Whats the best/most efficient way of learning a language in my situation ?

monosharp

Hey guys, working abroad at the moment and probably for the forseeable future.

Unfortunately my job requires me to use english every day but i'm going to try and learn the local lingu, especially because I can see this being a permanent home.

Anyways, backstory. Was never good at languages. Whether it was laziness or genetic or I'm simply not smart (I hope its not this one, I do have a degree and all but ..)

Anyways.

Anyways with my craptastic background in learning languages, whats the best/quickest/most efficient method ?

I've bought a couple books (yesterday) and have a couple more courses for said language on CD and I'm going to start going to classes next weekend.

Any more advice ? anything you recommend ?

Also, If this is a stupid question I apologise but lets say I do these classes (1 hour) each sat and do maybe 4-5 hours on my own during the rest of the week. How long until I could actually start to become someways "fluent" ?

Is a year,year and a half ambitious ?

forbairt

monosharp wrote: »

Is a year,year and a half ambitious ?

I'm not in the same position ... but my wife is french and we've been together for what now ... 4 years ... all the time living in ireland apart from a month in france. I had done french in the leaving cert as well so I guess that helps somewhat. Anyways this is 4 years down the line and I'm comfortable speaking french to people now ... I do make mistakes and so on but its getting better. personally I'm quite happy as I've not put that much into it apart from trying to say the few bits I know and trying to learn a few more.

Your best best .. get a gf / bf :P ... or a group of friends from the area who have both languages. They'll potentially be happy to speak some english and you'll be happy to speak some of the language there.

I would recommend you start with the teach yourself CD's anyways and listen in your spare time its amazing how much you can pick up with them and how you start to pick out works in conversations of other people.

Do the course as well and try to stay committed to it if at all possible.

I honestly don't think you'd be fluent after a year and a half but I'd say you'd be comfortable enough that it wouldn't matter

Ginger

In the same situation

I can speak french quite well and thats the downfall here.. Norwegian is germanic based. Anyways what i have found, if you are working with locals, get them to teach you expressions like asking for coffee etc, and get the basics. Once you feel a bit comfortable with the sounds, wander off to a course and see how you get on.

Watching the news or local programs helps a lot in learning the language i found. I am here nearly 2 months and starting to get the hang of it.. must start looking for a course now

monkey tennis

What's the language? Some are easier for an English-speaker to learn than others. A year and a half would be enough to be pretty confident in French, but maybe not in Mandarin Chinese.

Regardless, immersion is the best way to become fluent. While you're going to be using English in work, try to watch local TV, listen to local radio, and associate with locals as much as possible.

monosharp

Korean

FruitLover

monosharp wrote: »

Korean

Yikes.

Try www.koreanclass101.com (you don't actually have to sign up, just navigate to http://www.koreanclass101.com/index.php directly and you'll bypass the sign-in crap). Listen to it any chance you get.

You have a major advantage living in the country - you can practice every single day (in fact, you probably have to, to buy something in the shop, get a train ticket, etc). Providing you put the work in, you should be doing well within a year and a half.

monosharp

FruitLover wrote: »

Yikes.

Try www.koreanclass101.com (you don't actually have to sign up, just navigate to http://www.koreanclass101.com/index.php directly and you'll bypass the sign-in crap). Listen to it any chance you get.

You have a major advantage living in the country - you can practice every single day (in fact, you probably have to, to buy something in the shop, get a train ticket, etc). Providing you put the work in, you should be doing well within a year and a half.

Thanks man.

I've being trying to use the little I've learned but i find it really disheartening because I say something and the koreans are looking at me like I'm speaking martian. Then after 3-4 times of saying it they get that "ah" look and repeat it in a slightly (to me) different sounding way. I don't really hear much of a difference myself but apparently I've told someone she was "stylish" which is something you only ever say to men (only if your a girl and close and its very impolite if you don't know them) when i was actually trying to say the food was delicious.

Anyways, I'll soldier on! thanks for the advice.

FruitLover

Yeah, I find pronunciation very difficult with Korean. I'd recommend learning Hangul as soon as you can if you haven't already, this might help you make sure you have the basic sounds right. I suppose the only thing you can do is to listen very carefully to pronunciation, and practice (even on your own).