Studing for languages (1 Viewer)

[yosemite sam]

How do you study for your language? What is the best way to try and learn everything you need to know but it seems to be impossible to do because there's so much? I do italian beginners and have nfi what i'm doing. Waaay to much vocab to learn. What language to you do and what do you find is the most effective way to study?

 

[watatank]

ahh yeah vocab was the worst part, led to my downfall in japanese continuers

uhm use the language as much as possible. talk to your friends in italian heaps. listen to heapsa tapes, tv programs in italian (sbs?). learn vocab lists and incorporate them into your letters/essays/speaking tasks as you learn them.

 

[ellen.louise]

Yes learn the vocab, but also learn the grammar: sentence structure, word endings, etc etc.

Practice all of the four areas: speaking, writing, reading and listening.
If you just sit there and force yourself to write everything you know, it might help to target your weaknesses too.

 

[zangetsu.xo]

i find that writing heaps of compositions helps me learn how to incorporate the vocab and sentence structures ive learnt into a coherent response.
if you're doing a continuers course, learn how to use the dictionary efficiently.
if you're beginners, learn your vocab!
i also realised that [even if it's only for an hour or two] immersing yourself in the language - listening, speaking and reading - helps you pick more things up.
i do japanese continuers and extension by the way.
good luck!!

 

[Chinmoku03]

Eh, I did Jap in prelim and I found that my vocab really improved when I made friends with a Jap guy in our school. The occasionally Jap in our convo really made my accent sound more Jap. Singing to Jap songs also helped me a bit. This is all speaking wise BTW.

Writing and reading, well, Jap is sorta similar to Mando, so I never really studied for those parts aside from learning the hiragana and katakana. I guess those will improve with more practise. Cos I know my Mando reading and writing have been failing from severe lack of interaction with them x.x;

 

[anniea89]

I do French continuers and I just practise the sections that are in the exam. I also try and listen to French pop music, I try to watch the french news and films.

 

[twisted_baybeeh]

I do chinese continuers. (suicide for an anglo..) . The best way to study is put in the hard yards and memorise characters ( though in your case its just vocab) and practice WRITING! writing paragraphs on your topics. READING so you can read through exam texts quickly and understand everything. LISTENING and SPEAKING! but writing is often a big chunk of marks along with reading.

So learn :
* VOCAB
* SENTENCES
* GRAMMAR

and repeat as often as possible

 

[yosemite sam]

heyy, OMG im doing french continuers next year, we are choosing our subjects tommorrow, and im actually quite scared, has anyone else done it, what should i be prepared for. and i am pretty bad at french, would you say its like super hard or what ?




thnxx

xoxo

are you doing it in school or by distance? my friend is doing continuers by distance and she's had a lot of trouble with it. it would be a lot easier if you have daily contact with your teacher but she said one of the hardest parts is because you dont regularly go back over the more basic grammar work it can slip. so just make sure that you regularly revise your year 9/10 work. and also be aware that continuers is a LOT harder than the year 9/10 beginners course. i'm not trying to scare you, just think about it...year 9/10 beginners is aimed at that level, year 11/12 beginners is aimed at being a reasonably rigorous senior course and year 11/12 continuers is meant to be even harder than that. its like 2 steps up instead of just one. regular study and revision and practice and you'll be fine.

 

[yosemite sam]

i'm not entirely sure what actual assessments you'd do but they are all based up reading/writing/listening/speaking. so you might have 4 assessments worth 15% each on each of those and then your trial worth 40%. i think french continuers (from what my friend has said) is based more on making longer compositions yourself and obviously on learning harder vocab and grammar structures, which would be reflected in your listening texts, and your speaking/writing requirements.

 

[zangetsu.xo]

woahhh there's already an o9er in the hsc forums.

 

[Sad Statue]

woahhh there's already an o9er in the hsc forums.

I know...


I don't study for my language.

Possibly because I don't do a language.

 

[zangetsu.xo]

technically you do.

english.

 

[Borbor]

woahhh there's already an o9er in the hsc forums.

and here's another one

Gargh! I'm in year 10 and do French AND German as electives but now selection time is coming and although it seemed crazy at first the more I think about it the less crazy it seems.

Should I continue both my language studies and do German Continuers AND French Continuers?

[German would be through Open and French would be through school]

Or would that be complete suicide?

 

[lilmissloz]

I do French beginners and I find practicing with my friend helps.
We sometimes watch French tapes of like TV shows and they help too.

 

[Mr Gumby]

You should read as much as possible. I do Classical Greek and Latin. By reading lots of texts you build up a bigger vocabulary, and it will be easier to translate passages you haven't seen before. Even reading in translation helps, because you get an idea of the sorts of things people write about, and the way they write. In Latin extension we're studying Roman philosophy, and the more I read by the Roman philosophers, the more comfortable I get with the philosophical ideas.

If you're doing modern languages, the same goes. I don't actually do any anymore, but when I was doing French it helped to use the language as often as possible, for talking to people, etc.

 

[amyg238]

I do Spanish Continuers, I find just practising past papers every now and then and handing in to the teachers helps. I've only done two so far, but I can see I'm improving already.

 

[zangetsu.xo]

and here's another one

Gargh! I'm in year 10 and do French AND German as electives but now selection time is coming and although it seemed crazy at first the more I think about it the less crazy it seems.

Should I continue both my language studies and do German Continuers AND French Continuers?

[German would be through Open and French would be through school]

Or would that be complete suicide?

if you're good at and enjoy both, why not?
do it if you feel comfortable with working through correspondence.
i regret not doing another language through open high.