Language Learning Stack Exchange
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1396 questions
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6 answers

Relearning/refreshing language skills

This question is slightly related to an earlier question about studies on language requisition, but is more interested in practical/anecdotal evidence rather than 'scientific study'. During school and subsequently at university I studied German as a…
NotEvans.
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How does one go from "understanding each word" to "understanding the sentence."

I've been learning Italian for the past 2 years, and I've reached a point where in the average sentence (in introductory material) I understand over half of the words. This usually allows me to understand the general gist of the sentence, but…
Marco
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How can English language teaching research be more relevant to teachers?

I have been teaching English as a foreign language for nearly 40 years, the last thirty-one years at universities in Japan. I have researched and published on a range of topics that include "the communicative approach," "content-based learning,"…
Kevin Mark
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Cognates between French & Spanish?

I'm a native English speaker who's been learning French for a long time. I now have good vocabulary base and knowledge of grammar in French. When learning French I found cognitive short-cuts, for example being able to use almost any '-tion' English…
Philip Kirkbride
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What differences are there in the difficulty of learning Ukrainian and Russian to a very basic level?

I'm considering learning either Russian or Ukrainian to a very basic level. Basically, to be able to read out loud written text (at least that written in print), and learn a few phrases. I've already learnt the printed Cyrillic alphabet while…
Golden Cuy
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Good resources for learning Croatian?

I've been looking for years for a good, comprehensive guide to learning Croatian that can take me through all the basic steps and get me started in speaking with my mother in her native tongue. Does anyone know of a good source for this? What I am…
Donĉjo Frazoro
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How to use subtitles most effectvely?

I have an intermediate level in my target language (L2), which means that when I watch films without subtitles I understand relatively little. Turning on L2 subtitles increases my understanding to a level where I can follow the plot, but there is a…
michau
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How did Cardinal Mezzofanti learn foreign languages?

Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti (1774-1849) was an Italian cardinal who also became famous for his language skills. According to his biographer Charles William Russell, he spoke at least 30 languages very well and had a basic knowledge in many others.…
Tsundoku
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How could we know that the pronunciation of an ancient language like Aramaic is correct?

This question is directly related to my former question on Aramaic: How to learn the vocabulary of an ancient language like Aramaic, which is based on scripture only? I'd like to know how and on what basis people could learn or be sure that the…
Medi1Saif
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Learn to read and write for a multilingual pre-school child

My child is 4 year old and is reasonably fluent in 3 languages (based on the same alphabet). He is now interested to learn to read and write. The problem being that alphabet, and reading approaches are language dependent. I would like to teach him…
clem steredenn
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Where to learn the Spain version of Spanish, rather than Latin American?

I am going to be studying in Spain starting next year. The Duolingo spanish course has more of a focus on the Latin American version. I was wondering if anyone knows of a course/website which uses the variant of Spanish that is spoken in Spain,…
Liz
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What is the most efficient way to learn how to write kanji?

Learning kanji is an important part of learning Japanese but what is the most efficient method if I want to be able to write them on the spot? Muscle memory can certainly be useful but writing them down again and again is really time-consuming and…
Sassie
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Pitfalls in individual lessons compared to group lessons

I've previously learnt a language (Japanese) via group lessons, but today I'm going to be learning a language (Mongolian) from an individual tutor. I'm not "choosing" between group and individual, as I can't find any group non-online lessons for…
Golden Cuy
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Open-source English-French Dictionary

I'm looking for an English to French dictionary in a plain text file (.txt for example). I already found some dictionaries but a lot of definitions are wrong or incomplete: know; savons, sache, connais, su, connaissons, savent; story; fabliau,…
latmos
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Seeking sources for learning Aramaic

I am interested in learning Aramaic on my own. I would like to be able to have just a basic working usage of the language. I am more interested in learning its pronunciation than being able to read the language. Would anyone be able to point me in…
Ken Graham
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