Learning languages the natural way

There is great series of books on learning Latin through natural immersion called "LINGVA LATINA PER SE ILLVSTRATA". The course is different from common (grammatical) approach of learning the language the way both books are written fully in Latin. It consists of two main books: "Pars I: Familia Romana" and "Pars II: Roma Aeterna". First book starts with very simple sentences in Latin, which are understandable pretty much for everyone living in US and Europe. Gradually it starts to include new words, the meaning of which you understand by yourself from the context: >Rōma in Italiā est. Italia in Eurōpā est. Graecia in Eurōpā est. Italia et Graecia in Eurōpa sunt. Hispānia quoque in Eurōpā est. Hispānia et Italia et Graecia in Eurōpā sunt. Besides from that there are audio files with narrator reading each chapter in proper Latin, books with exercises and additional material (such as vocabulary and book on grammar). That way learning turns out to be pretty fun and simple. Link to download the course: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:B3ACECAFB1426A896EDA102FC0A892EFCB42575A I wonder if anyone here knows anything like this for other languages. One course I found is called "L'italiano secondo il metodo natura" which works the same way but is less complete (in the sense there are no audio files and companion books). I'm interested in finding a similar course for German, the only book I could find is from 1800s and is restored by Google with really atrocious Fraktur font which is impossible to read. A slightly similar book I found is called "Assimil German with ease" and I'm going to try it out soon.

Those italian and french "versions" of LLPSI are pretty cool! Thanks for that. Sadly for german I haven't met such a book. However this one comes close. I think it's best if you already know some german (mine is really elementary and I can follow along nicely), stuff you can always get from a beginner's grammar. Tok bad I have too much on my plate rn and can't devote some time to learning german, it's such a pretty language.

>>5145 Forgot the file. There are two others by the author, I'm sure you can find them.

Caecilius virum est

>>5146 thanks!

I wonder how hard it would be for someone to make a similar book for Japanese, assuming the reader already knows kana and the basic mechanics of kanji like on/kun readings and radicals (just like how Lingua Latina assumes you already know the Latin alphabet). Or do all the fine details over polite grammar and such make this too difficult? Japanese has been a pain in the dick for me, and after going through Lingua Latina a bit, I realize now how easy it is to learn by just immersing the reader in the language from the start. Hell, Tae Kim says that if you want to speak Japanese fluently, you'll need to think in Japanese, so why not have a book that forces you to do this?

>>5166 Agreed. I'd love one for French too.

>>5177 http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=C9EC8F3F0958870AE64FC4C5BF394706

>>5147 You mean Caecilius vir est. Latin, like German, uses "nominative aposition", which means the object of the verb 'to be' takes the nominative. We use it in English sometimes when one wishes to sound archaic, for example if one were to say "it is I" rather than "it is me".

OP was looking for the german book. It's been a while but I have found it. Achtung! It is digitized by Evil, as you can probably see in the thumbnail.

>>5105 what you're talking about has a scientific name; "comprehensible input"! Rather than looking at translations, it simply shows you the actions and concepts associated with each word, as if you are a baby in a way. I'm not a linguist nor a neuroscientist but afaik it's known to be the most effective way to learn a language today, sadly though it's not easy to find comprehensible input

>>5806 Stripped that ugly first page. The OP seems to have missed the book, probably already moved on and is learning russian, like all the cool kids.

I simply read, in their original, books I wanna read, with etymological dictionary---after priming essential grammar; It's slow, but efficient: I attend the ideas read, with sometimes a new lexeme, or grammeme---no cogitation wasted.

