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Learning Another Language With Another Language
English is my native language, but I learned Mandarin fluently. I don’t speak Mandarin from being raised with it, I learned as an adult. I can read and write well enough I was able to go to college in China (granted it was a rough start). The majority of my college experience was using Mandarin to learn other things, but I rarely used it to learn any other languages (due to time).
Learning about linguistics, education theory, and everything for my major stuck with me far better because of the linguistic barrier. I had to make sure I understood the concept as well as the language. I couldn’t get by just seeing the words and figuring I had it down well enough. That extra barrier ended up creating a filter which resulted in a deeper understanding and got my language level to where it is now. The same idea works even better for specifically learning another language, especially if that other language you use to learn ( learning language for brevity’s sake from here on out) is really good, but not great.
The Idea Behind Learning a Language With Another Language
Learning any subject with a specific language is going to strengthen that language in that area as long as there is true understanding. The more you use the language in a specific context, the more within that specific…
