Appendix 1 - Exercises
Exercise: Adjectives
Get to know basic adjectives to describe people. Why?
- You will notice that these adjectives are everywhere.
- It is easy to memorize pair of words, such as antonyms.
- Your descriptions become richer with more adjectives.
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Exercise: Building-Blocs
Say how you are, what you are doing, how you feel, etc. Why?
- You can learn present, past, and future, all at once.
- It is possible to communicate without knowing grammar rules.
- You will notice this sentence structure everywhere.
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Exercise: Family
Talk about your family and people will know better who you are. Why?
- Talking about your family makes people know better who you are.
- Learn relevant vocabulary: family members, professions, etc.
- Ready-made sentences will get you started to describe people.
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Exercise: Greetings
Learn several formal/informal expressions to greet and introduce yourself. Why?
- There are many variations of greetings. Get to know most of them!
- Begin to personalize your new language: focus on what pleases your ears.
- Learn day-to-day expressions and you will not sound formal to a speaker.
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Exercise: House
Why?
- Learn relevant vocabulary: rooms, places, positions, etc.
- This is your first step to learn how to ask for directions.
- Get comfortable with using ‘there is/are’ constructions.
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Exercise: How often?
Learn how to add a frequency component to your actions. Why?
- Fours little words that you will be using all the time.
- Mention what you always, never, sometimes, or usually do.
- Habits make your routine, which is part of who you are.
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Exercise: Numbers
Count from 1 to 100, almost without thinking. Why?
- Many sentences in ‘Yourself’ require knowing numbers.
- Count as fast and as automatically as you do in your native language.
- Numbers are always the same. It is just about memorizing the words.
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Exercise: Shortcuts
Learn suffixes and increase your vocabulary with cognates. Why?
- Study/Studying = Estudar/Estudando: ‘ando’ is the Portuguese ‘ing’.
- Learn how to conjugate verbs without ever seeing a table of conjugations.
- Long words are usually very similar (cognates) in most languages.
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Exercise: Where?
Know how to add a place into your actions and descriptions. Why?
- Begin with just a few, very useful and common expressions.
- It is easier to memorize opposed pairs, such as here/there.
- Learn expressions. Preposition rules are endless and complicated.
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Exercise: With whom?
Know how to add other people into your actions and descriptions. Why?
- Begin with just a few ready-made, very common expressions.
- Learn flexible variations, such as ‘with my (sister, …)’.
- The word ‘com’ is used very similarly as the word ‘with’.
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Exercise: Yourself
Learn several sentences to describe who you are. Why?
- Talking about yourself is the most relevant content to know.
- It covers a lot of vocabulary, sentence structures, and even grammar.
- You’ll be able to speak for ~1min in your target language by yourself.