i'm a native portuguese speaker, currently fluent in English and studying mandarin for two years.
I'm going to admit, i still feel like a begginer, mandarin is known for having a complicated learning curve, but taking in consideration my experince with english, it really is about surrounding yourself with the language.
I guess it's the most common advice, but it does work! To past time go on 小红书, look for films and series in Mandarin, and if you are watching on netflix you can use language reactor extension on browser that offers double subtitles. Make a spotify playlist with songs in the language, and once in a while print the lyrics with a few missing words and try to complete them when listening to the song.
Another think that helped was to play games of forming words by combing hanzi flashcards. Doing it with a few friends forces you to think fast and expose youself, especially if you still feel insecure with your skills.
I wish you the best and good luck with your learning process!
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1. Learn the basic building blocks for your language of choice (i.e. pronouns, action verbs, common objects– literally the essential words you’d need to formulate the most basic sentences to communicate simple ideas). That can be done by googling things like “essential verbs in (insert language of choice here)” or “100 essential words to learn in _______.” Pair that up with any beginners grammar language book that you can take out from your local library. At this point, you don’t need to know how to speak the language, just have a general idea of how different elements come together to form coherent sentences.
2. Once you’ve acquainted yourself with those principles, the fun and most critical part comes into play: immersion. Since you’re not at the talking stage just yet, you need to treat yourself like you’re a baby hearing words for the first time and trying to associate meaning to them via their context. The best way I’ve found to do this is by watching kids tv shows in the language you want to learn and also finding YouTubers who are native speakers of that language. Turn on the subtitles and also keep them in the same language. This will allow you to start matching visuals with words and understand how sentences are composed in more organic ways. It will also force you to make language connections the way children do when learning their native tongue. You want to remove the buffer of thinking in your mother tongue and then translating the word in the new language. Instead, you want to start making immediate semiotic connections to the things you’re seeing. Like 🍎 is manzana in Spanish, but you wanna avoid thinking “oh that means apple in English which translates to manzana in Spanish.” It’s an extra loop you have to jump through that makes the language learning process less natural and more arduous imo.
3. In tandem to immersing yourself by listening to the language being used, here’s where you can start applying it bit by bit. This can be by either repeating the sentences you see in the tv shows you’re watching and start challenging yourself to write & say very basic sentences with your knowledge from step 1. In an ideal situation, having a friend or acquaintance who speaks the native language and can start talking with you is also incredibly useful since they can actively correct you while you practice. Though very beneficial, I know that that may not be an option for many people, so practicing on your own with the aid of the media you’re watching in the native language still works very well!
This is a very long response, but I hope that these suggestions can help create a more structured approach to learning your new language. Good luck!! ✨
Feb 19, 2024
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I’m learning German intensively at the moment and something that helped massively was watching a TV show I was v. familiar with in German (I chose BoJack Horseman). The main thing that helped was to have absolutely no subtitles (English or German) because it forced me to really focus on the melody of the language and pick it apart. I’d also really recommend finding a podcast series that you find engaging, because the conversation is just so much more realistic. My teacher explained that the most important thing is to surround yourself with the language in every way (music, YouTube, even changing your phone language) even if you don’t understand everything, because that way your brain will naturally start to internalise the language :-)
Jun 11, 2024
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Love this! I agree re: the above recommendation; you should start with Anki and use it to learn the 1000 most frequent words in whatever language you’re learning.
While you’re learning those words, it’s also helpful to start studying some basic grammar. Doesn’t have to be anything too intense. You could buy a grammar book and do one lesson a day, watch grammar lesson videos on YouTube, or use an online program like Kwiziq (depending on what language you want to learn).
Once you’re done learning the 1000 vocab words, I’d start consuming media! There are so many resources online depending on what your target language is—podcasts, children’s TV shows, newspapers, novels, etc. You can continue to make Anki vocab cards when you come across a word you don’t know, but it really depends on how you best learn.
I meet with my French tutor once a week and it’s helped me immensely with my speaking skills. You can find online tutors on Italki for pretty reasonable prices.
I also changed my phone and laptop language to French — it was frustrating at first but you get used to it pretty quickly and it helps with the learning process.
There’s also so many language learning resources online like r/languagelearning on Reddit. Good luck!
Feb 19, 2024
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One of the things I like the most about Pi.fyi and the current scale of users is that it's still noticeable when a rec was inspired by another.
Sometimes the rec directly mentions the other, but other times you can kinda assume that reading an especific thing here triggered a memory or an ideia.
It's very cute and interesting to notice the small influences interacting with other humans online can have.
Feb 11, 2025
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Hold up, I gotta check my inventory for advill.
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Anna's Archive - love of my life ♥️
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