My friend is looking for a resource to become fluent in French, he is forced to work with it. Asked to find a certain book, but it is not yet pirated on the resources of the wiki. My guess is that pirates have better alternatives for such a thing, so I’m launching a discussion.
I only ever heard about the book “Minna no Nihongo” in the context of learning Japanese.
Not really about piracy, but doing language exchanges is a great way to learn a language. You teach someone your language, they teach you theirs. It’s free and it gives you more knowledge than any book. Natural languages don’t work with strict rules usually, natives speak by feel, the only way to learn that feel is by interacting with people.
There are some limitations though: often native speakers don’t have a deep understanding of the grammar rules they use, because they use them intuitively. So sometimes learning this way makes it a bit foggy. I often use this technique when I’m already familiar with the target language, At a basic level.
And a lot of native speakers just straight up use incorrect grammar. eg loads of native English speakers say things like “could of”, use “then” instead of “than”, use punctuation incorrectly, do incorrect sentence structure, etc.
I don’t mean to be prescriptive about language. Of course it evolves based on usage. But in any formal environment, such as an academic environment, there are still certain defined and canonised English grammar rules that you would be penalised for breaking, and most learners want to learn those rules even if most casual speakers don’t follow them.
That’s exactly why you want to do this. When people speak casually or are making jokes, nobody speaks with grammar in mind. Gathering this intuition for the language is exactly what I’m looking for when learning.
I’m okay breaking the rules if that’s how the language is usually spoken, but It’s still interested in learning the rule
How do I get started with language exchange?
Any popular forums or an apps you recommend?
I used to use HelloTalk but it’s a bit annoying now due to trying to lock more things behind paywalls. Italki is another common one. Just find any language learning/exchange discord, like TheMoeWay and others.
Sounds good. Thank you.
You just look for people who are interested to learn your language, any place where people communicate can work. Maybe hit some groups for learning the language you know and try to find people who speak the language you want there.
I personally play VRChat, there are a number of language learning groups there. Though, the culture of the place is certainly not for everyone.
Thank you.
I saw a few days ago this really cool guide to language exchanges on YouTube.
Thank you.