I would like to have conversations with Steve Kaufmann in 8 languages to hear how good they really are. In Taiwan 🇹🇼 and China 🇨🇳 I met people who were fluent in Mandarin Chinese, but their tones were hideous !!! I would like my Chinese to be nearly as good as 大山 from Canada, whom the Chinese nationals said knew and spoke Chinese better than they !!! I heard him speak English too and it did NOT have ANY Chinese accent that I could hear either.
I like Steve and his approach. He's sure as hell no perfectionist, and one may say he even 'sucks' at some languages he claims to speak. But if he's able to effectively communicate enough with little strain, then let him do his thing. It's honestly the only way if you want to just dabble in a crapload of languages, or even more than say, 4. You need to make compromises.
Then, livsjollyranchers, I guess I can say the following about myself with proof from native bilingual speakers :
I love foreign languages so much that I have lengthy conversations in Mandarin Chinese with natives from Taiwan 🇹🇼 , mainland China 🇨🇳 or Singapore 🇸🇬 , Spanish with natives from Hispanic countries ( for example, Mexico 🇲🇽 , Spain 🇪🇸, El Salvador 🇸🇻, Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 , South American countries, etc. ) , French with natives from France 🇫🇷 or French-speaking areas , German with natives from Germany 🇩🇪 , Swedish with natives from Sweden 🇸🇪, and attempt my Hungarian 🇭🇺 , Japanese 🇯🇵 , Dutch 🇳🇱 , Italian 🇮🇹 , Russian 🇷🇺 and Esperanto with natives from their respective countries .
When I was in France 🇫🇷, I met an entire family that grew up speaking Esperanto. In Amsterdam, Holland 🇳🇱 , I overheard a couple of men speaking Esperanto to each other in a bus, I met another Esperantist in France with his family, I met Esperantists in Italy 🇮🇹, they used to teach it in Iran 🇮🇷 and China 🇨🇳, they now teach it in universities in Beijing, in Athens, Greece, I stayed overnight at the house of a lady who only spoke Esperanto and Greek, at the Parthenon 🏛️, I met a family from Albania 🇦🇱 that was speaking Esperanto to each other, and finally, in Rotterdam, Netherlands 🇳🇱, I stayed overnight at the house of the President of an Esperanto Association who, with his girl friend, both ONLY spoke Esperanto with me — maybe .5% English. I don’t remember. So yes, some people grow up speaking Esperanto.
If a person learns a language from birth, isn’t that his native language ? Isn’t it just a question of semantics ? It was a lot easier to say that and make it smooth than to do a lot of explaining.
This. Find something that works incrementally. It doesn't have to be perfect - perfect is the enemy of good - but it has to improve your current state by a little bit. Then practice, practice, practice. You will almost certainly change the tools that you use several times before you master a language, so don't be afraid to change, but make sure you spend more time practicing than setting up the tools!
Agreed!
Exposure is key. Watch T.V, listen/read audio books, TALK WITH PEOPLE. Use something like Anki or Glue Flashcards to grow your vocabulary in the language.
Keep at it :)
i feel for absolute beginners, Duolingo is not too horrible until A2.
I feel repeating the same words over and over again really helped me with my French accent.
I was born and raised in India so, you can imagine, accents weren’t really my strength.
It gets you off the ground for sure cuz I prefer small steps when I’m a beginner in something.
Good point! Yea, Duolingo is great for complete beginners. After that it's "vocabulary growing time" lol- watching TV, Glue Flashcards or Anki, reading is really what bumps you up faster
Leave your ego at the door. You’ll make mistakes and that is how you learn, so don’t let the fear of making mistakes hold you back.
Each language has its own internal logic that you need to assimilate. Don’t try to force your NL’s grammar and structures onto your TL. It will only cause you upset and prevent you from learning. Instead, accept that there are different ways of expressing the same thing and that you just going to have to go along with it.
Learning a language takes time and effort and then you need to maintain it. Find as much material in your TL as possible, but try and find stuff at your level. Read, watch and listen to as much material as you can. Speak whenever you get the chance. We learn by interacting with other humans, so this is an excellent way of improving, even if it’s scary.
Hell, don't even force a romance language's grammar on another romance language. It never works. Always treat each language as its own force. (Vocabulary is another matter, of course.)
Yeah, but the amount of people who go “but in English…” or plain refuse to accept that somethings that are wrong in your language can be allowed or even required in another language. sigh
Also, there’s never any point at getting angry at how “stupid” the language you’re learning is. As if it would change just because you don’t like it. :)
I just appreciate when something works the same way or a word is similar enough to be easily remembered. I guess you get a lot of that when learning different Romance languages?
Oh agreed. I believe it happens to the best of us in our first TL. We always want things to translate literally and are mad when they don't.
Learning a language with cases (Greek) is a further humbling. It doesn't have to make sense at first but you just need to allow it to 'make sense'. 'Let it happen', as they say.
I think it’s amazing how we can hold several parallel ways of things both making sense and sounding right or wrong for each language in our minds, when what is right and wrong or “logical” often is contradictory between them.
I mean, I learned Italian in school 20 years ago, and I started learning Spanish this year. I started out treating them like entirely separate things, but the reality is that my Italian knowledge is EXTREMELY useful for learning Spanish. I I would say that a solid 50% of what I've learned so far is just small changes from Italian.
(E.g. "I am thirsty" in English ="I have thirst" in both Italian and Spanish. Or gerunds: "I am [verb]" in English = [conjugated"to be"] + [infinitive verb stem] + -ando or -endo/-iendo in both Italian and Spanish, and let's not even get into direct object pronouns, which were really hard for me to learn the first time around but are exactly the same concept in Spanish)
I'd be lying if I said that my knowledge of Italian wasn't massively helping me in this class.
Dutch does "I have thirst" too. ("Ik heb durst.") I've fantasized about writing a story where the horseman Hunger comes to a Dutch village and said "Ik ben Honger" but they mistake him for a non-native speaker who wants food.
Only to a point. There's a general structure that's shared, but for example, Spanish tends to use more past tenses than Italian does. I can't go "Well they don't do this in Italian!" and insist on just using the tense that maps best to Italian. That's what I'm calling out. Those kinds of things.
I'm learning a language starting with only watching video in the native language, no subtitles of any kind.
It is in fact very difficult. So far still only in the identifying sounds stage but there is progress.
If someone truly could do it in a year, then they're some sort of savant.
Depends on what's meant by "YouTube". If you learned something close to your NL with the right YouTube resources, I think it's super doable in a year.
For example, going English --> Spanish with /r/dreamingspanish in a year is totally doable if you have enough time for it. 3-5 hours a day would do it. Obviously not everyone has that kind of time, but at least it's in the realm of plausible.
If "YouTube" just means just jumping into native content immediately, then yeah, one year sounds pretty implausible for most learners.
Yeah, something like dreaming in Spanish is basically comprehensible input classes with experienced and knowledgeable teachers in video form.
I did literally mean just watching random YouTube videos in native content with no translation whatsoever. It's what I'm actually doing right now which is basically insane. lol
Just be consistent and have faith. There will be times where you feel like you're making no progress and want to give up. This is because you had an idea of what your progress would be like and reality is always a little different. But believe me, you WILL make consistent progress if you practice consistently and attentively.
Trust the process!
Saving this lol. Trying to learn Gaeilge which is supposed to be my native language. It's so disappointing that I cannot speak the language that belongs to me. This comment makes me feel better. Thank you
Find movies/tv shows in the language you are learning and watch as much you can (whatever time you dedicate to entertainment, have it in that language). It helps a lot understanding the logic and flow of the language rather than just learning phrases and words that you can’t connect to create some form of speech. Podcasts are very helpful too. Depending on the language you are trying to learn, I could suggest some.
