Language Learning

For Japanese Learners...

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:48:36 GMT

Posted by: elyusion

... but maybe you'll glean something if you're new to learning any language at all. I'm sharing this entry I wrote for Three Weeks for Dreamwidth last year, edited a bit. Hope somebody out there enjoys!

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30 Days of Writing Prompts for Language Learners (of All Levels)

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 12:44:04 GMT

Posted by: maevedarcy

I've been meaning to do a post here for a while with these questions. I've used them before with my ESL students, and I believe they're very useful as a guideline to practice writing in your target language, so feel free to use these as journaling prompts if they fit your learning process. They get increasingly difficult as you move down the list, so you can also use them as progressive practice.

You don't need to do these questions exactly in a month (in fact, you probably won't), and you can answer in short or long answers. The important think is that you practice!

( Read more... )

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Resources to learn Brazilian Portuguese!

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 19:57:32 GMT

Posted by: maevedarcy

[English/Spanish below. Open to corrections from Brazilian Portuguese speakers]

Olá pessoal! Como vai? Sou a Maeve y sou do Chile. Falo espanhol e inglês fluidamente, além disso, estoy estudando português há uns 10 anos (intermitentemente. Acho que ainda é muito dificil para mim escrever e falar porque não pratico o que deveria). Além disso sou estudante de tradução e interpretação inglês-espanhol. Ensino inglês como língua estrangeira e gosto muito dos idiomas en geral (já estudei um pouco de outros como italiano, coreano e grego). Falo inglês há muitos anos (acho que uns 20) entâo estou comoda demais falando esse. Acho que é ora de falar e escrever mais em português.

Fiz este post para compartilhar alguns dos recursos educativos que já usei ou que já experimentei e que acho que são bons para praticar com o idioma. Vai encontrar eles baixo o curto.

Acho que é muito importante aprender idiomas e conhecer um pouco da cultura dos paises que falar o idioma, então muitos destes recursos educativos são tambêm uma forma de aprender de cultura e história. Estou aprendendo Português Brasileiro, entâo você vai ver muitos vídeos acerca do Brasil. Se vocês estão aprendendo outro dialecto, por favor, compartilha seus recursos nos comentários.

( English )

( Espa�ol )

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Language Study Schedule Template

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 14:22:11 GMT

Posted by: tuesdayritual

From the Poster: Please note that I did not make this template; Xefjord on reddit did. I am uploading the image to this community as a resource for others who might be stuck and to provide alt text for those who need it below.

_{This Language Study Schedule Template created by Xefjord on R/LearningLanguages.}

Notes: This chart is meant to help you learn a language study schedule depending on how much time you have to study in a day and how quickly you want to reach fluency. You can alter the schedule to suit your needs or you can study using any of the templates unaltered. I would suggest using a Casual, Regular, or Serious Study schedule for weekdays and the extended study schedule that corresponds to them for the weekends.

If you study a language that uses Chinese characters, I would either use half the time allocated for Vocabulary, or you can double the time for vocabulary and set half aside for Chinese characters.

FSI categories link: here.

Minimal Study
30 Minutes

Language Course/Language Grammar Study: 12 minutes
Language Core Vocabulary Study: 8 minutes
Language Content Study*: 5 minutes
*Alternating Reading/Listening Content
Speaking Practice: 5 minutes

FSI Fluency Estimate: Category 1, 6.5 years; Category 2, 8.25 years; Category 3, 10 years; Category 4, 12 years; Category 5, 24 years.

Casual Study
1 Hour

Language Course/Language Grammar Study: 30 minutes
Language Core Vocabulary Study: 16 minutes
Language Content Study*: 7 minutes
*Alternating Reading/Listening Content
Speaking Practice: 7 minutes

FSI Fluency Estimate: Category 1, 3.25 years; Category 2, 4 years; Category 3, 5 years; Category 4, 6 years; Category 5, 12 years.

Light Extended Content Study
1 Hour 30 Minutes

Language Course/Language Grammar Study: 30 minutes
Language Core Vocabulary Study: 15 minutes
Language Reading Practice: 15 minutes
Language Listening/Watching Practice: 15 minutes
Speaking Practice: 15 minutes

FSI Fluency Estimate not provided for this schedule.

Regular Study
2 Hours

Language Course/Language Grammar Study: 1 hour
Language Core Vocabulary Study: 30 minutes
Language Content Study*: 15 minutes
*Alternating Reading/Listening Content
Speaking Practice: 15 minutes

FSI Fluency Estimate: Category 1, 1.5 years; Category 2, 2 years; Category 3, 2.5 years; Category 4, 3 years; Category 5, 6 years.

Moderate Extended Content Study
3 Hours

Language Course/Language Grammar Study: 1 hour
Language Core Vocabulary Study: 30 minutes
Language Reading Practice: 30 minutes
Language Listening/Watching Practice: 30 minutes
Speaking Practice: 30 minutes

FSI Fluency Estimate: Category 1, 1 year; Category 2, 1.25 years; Category 3, 1.5 years; Category 4, 2 years; Category 5, 4 years.

