Learning a language

Red About Town · 16-02-2013 10:29PM #1

Can anyone give any advice on the quickest way to learn to speak another language?

Has anyone ever learned a new language in a short period of time (e.g three months) or is it always something that takes a long time?

Have signed up for weekly classes and bought CDs. What other ways would the readers of AH suggest?

3ndahalfof6 · 16-02-2013 10:36PM

You need to click on the icon when trying to learn stuff, I did, and now I speak 127 different tongues, but you need to be careful not to mix them up, it might seem demonic.

El Guapo! · 16-02-2013 10:36PM

Supposedly, the Rosetta Stone series is great for learning a new language.

But the best way would be to immerse yourself in it i.e move to Italy, for example, and be around Italian speaking people all day every day.

Canis Lupus · 16-02-2013 10:36PM

Unless you're some kind of savant you can't pick up a language in 3 months. You can become proficient at the very basics so you could survive in the country you're going to but becoming fluent in a language.... I'd say you'd have to live in the country whose language you're learning for at least a year. If you don't use the language on a day to day basis the vocabulary just won't stay with you.

Canis Lupus · 16-02-2013 10:37PM

El Guapo! wrote: »

Supposedly, the Rosetta Stone series is great for learning a new language.

But the best way would be to immerse yourself in it i.e move to Italy, for example, and be around Italian speaking people all day every day.

It's not bad for basics but it's terribly boring after a while (Rosetta stone that is, not Italy :P )

MadsL · 16-02-2013 10:37PM

Exchange conversation on Skype. 1 hour of English for 1 hour of whatever you are having yourself.

My name is URL · 16-02-2013 10:41PM

I'm still not the best at English after 29 years... and doesn't even get me begun on Irish!

inmyday · 16-02-2013 10:43PM

Start off with a "Teach Yourself" course book with audio and get a Pimsleur language course from the library. See how you get on.

In 3 months though. The only way is to move to a country a speak to locals everyday, and study non stop. Some Irish guy did it, and learned a few languages. http://www.fluentin3months.com/

16-02-2013 10:46PM

There is no easy way to do it. No shortcuts. The easiest way there is is to have a genuine interest and motivation for learning the language. Without that, it's going to be a long, hard slog.

Personally, I find poring over grammar books boring, so I try to use films, TV shows and conversations with native speakers alongside a good 'teach yourself' book and a few podcasts.

I don't even agree that the best way is to move to the country. It's perfectly possible to live somewhere and speak little to none of the language (if you don't work with loads of native speakers in a job that requires lots of communication) and perfectly possible to stay in Ireland and use Skype and TV shows to learn the language to a high level. I'm living in Spain right now and while I do speak Spanish (learned it back home), I'd say little more than 'hello', 'thank you' and 'goodbye' on an average day. The most I do is order food at restaurants. I have to seek out people to actually talk to, the same as I did at home.

dd972 · 16-02-2013 10:47PM

1)Immerse yourself in it, find some online TV and radio stations, news broadcasts being quite useful as it's well spoken as opposed to sports commentary which is very choppy and cliche strewn.

2) Think of the new language as simply new words and rules of grammar, don't think of it as a 'foreign language', the mere word foreign imbues it with a sense of otherness.

3) Be patient, if you plant a tree in the ground and watch it every day you won't see or sense any growth whereas if you come back and look at it two years later there's a big difference, the internalization and progress you make is very gradual and there are plateaus of seemingly no progress and spurts of improvements that you won't even notice.

4) I know it's different as an infant but I always remind myself that I had to learn English and no one is born speaking any languages.

Viel Gluck / Bonne Chance

dj jarvis · 16-02-2013 10:47PM

Red About Town wrote: »

Can anyone give any advice on the quickest way to learn to speak another language?

Has anyone ever learned a new language in a short period of time (e.g three months) or is it always something that takes a long time?

Have signed up for weekly classes and bought CDs. What other ways would the readers of AH suggest?

so , whats her name ?

16-02-2013 10:50PM

I'm on level B2 now from doing weekly classes (3 times a week in summer), but it's taken 2 years

robman60 · 16-02-2013 10:53PM

I believe the key to learning additional languages is by understanding your primary language completely. That means having a good awareness of tenses (in order to learn verbs easily) and being able to use your understanding of your native language to work in another language.

