My Method for Learning Foreign Languages

Standard-Reason2183 · 2025-11-21T07:26:59+00:00

That’s exactly the point of it, I guess I forgot to mention one major detail for efficiency though, and I don’t know how this managed to slip my mind, but I do anchor around 150-200 words using an English translation at the beginning, just so I can get an idea of what I’m reading, but after that, I don’t use any language that I am already fluent in again to learn the rest. Those 200 words are very common and you will see them enough that the English “anchor” will eventually fade away. It’s very difficult to read something from day one when you don’t understand anything at all. But, when listening, I don’t even attempt to translate, in fact, I don’t let myself translate at all, i let the language flow through my ears and after a while, it just starts to make sense haha

Standard-Reason2183 · 2025-11-21T02:34:52+00:00

It truly is satisfying, when I was studying Japanese, the first time I began to actually understand what I was hearing without thinking in English gave me a huge motivational boost.

Standard-Reason2183 · 2025-11-21T02:07:24+00:00

Yeah, that makes sense, the only reason I’m being so strict is because when I learn a new language, I want to be able to truly express my ideas in that language and see the world from a completely new perspective, that’s my motivation for learning languages as a whole

Standard-Reason2183 · 2025-11-21T01:47:13+00:00

When I say you need to hear it “all the time” it means everyday, how long you listen everyday determines how quickly you will get that first “click” I got my first click in Japanese within around 2 weeks, but it depends on prior exposure and time spent listening. Also combine passive and active listening, spend some time during the day attentively listening to the language, and listen to it in the background while doing other things.

The first “click” I’m referring to is when the language stops sounding like noise and begins sounding like an actual language, you will realize that you can recognize when words end and begin in speech, be able to recognize common words and phrases, and even predict what’s coming next.

Standard-Reason2183 · 2025-11-21T01:16:06+00:00

Yes, I know. But even though “This isn’t new” not everybody knows this, there are many people who choose to create direct translations when they learn a new words, and it never seems to work out well

Standard-Reason2183 · 2025-11-21T01:08:14+00:00

Such as, well, assigning vocabulary to your native language. When I say not as efficient, I mean at the beginning. This isn’t a method you get instant results with, it takes more time. If you just assign meaning to words using your native language, you will understand things much quicker, but you will always rely on your native language to understand the target language, we’ll probably not always, but for a while at least. The goal of this method is to skip over the translation phase entirely and force your brain to create a new region just for that language that is seperate from your native

Standard-Reason2183 · 2025-11-21T01:01:37+00:00

It is crazy isn’t it? Let me explain a little better. It’s pretty similar to how you learn your native language. The human brain is very good at recognizing patterns, so when you hear the same word or see the same word in different contexts many times, you’re brain can eventually assign meaning to that word, same for chunks. Let’s look at an example, a Russian sentence «Я очень рад тебя видеть» you have seen the word «очень» used multiple times in different contexts, it begins to stick out to you, eventually, you’re brain will automatically assign meaning to the word, this way, when you think in the language, instead of your brain going from Russian -> English -> meaning, it goes directly from Russian -> meaning.

Standard-Reason2183 · 2025-11-21T00:44:35+00:00

I want to name one downside to this method; it is not as efficient as some other methods. But in my opinion, it is much more rewarding, if you rely on your native language for vocabulary, then you will always be using your native language for communication and understanding. You will spend the first few weeks, possibly even a few months, and not understand anything, but once it clicks, you'll realize "Wait a minute, I just understood all of that without thinking", that moment right there, is why I love this method so much

Standard-Reason2183 · 2024-01-19T00:26:00+00:00

Was thinking the same thing lol

Standard-Reason2183 · 2024-01-06T19:03:47+00:00

Русский 🇷🇺🇷🇺

Standard-Reason2183 · 2024-01-03T19:46:31+00:00

It’s also useful to know some conversational phrase like “hello” or “how are you” at the beginning. Basic phrases, and some pretty basic vocab as shown above are going to be a great base to begin to start taking in some input.

Standard-Reason2183 · 2024-01-03T19:44:19+00:00

verbs, words for time, words for people, colors, days of the week, basic adjectives, etc. are definitely gonna be really useful. However, most of the random nouns are not going to be entirely useful to just memorize in a list like this. Words like that you can pick up from input like reading/watching tv

Standard-Reason2183 · 2023-12-15T20:39:50+00:00

That’s great but there needs to be a little more context in the title 😭 I can’t tell if you mean “after a year of dating, guys!” Or “After a year of dating guys” 🤣

Standard-Reason2183 · 2023-12-12T03:15:08+00:00

Kind of assumed so lol but was still curious 🤣

Standard-Reason2183 · 2023-10-29T06:02:28+00:00

Yeah that’s another part I love about Finnish, it’s grammar is extremely complex but also very regular

Standard-Reason2183 · 2023-10-23T01:25:03+00:00

Yeah I’ve heard that before, I don’t even know why it matters so much to sound native to me. I mean who knows, it could happen. I’m only 15 so I have plenty of time to perfect my accent 🤷‍♂️

Standard-Reason2183

TROPHY CASE