Question:
Question:
1. Does saturating your brain with the target language work? Or is
there such a thing as "too much information"? I'm talking changing my
windows configuration to a foreign language, and all of that good
stuff.
2. Is daily writing, in a diary, or online via a blog - anyone used
blogs as language tools? I personally have not ventured into this blog
trend, but may this be something worth looking at? THe reason I
hesitate now is that I do not want to get into the habit of writing
(and by extension internalizing) wrong things. When I write, shall I
write almost freely even if it doesn't make sense or should I have a
dictionary on hand to maintain accuracy?
I would like to apply the principle of consistency and persistency.
The target language is Italian, I've been learning a few months
actually I know the grammar basics now. Physical immersion (i.e. going
to Italy) is not an option at this time.
Answer:
In my experience, it helps to learn to understand and read, but less
for writing and speaking.
No. More is always better.
Trying to express thoughts in a language you want to learn helps to
learn it, yes. The problem is you might stick to errors you don't
yourself notice.
Whether it is blogging or anything else doesn't matter.
Learning inevitably involves making mistakes. The problem is how to
find them: many ignore them out of politeness, the wish not to
discourage, or lack of times or interest.
Several dictionaries, bilingual and monolingual, several course books
and grammar books, and Google or Altavista to see if expressions you
plan to use are indeed used a lot by others, hopefully native
speakers.
Radio and tv are possible over the internet. I listen to Portuguese
radio myself all day, being 2000 km away from the country. The
blessings of ADSL.
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