Ab Initio General tips for starting a language.

[Alex .]

I haven't learnt a second language for GCSE, so I will be doing an Ab Initio course in German; French or Spanish. If anybody has some general tips that I can use when I find out which language I will be learning to help me make more progress.

Thank you.

[Emmi]

Since you'll be doing ab initio it will be assumed you will be starting from scratch, which you say you are. To learn as much as you can in the time you have in IB, you'll need to constantly review your vocabulary and grammar to keep it fresh in your head, and make sure you learn new words/structures/grammar rules appropriate for an ab initio level. Any language ab initio covers the following topics: the individual, education and work, town and services, food and drink, leisure and travel, the environment, health and emergencies. Makes sure you are prepared for these types of topics. And you'll need to practice a lot, no matter which language you study. Talk to people who speak the language (all of those languages have threads on here, or you can find one elsewhere, or perhaps find a person you can chat with). Try listening to music in that language (helps with hearing it and learning the natural flow, accent, and grammar structures) or see if you can read simple books/newspaper articles. You'll build vocab that way. But don't worry, if you practice and put forth a decent amount of effort there's no reason why you can't do well in an ab initio language. Good luck

[Alex .]

Thank you, I will be starting from complete scratch. Since I don't know which language I will be doing I can't start any prep work, but when I do I am definitely going to follow your advice.

[Sandwich]

If you're lucky you'll get Spanish It's the easiest one. Although German at a basic level is also easy, barring cases (...until it gets more advanced!) because the vocab shares so many similarities with English.

Anyway, my tips would be to rote learn your grammar early. All the endings, tenses etc. because at the end of the day, you'll have to rote learn them at some point, so it may as well be at the beginning. Then practice speaking it as much as possible. Speaking gets you into the swing of how things ought to sound and allows you to practice your verb forms without having the pain of doing stupid worksheets or whatever it is they like to use for grammar. Grammar via speech is the best way to learn, IMO

[kijly]

If you are worried both your grammar and spoken, perhaps you should look at spoken. As in grammar, you will learn anyhow.

For grammar, unlike english, all has its own difficulties of naming subjects with feminine or masculine pronoun etc.

As for spoken, french is very much of nasal. Hence, if you are not into that, it is slightly hard to get into the correct pronunciation.

Spanish is pretty easy as you read what is spelled.

I'm not so sure about German as I did not study it.

All the best in your choice! =)

[Jaymi]

When i first started french, i watched the french channel for 2 days just to hear what the language sounds like when spoken. I then went to my french book and i immediately recognized a few words...not many, just a few. I feel that since you're starting a new language, like all the other have stated above, learning your grammer, tenses, endings etc. are a vital part of the language.

If you want a head start, i can give you very easy tips on how to learn endings, but thats if you are going to choose french, thats the only foreign language that i've studied. But i have heard that spanish is quite easy to learn.

Good luck!

[ShootingStars]

Build up on vocabulary. (How? Vocab lists, French TV, French magazines, whatever you can find really)

Once you are in the process of doing that, speak as much as you can. This allows you to begin to think quicker in this new language, which is VERY helpful in writing as well.