3ndahalfof6 · 16-02-2013 10:53PM

NO is the answer, unless you some type of_________________

ViveLaVie · 16-02-2013 10:54PM

MadsL wrote: »

Exchange conversation on Skype. 1 hour of English for 1 hour of whatever you are having yourself.

Is there a site for linking people up for this?

Earthhorse · 16-02-2013 10:55PM

The Michel Thomas method is really good if you ask me. Doesn't just give you a good feel for the basics but an understanding of the structure of the language. It won't make you fluent, you'll have to put a lot more work in than is required by the CDs but I found it the best way to get to a passable conversational level fast, which is the springboard toward further learning.

16-02-2013 10:55PM

It also depends on what language it is and how different that language is from English.

RADIUS · 16-02-2013 11:00PM

ViveLaVie wrote: »

Is there a site for linking people up for this?

http://www.conversationexchange.com/

Pottler · 16-02-2013 11:00PM

Learning foreign languages is for cissies. Simply raise your voice, speak slowly with the appropriate accent and use lots of gestures. If you pretend you're talking to a mildy deaf 6 year old, eventually johnny foreigner will get your drift. Let them learn English, sure they've little else to be doing.

Herb Powell · 16-02-2013 11:01PM

It takes work. Lots of work. Consistent work too, otherwise you'll lose it.

You have to be very very interested, otherwise you will not be able to give it the commitment you need.

Make sure you understand the grammatical concepts of English, so you can see the differences it has with other languages. (Raymond Murphy's book English Grammar in use is great for this)

I picked up German last year, and I'll be off to Germany around September for a year. After 6 months of learning, I was able to handle a job interview (albeit not a very complex one). Have the confidence to speak, that is essential. Never worry about sounding stupid, because no one will think you're an idiot for making a mistake in a language that is new to you. They might laugh if the mistake is funny, but they'll usually explain why it's funny and tell you how to correct it.

As mentioned, listen to radio, songs, watch films, in the language, and if you can (shouldn't be difficult AT ALL as an English speaker) try find a buddy to exchange languages with.

Languages really are a use it or lose it thing. Make sure you keep using, and you'll fly.

pitkan · 16-02-2013 11:02PM

You could give this a try....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T-AYKo_ygk

3ndahalfof6 · 16-02-2013 11:02PM

Renata Chilly Rule wrote: »

It also depends on what language it is and how different that language is from English.

Would it not be fair to say if it is not english it is different, but then the english language has many different disguises.

keelanj69 · 16-02-2013 11:04PM

If Aquarius over in CTs is to be believed all you need to do is become self aware and you can just learn things by magic.

Btw, this works for any subject.

Pottler · 16-02-2013 11:09PM

keelanj69 wrote: »

If Aquarius over in CTs is to be believed all you need to do is become self aware and you can just learn things by magic.

Btw, this works for any subject.

This is true. Yesterday, I knew feck all about astro-physics. Today, I've me name down on my own Star. I'd put it down to self-awareness myself. I think, therefore I am, and all that. My Id approves. But he would. I've also just remembered that I speak a fair bit of "Foreign", so by my own definition, I'm a cissie. That's that self-awareness again. Belatedly.

Earthhorse · 16-02-2013 11:26PM

3ndahalfof6 wrote: »

Would it not be fair to say if it is not english it is different, but then the english language has many different disguises.

English has a lot in common with the romance languages and German so it's easier pick them up than something it has no relation to.

16-02-2013 11:47PM

3ndahalfof6 wrote: »

Would it not be fair to say if it is not english it is different, but then the english language has many different disguises.

Eh, no, because languages belong to families. English has a hell of a lot more in common with romance languages and Germanic languages than with the likes of Korean or Japanese and that's without even getting into the different writing systems. I'm teaching my boyfriend Spanish at the minute and he's picking it up quickly because a lot of the vocab is incredibly similar to English. Obviously it's not exactly the same for everyone because people's brains work differently, people have different levels of motivation and what have you, but I think it's fair to say that the more similar a language is to your own language, the easier it is to learn.

