But I'm going to show you MY method ... using Welsh as an example.
And I did it like this ...
When I started to learn Welsh I adopted a totally different method.
Here's some of the books I got started with ....
Briwsion !! ( = Crumbs)
Oooh! I thought... this is a proper FOREIGN language .. not like Spanish, for example, which if you know Latin, is quite a doddle ... or French, which most "do" at school.
BUT ..... I soon realised that HPAMYA was far too complex for me .... every single word was totally alien to me, and having to look up every word was very ...very... tiring.
Plus ... Welsh has loads of other complications ... the nouns often change their first letter under various circumstances, so you can't find the blasted words in the dictionary anyway. Ouch. That, and various other strange secrets of Welsh words knocked me back and discouraged me.
BUT ...
We were wandering round Pwllheli one fine day , and I went into several charity shops, and for a fiver or so I got lots of very young children's books in Welsh .... all with very few words and lots and lots of helpful pictures like those up there !
That's the way to do it !
Simple stuff ...
Baby steps !!!
They're short !!!
The pictures are there to help you !!
There's plenty of empty space to jot down things.
And best of all ... they're FUN. Woo !!
And silly !!!!!
And having thoroughly enjoyed those "baby" books I gradually moved up the scale and my book choices got a little bit more ambitious ... longer stuff like Postman Pat
and Fireman Sam ( Sam Tân) .... and over time, I could read "proper" Welsh books.
The Roald Dahl books are all available in Welsh, and in the fullness of time I read them all. And the aforementioned HPAMYA ! And loads of others.
But I couldn't have done it without that gradual, step by step approach.
My next recommendation would be .. Welsh songs..... here's Seddi Gwag ( Empty Seats) from Bangor Pier ... a mere 80m from the pub where I met my eventual wife.
And the bottom line is ..you can learn French like that.
When you start, you are effectively a baby as far as French is concerned.
So read " baby-level "books.
And then work your way up.
Sorted !!!
You will be fascinated to hear that I've dug up my very own " Guide to Looking Up Words in your Welsh Dictionary" from my Wonderful Welsh Blog ... here we go ... if nothing else, you will think yourself incredibly lucky that you're learning French ...
In a previous life, or rather a previous blog, I did a wonderful thing. I wrote ... or rather, had a go at writing ..... a complete guide to looking up Welsh words in a dictionary. It took weeks for me to get back some semblance of my sanity, and several bottles of gin.
All you beginners out there will be thinking ... " What could possibly go wrong?"
Ha! You poor deluded numpties are in for a shock...... the Welsh language is especially designed to make it almost impenetrable to all outsiders, and trying to look words up in what they laughingly refer to as a dictionary can be, to say the least, trying.
For your delectation, I am going to try to recreate that terrific article, but with the added experience I have gained since .... negotiating that eponymous Rocky Road to Welsh! Here we go ....
Here's the scenario ..... you've got a Welsh word and you want to find out what it means.
The clever-arses always advise you to try to work out what it means from the context. Yeah, right! And I'm a spurgulent rimpletinker. So .....
You turn to your trusted dictionary ,and the bloody thing isn't in it. Here's a simple guide to what might have gone wrong......
[a] Maybe it's an obscure word .....try a succession of larger and larger dictionaries.
[b] If it starts with ch- you might be looking for it under c- which would be the wrong place.
[c] This also applies to rh- , ll- , ff- .
[d] Don't forget that a word with -ng- in it could have you looking in the wrong place.
[e] The word might have to have any possible mutation undone first.
[f] This is doubly tricky for some words beginning with f- which might begin with m- or b-
[g] This is easy to miss also when an invisible g- has to be restored to its rightful place.
[h] An "h" at the start might have been put there for a laugh ... especially after a vowel.
[h2] Sometimes adding -ach and -a in comparatives can change the spelling of the word.
[i] Maybe it's a bit of obscure Wenglish.
[j] Sometimes they like to miss the ys- off a word to keep you thinking.
[k] Maybe you're looking at some wild and wonderful part of a verb.
[l] Or perhaps you've forgotten that verbs-with-endings will tend to SM.
[m] It could be you are looking at one of those peculiar plurals they are so fond of. [n] In colloquial Welsh in books, deliberate mis- spelling is another source of amusement.
[o] Could be you have a conjugated preposition .... lovely!
[p] One of the best tricks in the "frontal apostrophe." [ or 'tal 'phe ]
[q] Of course, it might be a rude word, or too slangy. Yes, there are rude words in Welsh.
[r] You can pull some words apart and find out what the bits mean..... oh yes!
[s] If it has a prefix, you can remove it and try to find what's left ( remove SM first)
[t] Could it be a proper name or a place-name?
[u] If it's a group of words you don't get, maybe it's a an idiomatic usage.
[t] Some words have different male and female versions ....
[u] Sometimes a tricky word might combine several of these difficulties.
[v] There can be unfamiliar literary Welsh endings.
[w] Sometimes you think a word is obviously Wenglish but it isn't !
[x ] You can always try ...
[a] Putting it into Google Translate
[b] Having a guess and looking it up in the English to Welsh section. ... it can work.
[c] Asking an actual Welsh speaker !
[d] Taking up a nice logical language like Spanish.
( After all that, French is a doddle )