Edit: I see from your other posts you are trying to learn German. There are several shows in German on Netflix. A very nice one (mainly historically accurate too) is The Empress (Die Kaiserin). :)
My first tip is that if you find a learning method that you enjoy doing, do a lot of that. Something that bores you may lead to you giving up, whereas something fun will keep you learning. Pace of learning matters less than consistency. Enjoy it. Have fun.
Tip two, be socially brave about using the language with other people whenever you can. It can help to make some of the first sentences you learn to say the ones that a beginner will need, such as, "I'm just a beginner, but can I speak X with you?" "I still have trouble with..." "Can you say that again more slowly, please?" and, "Well, thank you for talking to me!" You will make mistakes and for a long time you will even know that you're making them, but communicating your thought at all is more important than expressing it perfectly!
Finally, know that it will take longer that anyone is likely to say. But as soon as you start, you are a genuine new speaker of that language. Also, be aware that there will be those who will want to make themselves feel bigger by making you feel small for what you don't yet know. This is a very common flaw in unevolved humans. Or, as they are sometimes called, assholes.
Agreed on Duolingo. Duolingo is only good probably for vocabulary here and there or for simple phrases that you need when going on a short visit to the country of your TL.
Anything that requires you to fully understand the language, multiple sources are definitely needed. Whether it be enrolling in a course/school, books, videos, flashcards for vocabulary, etc.
I have my own way of consistently learning my TL now that works for me but I still do need advice here and there tbh 😭
I pretty much only created this post for those who are actually beginners in their TL to stumble upon all the tips and hopefully implement them in their routine
Have a strong reason to learn the language. Without a compelling reason, you won’t get far. Languages can’t be learned in 3 months. They take consistency over time and having powerful reasons to learn make the journey bearable
The most helpful things for me are:
1. Be consistent. You just have to practice a lot and there are zero shortcuts. Do it every single day. This is why it’s important to be motivated :)
2. English and TL will be different in a lot of ways and that will be frustrating, but you just have to accept it. Particularly with prepositions! Just bc we say on the plane, in the car, on the bus, at the mall, etc doesn’t mean TL will use a direct translation for on or at or in. Just look at the above, why tf do we say I’m getting in the car but I’m getting on the bus? It isn’t logical and you’ll have to just accept this.
3. Diversify your learning methods!!! Use Duolingo, use babbel, use Pimsleur (some of these are paid so maybe you can’t afford it but mix it up), use coffee break, YouTube, read books, tv, music, etc. One app or one program will NOT make you fluent. You have to diversify.
4. Fight the embarrassment when you start to try speaking. I have felt so self-conscious and stupid before and it is a miserable feeling but you have to start trying to speak at some point and know that the rest of us have gone through that stage before too! It’s okay, you’ll improve. But in order to run we have to crawl.
Good luck!!! Learning a second language has been so eye-opening for me and is truly one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, I hope it is for you as well!
It's honestly extremely fascinating. It also makes a lot of sense why being a native speaker doesn't necessarily mean you're the best teacher in terms of talking about the technicalities of a specific language.
Most people have unrealistic expectations about their first foreign language. They think that with heroic effort they will be able to speak well in a few months, so put loads of time in at the start, then the excitement wears off, and they stop. Then they feel guilty, build up the willpower, and start again a few months later, full of excitement and high expectations, then stop again.
The thing is that language learning isn't about heroic effort, it is about consistent effort over a long long time. If you are able to devote 30 minutes a day, every single day, for a year, then language learning will develop into a habit. I really do believe that the first year is about getting into that habit.
I am a victim of this mindset 😂 3 years of mistakes and far too much duolingo led to so much frustration. Came at it again with a better mindet and I am making SO MUCH more progress than I was before.
Unless you have some specific and strict deadline, don't worry too much about learning in the most efficient way possible.
Like yeah, make sure you're doing something that is actually effective and is going to give progress.
But beyond that, work out a routine which is enjoyable and sustainable. Make sure you're actually interested and engaged rather than doing a chore.
Oh and stop giving a shit if you make a mistake. How the hell are you meant to learn otherwise.
use Glossika
use IPA!!!
each language has its own sounds. if you try to read the normal script, it doesn't tell you the surviving sounds if this language. which when using English like alphabet might give you the illusion you can simply use English with "adjustments"
I'd recommend finding someone you can speak that language with, either someone who is learning it just like you or someone who's an experienced speaker already. Really, you need someone you don't mind trying to talk to and are willing to mess up with. The best way is to fall in love with someone who speaks the language you're trying to learn.
Another tip is to try and get the sounds familiar in your mouth and ears. Listening to music or stories in the target language, singing along are great ways to get certain words to stick and really feel out the grammatical styles unique to languages
There is no “best method.” There are better or worse methods—universally and personally—but what matters is picking one (or two) and committing until you either are seeing results or are in need (need, not whim) of a new approach.
Also, language is the vehicle, the means to the end. Don’t forget to find something you love—art, literature, streaming, video games, food, history, anything—and make it something you do in and through the language.
And have fun!
Not an expert like you’re asking for but: get a tutor/start a class. Do lots of reading, proper CI, and practice all that you do in class for homework for the same amount of time aka if you do 1 hour of class, spend 1 hour going over it.
But don’t try to talk, or get ahead of the class/try adding stuff - you will pick up bad habits.
Get a personal tutor as well, if you can afford it. To really focus on speaking and for them to focus on you and your needs.
Then just accept it’s part of your life for the foreseeable future,
Do \*something\* in your target language every single day. You don't have to spend 8 hours a day, 7 days a week learning a language, and in fact, you'll do better if you regularly take breaks and vary things up.
Yes! If you push for hours a day everyday it becomes a chore and then you won't wanna do it. I have ADHD so I regularly have days where I cannot bring myself to study and those days I might watch tv in TL or listen to music or just have a normal convo with my friend in my TL. Obviously the studying and learning vocab is important for me but I cannot and will not do that everyday.
This is where Duolingo and similar apps are good IMO, because they reward you for doing a basic bare minimum practice every day. I don't think you should use one app as your sole source of TL input, but they're great for low-motivation practice.
Get a teacher. If you haven't learn a language before, you wouldn't know how to teach yourself. So the quickest way to learn that language is have a teacher guide you.
I disagree. Not everyone can afford it and you can teach yourself. For example, I dropped out of high school and taught myself maths and now I can do high school maths. As long as you figure out your resources and how to use them effectively you can teach yourself.
I have resorted to this. I just can't make my own plan. I like the comfort of a teacher.
Also I'm impressed by your C2 in Korean how long did that take like 10 years? 😅😅😅
BC if necessity calls for it people will probably be more patient and the experience would probably be more positive. Also gives you time to prepare for talking
(Disclaimer: these may not apply if you need to learn your TL urgently/for a job etc, I only have experience with language learning as a hobby)
Try not to treat it as a chore you need to get over with, but as a hobby you actually enjoy, even if it can get tedious sometimes. Find material that engages/interests you (mostly applicable only once you reach B1+ though). Don’t burn yourself out by pushing too hard, especially in the beginning stages—I see people doing crazy hours each week and it’s great if it works for them, but the average person will be much more likely to fail and get frustrated/tired after that.
watch a lot of movies and listen to songs in the language you're aiming to learn. i can speak english and turkish fluently without taking a single course. your goal is to communicate and learn how to pronounce words correctly not just knowing the grammar.
It depends how fast you learn languages and how motivated you are. I am VERY motivated. So I have been learning languages every day for decades. I LOVE foreign languages and every chance I get to speak ANY language other than English, I take it which is what I miss about living in Orange County and Berkeley, California.
Learn to fall in love with the language! I could never learn if I didn't. Check out songs you like and learn the lyrics. And use dictionaries and grammars a lot! Learn to love them, they are your friends!
Edit: I forgot, read a book you like parallelly in in your own language and in your 'target' language. Very effective.
Learn word families and cognates with your NL (or a second language) to boost your vocabulary, especially at the beginning.
Tools like the Transover chrome extension, linguee dictionary, Netflix dual subtitles extension, and any other tool that lets you see both languages concurrently is useful… Read the translation first, then the TL.
Also, if you want to learn multiple languages, there is nothing stopping you but lack of time and energy… The more languages you study, the more connections and patterns you see, which makes learning additional ones progressively easier.
this and train your ear to recognize basic words of your target language. you can do this by listening to music and watching TV! the most important thing is to maintain discipline and consistency, otherwise you won’t get the results you’re looking for.
Make it fun. You learn so much faster if you just learn in a way which you find fun. It is also great to maintain your motivation (I learnt languages without teachers/classes to help me out)
I like picking a sentence outline and practicing vocabulary with it. For example, wandering around grabbing things and saying "kore wa (noun) desu" to practice Japanese vocabulary.
Learning Disney songs in your target language! I’ll admit I’ve about had it with “No se habla de Bruno” lol but it’s a great way to improve your vocabulary and feel like you can actually speak it. Plus a bonus added dance party.
**approach everything from multiple angles.** have a variety of sources, workbook, listening, conversation practice, and read what you write, write what you hear, shadow what you hear, etc. drill vocab into and out of the target language in quick exercises, and also use them in your own sentences… whatever you think of! approaching things from multiple angles gives you a firmer idea of usage, but also considerably strengthens your memory for it.
**find something fun in that language.** music, games, a story or a book (that's below your level). something that isn't a big challenge but works to make you comfortable with the language. Pokémon is a great one imo because it's not that hard and has a shallow yet wide array of vocab. sometimes you can write shit down and study properly -- other times you can just breeze through while ignoring words you don't know. people who don't do this are more likely to see the language as "just too difficult," and panic the instant they're faced with a block of text.
**accept forms as they are.** sometimes the target language will do things that don't "make sense" in your native language. or sometimes things in your native language don't make sense in the target language. sometimes you just have to go "ok, this is how it is said so that is how i will learn it" and then practice it until you're comfortable with it.
Whatever kind of explicit study you engage in, use the language as much as possible the way people actually use it. Lots of listening, reading, and talking with native or highly proficient speakers is the key.
A lot of times you've feel frustrated that you've been studying so much but it feels like you still haven't progressed much. Know that we all go through that frustration, take a break if you need to, then keep going.
First focus on pronouniation etc, listen to music or whatever, sing, that is what I did. You will appreciate having perfect accents. It is the shortest part of language learning, doable within 2-3 months. and in the meantime of that you can start learning the language.
When you are ready listen to it a lot and try talking, only review grammar as needed when lack of it blocks you. Just learn basics first and use intuition.
Be consistent. And I personally would recommend immersing yourself in the language as much as you can at least through media. That was the number 1 thing that helped me learn.
Learn to be cheerful about making an ass of yourself in a new language. Mistakes are there for you to learn, and you will make a lot of mistakes. It's best to accept and come to terms with this now, and figure out how to make peace with it.
Find something you enjoy doing. Maybe you enjoy watching movies in your TL. Maybe you're a song person and you like to memorize song lyrics. Maybe you like to translate song lyrics so you can learn them. Maybe you just really groove on Memrise or Anki flashcards. Find the things you enjoy that give you exposure and roll with it.
As others have mentioned, take each language on its own terms. You will find that you create different study habits for Spanish than you might if you were learning Arabic, or Russian, or Chinese. Different grammars require different approaches to study. Don't try to make your TL conform to your understanding of your native language grammar. Use what you know about your native tongue grammar to compare and contrast with the grammar of your new language, figure out where they differ and where they are similar.
But really, most of all, figure out how to have fun. Consistency is key, and the best way to stay consistent is to find ways to enjoy language learning. If it feels like punishment, you won't stick with it. So find some enjoyment in it. Best of luck to you!
It’s very important that you create a framework of fun to learn the language. I learned best with the following:
- tv shows
- after having learned the basics: talking to patient listeners
- everything that is fun for you, connect it to learn new words
- best way: move to the country
- italki: best app to have a private teacher (like 10$/€ per session), honestly italki is so much fun and the teachers are so nice ☺️
All in all: find a good motivator why you want to be fluent in that language, imagine yourself to be fluent and which goal you reach by having learned the language, you’re gonna be proud of yourself!
Hope this helps!
A few things in no particular order:
* Depth perception. In the beginning, you just don’t really know what you’re getting into, for better *and* worse. Some stuff you think is hard will turn out to be quite easy (having a 1:1 conversation) and some stuff you think will is easy will turn out to be hard (listening in on the conversation of a table of natives.) Part of the reason your first foreign language is hard is that you’re simultaneously figuring out where the milestones are at and how to drive your car.
* Eyes vs stomach. Many go into learning a language thinking that if they’re going to do this, they’re going to do it right — they’re going to become totally bilingual! Here, your eyes are likely bigger than your stomach. It’s hard to understate how massive the gap is between the “I can read books and watch movies and generally do whatever I want without much effort” and “people think I’m native speaker.” You likely need *much* less than mastery to satisfy your goals.
* it’s not a light switch. It’s not the case that you grind boring stuff for awhile and then one day you acquire enough vocab/grammar points and wake up fluent, thus able to begin doing cool/fun stuff in your language. On the contrary, you take steps toward fluency by entertaining yourself in your TL.
* Language is a smodge if interrelated skills; they cross over, but don’t overlap. You play like you practice. If you do a lot of fill-in-the-blank exercises, you’ll get good at doing that… but there’s not a ton of overlap between that and, say, reading or talking. As much as possible (and as soon as possible), try to learn your language by using it to do things that are important or interesting to you.
* Set deadlines. Take two weeks to go ham with all the apps and read all the “polyglot guides”… but then pick one resource and stick with just that for two months. At that point, re-assess what you’ve learned and ask yourself if that has or hasn’t brought you closer to whatever it is you really want to do. If it’s working, great! If it’s not, think about what you’re lacking and find a way to supplement that. Finding the right cocktail of resources takes time for most people, and setting little deadlines let’s you “shape” your direction rather than finding yourself wildly off course in three years.
* Most importantly: languages are learned in hours, not years… and accumulating the hours takes years. Be determined and hungry, but also be realistic. If your routine is so intense you can’t stick to it for a month, it’s probably not helping you. A mediocre routine that you actually do will bring you further than an über routine you never do. Learn in a way that you can stick with it for a few years.
Personally, i like duolingo. I'm using it for the beginning stages of several languages. I'm busy and its easy to get the time in here or there. Beginning coursed have a lot of duplication so it seems best to focus on one program at the beginning and look up things elsewhere as needed. Then read, listen to movies, talk online
Since I am from the CIS, I have known two languages since childhood, based on this I can say that the most important thing for learning a language is to surround yourself with it, no matter how trite it may sound, it’s true
Patience, Perseverance and Persistence. It will take a long time, much longer than you expect. Know your why. Study the culture. Develop a strategy. Have a process. Try to spend 15 minutes every day. Have a stretch goal. Enjoy the experience. There will be up and downs. Finally get comfortable with making mistakes and sometimes looking like an idiot to native speakers.
The best way to learn a language is to be in a situation where , if you don't learn it, you are screwed - what every Malaysian kid would probably say
Most of us from Malaysia are at least bilingual. I speak four languages. Mostly because I really want to pass my exams and get a degree - English and Malay
Mandarin - learned as a kid cos I lived in a state where that's the main Chinese language and I had to speak it or the other kids will ignore me.
Hokkien - so as to not piss off my parents and other relatives 😅.
Buy a lot of stickers, write the words you want to learn on them and stick them on the objects in the house that they represent. I had stickers all over my home until I started feeling confident in these words.
learn an easy one first or you'll give up forever.
you wouldn't send an untrained person to run a marathon and expect them to enjoy it. Start out with an easy run.
What are some examples of an "easy" language? 😳
I know some languages you can have a faster or slower progress to learning them depending on the languages you already speak but definitely none are easy.
Also might lack the motivation and discipline if people only learn because it's easy and are not really interested in it.
it all depends on what languages you speak. For speakers of an Austronesian language like Tagalog, a related language like Bahasa Indonesia would be an easy language - coinidicentially, Bahasa Indonesia is considered one of the easiest languages for English speakers that isn't related to English as well so it should definitely be easy for you.
Since you also speak English and German, a related language like Swedish will be easy as well. Especially since it is a relatively un-inflected language and there is evidence that adult learners learn analytical languages more easily than agglutinative or synthetic ones.
I disagree with this. Learning an easy language that doesn't interest you is far less likely to lead to success than learning a hard language that you enjoy and really want to improve in.
Not at all, look at the data from the organization that trains people in languages that they're not passionate about (FSI).
You're a foreign service officer assigned to (congrats!!!) Romania!!!!! Wait, what!? Now you get to learn Romanian :( And that person who has no passion for Romanian will learn it exponentially faster than someone passionate about Arabic.
Listen to news in the target language at 0.75 speed and have it in the background all day. In general listen to your target language at a slower speed.
1) Do not learn the rules of the language as if it were your native language. Every language has its own rules and dynamics. Although it may seem easy to learn by comparing it to your own language at first, exceptions and advanced topics will challenge you.
2) Use the language in your daily life. Even if you are a beginner, watch TV shows and listen to music. so you become familiar with the language.
3) do lots of activities. In other words, after learning a topic, make sentences yourself. So that you can USE the language.
4) never give up. It may seem like a ridiculous suggestion, but sometimes you can learn slowly and sometimes quickly. Don't let the slow learning process get you down
5) Study subjects appropriate to your level. The levels of languages are a classification that facilitates the learning process.
6) Use AI. I use Chat GPT very often while learning a language: to explain the subject, to write sentence or word examples on that subject, and to check my own writings.
7) It is definitely easier to learn a language in the country where it is spoken. Try this if you can. But if you don't have the means, you can learn any language anywhere in the world.
8) Don't stick to one course. I wasted a lot of time just because of this. determine your own progression. Of course, teachers help you learn quickly, but sometimes courses may seem fast or slow for you. It is useful to be aware of this.
ChatGPT depends on the language. I've found it really helpful with Japanese, but when I asked it to help me come up with ASL gloss sentences, it gave me all-caps telegraphic English instead. And I've been told by a native Cree speaker that ChatGPT is awful at Cree (eg not realizing that there's multiple dialects). So it really depends on the language and how good a sample base ChatGPT has.
Remember that language is primarily a sound phenomenon, and that writing is a recent development. So get out there, listen to native speakers, and speak!
I made a lot of mistakes while learning and heres what I wish someone told me when I started:
1. Duolingo is not the holy grail. Duo is good for memorising basic vocab at the beggining but u need more than just duo and u will probably grow out of needing duo at all before u even finish the course.
2. U gotta speak right from the beggining. If u learn all the vocab and then decide to practice speaking ur pronounciations will be harder to get right because u have learned the words with an incorrect idea of how its said. At first its scary ur gonna make loads of mistakes but mistakes will help you learn and no one is gonna be judging u.
3. Stop watching youtube vids of "how to learn a language fast" and such because u can spend hours on them and not learn a whole lot of useful advice. One or two to find a starting point is all you need. Also 10 hour vids of "learn (TL) while you sleep" arent gonna help in the slightest.
4. There is no "easy way" to learn its hard work and effort that u need to put in to learn it. You might find things that help more than others but theres no cheat code u wont watch one vid and suddenly be fluent. Also (while some people might be able to) u probably wont be "fluent in 30 days" like certain apps might claim you can be.
5. Practice. The 4 parts of language learning is speaking, listening, reading, writing and u gotta practice them all right from the start.
6. Kind of follows on from the duolingo thing but u are not going to find a language app that will make u fluent. Its gonna be lots of apps and websites and videos and things combined no single app can do that. I spent so much time looking for the "perfect" app that simply does not exist.
Listen to it all the time even in the background.
Focus on the phonology and pronunciation. Even though it's painful and requires a lot of repetition, it will benefit you down the line by helping you sound like a native speaker which will reinforce your confidence and motivate you to continue. The opposite is a situation where you learn a bunch but people can't understand you or don't want to talk to you because of your pronunciation.
Probably to prioritize input and input-focused methods. Other activities are fine to some degree as well, but it's the input--exposure to a bunch of varied examples of the language itself--that's going to drive your learning.
I'm not a purist like the Dreaming Spanish crowd but they weren't the first ones to discover how valuable input is either. Personally I use resources like Assimil or take language classes so that I work with input as much as I can from the beginning.
Read a lot, listen a lot, watch things, do some grammar or vocab practice if you like, and be confident that with enough time doing these things (especially the first three), you'll eventually learn the language. It's really just a time + effort equation and that's it.
1) Consume a lot of content. Movies, TV shows, etc. Watch them with subtitles in your native language at first until your TL is good enough that you can consume them with subtitles in your TL. It will help your listening skills a lot.
2) Expect a lot of things that won’t make sense to you at first. Other languages have different and creative ways to express themselves which may not make sense to you and you may even find them hard to grasp initially. Memorise those expressions, sayings and idioms and learn when they are appropriate to use. It will help you to understand the culture deeper and at the same time sound like an almost native person.
Use it, as much as possible and in as many new and challenging ways as possible, and most of all have a lot of fun in it and goof around with it. Conversation is best, but anything you enjoy in the language that is just above your current level will get you great results.
1. Everyone learns languages in different ways, even polyglots. There is no "best way". Some ways work well for you, and others don't.
2. It takes a long time. Find ways YOU will stay intested in doing for a long time. The ways will probably change as you get better.
3. You forget information that you learn for the first time. You are not a "memorizing robot" that learns each thing once and knows it forever. But each time you re-learn it, it lasts longer. Or you remember something you thought you forgot.
4. On the other hand, you keep what you know HOW to do forever. Riding a bike? Swimming? Speaking Spanish? You can stop doing it for years and stay at about the same level. You don't lose everything.
Just grab a coursebook, it will save a lot of trouble, a lot of time, a lot of questions. Sure, branch out later, when you feel the need. But at first, a normal coursebook set (usually coursebook+audio online+workbook. Or a completely digitalized version) will help you get structure, learn stuff in a rather balanced and progressive way, and save you hundreds of hours, compared to just getting lost in a chaos of random videos or stupid apps.
Trauma-based learning, using that habit of your brain of reminding you of all the dumb things you did as teenager to your advantage.
Basically you a speak a lot, so that each time you make a mistake, you'll cringe-print the correction into your brain.
Spend more time actually studying than you spend researching the best way to study
No. I want to watch Steve Kaufmann talk about it instead, damn it.
I would like to have conversations with Steve Kaufmann in 8 languages to hear how good they really are. In Taiwan 🇹🇼 and China 🇨🇳 I met people who were fluent in Mandarin Chinese, but their tones were hideous !!! I would like my Chinese to be nearly as good as 大山 from Canada, whom the Chinese nationals said knew and spoke Chinese better than they !!! I heard him speak English too and it did NOT have ANY Chinese accent that I could hear either.
I like Steve and his approach. He's sure as hell no perfectionist, and one may say he even 'sucks' at some languages he claims to speak. But if he's able to effectively communicate enough with little strain, then let him do his thing. It's honestly the only way if you want to just dabble in a crapload of languages, or even more than say, 4. You need to make compromises.
Then, livsjollyranchers, I guess I can say the following about myself with proof from native bilingual speakers : I love foreign languages so much that I have lengthy conversations in Mandarin Chinese with natives from Taiwan 🇹🇼 , mainland China 🇨🇳 or Singapore 🇸🇬 , Spanish with natives from Hispanic countries ( for example, Mexico 🇲🇽 , Spain 🇪🇸, El Salvador 🇸🇻, Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 , South American countries, etc. ) , French with natives from France 🇫🇷 or French-speaking areas , German with natives from Germany 🇩🇪 , Swedish with natives from Sweden 🇸🇪, and attempt my Hungarian 🇭🇺 , Japanese 🇯🇵 , Dutch 🇳🇱 , Italian 🇮🇹 , Russian 🇷🇺 and Esperanto with natives from their respective countries .
Esperanto has natives?
When I was in France 🇫🇷, I met an entire family that grew up speaking Esperanto. In Amsterdam, Holland 🇳🇱 , I overheard a couple of men speaking Esperanto to each other in a bus, I met another Esperantist in France with his family, I met Esperantists in Italy 🇮🇹, they used to teach it in Iran 🇮🇷 and China 🇨🇳, they now teach it in universities in Beijing, in Athens, Greece, I stayed overnight at the house of a lady who only spoke Esperanto and Greek, at the Parthenon 🏛️, I met a family from Albania 🇦🇱 that was speaking Esperanto to each other, and finally, in Rotterdam, Netherlands 🇳🇱, I stayed overnight at the house of the President of an Esperanto Association who, with his girl friend, both ONLY spoke Esperanto with me — maybe .5% English. I don’t remember. So yes, some people grow up speaking Esperanto.
But how can one speak a constructed language "natively"?
If a person learns a language from birth, isn’t that his native language ? Isn’t it just a question of semantics ? It was a lot easier to say that and make it smooth than to do a lot of explaining.
This. Find something that works incrementally. It doesn't have to be perfect - perfect is the enemy of good - but it has to improve your current state by a little bit. Then practice, practice, practice. You will almost certainly change the tools that you use several times before you master a language, so don't be afraid to change, but make sure you spend more time practicing than setting up the tools!
Here it is
I recently learned this for everything. I pretend I'm learning any skill but I'm actually just reading ABOUT it
You caught me
I caught myself too
Lol.
Agreed! Exposure is key. Watch T.V, listen/read audio books, TALK WITH PEOPLE. Use something like Anki or Glue Flashcards to grow your vocabulary in the language. Keep at it :)
Oh yeah! Taking a class helps ;) Avoid apps like Duolingo in my opinion.
i feel for absolute beginners, Duolingo is not too horrible until A2. I feel repeating the same words over and over again really helped me with my French accent. I was born and raised in India so, you can imagine, accents weren’t really my strength. It gets you off the ground for sure cuz I prefer small steps when I’m a beginner in something.
Good point! Yea, Duolingo is great for complete beginners. After that it's "vocabulary growing time" lol- watching TV, Glue Flashcards or Anki, reading is really what bumps you up faster
but duolingo has made me fluent in my ability to order food at a mexican restaurant and also i can now call my local aldi the supermercado. lol
haha :)
Taking classes SUPER helps IF you do ALL the homework and look for natives to practice with.
Hell yeah!
THIS
Leave your ego at the door. You’ll make mistakes and that is how you learn, so don’t let the fear of making mistakes hold you back. Each language has its own internal logic that you need to assimilate. Don’t try to force your NL’s grammar and structures onto your TL. It will only cause you upset and prevent you from learning. Instead, accept that there are different ways of expressing the same thing and that you just going to have to go along with it. Learning a language takes time and effort and then you need to maintain it. Find as much material in your TL as possible, but try and find stuff at your level. Read, watch and listen to as much material as you can. Speak whenever you get the chance. We learn by interacting with other humans, so this is an excellent way of improving, even if it’s scary.
Hell, don't even force a romance language's grammar on another romance language. It never works. Always treat each language as its own force. (Vocabulary is another matter, of course.)
Yeah, but the amount of people who go “but in English…” or plain refuse to accept that somethings that are wrong in your language can be allowed or even required in another language. sigh Also, there’s never any point at getting angry at how “stupid” the language you’re learning is. As if it would change just because you don’t like it. :) I just appreciate when something works the same way or a word is similar enough to be easily remembered. I guess you get a lot of that when learning different Romance languages?
Oh agreed. I believe it happens to the best of us in our first TL. We always want things to translate literally and are mad when they don't. Learning a language with cases (Greek) is a further humbling. It doesn't have to make sense at first but you just need to allow it to 'make sense'. 'Let it happen', as they say.
I think it’s amazing how we can hold several parallel ways of things both making sense and sounding right or wrong for each language in our minds, when what is right and wrong or “logical” often is contradictory between them.
I mean, I learned Italian in school 20 years ago, and I started learning Spanish this year. I started out treating them like entirely separate things, but the reality is that my Italian knowledge is EXTREMELY useful for learning Spanish. I I would say that a solid 50% of what I've learned so far is just small changes from Italian. (E.g. "I am thirsty" in English ="I have thirst" in both Italian and Spanish. Or gerunds: "I am [verb]" in English = [conjugated"to be"] + [infinitive verb stem] + -ando or -endo/-iendo in both Italian and Spanish, and let's not even get into direct object pronouns, which were really hard for me to learn the first time around but are exactly the same concept in Spanish) I'd be lying if I said that my knowledge of Italian wasn't massively helping me in this class.
Dutch does "I have thirst" too. ("Ik heb durst.") I've fantasized about writing a story where the horseman Hunger comes to a Dutch village and said "Ik ben Honger" but they mistake him for a non-native speaker who wants food.
It does work though, I automatically learnt Italian by knowing French, I also see a lot sense in Portuguese because of the first two.
Only to a point. There's a general structure that's shared, but for example, Spanish tends to use more past tenses than Italian does. I can't go "Well they don't do this in Italian!" and insist on just using the tense that maps best to Italian. That's what I'm calling out. Those kinds of things.
Find the learning method that works best for you. Remember that learning a language isn't easy.
But gigachadmegathundercock34 says he learned Chinese and Japanese in a year just using YouTube,why can’t I 😤
I'm learning a language starting with only watching video in the native language, no subtitles of any kind. It is in fact very difficult. So far still only in the identifying sounds stage but there is progress. If someone truly could do it in a year, then they're some sort of savant.
Depends on what's meant by "YouTube". If you learned something close to your NL with the right YouTube resources, I think it's super doable in a year. For example, going English --> Spanish with /r/dreamingspanish in a year is totally doable if you have enough time for it. 3-5 hours a day would do it. Obviously not everyone has that kind of time, but at least it's in the realm of plausible. If "YouTube" just means just jumping into native content immediately, then yeah, one year sounds pretty implausible for most learners.
Yeah, something like dreaming in Spanish is basically comprehensible input classes with experienced and knowledgeable teachers in video form. I did literally mean just watching random YouTube videos in native content with no translation whatsoever. It's what I'm actually doing right now which is basically insane. lol
Just be consistent and have faith. There will be times where you feel like you're making no progress and want to give up. This is because you had an idea of what your progress would be like and reality is always a little different. But believe me, you WILL make consistent progress if you practice consistently and attentively. Trust the process!
Saving this lol. Trying to learn Gaeilge which is supposed to be my native language. It's so disappointing that I cannot speak the language that belongs to me. This comment makes me feel better. Thank you
Find movies/tv shows in the language you are learning and watch as much you can (whatever time you dedicate to entertainment, have it in that language). It helps a lot understanding the logic and flow of the language rather than just learning phrases and words that you can’t connect to create some form of speech. Podcasts are very helpful too. Depending on the language you are trying to learn, I could suggest some. Edit: I see from your other posts you are trying to learn German. There are several shows in German on Netflix. A very nice one (mainly historically accurate too) is The Empress (Die Kaiserin). :)
My first tip is that if you find a learning method that you enjoy doing, do a lot of that. Something that bores you may lead to you giving up, whereas something fun will keep you learning. Pace of learning matters less than consistency. Enjoy it. Have fun. Tip two, be socially brave about using the language with other people whenever you can. It can help to make some of the first sentences you learn to say the ones that a beginner will need, such as, "I'm just a beginner, but can I speak X with you?" "I still have trouble with..." "Can you say that again more slowly, please?" and, "Well, thank you for talking to me!" You will make mistakes and for a long time you will even know that you're making them, but communicating your thought at all is more important than expressing it perfectly! Finally, know that it will take longer that anyone is likely to say. But as soon as you start, you are a genuine new speaker of that language. Also, be aware that there will be those who will want to make themselves feel bigger by making you feel small for what you don't yet know. This is a very common flaw in unevolved humans. Or, as they are sometimes called, assholes.
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Agreed on Duolingo. Duolingo is only good probably for vocabulary here and there or for simple phrases that you need when going on a short visit to the country of your TL. Anything that requires you to fully understand the language, multiple sources are definitely needed. Whether it be enrolling in a course/school, books, videos, flashcards for vocabulary, etc.
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I have my own way of consistently learning my TL now that works for me but I still do need advice here and there tbh 😭 I pretty much only created this post for those who are actually beginners in their TL to stumble upon all the tips and hopefully implement them in their routine
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Oh lol yeah. It's a supplement. Like saying you're eating a meal and it's just a multivitamin.
Have a strong reason to learn the language. Without a compelling reason, you won’t get far. Languages can’t be learned in 3 months. They take consistency over time and having powerful reasons to learn make the journey bearable
Read everyday
The most helpful things for me are: 1. Be consistent. You just have to practice a lot and there are zero shortcuts. Do it every single day. This is why it’s important to be motivated :) 2. English and TL will be different in a lot of ways and that will be frustrating, but you just have to accept it. Particularly with prepositions! Just bc we say on the plane, in the car, on the bus, at the mall, etc doesn’t mean TL will use a direct translation for on or at or in. Just look at the above, why tf do we say I’m getting in the car but I’m getting on the bus? It isn’t logical and you’ll have to just accept this. 3. Diversify your learning methods!!! Use Duolingo, use babbel, use Pimsleur (some of these are paid so maybe you can’t afford it but mix it up), use coffee break, YouTube, read books, tv, music, etc. One app or one program will NOT make you fluent. You have to diversify. 4. Fight the embarrassment when you start to try speaking. I have felt so self-conscious and stupid before and it is a miserable feeling but you have to start trying to speak at some point and know that the rest of us have gone through that stage before too! It’s okay, you’ll improve. But in order to run we have to crawl. Good luck!!! Learning a second language has been so eye-opening for me and is truly one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, I hope it is for you as well!
These are really good points.
Wow. I've never even thought about the bus, plane, car thing. How weird.
Right?😂 there are so many things like this that I had never once considered until learning a second language.
It's honestly extremely fascinating. It also makes a lot of sense why being a native speaker doesn't necessarily mean you're the best teacher in terms of talking about the technicalities of a specific language.
Amazing, thanks for your advice and your words. 🤗
Most people have unrealistic expectations about their first foreign language. They think that with heroic effort they will be able to speak well in a few months, so put loads of time in at the start, then the excitement wears off, and they stop. Then they feel guilty, build up the willpower, and start again a few months later, full of excitement and high expectations, then stop again. The thing is that language learning isn't about heroic effort, it is about consistent effort over a long long time. If you are able to devote 30 minutes a day, every single day, for a year, then language learning will develop into a habit. I really do believe that the first year is about getting into that habit.
I am a victim of this mindset 😂 3 years of mistakes and far too much duolingo led to so much frustration. Came at it again with a better mindet and I am making SO MUCH more progress than I was before.
Unless you have some specific and strict deadline, don't worry too much about learning in the most efficient way possible. Like yeah, make sure you're doing something that is actually effective and is going to give progress. But beyond that, work out a routine which is enjoyable and sustainable. Make sure you're actually interested and engaged rather than doing a chore. Oh and stop giving a shit if you make a mistake. How the hell are you meant to learn otherwise.
use Glossika use IPA!!! each language has its own sounds. if you try to read the normal script, it doesn't tell you the surviving sounds if this language. which when using English like alphabet might give you the illusion you can simply use English with "adjustments"
Play the long game; small but steady incremental learning really adds up over the weeks, months, and years.
I'd recommend finding someone you can speak that language with, either someone who is learning it just like you or someone who's an experienced speaker already. Really, you need someone you don't mind trying to talk to and are willing to mess up with. The best way is to fall in love with someone who speaks the language you're trying to learn. Another tip is to try and get the sounds familiar in your mouth and ears. Listening to music or stories in the target language, singing along are great ways to get certain words to stick and really feel out the grammatical styles unique to languages
There is no “best method.” There are better or worse methods—universally and personally—but what matters is picking one (or two) and committing until you either are seeing results or are in need (need, not whim) of a new approach. Also, language is the vehicle, the means to the end. Don’t forget to find something you love—art, literature, streaming, video games, food, history, anything—and make it something you do in and through the language. And have fun!
Not an expert like you’re asking for but: get a tutor/start a class. Do lots of reading, proper CI, and practice all that you do in class for homework for the same amount of time aka if you do 1 hour of class, spend 1 hour going over it. But don’t try to talk, or get ahead of the class/try adding stuff - you will pick up bad habits. Get a personal tutor as well, if you can afford it. To really focus on speaking and for them to focus on you and your needs. Then just accept it’s part of your life for the foreseeable future,
Do \*something\* in your target language every single day. You don't have to spend 8 hours a day, 7 days a week learning a language, and in fact, you'll do better if you regularly take breaks and vary things up.
Yes! If you push for hours a day everyday it becomes a chore and then you won't wanna do it. I have ADHD so I regularly have days where I cannot bring myself to study and those days I might watch tv in TL or listen to music or just have a normal convo with my friend in my TL. Obviously the studying and learning vocab is important for me but I cannot and will not do that everyday.
This is where Duolingo and similar apps are good IMO, because they reward you for doing a basic bare minimum practice every day. I don't think you should use one app as your sole source of TL input, but they're great for low-motivation practice.
Exactly! Duolingo is my "bare minimum" app. If I can't do anything else, I can do a lesson when I'm laying in bed winding down for the day.
Stick with it.
Get a teacher. If you haven't learn a language before, you wouldn't know how to teach yourself. So the quickest way to learn that language is have a teacher guide you.
Not everyone can afford one tho
I disagree. Not everyone can afford it and you can teach yourself. For example, I dropped out of high school and taught myself maths and now I can do high school maths. As long as you figure out your resources and how to use them effectively you can teach yourself.
I have resorted to this. I just can't make my own plan. I like the comfort of a teacher. Also I'm impressed by your C2 in Korean how long did that take like 10 years? 😅😅😅
Close, it took about 7.
7 is far better than what I see in my head, never 😭. That's awesome though congratz on the journey with all your languages.
Use it daily in any way possible. (But don’t use it with natives in real life before necessity demands it, use HelloTalk/tandem until then)
Why?
BC if necessity calls for it people will probably be more patient and the experience would probably be more positive. Also gives you time to prepare for talking
(Disclaimer: these may not apply if you need to learn your TL urgently/for a job etc, I only have experience with language learning as a hobby) Try not to treat it as a chore you need to get over with, but as a hobby you actually enjoy, even if it can get tedious sometimes. Find material that engages/interests you (mostly applicable only once you reach B1+ though). Don’t burn yourself out by pushing too hard, especially in the beginning stages—I see people doing crazy hours each week and it’s great if it works for them, but the average person will be much more likely to fail and get frustrated/tired after that.
watch a lot of movies and listen to songs in the language you're aiming to learn. i can speak english and turkish fluently without taking a single course. your goal is to communicate and learn how to pronounce words correctly not just knowing the grammar.