I just got an ad recently that seems to be this! At least kinda. Thankfully they have Japanese -- I looked all over for an English -> Japanese book only to find it by accident a month or so later. https://prismatext.com >Right now, you’re reading in English. >Soon, you’ll be reading in English and a bit of another language. >Early on, Prismatext™ will begin replacing words and phrases with their translations in your target language. Not too many, of course, but enough for you to notice. >The words you’ll be learning were selected both for their presence within the book and their usefulness in the world outside. If you get stuck, feel free to give the words a tap to bring up a footnote; you’ll get an answer to your question right away. >The more you read, the more new words you’ll discover. Prismatext introduces new words incrementally, allowing you to grow your vocabulary gradually. As you go, you may find yourself using your footnotes less and less. You’ll be introduced to—and learn—hundreds of new words and phrases. By the end of the book, you may not even need the footnotes. And if you do, that’s fine. Every great journey needs footnotes. Here's a samples page they provide: https://prismatext.com/pages/get-a-demo Anybody else find anything? I'd really like a natural learning experience like that Latin book, specifically.

>>6037

>>6037 >>6038 And here's two I just bought, both ENGLISH -> JAPANESE. >The Call of Cthulhu and Other Short Stories by H. P. Lovecraft - English-Japanese >Moby Dick by Herman Melville - English-Japanese

I love LLPSI! If you do it, remember to do the exercises and some of the stuff from the adjacent books like Latine Disco If any yall want some Latin resources i have some at https://www.six10/articles/latin.html , immersion is another key factor in learning Latin (or any language) Trying to find a LLPSI equivalent to Mandarin right now, if I find one I'll post it here. >>6037 This can't replace grammar though, can it? Grammar is probably the most important part of a language

>>6040 >Grammar is probably the most important part of a language Is it? So much can be communicated through placing words next to each other.

>>6040 I never did immersion with Latin. I tried but nobody in my class was all too into it, and whenever we tried it felt artificial as hell. About grammar: as you get later on in the books, whole phrases are in Japanese: "さようなら, さようなら, 古いマストヘッド!", "そのような邪悪で惨めな世界" In some ways I like this better than books like Lingua Latina, but in many ways, the majority of ways, I like it less. My brain was trained in highschool to conjugate verbs, learn the different types of cases, Is Ibus e mess? Um Ibus es Ibus!, etc, so I'd like something I can puzzle together like a lingua latina, where you can notice patterns naturally. Nonetheless I still said I like it better in some ways, and I hold true to that thought. I still hope to find more media for natural learning, but there is something nice about finally reading classic like Moby Dick while learning something else.

>>6041 Yes. If a language isn't highly inflected, word order is super important. For example, "The boy throws the ball to the teacher" and "The teacher throws the ball to the boy" mean different things. However, if a language is highly inflected such as Latin, where each word includes it's grammatical concept, word order doesn't matter. But learning the different forms of words is still important.

>>6042 Sorry, meant to cap that off by saying I'd prefer something 100% Japanese. Still like Prismatext though. Here's an article about it: >Do Prismatext books account for the grammar of the target language? >They sure do! Right now, gendered nouns, singular and plural states, and descriptors (adjectives, quantities, determiners, etc.) are our main areas of focus. >As we improve our process and introduce more languages, you’ll start seeing direct/indirect object relationships, verb conjugations, cases, particles, and more. >The best part? When you buy a book, you are also subscribing to updates and improvements to it for life. That means your book will only keep getting better. & >Prismatext will soon be offering difficulty variants for each book. Beginner books will have fewer words introduced more gradually, while intermediate books will have a steeper learning curve and translations of longer phrases.

>>6040 中国在亚洲，俄罗斯也在亚洲。美国不在亚洲，而在美洲。美国、墨西哥都在美洲。 北京在中国，湖南也在中国，北京是中国城市，香港也是中国城市。香港人不想是中国人民。 Perhaps we should make it!

>>6040 >Grammar is probably the most important part of a language to be understood, yes, but grammar is something you will acquire much more easily by reading/hearing/writing/talking than just reading the rules over and over and try to memorize them conciously.

>>6046 This is probably the reason why linguistic immersion learning includes both.

>>6023 Damn, that gothic font kills it. It makes it even hard to understand. But thanks.

