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1396 questions
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How do you master adpositions, besides memorisation?
Summary of Question: Many popular books only suggest memorisation (useless for many) and do not explain adpositions and their uses. Beyond memorisation, how else can a language learner master the acquisition of adpositions? Though adpositions are…
user90
11
votes
2 answers
Is there a term for the language in which a language is taught?
If someone is a native speaker of Khmer, is living in New Zealand and is learning Russian from a tutor speaking English, I'd know how to refer to Khmer (the "native language"), and how to refer to Russian (the target language). But what term would I…
Golden Cuy
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Can learning Spanish and French simultaneously improve your knowledge in both languages?
I'm currently learning Spanish in school while learning French in school. I've noticed that the vocabulary and grammar of both languages is structurally similar. I've had teachers tell me that I should focus on one language at a time while others…
fi12
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4 answers
How to avoid an English accent in Hebrew
I speak fairly fluent Hebrew as a second language, and I have a UK English accent. I want to know what pronunciation issues generally would be an issue for English speakers and would sound strange/be obvious to a native speaker aside from the…
Corsara
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2 answers
When to remove a word from Anki
Anyone familiar with Anki, or Spaced repetition in general, should know that the algorithm assumes that you will never remove a word from the system. You'll always review learned words, but after a while, reviews will be years apart.
At this point,…
Flimzy
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11
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How to learn the vocabulary of an ancient language like Aramaic, which is based on scripture only?
I've lately attended a series of lectures on the history of Christianity held by a Coptic scholar. He gave a few examples of Aramaic or Syriac sentences (translated from the Bible) which might be found in a similar form in the (Arabic) Quran.
That…
Medi1Saif
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Is there a term for the prestige language that's learned more-or-less natively?
I've seen here a lot of use of L1 and L2 to distinguish between the mother tongue, and the language learned later in life. This makes me wonder if there is any good terminology to refer to the languages in the following type of situation, in the…
Dan Getz
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What's the most efficient way of improving English listening skills?
I am a native Chinese speaker, and I have lived in Toronto for 8 years since the time I was 18 years old. But my English listening skills are pretty poor. I cannot understand the movies in the theater without subtitles. So I really want to improve…
Ray Zheng
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How to start hearing the difference between similar sounds
The question I have is something that every student of a second language should have. That is about not being able to hear the difference between similar sounds, because of the first language. For example, as I know for Spanish speakers it's hard to…
amigo345
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What are the implications of reading texts beyond my level?
Most texts, articles, books, novels, etc. that interest me in L2 are well above my level, requiring an intimate relationship with a dictionary in order to read. I can painstakingly plod through, but I wonder if it would be more effective in terms of…
Hatchet
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2 answers
Which SRS algorithm yields greatest evidence-based remembering
Spaced Repetition Systems (SRS) such as Anki, SuperMemo, Mnemosyne, Memrise, etc, use their own specific algorithms for increasing your ability to remember new words and sentences. Is there evidence that certain remembering-algorithms work better…
AML
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1 answer
Updated versions of FSI courses
The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) courses (found here, here or here) are free, thorough, and an amazing resource for language learners. But they are quite old - many of the courses are well over 50 years old, since they were mostly created in the…
AML
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4 answers
When is the right time to talk to native speakers?
I'm about to ask a question that's been on my mind since the day I started learning Russian. It has nothing to do with Russian in particular though.
When is the right time to start to talk to native speakers / people that speak the target language…
Philip
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Resources for Advanced Vedic Sanskrit
I have learnt Sanskrit in school from class 5th to class 10th. Now I am in my second year of college and I want to learn Vedic Sanskrit to study some Hindu texts and not their translated version.
Can you please tell me to some resources to learn…
Anmol Gautam
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6 answers
Where can I find swear words?
I have produced a series of word puzzle books for English that I want to translate into other languages. The puzzle books have challenges based on dictionaries that I have sourced from various places, and now I want to get rid of the swear words, so…
Elenesski
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