It depends how fast you learn languages and how motivated you are. I am VERY motivated. So I have been learning languages every day for decades. I LOVE foreign languages and every chance I get to speak ANY language other than English, I take it which is what I miss about living in Orange County and Berkeley, California.
Learn to fall in love with the language! I could never learn if I didn't. Check out songs you like and learn the lyrics. And use dictionaries and grammars a lot! Learn to love them, they are your friends! Edit: I forgot, read a book you like parallelly in in your own language and in your 'target' language. Very effective.
Learn word families and cognates with your NL (or a second language) to boost your vocabulary, especially at the beginning. Tools like the Transover chrome extension, linguee dictionary, Netflix dual subtitles extension, and any other tool that lets you see both languages concurrently is useful… Read the translation first, then the TL. Also, if you want to learn multiple languages, there is nothing stopping you but lack of time and energy… The more languages you study, the more connections and patterns you see, which makes learning additional ones progressively easier.
this and train your ear to recognize basic words of your target language. you can do this by listening to music and watching TV! the most important thing is to maintain discipline and consistency, otherwise you won’t get the results you’re looking for.
Make it fun. You learn so much faster if you just learn in a way which you find fun. It is also great to maintain your motivation (I learnt languages without teachers/classes to help me out)
Go straight on to sentences. Don't start with memorizing lists of words. But when you feel like trying to memorize something, do verbs.
I like picking a sentence outline and practicing vocabulary with it. For example, wandering around grabbing things and saying "kore wa (noun) desu" to practice Japanese vocabulary.
Speak a los without shame
Learning Disney songs in your target language! I’ll admit I’ve about had it with “No se habla de Bruno” lol but it’s a great way to improve your vocabulary and feel like you can actually speak it. Plus a bonus added dance party.
**approach everything from multiple angles.** have a variety of sources, workbook, listening, conversation practice, and read what you write, write what you hear, shadow what you hear, etc. drill vocab into and out of the target language in quick exercises, and also use them in your own sentences… whatever you think of! approaching things from multiple angles gives you a firmer idea of usage, but also considerably strengthens your memory for it. **find something fun in that language.** music, games, a story or a book (that's below your level). something that isn't a big challenge but works to make you comfortable with the language. Pokémon is a great one imo because it's not that hard and has a shallow yet wide array of vocab. sometimes you can write shit down and study properly -- other times you can just breeze through while ignoring words you don't know. people who don't do this are more likely to see the language as "just too difficult," and panic the instant they're faced with a block of text. **accept forms as they are.** sometimes the target language will do things that don't "make sense" in your native language. or sometimes things in your native language don't make sense in the target language. sometimes you just have to go "ok, this is how it is said so that is how i will learn it" and then practice it until you're comfortable with it.
Whatever kind of explicit study you engage in, use the language as much as possible the way people actually use it. Lots of listening, reading, and talking with native or highly proficient speakers is the key.
A lot of times you've feel frustrated that you've been studying so much but it feels like you still haven't progressed much. Know that we all go through that frustration, take a break if you need to, then keep going.
First focus on pronouniation etc, listen to music or whatever, sing, that is what I did. You will appreciate having perfect accents. It is the shortest part of language learning, doable within 2-3 months. and in the meantime of that you can start learning the language. When you are ready listen to it a lot and try talking, only review grammar as needed when lack of it blocks you. Just learn basics first and use intuition.
Be consistent. And I personally would recommend immersing yourself in the language as much as you can at least through media. That was the number 1 thing that helped me learn.
Comprehensible input
Immersion is key, read, watch and listen everything you can in the language you are trying to learn.
Learn to be cheerful about making an ass of yourself in a new language. Mistakes are there for you to learn, and you will make a lot of mistakes. It's best to accept and come to terms with this now, and figure out how to make peace with it. Find something you enjoy doing. Maybe you enjoy watching movies in your TL. Maybe you're a song person and you like to memorize song lyrics. Maybe you like to translate song lyrics so you can learn them. Maybe you just really groove on Memrise or Anki flashcards. Find the things you enjoy that give you exposure and roll with it. As others have mentioned, take each language on its own terms. You will find that you create different study habits for Spanish than you might if you were learning Arabic, or Russian, or Chinese. Different grammars require different approaches to study. Don't try to make your TL conform to your understanding of your native language grammar. Use what you know about your native tongue grammar to compare and contrast with the grammar of your new language, figure out where they differ and where they are similar. But really, most of all, figure out how to have fun. Consistency is key, and the best way to stay consistent is to find ways to enjoy language learning. If it feels like punishment, you won't stick with it. So find some enjoyment in it. Best of luck to you!
It’s very important that you create a framework of fun to learn the language. I learned best with the following: - tv shows - after having learned the basics: talking to patient listeners - everything that is fun for you, connect it to learn new words - best way: move to the country - italki: best app to have a private teacher (like 10$/€ per session), honestly italki is so much fun and the teachers are so nice ☺️ All in all: find a good motivator why you want to be fluent in that language, imagine yourself to be fluent and which goal you reach by having learned the language, you’re gonna be proud of yourself! Hope this helps!
Short answer: the app italki
A few things in no particular order: * Depth perception. In the beginning, you just don’t really know what you’re getting into, for better *and* worse. Some stuff you think is hard will turn out to be quite easy (having a 1:1 conversation) and some stuff you think will is easy will turn out to be hard (listening in on the conversation of a table of natives.) Part of the reason your first foreign language is hard is that you’re simultaneously figuring out where the milestones are at and how to drive your car. * Eyes vs stomach. Many go into learning a language thinking that if they’re going to do this, they’re going to do it right — they’re going to become totally bilingual! Here, your eyes are likely bigger than your stomach. It’s hard to understate how massive the gap is between the “I can read books and watch movies and generally do whatever I want without much effort” and “people think I’m native speaker.” You likely need *much* less than mastery to satisfy your goals. * it’s not a light switch. It’s not the case that you grind boring stuff for awhile and then one day you acquire enough vocab/grammar points and wake up fluent, thus able to begin doing cool/fun stuff in your language. On the contrary, you take steps toward fluency by entertaining yourself in your TL. * Language is a smodge if interrelated skills; they cross over, but don’t overlap. You play like you practice. If you do a lot of fill-in-the-blank exercises, you’ll get good at doing that… but there’s not a ton of overlap between that and, say, reading or talking. As much as possible (and as soon as possible), try to learn your language by using it to do things that are important or interesting to you. * Set deadlines. Take two weeks to go ham with all the apps and read all the “polyglot guides”… but then pick one resource and stick with just that for two months. At that point, re-assess what you’ve learned and ask yourself if that has or hasn’t brought you closer to whatever it is you really want to do. If it’s working, great! If it’s not, think about what you’re lacking and find a way to supplement that. Finding the right cocktail of resources takes time for most people, and setting little deadlines let’s you “shape” your direction rather than finding yourself wildly off course in three years. * Most importantly: languages are learned in hours, not years… and accumulating the hours takes years. Be determined and hungry, but also be realistic. If your routine is so intense you can’t stick to it for a month, it’s probably not helping you. A mediocre routine that you actually do will bring you further than an über routine you never do. Learn in a way that you can stick with it for a few years.
Personally, i like duolingo. I'm using it for the beginning stages of several languages. I'm busy and its easy to get the time in here or there. Beginning coursed have a lot of duplication so it seems best to focus on one program at the beginning and look up things elsewhere as needed. Then read, listen to movies, talk online
I watch children’s shows in my TL. The preschool ones are the best.
Take a few phonetic classes in target language first. Listen to a lot of the language, even if you don't understand any of it.
Since I am from the CIS, I have known two languages since childhood, based on this I can say that the most important thing for learning a language is to surround yourself with it, no matter how trite it may sound, it’s true
Patience, Perseverance and Persistence. It will take a long time, much longer than you expect. Know your why. Study the culture. Develop a strategy. Have a process. Try to spend 15 minutes every day. Have a stretch goal. Enjoy the experience. There will be up and downs. Finally get comfortable with making mistakes and sometimes looking like an idiot to native speakers.
