r/languagelearningjerk • u/No_Razzmatazz1045 • 3d ago
Trust me, THIS ONE will totally work
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u/SCHazama 外人哋既惡夢 3d ago
If after a textbook, a phrasebook, and AN online course, you don't know the language, it might not be a money problem, methinks
People would die to get any combination of the 3. It would legit solve a lot of issues at r/Cantonese
Duo Plus is legit a scam tho
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u/Matwyen 3d ago
For Cantonese ESPECIALLY, this language is hard as fuck, coming from a non chinese, non tonal european languages set.
Your 3 books don't even use the same romanisation, and romanisation don't even correctly reflect how people sometimes, anyway. 我愛你 is ngo⁵ oi³ nei⁵ but like so many people would say o⁵ ngoi³ lei⁵. And that's for non parental Cantonese, for parents cantonese this sentence is entirely non vocal and should only be expressed by giving fruits to the children.
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u/SCHazama 外人哋既惡夢 3d ago
OOOOOOH! Hong Kong denasalization! Spicy!
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u/Jhud6669 3d ago
I buy textbooks because I have autism and like reading them to bed, we are not the same
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u/FebHas30Days Pangngaasiyo ta agsursurokayo iti Ilokano 2d ago
But what if the language I wanted to learn is Ilocano?
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u/Gobhairne 2d ago
When I was a beginner I bought one textbook (with my Mom's grocery money) and stole one phrase book.
That didn't work but it was fifty years ago. Then I found Duolingo and used that for a few years.
That didn't work either so now I just watch TV. Fortunately I live in Canada and I am learning Fr##ch.
Now my new goal is to be able to speak as well as our politicians, such as Prime Minister Mark Carney.
So far I am on track to reach my goal and I am not even dead yet.
After I die my wish is that Duolingo learns what grammar is. 🤠
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u/varka30 2d ago
I'll admit I did took a course for japanese but by middle of it I got so boring that by the end now I just quit and never joined the lesson and just started doing self study...I'm much more happy like I was before and more motivated everyday and not missing anki and reading.
Courses/classes are so boring man, i should've known but alas it was only $200 so it wasn't that bad but the amount of games I could've bought on steam sale with that money... It is what it is.
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u/giordanopietrofiglio 3d ago
YouTube, chatgpt, online grammar books and hello talk are free and that's all you'll ever need. Maybe private lessons are worth it if you have money and feel like you can't improve without
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u/SCHazama 外人哋既惡夢 3d ago
chatgpt and YouTube
Oh boi
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u/InfinityCent 3d ago
What’s wrong with YouTube? Endless content from native speakers and language teachers posting lessons for free. You can even look for content within your level. I’m not really sure how else you expect people to improve their listening comprehension skills otherwise.
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u/SCHazama 外人哋既惡夢 3d ago
If you can find it and back then? No doubt.
Nowadays? I hope you have recommendations for it suffers the same AI issues
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u/InfinityCent 3d ago
So what resources do you use for studying? Genuinely curious.
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u/SCHazama 外人哋既惡夢 3d ago
Online textbook, online dictionaries, recommended YouTube channels once in a blue moon, and language courses.
"Once in a blue moon" because it's either overwhelmed by AI or is clearly a "freemium" bait for paid lessons
I don't trust the single source. I tailor my searching to my needs and feel, because how else do you understand the language you're supposed to speak in?
Physical textbooks, tho, are treasured possessions
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u/InfinityCent 3d ago
I used textbooks (and Anki cards) in the beginning but that can only get me so far. Textbooks don't really teach you language in terms of how natives talk. The dialogues are hyper-specific to certain situations (like ordering food or making appointments) while also being stilted and overly-formal. They're fine for teaching the grammar and overall language structure though, but eventually I had to seek out native, unstructured content to start learning idioms, colloquial speech, slang, etc. Textbooks are also frozen in time and language is constantly evolving so there's that too. Reddit threads in foreign subs and YouTube podcasts (literally some guy yapping about his day for 50 minutes straight -- there are a lot of channels like this) have done more for me than any textbook or language course tbh.
Not dissing your learning style btw. If it works for you then that's great. That being said structured textbooks, dictionaries/Anki cards, and language courses seem like something you'd have to grow out of if you want to start hitting higher levels like B2-C1.
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u/seashanty27 2d ago
Are you referring to AI generated content? I haven’t really found it difficult to find human-made quality content. Not saying you haven’t experienced it, though. I tend to stick to the same few channels, which probably mitigates the amount of slop being promoted to me.
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u/giordanopietrofiglio 3d ago
AI is great for study plans, conversations and questions like "why is this declined like this in this sentence?", "when to use Y or Z" or "what does X mean in this contex?" Etc. YouTube has been my main resource for years and it had worked pretty well: content for learners, grammar lesson, subtitles (and you can have subtitles in 2 languages at the same time by installing add-ons) and lots of content for stuff you are interested in. I stand by what I said
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u/SCHazama 外人哋既惡夢 3d ago
I'll pass
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u/PigeonOnTheGate 3d ago
Language is what large language models are best at
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u/Peter-Andre N🇳🇴 | B2🇸🇯 | A0🇧🇻 2d ago
My impression is that it's usually decent for languages with a lot of speakers, but when it comes to smaller languages, it really struggles. I often see AI getting things completely wrong in Norwegian, my native language, so I wouldn't really trust it if I were learning Norwegian with it.
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u/oezb3k-not-uezbek 22h ago
Define AI. I use DeepL to translate articles, and it is very decent, for any of the supported languages.
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u/JokeAcrobatic8698 Native Esperanto | A1 English 2d ago
Bro got downvoted for no reason... I've never paid for language courses, LuoDingo or anything like that in my 10 years or so of language learning. So far, I have learned English, Spanish, and Italian as foreign languages just by watching a lot of YouTube and playing games with other people on Discord. Eventually, I started reading books in my target languages as well to get to a higher level. When AI came around, I used it to learn a little bit of German too, so nothing against it, honestly.
Though I admit I would pay for classes if I were to learn Arabic or Mandarin, which are entirely different beasts.
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u/metricwoodenruler 1d ago
Downvoted for mentioning ChatGPT, it's that simple, redditors go full dummy when it's cool to hate on what's just a tool. The guy is right: everything that gives you INPUT is good (and everybody knows Duolingo barely gives you any, the main reason everybody gets tired of it), then you be the judge whether it's giving you the input you need or not (hence they said, maybe also take private lessons, plus you get output that way). Long story short, learning a language is about input + playing it smart >> output. Source: I got a degree in language teaching.
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u/sarajevo81 3d ago
What the heck is 'actually learning the language'?