinese. You've actually in this case down five flashcards per word where you've memorized stroke order you've memorized pronunciation you've gotten all these little bits of each of these things you already have, like a two thousand twenty five hundred flashcard flash card deck been doing this for a few months at this stage age and you've actually gotten a number of really you've got a whole bunch of the symbols in your hands you know what the stroke order is in each of these characters, all this stuff you have a lot of mandarin in your head at this stage and then you open up to the very first page of your grammar book and that first page is going to be simple but first page is going to be here is how you say I am a student usually or here's how you say hello and much of that is just going to be more vocabulary a great, great great portion of that is going to be going to have a dialogue that's going to say hello, and then you'd be ni hao and then the other person we like ni hao and you're just gonna do a fill in the blank here's anyhow here's a person waving here's the dialogue and so it does allow you to ramp up very, very slowly the grammar book actually is what allows you to ramp up slowly because the grammar book is taking care of the baby steps, chapter one is not going to be. You know, the boy is running to the store and grabbing ice cream. And then he really hoped that he had different kinds of ice cream. It's just gonna be. Hello, hello.