LoginHow to Use Language101.com
Quick Summary:
1. Register for a free or paid account.
2. Try to say every phrase before you play the words. Obviously you will play the words the first few times, but if you wait to say the words after you play them, this won’t do you much good.
3. Go fast. Try to spend 5 or 10 seconds per screen. Don’t try to get the phrase perfectly the first time, just try to get it better each time.
3. Go faster! If you are having a hard time remembering a phrase, it’s because you aren’t getting back to it soon enough. The important phrase is not the one you are learning now, it’s the one you were learning a few seconds ago.
4. Start with the left button and move your grade one button to the right every time you get a phrase right. Never start with Beginner or Totally Forgot and then go to Right I Know This Well the next time.
5. Say the foreign words out loud before you play them. If you don’t say the words out loud, this won’t work. If you wait to say the words until after you have played them, it also won’t work.
6. Study for at least 30 minutes per day at one time.
Detailed Suggestions:
1. Choose a language you want to learn from top right of this page.
2. Turn off your mobile phone, instant messengers, and other distractions. This is VERY important. In 30 minutes of study with no distractions, you will learn a lot. But 30 minutes of study with two phone calls and one instant message is almost useless.
3. Click “Try It” and watch the video instructions.
4. On top you will see a good translation of the foreign phrase into English. Below that is a literal translation. The literal translation is a word-for-word translation of the foreign language phrase. It will not always make sense in English.
5. Try to say the foreign language phrase out loud before you play it. If the phrase is new to you, just go ahead and play it, but always try to say the phrase out loud before playing it. This is very important.
6. If you need to hear the phrase slowly, press Play Slowly.
7. First say the phrase after the teacher, and then say it at the same time as the teacher. This will help you a lot.
8. After you have said the phrase once or twice, give yourself a grade based on how well you said the phrase out loud before you played or showed the answers.
It’s very important that your grade be based on how well you said this before you played the answers. If you grade yourself based on how well you said this after you played the answers, this learning method will NOT work.
9. The grade you give yourself determines how quickly this phrase will come back for review. Start at the left, and the next time it comes back, move one button to the right. Grading yourself takes you to the next phrase.
10. Try to do a new screen every 5 to 10 seconds or so. It is more likely that you will forget the first phrase if you spend a lot of time studying the second phrase.
Saying the Foreign Language Words Out Loud Before You Play Them Is Very Important.
11. Only play the buttons you need. The buttons you need will change as your skill improves. It’s more important to go quickly than it is to play all the buttons.
12. If you know something very well, it is OK to say it out loud and not play ANY buttons at all. You should always say the answer out loud. If you try to say it silently to yourself, this learning method will not work.
13. As you improve, give yourself grades that improve one level at a time. Never skip from Beginner or Totally Forgot to Right I Know This Well. Always start with the button that says how well you said the phrase out loud before you played it, then press the next button to the right if you get the answer correctly the next time.
14. It’s very important to go as quickly as possible. Never take more than five seconds wondering what the answer is. Just try to say it right away. If you can’t say it right away, then play the answer very quickly, say the answer out loud after the instructor and then at the same time as the instructor. Then give yourself a grade and go on.
15. Repeating a phrase more than twice doesn’t help much and can actually make you forget the previous phrase. If you are seeing a phrase for the third time but you still can’t remember it, you are not studying quickly enough.
16. Don’t worry about getting things perfectly the first time. Don’t stare at the screen wondering what the answer is. Try to say it quickly and go on. If you can’t say it quickly, just play the answer, say it once after the instructor and once at the same time as the instructor, then quickly grade yourself.
17. The first time you play a phrase, it may take a few seconds to download. The next time you play that phrase, it will play very quickly from your local computer. This should work well on slow connections, even dial-up.
18. You should never need to remove any material from your study plan. Your time between study repetitions will increase as you study, which will keep your total study time down.
19. If you use this program very quickly, it will work very well. If you use it slowly, it will not work as well. It’s very easy to spend so much time on item 2 that you forget item 1.
20. When you get tired, quit and come back later when you feel better. Studying twice in a day is fine. Try to study when you feel rested.
You may also want to read: