British and American accents.

[Hygro]

I've only ever heard rumours of people learning foreign languages that way.

AFAIK, people overwhelmingly learn the structure of a foreign language formally. And then practice what they've learnt until it becomes automatic.

This method has not worked well for me, perhaps because my understanding of my own language is mostly intuitive so all the various linguistic terms can feel just as foreign as the language I'm trying to learn.

 

[Borachio]

Yep. Learning a language as anything other than a child at its mother's knee is incredibly difficult.

And, except for some rare gifted individuals, it's in practice impossible for an adult learner to pass as a native speaker of a foreign language.

 

[ParkCungHee]

I've only ever heard rumours of people learning foreign languages that way.

AFAIK, people overwhelmingly learn the structure of a foreign language formally. And then practice what they've learnt until it becomes automatic.

Oh, I learned the structure of the language. I learned how to form a sentence, and so forth. But whenever there was a question about whether something was proper German, the instructor always emphasized what would be understood and what would allow us to communicate effectively.

 

[Traitorfish]

Dressing as a Prussian officer and shouting at people until they hand over the municipal treasury, I presume?

 

[Terxpahseyton]

I don't think this lack of education harmed my peers writing powers

As someone who had to learn all the grammar of his mother tongue (I vividly remember it) I can only concur. I am not certain at what exact grade we really got into the deep woods of it. But at this time we already were proficient speakers, writers and readers. Mostly at least.
The grammar just seemed like a superfluous chore which just had to be done because it just seemed like a thing which had to be done.
The more basic and practice-orientated grammar taught earlier was in my memory also not terribly helpful. At least I know nothing whatsoever about it today. Yet I am able to express myself correctly without trouble.

Though I also agree that this may hurt a bit with foreign languages. I don't think you can avoid memorizing and practicing the formal rules if you want to get good at it. Unless you have the opportunity to practice it a lot. But if you already know a language....

 

[ParkCungHee]

Actually, there was a part where we were taught, basically, don't talk about the wars, don't talk about the holocaust, you'll have the poor souls putting on horsehair suits and you'll never get them to stop apologizing.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

But whenever there was a question about whether something was proper German, the instructor always emphasized what would be understood and what would allow us to communicate effectively.

There is also a bit of a schism between proper and practiced German. But don't ask me to recapitulate how this schism exactly looks like. A very successful German book called "The dative is the death of the genitive" comes to mind.

 

[Traitorfish]

Actually, there was a part where we were taught, basically, don't talk about the wars, don't talk about the holocaust, you'll have the poor souls putting on horsehair suits and you'll never get them to stop apologizing.

"Ah, Hitler Hitler Hitler Hitler. Was it Hitler when you did the Hitler thing with Hitler?"

 

[Terxpahseyton]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=13297721&postcount=1797

 

[Arakhor]

Oh, God, that's dire.