languageofadreamer

[languageofadreamer]

thoughts on modern language learning

I think I'm a bit of an oddball when it comes to modern language learning, because I still very much thrive on vocabulary lists. The "modern approach" to teaching languages is to teach from dialogue, but I end up far more confused than anything else. It feels like I'm learning random bits of vocabulary I can only connect in these specific connotations.

I would much rather be handed lists based on theme, learn them, and then go learn the rest from dialogue. It stops me from getting overwhelmed with a bunch of new and random vocab.

I think the modern approach works better when you have a teacher/are in a classroom setting, because they can supplement random words and phrases, explain, etc. But, when I'm self-taught, I find its overwhelming and difficult.

I've actually switched to focusing on fluent forever's first 625 and finding grammar from other resources for now.

[languageofadreamer]

I'm working with the elementary vietnamese textbook and its generally pretty good, but honestly i think they both under explain the alphabet and vowels/consonants and over explain the pronunciations.

while i would personally prefer a section talking about the alphabet, esp since this is meant to build basic skills, that's just a personal taste. but why do they over explain the pronunciations of consonants and vowels? i dont really need a linguistic breakdown of sounds—hell, i barely know that for english.

vietnamese with annie does a far better explanation of pronunciation, and honestly i think half of that is because she's not trying to write out a description. but she really is a good teacher

[languageofadreamer]

Chinese/Việt Langblr Introduction

他们好！I'm Birdie or 梦晓 !

I've been studying Mandarin on and off for about 7 years. I started learning in middle school and had the opportunity to visit China during an exchange program in my teen years, and I've been in love with it ever since. I want to be able to be proficient enough to study Chinese media and books.

I picked up Vietnamese after meeting my lovely partner, who is an immigrant from Vietnam. Her language and culture is deeply tied to her, and I want to be able to share that with her. Not to mention their family only speaks Vietnamese, and I want to be able to make a connection and relationship with them without constantly relying on my partner to translate lol.

I'll be uploading mostly my notes and any culture topics that interest me. I'm also a children's librarian, so I may post about that as well!

I tag things by language and then grammar/vocab/culture! My personal posts will be tagged with #birdie+chirps

[languageofadreamer]

Reading in Chinese (websites)

Personally, I read a lot in Chinese - books, Graded Readers, articles on websites, posts on 微博 and so on. On my Instagram, people are always asking me for some resources online. And! I have a good news… 

There are plenty of websites where you can practice your reading in Chinese. Below, I will make a short list with websites I use (used) and recommend: 

📚 Mandarin Bean (news in Chinese, HSK 1-6)

📚 Chinese Reading Practice  (stories, essays, legends, 成语 stories - beginner to advanced level) 

📚 The Chairman’s Bao (news in Chinese; HSK 1-6)

📚 HSK Reading (more articles!)

📚 My Chinese Reading (stories, scientific, business/politics, history ect.) 

Hope you find something suitable for yourself! Enjoy 📖🌸

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~My Instagram~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[languageofadreamer]

Overview:

Language Info

Pronunciation Dictonary

Writing System

Grammar & Courses

Clozemaster

DLI - Vietnamese Basic Course

DLI - Vietnamese General Material

DLI - Vietnamese Phonology

Duolingo Course

FSI - Vietnamese Basic Course 1

FSI - Vietnamese Basic Course 2

FSI - Vietnamese Familiarization Course

HelloWorld Lessons

Learning Vietnamese

Learn Tieng Viet

Learn through songs

Learn Viet Lessons

Listening practice

Memrise Courses

Polymath Lessons

Seasite Course Lessons

Slang and idioms

Survival Phrases Vietnamese

Vietnamese Pod101

Wikiversity Lessons

Wikibooks Vietnamese

Your Vietnamese Lessons

Youtube Learn Vietnamese With Annie

Dictionaries:

informatik.uni-leipzig.de/~duc/Dict

vdict.com

vietnamesedictionary.net 

Books:

Assimil Vietnamese

Colloquial Vietnamese

Introduction

Pimsleur Vietnamese

Teach Yourself Vietnamese

Vietnamese Grammar

Media

voatiengviet

nguoi-viet

SBS Radio

Mango Languages App

[languageofadreamer]

Vietnamese not your thing? Check out my posts for: Korean resources Chinese resources Japanese resources VIETNAMESE RESOURCES MASTERPOST This will be updated regularly on my website and not on this post.  YouTube channels and websites Southern Vietnamese For Foreigners YouTube channel SVFF Facebook page Learn Vietnamese YouTube channel (Southern accent; not active anymore) Learn Vietnamese with Annie Vietnamesepod101 DinoLingo Vietnamese for Kids Vietglish Fun (comedy) Happy Hanoi Learn Vietnamese online course Vietnamese courses on Memrise Learningvietnamese.com bilingual articles Grammar lessons Morevietnamese.com blog Vietnamese pop culture and music (intermediate ~ advanced learners) THVL Phim FAP Tivi Yeah1TV Yeah1Music Vpopfan.com BBC News in Vietnamese Miscellaneous Search for a word’s pronunciation Basic phrases with audio WikiTravel phrasebook A PDF on Final Particles in Vietnamese Vietnamese particles on Wikitionary Should you learn Southern or Northern Vietnamese? Article Vietnamese/English Dictionary project 120 common words with audio Learn Basic Vietnamese phrasebook PDF Vietnamese bible Exercises (upper beginner) Vietnamesepod vocab lists Watch Vietnamese TV Special feature: Vietnamese resources in Korean (한국어로 된 베트남어 공부교재) Article explaining particles Vietnamese Naver Cafe Flash lessons Video lessons More video lessons Learn Korean and Vietnamese YT Channel Khoa Tieng Viet (KR/VN comedy and language videos) HanQuocBros (Korean guys making VN videos)

[languageofadreamer]

Websites to learn languages by reading

Hyplern

Language Crush

Readlang

Vocab Tracker

[languageofadreamer]

27.05.23

some nice things and studying-things from this month 🌷⚛️

[languageofadreamer]

09.04.23 | Easter 🕊️

Happy Easter if you celebrate! I’m currently an Erasmus student, so this year I’m spending it differently. It’s my first time away from family during the holidays so I’m feeling a bit lonely today. Nonetheless, I’m loving my time here, visiting new places and roaming around, and I’m glad I got the opportunity to enjoy this once in a lifetime experience!