Anyone have an english translation of LLPSI? Thanks?

>>6040 link is https://www.six10.pw/articles/latin.html

>>6045 Haha, seriously though, I've heard Yale's Linguistics Series "Green Book" on Mandarin is really good.

I'm trying to decide between self-studying a language and taking a language class to replace a class I'm dropping (not related to difficulty etc. (it would be my easiest class) just not a good fit). My primary concern would be the potential impact of learning a foreign language on my GPA, due to my lack of experience. I have effectively zero language learning experience, and I'm monolingual. Is it realistic or beneficial to take a foreign language in an American university with no experience and with an otherwise relatively heavy course load (3x 400-level math classes, and a 300-level politics class), or would it be more realistic or beneficial to simply self study? sorry for the slightly off-topic comment, but it seems to almost fit here, and not necessarily worthy of its own thread.

>>6054 if you end up taking a class, don't just think you'll learn a language by sitting in a class for a few hours per week. If you don't immerse yourself in the language at home too, you'll never get past "learning grammar by heart"

>>6055 >If you don't immerse yourself in the language at home too, you'll never get past "learning grammar by heart". I'm interested in the target language for the purpose of consuming cultural products, although I generally avoid things which aren't text, and I'm fairly asocial. I'm not sure how I would resolve those contradictions currently. In any case I've made a mental note of your suggestion.

>>6056 if you use twitter or any other social network, be sure to follow accounts in your target language. That's already a fair part of input

>>6057 >if you use twitter or any other social network, be sure to follow accounts in your target language. I don't use social media other than this imageboard, and a textboard, but I'm aware of an imageboard in my target language I could use to interact with native speakers. IRC channels are another option I suppose. This wouldn't help with pronunciation, but I could always practice phonemes explicitly or listen to music while I do other things. Regarding my initial question in: >>6054 I think it was perhaps unfair to ask, I'll just need to decide for myself.

>>5105 Thanks for the suggestion. I've ordered both books recently, so I'll be able to return in a year or so to note how they helped me or not. I took Latin in university, but failed to become fluent; memorizing those tables is difficult when there are other things to do. >I wonder if anyone here knows anything like this for other languages. I suppose Toki Pona: The Language of Good could qualify, but that's such a small language that it's debatable.

>>6054 For those curious I've decided to not take the language class offered by my university, at least not this semester. This was based more on personal time constraints than anything else, but comments here and from my family also pushed me in this direction. I'll try to make a self-study regiment; although, the mentioned timed constraints in combination with other items I'm interested in studying may make this difficult. Thank you for your help.

I was suggested the following page as an study methodology for Latin by a former teacher, although I'm unlikely to study this language it may be of use to others and ties into Lingua Latina. It's basically a reasoned approach to the study of Latin grammar: https://www.wcdrutgers.net/Latin.htm

Here's a contender for chinese. It's not /exactly/ as the other ones, but still close enough. It is specialized to traditional chinese medicine, however. Shouldn't be a deterrent imo.

>>6083 as someone said above, dont do the dowling method. all it does is make you NOT want to learn latin

>>6083 That document doesn't seem unreasonable on its face. Still, I'm planning to start reading the first book today, so I'll just go ahead without reviewing my tables like this beforehand. >>6118 Who wrote that above and where?

>>6119 >>6051

Has anyone done any of Michel Thomas' audio courses? One of his "rules" is to not remember anything, so he says "do not remember just pay attention", however when you're trying to build sentences with him and the two others, how do you recall stuff if you aren't trying to remember? Some words come naturally to me after hearing them a few times, which I think is his goal. But the other two people seem to catch on a bit quicker than me. Sometimes the other people are like "i'm trying to remember", and he would say "do not remember, that is one of my rules". I just am trying to understand his goal here. I've been loving the course, and I feel like it's an amazing start as a beginner, that's engaging. I feel the progress. I'm just confused on his teaching here.

