Discussion Curing the "English Only Peasant"

[berkberkman]

I think it's safe to say that there's a growing amount of people within and outside this website that have learned and understood only a single language: English. Those egregious "English Only Peasants" (myself included, sadly) are just one of the many annoyances that's often overlooked (maybe because there's worse problems overshadowing it). While learning Japanese (or really any language from East Asia) is great to learn, I have too much trouble with it overall, and I'd like to focus on learning those other languages, particularly the ones that are still similar to the classic English alphabet. I've yet to find much guides on learning them other than just books and videos (I refrain from doing mere Google search because that's just retarded). Is there anybody here who does have experience and has some useful info for understanding/writing/speaking such languages (Spanish, French, German, Latin, etc.)?

 

[YakuInTheFlesh]

Is there anybody here who does have experience and has some useful info for understanding/writing/speaking such languages (Spanish, French, German, Latin, etc.)?

As a non-native english speaker who taught himself english for the most part I can tell you one key word: Context.

Sure there are things like rules, etc. which you should learn, but context will be and has been your biggest friend.
As babys we didn't know any words. It all came from the context given to us from our parents pointing at themselves saying "mama" or them asking us if we want an apple while practically shoving it in our faces.

Especially in school this gets thrown out of the window in favor of trying it with association where people are just told, that two words mean the same thing an nothing else.

Context also becomes even more useful once you reach a certain amount of fluency, since you can start to make good guesses at the meaning of words you never heard from the context of the sentence, situation, surroundings, etc.

There is one part where association is really useful. That is when you have words that are more based on concepts e.g. "you", "be", etc.

Start of by getting some of these concept words down and then start with context based learning.
The rest is practice.
Also try to imitate native speakers to get the pronounciation down. I know people who can barely muster a complete sentence in my native language, but their pronunciation is spot on to the point where it doesn't matter. Meanwhile someone like the Indian guy at a small shop is barely understandable even if his sentences are 100% correct.

 

[Narmy]

You'll still be an EOP even if you learn a subhuman language like Spanish, since EOP is used as an insult specifically towards people who don't know Japanese.