Welcome • User Guide
ToS • Privacy • Canary
Donate • Bugs • License

©2024 Poal.co

1.3K

I learned two languages to an intermediate level. but that was over ten years ago. I am picking them back up again, however this time I want to be a little more careful about retention of those skills. I hate investing time for seemingly no reason especially to have to come back years later just to reinvent the wheel.

how many languages do you know and how do you go about keeping those skills sharp?

I learned two languages to an intermediate level. but that was over ten years ago. I am picking them back up again, however this time I want to be a little more careful about retention of those skills. I hate investing time for seemingly no reason especially to have to come back years later just to reinvent the wheel. how many languages do you know and how do you go about keeping those skills sharp?

(post is archived)

You are currently inside a comment thread.
Click here to see all the comments (10).
[–] • 1 pt

Native English, high level in French and Korean, basics in Mandarin, Japanese, Portuguese.

Reading is the best way to retain unless you live in an area where the language is used. These days, there's always a way to get an ebook in the original language. If you're low on cash, LingQ likely has free reading sources for your language.

"Pen pals" always fall away so I've learned not to rely on that. Otherwise you'll be starting over with new people too often, which is a pain.

I just dig into speaking and reading on day 1. I don't like virtually any learning apps including Duolingo and Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur is good to land in a country walking with usable language and accent, but doesn't get you to an intermediate level you're talking about. Ideally the best way is to talk with someone every day or so, trying to use what you learn over and over and not relying on notes (they quickly become a crutch, though grammar explanations are fine). If you have the sense for it, use a movie that doesn't have "screenplay" dialogue and watch it bit by bit until you learned everything and then you got it for listening practice if you want.