>>6117 do you have the rest of the volumes or more of anything chinese related?

>>6136 The second volume is too large to upload here, here's a link: http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=B24F33D683BF5904A2EAED0A0A8A0058 The third volume is nowhere to be found. I posted a few classical chinese pdfs in >>5114 and >5448, there's more if you're interested. As for Mandarin there is little material that I consider good enough, but maybe it's just my current level. This one is nice.

1 hour lesson teaching sitelen toki pona https://davidar.github.io/tp/kama-sona

>>6141 sitelen sux use https://rnd.neocities.org/tokipona/

>>6138 TYSM you are a legend

>>6162 I'm happy to help. I just found these, you might like them too. About the classical chinese book on the other thread, I posted chapter 1 thinking it'd be easy to find the rest for anyone interested. It isn't, here is the complete book. https://literarych.wordpress.com/

>>5146 Thanks, I would considermyself low intermediate maybe; I went through the first story quite easily, but it seems like a good resource/practice—I plan on going through all of this. If there was stuff on maybe a somewhat more difficult level than this, that might be good. I still have difficulty reading a lot of primary sources, but I am looking for good resources to improve my German skill.

>>6026 >etymological dictionary What are some good etymological dictionaries? Do you have them in, for example, a German to English ety. dictionary, and if so, do you have one for each lang?>>5166 For Nihongo you'd probably have to have it begin with romaji and the kana and then do kana only (maybe) and then furigana. Or you could start with furigana and have it intended for people who know the kana already. >>5147 Quis est Caecilius (ne?)? >>6038 >>6039 Quite interesting >>6049 Why? Doesn't that defeat the purpose? >>6122 I've done part of the German one. You're supposed to start recalling things naturally (directly "thinking in target language") instead of deliberate rote memorization

For finnish there are soumen mestari, but i do not think i can recommend since i just read some pages.

How to learn japanese through immersion for someone who already knows kana and some kanji? I have tried to read a text and look up every word but it is so boring.

any portuguese speaker learned spanish through immersion? what resources do you use?

>>6071 LINGVA LATĪNA PVLCHRA EST LAETOR QVOD LINGVAM LATĪNAM SCIŌ This book has certainly changed the course of my life. I'd taken Latin courses before, but this has been entirely unlike them. I'm halfway through the first book, and I've been thinking about Latin constantly. I've learned so much about English, despite no longer trying, and I've gained deeper insight into general language. This book has made memorizing those tables fun, and easy. I seek to become fluent in Latin, and I think I'll be able to reach that goal, thanks to this book. This thread has perhaps had more impact on me than any other Lainchan has ever hosted, and I've been here since the beginning.

Has anyone found a decent German version of LLPSI? The one posted earlier in the thread is nigh unreadable. Thanks.

>>5177 just listen to Michel Thomas' tapes

any good books around learning russian? also what do you guys think about comprehensible input? I also would enjoy any books or media (I know this isn't a media board, please no bully) around understanding english like a native or have a process of thinking in this language like the one of a native speaker, I've been using it since childhood but it's still not my native language, I can think in English if I want to but I feel like there is something I'm missing by not being a native speaker.

>>6651 >What are some good etymological dictionaries? Wiktionary.org has etymologies for many languages. Etymonline.com is also pretty good, but it is only for English.

>>6654 >I have tried to read a text and look up every word but it is so boring. You need a more interesting text :) After hitting a wall with common classes, I changed to a slower paced version of AJATT: http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/about/overview-page/ For the phrases I also use updated to cloze deletion: http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/what-is-it-about-these-mcds-part-1/ I basically only use materials that are interesting to me and made for Japanese natives. I extract some phrases from it and create SRS cards, but this is not really as important as spending time with the material itself. Before that, I took the time and learned how to draw the 2200 main Kanji and the main meaning of each through the RTK book and SRS. It took me a bit over a year, and it was very worth it.

is there any immersive way to learn norwegian?