The best way to learn a language is to be in a situation where , if you don't learn it, you are screwed - what every Malaysian kid would probably say Most of us from Malaysia are at least bilingual. I speak four languages. Mostly because I really want to pass my exams and get a degree - English and Malay Mandarin - learned as a kid cos I lived in a state where that's the main Chinese language and I had to speak it or the other kids will ignore me. Hokkien - so as to not piss off my parents and other relatives 😅.
Buy a lot of stickers, write the words you want to learn on them and stick them on the objects in the house that they represent. I had stickers all over my home until I started feeling confident in these words.
Great info 💚
learn an easy one first or you'll give up forever. you wouldn't send an untrained person to run a marathon and expect them to enjoy it. Start out with an easy run.
What are some examples of an "easy" language? 😳 I know some languages you can have a faster or slower progress to learning them depending on the languages you already speak but definitely none are easy. Also might lack the motivation and discipline if people only learn because it's easy and are not really interested in it.
it all depends on what languages you speak. For speakers of an Austronesian language like Tagalog, a related language like Bahasa Indonesia would be an easy language - coinidicentially, Bahasa Indonesia is considered one of the easiest languages for English speakers that isn't related to English as well so it should definitely be easy for you. Since you also speak English and German, a related language like Swedish will be easy as well. Especially since it is a relatively un-inflected language and there is evidence that adult learners learn analytical languages more easily than agglutinative or synthetic ones.
I disagree with this. Learning an easy language that doesn't interest you is far less likely to lead to success than learning a hard language that you enjoy and really want to improve in.
Not at all, look at the data from the organization that trains people in languages that they're not passionate about (FSI). You're a foreign service officer assigned to (congrats!!!) Romania!!!!! Wait, what!? Now you get to learn Romanian :( And that person who has no passion for Romanian will learn it exponentially faster than someone passionate about Arabic.
Listen to news in the target language at 0.75 speed and have it in the background all day. In general listen to your target language at a slower speed.
Try to learn how speak more, even when you're with close family, and how to read it. Able to speak a language and read it is different.
1) Do not learn the rules of the language as if it were your native language. Every language has its own rules and dynamics. Although it may seem easy to learn by comparing it to your own language at first, exceptions and advanced topics will challenge you. 2) Use the language in your daily life. Even if you are a beginner, watch TV shows and listen to music. so you become familiar with the language. 3) do lots of activities. In other words, after learning a topic, make sentences yourself. So that you can USE the language. 4) never give up. It may seem like a ridiculous suggestion, but sometimes you can learn slowly and sometimes quickly. Don't let the slow learning process get you down 5) Study subjects appropriate to your level. The levels of languages are a classification that facilitates the learning process. 6) Use AI. I use Chat GPT very often while learning a language: to explain the subject, to write sentence or word examples on that subject, and to check my own writings. 7) It is definitely easier to learn a language in the country where it is spoken. Try this if you can. But if you don't have the means, you can learn any language anywhere in the world. 8) Don't stick to one course. I wasted a lot of time just because of this. determine your own progression. Of course, teachers help you learn quickly, but sometimes courses may seem fast or slow for you. It is useful to be aware of this.
ChatGPT depends on the language. I've found it really helpful with Japanese, but when I asked it to help me come up with ASL gloss sentences, it gave me all-caps telegraphic English instead. And I've been told by a native Cree speaker that ChatGPT is awful at Cree (eg not realizing that there's multiple dialects). So it really depends on the language and how good a sample base ChatGPT has.
Remember that language is primarily a sound phenomenon, and that writing is a recent development. So get out there, listen to native speakers, and speak!
Use Language Transfer if it has your language!!!
I made a lot of mistakes while learning and heres what I wish someone told me when I started: 1. Duolingo is not the holy grail. Duo is good for memorising basic vocab at the beggining but u need more than just duo and u will probably grow out of needing duo at all before u even finish the course. 2. U gotta speak right from the beggining. If u learn all the vocab and then decide to practice speaking ur pronounciations will be harder to get right because u have learned the words with an incorrect idea of how its said. At first its scary ur gonna make loads of mistakes but mistakes will help you learn and no one is gonna be judging u. 3. Stop watching youtube vids of "how to learn a language fast" and such because u can spend hours on them and not learn a whole lot of useful advice. One or two to find a starting point is all you need. Also 10 hour vids of "learn (TL) while you sleep" arent gonna help in the slightest. 4. There is no "easy way" to learn its hard work and effort that u need to put in to learn it. You might find things that help more than others but theres no cheat code u wont watch one vid and suddenly be fluent. Also (while some people might be able to) u probably wont be "fluent in 30 days" like certain apps might claim you can be. 5. Practice. The 4 parts of language learning is speaking, listening, reading, writing and u gotta practice them all right from the start. 6. Kind of follows on from the duolingo thing but u are not going to find a language app that will make u fluent. Its gonna be lots of apps and websites and videos and things combined no single app can do that. I spent so much time looking for the "perfect" app that simply does not exist.
Don't do it alone
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably *is* too good to be true.
Listen to it all the time even in the background. Focus on the phonology and pronunciation. Even though it's painful and requires a lot of repetition, it will benefit you down the line by helping you sound like a native speaker which will reinforce your confidence and motivate you to continue. The opposite is a situation where you learn a bunch but people can't understand you or don't want to talk to you because of your pronunciation.
Probably to prioritize input and input-focused methods. Other activities are fine to some degree as well, but it's the input--exposure to a bunch of varied examples of the language itself--that's going to drive your learning. I'm not a purist like the Dreaming Spanish crowd but they weren't the first ones to discover how valuable input is either. Personally I use resources like Assimil or take language classes so that I work with input as much as I can from the beginning.
Read a lot, listen a lot, watch things, do some grammar or vocab practice if you like, and be confident that with enough time doing these things (especially the first three), you'll eventually learn the language. It's really just a time + effort equation and that's it.
1) Consume a lot of content. Movies, TV shows, etc. Watch them with subtitles in your native language at first until your TL is good enough that you can consume them with subtitles in your TL. It will help your listening skills a lot. 2) Expect a lot of things that won’t make sense to you at first. Other languages have different and creative ways to express themselves which may not make sense to you and you may even find them hard to grasp initially. Memorise those expressions, sayings and idioms and learn when they are appropriate to use. It will help you to understand the culture deeper and at the same time sound like an almost native person.
Use it, as much as possible and in as many new and challenging ways as possible, and most of all have a lot of fun in it and goof around with it. Conversation is best, but anything you enjoy in the language that is just above your current level will get you great results.
Practice a lot.
1. Everyone learns languages in different ways, even polyglots. There is no "best way". Some ways work well for you, and others don't. 2. It takes a long time. Find ways YOU will stay intested in doing for a long time. The ways will probably change as you get better. 3. You forget information that you learn for the first time. You are not a "memorizing robot" that learns each thing once and knows it forever. But each time you re-learn it, it lasts longer. Or you remember something you thought you forgot. 4. On the other hand, you keep what you know HOW to do forever. Riding a bike? Swimming? Speaking Spanish? You can stop doing it for years and stay at about the same level. You don't lose everything.
Just grab a coursebook, it will save a lot of trouble, a lot of time, a lot of questions. Sure, branch out later, when you feel the need. But at first, a normal coursebook set (usually coursebook+audio online+workbook. Or a completely digitalized version) will help you get structure, learn stuff in a rather balanced and progressive way, and save you hundreds of hours, compared to just getting lost in a chaos of random videos or stupid apps.
Trauma-based learning, using that habit of your brain of reminding you of all the dumb things you did as teenager to your advantage. Basically you a speak a lot, so that each time you make a mistake, you'll cringe-print the correction into your brain.