Learning A New Language

[hugmebear]

There are some languages I'd like to learn and become fluent in. Being able to read, write, listen and speak are equally important to me. I plan to tackle one at a time and I know it's going to be a demanding endeavor but realistically, how long would it take to be able to read a Chinese menu, understand anime, read and play a Japanese video game or read and write in a Russian forum? What kind of pace would I be looking at? 2 hour sessions, 3 times per week?

I can't take classes or immerse myself in such environments right now. Can I eventually learn at advanced levels without a tutor? YouTube reviewers say Rosetta Stone isn't nearly as effective as it advertises and finishing its program only puts you at an introductory level. What can I purchase or dl for beginners to advanced levels? What should I expect to pay? Are there programs with digitized text and audio? I don't have a tape or portable cd player so I'd prefer to do all reading and listening on the laptop.

What was your experience like and how did you learn another language? How are your abilities and are you satisfied with them? What would you do differently? Anything I should avoid?

 

[brmstn69]

Good luck...

My niece just graduated from Ball State with a masters in Asian studies. She speaks fluent Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Korean, and conversational Vietnamese. She started teaching herself Japanese when she was 12. However, I must warn you that she is an autistic savant and language skills are her special gift. Most would have a much more difficult time learning...

 

[manolitorr]

good luck

you can try first with app like duolingo or babel, and see if is easy or not

 

[ihno]

I would not advice to learn a language all by yourself, at least not a language you have no connection to. I suggest to visit a course at least for the first time, so you learn basic things there.

The second problem is not to forget the language again. You have to use the language from time to time or else it will all get lost again. If you do it all by yourself it will be a problem.

So I can only suggest to learn it with people for the first time.
If you did that for half a year you can go on by yourself if you prefer.

 

[slimjim]

Getting by in a language is one thing, fully fluent is a much bigger project. A few yrs back I was given an overseas posting to Turkey and my head office bought me one of those audio language courses where you listen to phrases being spoken whilst reading the words in the book and there is a gap in the recording where you can practice the phrase. I had about 6 weeks before flying out there to use the course and was getting pretty good with most of the conversational phrases plus days of the week, numbers etc. As it turned out many of the Turks I was working with spoke German, my german was not great but my eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf. was still better than my bir, iki, üç, dört, beş so much of the technical discussion was done in german:rofl: .....


I have to agree with inho too - you have to use it, or loose it - I have forgotten most of the turkish (and german too)

 

[Shelter]

I have to agree with inho too - you have to use it, or loose it - I have forgotten most of the turkish (and german too)

Do you like to refresh your German? I would be a good teacher! :thumbs up::cheers::cheers::cheers:

 

[slimjim]

Do you like to refresh your German? I would be a good teacher! :thumbs up::cheers::cheers::cheers:

Would that be the oral method??? :thumbs up::thumbs up::rofl::rofl::rofl:

 

[Otage]

Buy used highschool books, start from the bottom and build up. Overload yourself with the new language; listen to music, find out the lyrics, sing along, watch shows with that language. Then the final challenge and reward is to get to use it in real situations with native or fluent speakers.

It's totally do-able, but often the enthusiasim rund dry with the boredom of studying. To help with that, make a solid plan, set small goals, achieve or re-organize them:thumbs up: You can also try to be creative with learning. With that I can't help

 

[Shelter]

Would that be the oral method??? :thumbs up::thumbs up::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Indeed - you've got it!!! :rofl: And believe me - I'm good!!! :thumbs up:
And you know - the oral method will be always the very, very best one. p

 

[gorgik9]

Indeed - you've got it!!! :rofl: And believe me - I'm good!!! :thumbs up:
And you know - the oral method will be always the very, very best one. p

Well my suggestion is that I suck you both off, at the same time :thumbs up:

Three times a day, every day in the week - is that enough :rofl::rofl::rofl:

 

[jeansGuyOZ]

Funny how the thread gets derailed

Regarding language, if you only speak one, you don't realise how much of what you think is fundamental to how a language must be constructed is in fact specific to your own language. things like putting the adjective in front of the noun are NOT universal. Hence what someone said above is true; the first foreign language is the hardest. With subsequent languages you go through another learning process, but you kind of know what you are going to have to learn.

I don't know where you live or which countries you have easy access to, but I would recommend Spanish as a first foreign language for an English speaker. Being one of the Latin family of languages, it has the structure that is a feature of those languages, and which is somewhat different to English. It's also probably the easiest of the Latin languages; spelling is entirely phonetic, and grammar and pronunciation are somewhat easier to pick up than, say, French.

The problem with opting first for a language such as Japanese or Mandarin is that you have to learn a whole new writing scheme as well as the spoken language. It's not even like learning Greek or Russian. those two languages use a different alphabet to English, but it's still an alphabet, and once you have learned the letters and how they are articulated you can match printed text to the sound. Chinese and Japanese are not like that at all.

 

[hugmebear]

I would not advice to learn a language all by yourself, at least not a language you have no connection to. I suggest to visit a course at least for the first time, so you learn basic things there.

The second problem is not to forget the language again. You have to use the language from time to time or else it will all get lost again. If you do it all by yourself it will be a problem.

So I can only suggest to learn it with people for the first time.
If you did that for half a year you can go on by yourself if you prefer.

At different points in my life, I was fluent in 3 additional languages and was able to compose essays in 2 of them. However, like you say, use it or lose it.

 

[hugmebear]

Buy used highschool books, start from the bottom and build up. Overload yourself with the new language; listen to music, find out the lyrics, sing along, watch shows with that language. Then the final challenge and reward is to get to use it in real situations with native or fluent speakers.

It's totally do-able, but often the enthusiasim rund dry with the boredom of studying. To help with that, make a solid plan, set small goals, achieve or re-organize them:thumbs up: You can also try to be creative with learning. With that I can't help

Outside of songs, what can I get for pronunciation and regular speaking tone? Most academic books I found don't have an audio component.

 

[slimjim]

If only there was a website that has compared and reviewed what they think are the best 5 audio language courses..... oh wait a minute what's this? :thumbs up::duh:
http://www.fluentu.com/blog/best-audio-language-learning/?lang=en

 

[Otage]

Outside of songs, what can I get for pronunciation and regular speaking tone? Most academic books I found don't have an audio component.

Movies, series. I don't how possible it is, but would it be possible to find some one to chat with threw skype? Ofc when you know enough to have basic conversation. And pay attention to those phonetic alphapets that language books - at least in here usually - have. Maybe also youtube, some tubers who speak the language, follow them etc.

I learned swedish with overfloating myself with it, as at the same time I read the theory and books. I had to for the matriculation examination. It went well, but now since there has never been any use for it, I suck at it
And swedish being relative language to english, well it must have helped a bit since I all ready knew english.

Learn Finnish:rofl: It's very handy when you can bend the words... :rolling eyes:

 

[Shelter]

Movies, series. I don't how possible it is, but would it be possible to find some one to chat with threw skype? Ofc when you know enough to have basic conversation. And pay attention to those phonetic alphapets that language books - at least in here usually - have. Maybe also youtube, some tubers who speak the language, follow them etc.

I learned swedish with overfloating myself with it, as at the same time I read the theory and books. I had to for the matriculation examination. It went well, but now since there has never been any use for it, I suck at it
And swedish being relative language to english, well it must have helped a bit since I all ready knew english.

Learn Finnish:rofl: It's very handy when you can bend the words... :rolling eyes:

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
I think it will be easier to learn Chinese than Finnish. :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

 

[haiducii]

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
I think it will be easier to learn Chinese than Finnish. :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

I also think that way

 

[edkiko]

great

 

[jamesjack]

I want to learn but I'm lazy :-D

 

[yellow122]

As I heard, the difficulty of these 3 languages should be Japanese<Russian=Chinese. For reading Chinese menu I think it is easy. Usually the name of the dishes should be same and if you can read the nun word like fish chicken or beef you would be fine. Japanese is easy to start, but the grammer goes more difficult if you learn more. It will take 1 year to learn and understand Anime, but for video game you need more time due to more words to read. I don't know any Russian but I heard the word has male and female character and 6 tones? It should be hard to learn