Link: What’s the point of language learning?

March 31, 2008 in Asides by Josh | 4 comments

Geoff has a great post about the point of language learning. I love his idea if living a language rather than always learning it with grammars and dictionaries. It’s all too easy to forget that the ultimate point is communication.

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April 3, 2008 at 9:19 am

lucas luky

lucas luky’s avatar

hello again,

i’ve been following your posts and i think your advices are very helpful for everybody who’s trying to learn a language, right now i’m trying to learn German and started with Learn Yourself (German) series and I’d like to know if you’ve ever tried it…

if you did not, might you tell me a trustworthy one?

thanks!
– lucas

April 3, 2008 at 10:28 am

Josh

Josh’s avatar

Hi Lucas,

I’m not familiar with that course. Do you mean the Teach Yourself German course? If so, I’ve never used it either, but it seems to have generally favorable reviews at amazon.

As a starter’s course, I’d definitely recommend Assimil’s German with Ease. I didn’t use it when I first started, but after working with the Assimil French program for a while, I looked over the German course and it seemed quite good. If you go that route, though, you’ll want to pick up a decent grammar book as well; Assimil has explanations in it, but the bulk of the material is on vocabulary acquisition and comprehension. Schaum’s Outline of German Grammar is excellent for when you’re getting started, and Hammer’s German Grammar and Usage is basically required once you reach the intermediate-advanced stage. :)

April 4, 2008 at 6:20 am

lucas luky

lucas luky’s avatar

hahahha

sorry! i made a mistake on the books name :P

thanks for the advices!!!

April 5, 2008 at 9:30 am

anka

anka’s avatar

living a language is a great idea indeed, but sadly often difficult to put in motion. Still I love to feel motivated to learn with a visible aim - even a distant one - mostly a book I’d like to read in original. (for german it’s “die Blendung” by Canetti)