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1396 questions
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Is it possible to become fluent in pre-12th century English?
I would really like to learn to speak Old English, but it seems that spelling and pronunciation weren't exactly standardized in the early medieval times. In fact, I'm not sure we know much about Old English in general. Is it possible to become…
Micah Windsor
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4
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Should I use original version subtitles or subtitles in my language?
I watch every TV series and movies in English but sometimes I can't understand some really specific words that are rarely used by the English native speakers themselves.
Should I use subtitles in my native language so that I can at least learn the…
jeerbl
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Improving vocabulary reading foreign language literature on ebook readers, how to export selected vocabulary into a spaced repetition app?
For improving my vocabulary I read favourite novels and short stories, preferredly in the original (target) language. When my level isn't quite up to it, I read a translation (be that English or German), and then the original. With plot memory…
raddaqii
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4
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For what academic levels are Hemingway's novels considered suitable reading?
Note: The following is a "repost" of a question that originally appeared on Literature SE from one JohanL but was closed and deleted there. The two LL SE moderators agreed that it was more suitable for this site, but it was too old to be migrated…
Tom Au
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4
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2 answers
Why Is Pronunciation Not Mastered First?
Almost all of the language teachers I've seen place perfect, native-level pronunciation pretty low on the priority list, yet this is the most straightforward thing to learn and will save someone a lot of trouble if they just do it right from the…
KRM
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The "fully grammatical" approach towards learning Indo-European languages
I have stumbled upon this video on Youtube (sorry - it is in Russian).
Here's a short summary:
The spokesperson introduces the following scheme of learning an Indo-European language:
"Learn by heart" a book which describes the language's grammar…
Zhiltsoff Igor
- 173
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4
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Learning Hindi as a speaker without first learning the writing system
My girlfriend is Indian and Hindi-speaking and I would like to learn some Hindi so to be able to talk with her using basic sentences and improve through speaking.
I have been trying using Duolingo (which I admit I don't think it's a good learning…
PhDing
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Is there a Modern Hebrew chatbot that I can practice with?
An article from 2017 mentions that creating a text chatbot in Hebrew is more difficult than for Indo-European languages due to the morphological complexity of Hebrew verbs. The article then proposes a possible solution involving analyzing verbs down…
Robert Columbia
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Is it more difficult for a native Chinese speaker to learn English, or vice versa?
I am a native Chinese speaker, and it was an excruciating journey for me to learn English. My personal belief is that the reason lies in the linguistics, namely the Chinese language may be somewhat isolated in the language family, and there are few…
zytsang
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How can I repurpose the time spent reading random stuff on the Internet to improve my Chinese?
This is my situation most days:
I'm too tired to study Chinese...
...but it's too early to go to bed...
...I know, I'll read random stuff on the Internet.
I feel like I could should be utilizing this time for some kind of light Chinese practice,…
Rebecca J. Stones
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Translating paragraphs then comparing with an existing translation: is this technique used to improve writing skills?
Basically, this is what I have in mind:
Step 1: Buy a book in your target language (the language you want to learn).
Step 2: Buy the same book in your source language (likely your native language).
Step 3: Translate paragraphs of the…
Rebecca J. Stones
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4
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1 answer
How do you learn to read Vietnamese using Chữ Nôm?
I am able to read Chinese characters, and have been exposed to Chữ Nôm, which is derived by amalgamating Chinese characters according to their meaning and pronunciation, so as to represent a Native Vietnamese word.
The meaning of some Chữ Nôm has…
Axel Tong
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Resources for teaching children Chinese
My nine-year-old son is bilingual English/French (British father, French mother) and absolutely devours books for his age in both languages (ie his reading age in both languages seems roughly equal), and is keen to learn a third language.
He has…
Rich
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Is there evidence that tongue twisters help with listening and pronunciation?
The motivation for this question is a Chinese.SE answer:
Have you tried practicing with tongue twisters (绕口令)? ... They can help with both listening and pronunciation. Repetition is really the only way to go if you want to master…
Rebecca J. Stones
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A different way of teaching, via cognates & etymology?
Is there an existing method—published in a book or an article—for teaching languages with cognates and/or etymology?
I'm primarily interested in the Indo-European language family, but any of such teaching method interests me.
Sometimes, we hear…
Quidam
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