Methods

Hello, everyone! How are you?

Short update: Very soon, I will finish RTK (Remembering the Kanji). There are only 90 kanji left. :D But what next? Well, there are many possibilities. Every language learner has his own method. And many (famous) polyglots seem to be convinced, that their method is the best. Some prefer to read and listen before they speak. Others are doing the opposite. 

I think, just as long as you are successful in learning your target language, you are doing it right. And you are successfull if you reach your personal goals. 

There is no reason to think "Hey, this polyglot does this and that, so I have to do it too." because every polyglot has a different approach. There is no right way of learning a language. Every method has it's flaws.

I didn't choose a method/strategy yet. I will wait until I finally finished RTK. At the moment I am reading The Third Ear by Chris Lonsdale for inspiration. Very interesting approach. He describes how he learned Chinese mostly by absorbing and trial & error in everyday situations in China. But even if you can't visit the country where the language is spoken you can use immersion techniques (radio, TV, audio courses). 

Some people are sceptical about immersion. They don't believe that simply hearing the target language enables you to learn the language. According to Mr. Lonsdales experiences the answer is: yes and no. You won't learn much trough passively hearing unfamiliar sounds alone. The secret is to actively pay attention to patterns and using them whenever possible.

I really like this book and the approach. It sounds very reasonable. Maybe I will give this method a try.