Comments on: Learning Spanish vs. Practicing Spanish http://blog.lenguajero.com/learning-spanish-vs-practicing-spanish/ Learning languages, bootstrapping a startup, living in Latin America Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:20:00 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: ChinaMikehttp://blog.lenguajero.com/learning-spanish-vs-practicing-spanish/comment-page-1/#comment-137 ChinaMike Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:42:00 +0000 http://blog.lenguajero.com/?p=64#comment-137 There is no doubt that input is crucial to language learning but consider, output, in the form of speaking allows you to enter a stream of conversation and increase your opportunity for interaction. Interaction is extremely motivating in and of itself. It is far more satisfying for most people than sitting and listening for 1,000 hours before saying anything.P.S.- I am here via Kirsten Winker's blog. There is no doubt that input is crucial to language learning but consider, output, in the form of speaking allows you to enter a stream of conversation and increase your opportunity for interaction. Interaction is extremely motivating in and of itself. It is far more satisfying for most people than sitting and listening for 1,000 hours before saying anything.

P.S.- I am here via Kirsten Winker’s blog.

]]> By: augustflanaganhttp://blog.lenguajero.com/learning-spanish-vs-practicing-spanish/comment-page-1/#comment-17 augustflanagan Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:27:06 +0000 http://blog.lenguajero.com/?p=64#comment-17 Thanks for the insightful comment. I agree that you should be taking in lots of input and not worrying about understanding all of it.What I am referring to by practicing a language is that it is necessary to speak in order to train yourself how to construct sentences, and pronounce words in your new language (something that is usually very difficult for most people). Also, when speaking to someone you are getting lots of input - you are listening to them, which is more active than watching tv (and more fun...well, sometimes).<a href="http://blog.lenguajero.com/how-august-learned-spanish/" rel="nofollow">Here are some other things that I do to learn Spanish.</a> Thanks for the insightful comment. I agree that you should be taking in lots of input and not worrying about understanding all of it.

What I am referring to by practicing a language is that it is necessary to speak in order to train yourself how to construct sentences, and pronounce words in your new language (something that is usually very difficult for most people). Also, when speaking to someone you are getting lots of input – you are listening to them, which is more active than watching tv (and more fun…well, sometimes).

Here are some other things that I do to learn Spanish.

]]> By: Ramseshttp://blog.lenguajero.com/learning-spanish-vs-practicing-spanish/comment-page-1/#comment-16 Ramses Sat, 15 Aug 2009 18:14:03 +0000 http://blog.lenguajero.com/?p=64#comment-16 August, I might be breaking your bubble with this short comment, but hopefully you can do something with it.On this blog I see you talking a lot about speaking in order to get better at Spanish. That sounds logical, but is that the case? Just think a moment about this: can you produce something you didn't learn? How can you say something you never heard? Many people think they learn simply by speaking, but that's not how kids learn (and they learn darn good).Research shows (try to google Stephen Krashen) that the key to fluency is <i>input</i>. The more you hear something, the more it sticks. You don't have to understand anything; if you just watch TV in Spanish and listen (you don't even have to try to get every word, just listen) it'll stick. And I'm not talking about 10 or 20 hours. No, hundreds or even thousands of hours!That's how I learned Spanish. I major Spanish in college and most of my classmates SUCK at Spanish. I have a near-native accent and can say about anything I want to say, and that all within two years. My 'secret' is that I just shut up the first 1000+ hours and only listened. I still continue to listen, but also read crazy amounts of Spanish. Speaking is only a part of my language acquisition, as it transfers the input (that's in the 'slow memory') to the 'fast memory' (the speaking area in your brain).For everything we want to do we first need to learn (take input). A programmers often reads thousands of lines of code before writing programs himself, so why would language learning be different? I mean, I've never seen a kid speaking from day one. No, instead he/she takes months and months of input and only then starts speaking.Like I said: google for Stephen Krashen. The guy is a genius and put his own advice in practice and learned several languages with it. Really, the most successful language learners on the net learned their languages this way (or similair ways, but not by just speaking). August, I might be breaking your bubble with this short comment, but hopefully you can do something with it.

On this blog I see you talking a lot about speaking in order to get better at Spanish. That sounds logical, but is that the case? Just think a moment about this: can you produce something you didn’t learn? How can you say something you never heard? Many people think they learn simply by speaking, but that’s not how kids learn (and they learn darn good).

Research shows (try to google Stephen Krashen) that the key to fluency is input. The more you hear something, the more it sticks. You don’t have to understand anything; if you just watch TV in Spanish and listen (you don’t even have to try to get every word, just listen) it’ll stick. And I’m not talking about 10 or 20 hours. No, hundreds or even thousands of hours!

That’s how I learned Spanish. I major Spanish in college and most of my classmates SUCK at Spanish. I have a near-native accent and can say about anything I want to say, and that all within two years. My ’secret’ is that I just shut up the first 1000+ hours and only listened. I still continue to listen, but also read crazy amounts of Spanish. Speaking is only a part of my language acquisition, as it transfers the input (that’s in the ’slow memory’) to the ‘fast memory’ (the speaking area in your brain).

For everything we want to do we first need to learn (take input). A programmers often reads thousands of lines of code before writing programs himself, so why would language learning be different? I mean, I’ve never seen a kid speaking from day one. No, instead he/she takes months and months of input and only then starts speaking.

Like I said: google for Stephen Krashen. The guy is a genius and put his own advice in practice and learned several languages with it. Really, the most successful language learners on the net learned their languages this way (or similair ways, but not by just speaking).

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