Serious Study
4 Hours

Language Course/Language Grammar Study: 2 hours
Language Core Vocabulary Study: 1 hour
Language Content Study*: 30 minutes
*Alternating Reading/Listening Content
Speaking Practice: 30 minutes

FSI Fluency Estimate: Category 1, 10 months; Category 2, 1 year; Category 3, 1.25 years; Category 4, 1.5 years; Category 5, 3 years.

Hardcore Study
5 Hours

Language Course/Language Grammar Study: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Language Core Vocabulary Study: 1 hour 15 minutes
Language Content Study*: 45 minutes
*Alternating Reading/Listening Content
Speaking Practice: 45 minutes

FSI Fluency Estimate: Category 1, 8 months; Category 2, 10 months; Category 3, 1 year; Category 4, 1.25 years; Category 5, 2.5 years.

Heavy Extended Content Study
6 Hours

Language Course/Language Grammar Study: 2 hours
Language Core Vocabulary Study: 1 hour
Language Reading Practice: 1 hour
Language Listening/Watching Practice: 1 hour
Speaking Practice: 1 hour

FSI Fluency Estimate: Category 1, 6 months; Category 2, 8 months; Category 3, 10 months; Category 4, 1 year; Category 5, 2 years.

From the Poster: I hope this inspires folks! Drop the language you’re currently learning and the possible study schedule you might use below. Does something else work for you? Please share!

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Both a question and a request for feedback on my Tagalog.

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 17:04:16 GMT

Posted by: pauamma

Bakit sinabi "may lakad kami" imbes na "may namin lakad" parang "may kong pero" noong nakita mo sa Wikipedia yata? Ano ang kaibahan niyong-niyon?

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Kay Rizal by Santiago Alv. Mulato, excerpt

Sat, 25 Aug 2018 17:58:23 GMT

Posted by: kay_mulan

Yadlong imo damguhanon sadtong ikaw pa ang bata

kag anay sang ikaw lampong naglabi pa gid kalata,

sa banas sang paghingabut gitubsan mo sa pag-unong;

kag sa bukid sang kaalam nga may dalag pagpaubos

pinabagrong mo ang lambas sang dumot kag pagpanubos

sa paglaglag sang bunuan sang mabudhion nga punong.

And then in your dreaming from whence you were a child
the soul of yours is one where you are the offshoot
of the province origin of the reaching of the dwelling
of the soul and being and from the hill of knowing that it may reach of going down in descent
growing in the sensation and sense of the achieving of the upending and flowing
of the heavying of a branching fruit of a living of the tree growing.

author: santiago alv. mulato, translation:hiligayonintoenglish

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Sat, 25 Aug 2018 17:40:54 GMT

Posted by: kay_mulan

If you're interested in learning Filipino languages, and you can find it, I recommend In Our Own Words edited by Isagani R. Cruz here https://kay-mulan.dreamwidth.org/730972.html .

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"TUGPA" in Bisaya means "to touch down and land."

Fri, 27 Jul 2018 18:23:01 GMT

Posted by: kay_mulan

I used the word in my new fic: https://kay-mulan.dreamwidth.org/687071.html :)

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Tagalog lesson. :)

Wed, 21 Mar 2018 00:11:28 GMT

Posted by: kay_mulan

https://kay-mulan.dreamwidth.org/523060.html

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What sites/apps/etc. do you usually use when you study, language learners?

Tue, 06 Feb 2018 01:01:00 GMT

Posted by: waruvial

I have a list of free, online educational resources here, which includes foreign language sites/apps too.

I don't mind taking suggestions on what to add or seeing what's popular among my DW peeps.

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Cebuano Bisaya

Fri, 02 Feb 2018 00:52:54 GMT

Posted by: kay_mulan

https://kay-mulan.dreamwidth.org/454801.html

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:waves: KAMUSTA KA

Thu, 25 Jan 2018 19:51:24 GMT

Posted by: kay_mulan

https://kay-mulan.dreamwidth.org/437727.html

https://kay-mulan.dreamwidth.org/437820.html

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Suggestions for an Arabic beginner

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:29:36 GMT

Posted by: martyna

...and not just a beginner, but a not so serious beginner. I'm still a lot occupied with Japanese and my dive into Spanish continues, but I wanted to play a little bit with Arabic (MSA), too.
I got myself http://www.livredepoche.com/livre-de-poche-000000000147175-christine-canamas-coffret-methode-90-arabe-pratique-de-base-livre-2-k7.html , but our HiFi seems to have some problems and after a good start stopped to play the cassettes when I rewinded them a bit to relisten to the first lesson. D'oh! (Doing it without the audio? I can't imagine it!)
Basically, if you have any nice beginner material, I'd be happy if you let me know about, especially if it's free on the internets, since this is no "serious" learning.
I'll have a look at the links provided at omniglot.com ( http://www.omniglot.com/writing/arabic.htm ), but do feel a bit lost.

