10 languages in 2 years!

Heinrich Schliemann, the German archeologist, is claimed to have learned 6 languages in only 2 years (and a total of 14 during his lifetime).

My method is better than his was.

So I ought to be able to learn more languages in the same time.

It's certainly a thought. 

So I've decided to spend a couple of years on an experiment. I'm going to see how well my ideas work. I'm going to put them, and myself, to the test. Let me see if I can't learn 10 languages in 2 years.

Starting now. Midway through the year, on the last day of June, 2016.

Update: See this blog.

Use short-cuts to understand instantly what you read or hear

What you need is a quick way to understand what you read and hear in your second language. By that, I mean that you need a quick way, even a 'cheat's way', to understand that language. As instantaneous as you can make it.

You DON'T want to have to look up words in a dictionary. That slows you down too much, and you'll never get all the exposure that you need.

So here are some ideas:

• Already be familiar with the content (Alice in Wonderland)
• Have books in both languages side by side (Heinrich Schliemann)
• Read on screen with a pop-up translating application running (perapera, maybe)
• Have illustrative support (manga, anime, subtitles)
• Read the whole book over
• Read another book from the same series (Magic Tree House)
• Read another book by the same author (same style)
• Read the target language while listening to the story in English (experimental)

 

Connect words, connect the dots . . .

Words are not enough. Just knowing the words won’t make you able to use another language. And besides, going about the business of learning a language one word at a time is almost completely useless.

Witness Japanese where I know hundreds of words but cannot connect the dots. I may every separate part of a sentence but have no idea what the whole is about.

You see, there is a hell of a lot that you need to know about words in order to fit them together. And a single dictionary meaning doesn’t give you that. Therefore, from the word go, work with more than one word at a time.

Go for pairs of words, phrases, whole sentences at a gulp. Don’t always, or even usually, break them down into their components. That way you get a lot of extra associated input: grammar patterns, word co-locations, concordance, general usage etc.

Sit sentences from two languages side by side. Do it the way that Heinrich Schliemann did.