[languageofadreamer]

OMG!!! I got an A+ as the final result of this semester!!! What? How did that happen? I am so grateful! ❤️ I filmed my reaction haha, you can see it on Instagram (Story). I still can‘t believe it…

[languageofadreamer]

Sylvia Plath, from The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

[languageofadreamer]

hanging with my boys in the senate on wednesday the 15th, cant wait to see what theyve got planned, i hope its a suprise party

[languageofadreamer]

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

pic: endofthelifee

[languageofadreamer]

january 30th, 2023 || slow mornings >>>

[languageofadreamer]

i’ve turned into a purple gel pen girl of late

[languageofadreamer]

24/11/22

Moved to a new city for my master's degree 📚🍂 being so far from home feels weird

[languageofadreamer]

i was curious if you could recommend any books/resources for learning Norwegian? (or just your favorite language resources in general) thank you!

Hi there!

In terms of books like textbooks:

The Mystery of Nils (A1/A2) and Mysteriet om Nils (B1/B2) are pretty great imo.

Norwegian Tutor from Teach Yourself has been an absolute life-saver for grammar

Also from Teach Yourself is Norwegian Short Stories, which has vocab lists for each story

Enjoy Norwegian is good for higher intermediate (although I’ve never really clicked with it)

Another one I never clicked with but is used in a lot of language schools is På Vei (A1/A2 level)

Some other resources:

Lesnorsk norskkurs - texts from A1-B2 level

I do actually think the Duolingo course is okay tbh (the audio’s sometimes a bit strange, but as far as free resources go it’s really good imo!)

Memrise is also a popular resource: here’s a link to the first of their Norwegian courses (never clicked with it myself, but a lot of people like it)

Lingohut is also pretty good!

CALST is awesome for helping you learn to speak specific dialects

I’ve not tried using it, but Bnorsk seems to be a website where you can learn Norwegian for free

I also take classes on italki (if you’re interested in giving it a go then lmk so I can give you a referral code and get you a few dollars off your first lesson. I’ve also taken lessons from a number of tutors and can maybe help you find the best one for you)

Here’s a bunch of Norwegian instagram accounts you can follow

This is a website with set expressions and idioms in Norwegian

Bildetema is good for vocabulary - you see pictures with the Norwegian words next to them, and you can click on them to see how they’re pronounced. There are lots of different topics too!

ung.forskning.no is quite good if you’re like B1 level and interested in science because the articles are quite short and basically made for younger readers so the language isn’t so difficult (a number of them also have corresponding podcast episodes, so you can read the article to learn a bit about the topic and then listen to the podcast)

Drops and uTalk (both apps) also have Norwegian available to learn (I’m not a huge fan of them, but you might be!)

I also use the Anki app on my phone to create flashcards (there’s a free knock-off version and a legit version that costs like £20+. I use the free one and it’s fine).

Podcasts:

Norskpodden is a good podcast for learners as they also have a transcript

Lær Norsk Nå! is also aimed at learners

Norsklærer Karense has her own podcast too (A2+)

I quite like Smartere på 10 minutter as well because it’s interesting and it’s short and the presenter speaks in clear Oslo dialect. If you’re still not used to listening in Norwegian, you can slow it down to half speed. (B1+)

Oppdatert is also not too long, the presenters speak quite clearly and it’s about current affairs (B1+)

E-books

While I absolutely do not endorse the author’s awful transphobic views, I know a lot of people are interested in reading the Harry Potter books as a way to expand their vocabulary, and it sure would be a shame if you could find all the PDFs free online and not have to give money to that aforementioned author. (Side note: the translator uses “omforladels” as a translation for “sorry” which like no actual Norwegian person apart from maybe in some dialects uses ever. Also remember it’s a translation, and the translator has tried to maintain a sense of “Britishness”, so some of the language isn’t entirely natural)

You can also search ebooks by language (including Norwegian) and download them for free from here (definitely 100% not illegal in any way shape or form *shifty glance*)

If you prefer to buy Norwegian ebooks actually legally, you can do so here.

Youtube channels:

Special shoutout to Norwegian Done Easy because Markus is my italki tutor and he’s awesome (plus I’m featured! So you can see my silly little face Norwegianing as hard as it can!)

Norsklærer Karense (I’m uhh not actually a fan BUT she has lots of useful videos for like A1-B2 level. There’s also a lot of useful information about culture and moving to Norway and integration and test-taking)

Preben’s Norwegian Academy (he’s from Nord-Norge, so you get some dialect exposure too)

Norskkurset (it’s not updated for a little while but there are some good videos there!)

Norwegian Teacher Karin (another one that’s not updated for a while but still has some good videos)

Norwegian With Tor (for a little Tromsø dialect)

Hope that’s enough to get you started/keep you going! Let me know if you have any questions :)