Truncheon Rouge · 17-02-2013 01:00AM

RADIUS wrote: »

http://www.conversationexchange.com/

http://sharedtalk.com/

This one's excellent. and free...cha ching.

I want to see a few more paddies on it. (text chat/voice chat)

17-02-2013 01:31AM

Red About Town wrote: »

Can anyone give any advice on the quickest way to learn to speak another language?

1) Use it as much as you can.
2) Develop a willingness to sound really silly.

The above probably sounds useless to you but I have found it to be seriously the best approach. Find a way to use it. I have discovered for example that in Ireland there are what the germans would call "Stammtischs" all over the place (I hope I got that right). This is basically German expats living in Ireland who just meet up to speak German. Many people learning German join them too and only speak german in this time. ALSO many people learning german meet up in this way to only speak german together. Its the same for any language. The language learning equivilant of meeting people for a "jamming" session I guess, if you were learning to play music.

The sounding silly part is the important one though. Be willing to ad lib and paraphrase. If you do not know a word then use what words you do know to describe it. Even if you use 60 words before you get the people you are talking to to realise what word you DO want to say - you might sound silly but you will have flexed the words you do know and when they all suddenly go "Oh yes! You are trying to say XXXXXX" you will learn it, it will stick and you will feel great.

The greatest barrier I find to people learning a language is shyness and giving up if you do not know the word you want to look for.

On top of all that one of my fave boards.ie writers once wrote that he found watching "Who wants to be a millionaire" is a great way to learn a language. The way he put it was that on screen you get a few words... the question and the answers.... and then that provides the context to understand the conversation they have for 5 minutes around it... and context is everything when learning or understanding a language.

Red About Town wrote: »

Has anyone ever learned a new language in a short period of time (e.g three months) or is it always something that takes a long time?

Eddie Izzard learned two in a few months. At least enough to do his shows in.

I once heard someone in a debate over what the word "Fluent" means say that you are "fluent" in a language as soon as you can say and understand everything that is relevant TO YOU. So how long it takes to "learn a language" is up to you. If you want to just order food and drink it will take you 5 days. If you want to write literature in that language it will take you 5 lifetimes

As Mark Twain once said for example "Even the dead do not have enough time to learn German".

In other words - how long it will take you to learn the language you want to learn depends on what it is YOU need to learn - and how and where YOU want to use it.

Red About Town wrote: »

What other ways would the readers of AH suggest?

As I said find people to speak it with. Other learners or sit in on Stammtisch meetings of expats living here in Ireland. USE the language as much as you can and most importantly if you do not have a word you want do not give up but use the words you DO have to get the listeners to the word you want. No matter how silly it sounds or makes you feel.

Here is an Irish guy talking about how he learned Spanish in 3 months:

http://www.fluentin3months.com/tedx/

hfallada · 17-02-2013 01:35AM

I often study in the public libraries in Dublin and its unbelievable the amounts of non-nationals who learn another language on their own rather than most Irish people and watching the tv.

Like yesterday I seen an eastern european learning Spanish and taking to his friend about learning it on his own. But tbh i have been learning German in school for 7 years and have only got the grips of it now. The best way to learn it is to go to the country. You'll learn so much more than a cd

Pottler · 17-02-2013 01:36AM

This is AH. If half the feckers here could get a rudimentary grasp of english, that would be a good foundation to begin from. By "country"^, I presume you mean Offaly, most of the people there speak some sort of foreign language, it's all dutch to me anyway.

Scruffles · 17-02-2013 01:48AM

Red About Town wrote: »

Can anyone give any advice on the quickest way to learn to speak another language?

Has anyone ever learned a new language in a short period of time (e.g three months) or is it always something that takes a long time?

Have signed up for weekly classes and bought CDs. What other ways would the readers of AH suggest?

check out daniel tammet for some encouragement [or jealousy:P]:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_tammet

Tammet has reportedly learned 10 languages, including Romanian, Gaelic, Welsh, and Icelandic which he learned in a week for a TV documentary.

there are a lot of free open source programs for learning languages as well as flash card programs to help remember words.
heres one to get started with-
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mlvocabtrainer/?source=recommended
multi lingual vocabulary trainer,its multi platform and gives visual prompts to but theres loads of others,and also flash card programs are worth looking up there.

Learning a language

Comments