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Kopachris
January 27th, 2009, 03:48 AM
So, where do you learn the most about your native language? I think I learned the most about English from taking German at school.

NOTE: I'm referring to the technical aspect of your language (spelling, grammar, pronunciation). Merely speaking and writing the language correctly because it sounds/looks right does not count.

butlins
January 27th, 2009, 04:23 AM
Before infant-school from parents/siblings/friends

UniverseA7X
January 27th, 2009, 05:19 AM
I'd say I learned the most about it in my British Literature class this year, reading some Old and Middle English tales, and then my German Class, since they are closely related once you start going back in time.

Small example. If you think about it, how the hell do you make fun? It makes sense though. "It would make for great fun." Same in German. "Wir machen Spaß."

stopie
January 27th, 2009, 05:47 AM
I'd say that individuals learn the most about their language through their primary education and socialization (mom and dad and society). I knew how to complete complex phrases in first grade...even though I had no idea what the f*k they meant!

adamlau
January 27th, 2009, 05:51 AM
English: Classic texts, dictionaries, encyclopedias, magazines, newspapers. Chinese: Study guides, immersion courses in China, dictionaries.

Kopachris
January 27th, 2009, 06:03 AM
I'd say I learned the most about it in my British Literature class this year, reading some Old and Middle English tales, and then my German Class, since they are closely related once you start going back in time.

Small example. If you think about it, how the hell do you make fun? It makes sense though. "It would make for great fun." Same in German. "Wir machen Spaß."
Yeah. It also helps that when learning German grammar, my German teacher was able to compare the stuff to the same equivalents in English. There's a lot of stuff we use in English that we don't notice because we speak it so natively. Taking German especially helped me to recognize past perfect tense in English ("Ich habe Obst gegessen" in German, "I have eaten fruit" in English).
Making your own fully-featured language also helps. :)

mcduck
January 27th, 2009, 09:11 AM
Hard question. Spelling and pronouncing at least are not any problems for us, that comes pretty much naturally. :)

But even when you said that speaking correctly because it sounds right doesn't count, I'd still like to say that you learn most of Finnish grammar by listening to others speak. If I had to speak my language based on what I've learned at school I couldn't do it, the grammar rules are too complex and don't really tell everything.

I mean in school we will learn about things like fifteen noun cases (and their names), but we already know how to use them and what they mean, and what suffixes to use with each word (which is something that would be really hard to do simply by trying to follow grammar rules).

For all Germanic languages things get easier and more clear when you learn more from different languages. English, German, Swedish, Danish an others are quite close to each other when it comes to grammar. Learn grammar for one language, and you'll just need to replace the words to move to another language.. (I survived quite fine for 2 years in Denmark knowing only English and some Swedish. That was enough to read written Danish and understand, if not every word, at least meaning of every sentence. (No, I never learned to pronounce Danish. That's impossible :D)

Lostincyberspace
January 27th, 2009, 05:31 PM
I think I learned the most about English from my drama classes. My teacher had a doctorate in English, and a fascination with Shakespeare, he thought we all did too.