dreamer
Go Bucks!
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2001
- Posts
- 2,138
I took 5 quarters to get through 3 classes of German in college. And that was after 3 years of study(?) in high school. Languages are a bitch to me.
I could never get past the 'thinking in English' problem. Mix that with a strong English vocabulary and a relatively weak memory recall and I was screwed from the beginning.
I have found over the years that my strength lies in my ability to learn processes, and conceptual ideas. But ask me to memorize a set of words to recall when I need them and forget it. I think even my existing vocabulary in English is due to voracious reading as a child, continued through my adulthood. I don't think it's the words I remember so much as the context in which I have seen them.
I was often told I had a nice Southern German accent, and my pronunciation was above average. I also even today feel I 'understand' the language. I just cannot phrase anything on my own.
All the anecdotal evidence I see out there seems to speak to learning languages in ones youth, followed closely by complete immersion.
I could never get past the 'thinking in English' problem. Mix that with a strong English vocabulary and a relatively weak memory recall and I was screwed from the beginning.
I have found over the years that my strength lies in my ability to learn processes, and conceptual ideas. But ask me to memorize a set of words to recall when I need them and forget it. I think even my existing vocabulary in English is due to voracious reading as a child, continued through my adulthood. I don't think it's the words I remember so much as the context in which I have seen them.
I was often told I had a nice Southern German accent, and my pronunciation was above average. I also even today feel I 'understand' the language. I just cannot phrase anything on my own.
All the anecdotal evidence I see out there seems to speak to learning languages in ones youth, followed closely by complete immersion.