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Suggestion?

Tue, 18 May 2010 16:42:28 GMT

Posted by: willidan

Can anyone suggest a decent, free podcast of lessons from German, French, Spanish or Japanese? I want to learn a new language (or two) and refresh myself in languages I learned in high school/university. And I'm flying across country in a couple of weeks and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get started.

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Twitter for language acquisition?

Sun, 09 May 2010 10:09:31 GMT

Posted by: martyna

I don't have twitter and I never planned to have it... but recently there are many people who seem to say they use twitter for language exposure.
If you use twitter, do you use it for language learning? How do you do it? Would it be worth to get an account just for this reason? Is it possible to follow tweets in your dreamwidth reading list (and without being subscribed to twitter)? Who are you following?

Tell me all about it, also if you're not liking twitter and why.

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دراسة اللغة العربية

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 02:11:16 GMT

Posted by: ajnabieh

As part of Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I just made a post about some easily available Arabic-learning resources, including a couple online. I thought maybe other people might be interested! It's here.

...اهلا و سهلا! تفضل

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Conversation Partners Thread: Video, Audio, and Text

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:17:59 GMT

Posted by: viklikesfic

I was going to do this for individual languages, but since it looks like we have a wide variety here, I'm just going to suggest that everyone who would like to find a conversation partner consider leaving a comment here, and then if you see someone who wants to chat in the same language you do, reply and either leave your info or make arrangements to trade Skype names/Gchat/whatever.

With all the technology floating around, there are plenty of different ways to chat: via the various text chat services, audio with Skype (and I'm sure there are others), or video chat through Google, Skype, etc. Here's a suggested form, and remember to include languages you want to learn as well as those you speak relatively fluently and thus can help others with.

Languages you can chat in:
Chat services you have:
Medium you prefer (text, audio, video):
Do you like corrections when you make errors, or would you rather just chat?
Do you need advanced notice for any of the media listed (i.e., let's plan a video chat in advance so I'm not in my PJs)?

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Master Language Learning Resource List

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:38:31 GMT

Posted by: viklikesfic

This post is the home for all the language learning tools and resources recommended in posts on language_learning. If you want to add something that is not listed here, the best thing to do is mention it in a post or in comments to an active post; that way community members will be alerted as to a new resource they should check out and it will be added here for posterity.

( Resources )

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Foreign Language Literature Finding Tips?

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:16:30 GMT

Posted by: viklikesfic

First, I'm wondering if anyone has tips generally or for a specific language for finding relatively inexpensive reading materials.

Second, more specifically, I'm looking for a particular book. I would love to get my hands on an unabridged French copy of Les Misérables for practice. I read French at an advanced level and though I picked up some random novels last time I was in France, most of them turned out to be translations from English (I didn't realize because the authors weren't famous and didn't have obvious English/American names). I adore Les Mis and would like to have a copy for my collection, but when I checked Amazon all the copies appeared to be abbreviated learners editions. I checked Amazon.fr and everything was "extraits" or some other abridged version (you can tell from the pages, the full novel should be about 1900 pages total en français). Does anyone know where I might be able to get a copy, preferably for less than $30 or so?

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Languagelearning and (fan)fiction

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 14:44:22 GMT

Posted by: martyna

I don't know what about all of you, but personally fiction -and especially fanfiction- has helped me to learn English. It was more complicated for French, since I had a slight aversion for it due to one of my French teachers. But, being European, books in those languages are fairly easy to come by, thus guaranteeing a facility to find reading material.
Now, I'm focusing on Japanese currently and while there's a BookOff (happy me!) I have a hard time finding authors and books to enjoy. I've asked around for recommendations, but there's not much turning up. Also, it might simply be easier to read on the computer (while I prefer books) due to the wonderful look-up tools. Fanfiction having helped me in previous cases, I started to look around for some. The meagre results are not worth mentioning... so, my questions are two:

Have you used fandom for language acquisition and if, how so?
Do you know any Japanese site with fanfiction? (I've basically been mostly involved in the Harry Potter stuff, but there are others as well. Any place I could start from would be good.)

Other related comments are welcome, too!

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General Introductions Post

Sun, 04 Apr 2010 22:20:00 GMT

Posted by: viklikesfic

Welcome to language_learning!

This is a general post where we can introduce ourselves and meet those who speak or are studying the languages we want to learn. As the community grows, I will add language-specific posts geared towards matching people up with conversation partners, but let's start here and find out who on DW is learning a language!

Suggested format (feel free to modify at will):

Name you prefer:
Location:
Home country:
Languages you speak/sign/read/understand:
Languages you have studied or are studying:
Current language learning goals:
Favorite language learning tool or resource:
Would you like others who are learning or speak your target languages to add/contact you?:

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