I think Krashen’s “Natural Approach” is the best way to learn. It focuses on consuming comprehensible input (CI) - listening/reading in the foreign language, and making sure you understand around 80%+. The idea would be to start with very easy stories/sentences, and slowly build that up as your vocabulary grows.
Pimsleur & FSI are good resources. Also, try to watch movies/shows that you already have seen in the target language instead (e.g. Friends, The Office, Simpsons). That way, you already have the context, and it will be easier to comprehend.
You need around 100-200hrs of CI to have a basic understanding of the language (maybe you can’t speak, but you can understand basic interactions in the language). At around 400-600hrs, you’ll be intermediate, and after around 800-1000hrs of CI, you’ll be fluent.
Agreed. The FSI method is the best I’ve found, and Pimsleur is the best implementation of it. The biggest weakness IMO was that it was about listening and speaking and had only a minor reading component. The new software versions correct for that.
From there, you should be able to have some simple conversations and watch TV shows, at least with the foreign subtitles on. As a note, I found that (as in English) the subs might not match the spoken words, but I found that in some types of media (eg telenovellas) they match pretty well.
Does pimsluer use the FSI method?
I honestly don’t know. I’ve always been extremely good with languages. When I was 12 I learned enough German to chat with people, by hanging out in German chat rooms on AOL.
So I’m lucky, and I can only advise the other lucky ones.
If you’re like me, I recommend starting with a book titled “Learn X” or “X in 30 days”, that sort of thing.
And, do that while you’re traveling in that country. Every single thing you learn, go out and use it. Have google translate or something on hand to fill in where you can’t do it.
Also, get good at connecting with people nonverbally. That gets you the goodwill that you need to access practice when you suck at the language. Get good at eye contact, at observing how people are behaving and fitting in. Be respectful. There are universal human signs of respect and they fill in decently well when you don’t know what to do. For example, the down-nod is a human universal (in fact I think it’s an animal universal — I’ve noticed even birds and dogs seem to chill about my presence when I give them a little bow or down-nod).
Then, as my father who has done intense language training for the army recommends, find a way to be both speaking and listening.
After you start getting the grammar, memorize shit tons of vocab. Get an app with like 10000 words in your target language and just work on it every day. Brainscape is cool; they’ve got a nice system for tracking confidence and presenting what most needs practice.
Watching TV is great for training the ear. Here is the key thing though. So many people find this so hard to do. It’s easy, but people resist it so hard:
Let go of understanding what they’re saying. Listen to them speaking, like you would listen to music or nature sounds. Don’t rewind it. Definitely don’t turn on the subtitles, even if they’re in the foreign language.
Also listen to podcasts. It’s useful to train different modes:
- Watching and listening
- Watching their mouth and listening
- Watching the show’s overall action and listening
- Listening only
- Listening only with your left ear
- Listening only with your right ear
- Listening at low volume
- Listening while in a noisy environment
etc. All those networks overlap in your brain, but not completely. As the old man in Blues Guitar Inside and Out says to the kid
Getting sharper at anything makes you sharper at everything
To that end, it’s okay to train extremely deep. Like, if you spent 30 minutes just repeating one phrase and trying to perfectly match the intonation, pronunciation, rhythm, and tone of a native saying a phrase or sentence, that is not wasted time.
One from Bruce Lee:
I do not fear the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once. I fear the man who has practices on kick 10,000 times.
If you can learn to say “rouge” (French for red) in exactly the way you hear a native speaker saying it, it will make all your French better. It will help with listening. It will help you understand things I can’t even put into words here, but are worth understanding.
I don’t know if this is useful for your average joe but if you’re like me and pick up languages easier than most, these techniques will probably help.
The most important and, for some reason, the most ignored advice I can give is that letting go of understanding. Whether it’s TV or real life, watch the person’s face. Absorb their emotional state and everything you can, and even imagine the feeling of communication. Actually listen, intently. But don’t worry about the things you don’t understand. Don’t worry if you understand nothing. Listening to people speak language we know nothing about is how humans learn language, and if you approach it just right you can activate that baby brain that just knows how to absorb it.
Listen the way your dog listens to you when you talk to him. Perk your ears up, make eye contact, tilt your head, and empathize. Once your brain realizes that you value what the person is saying, it will switch modes and you’ll fly through the acquisition.
Move to a country that speaks that language and pretend you don’t understand english when they try
Total immersion. Nothing else comes anywhere close.
Some people are disciplined and can follow a self-made study course. Ie Duolingo, books, flash cards, etc.
Most people don’t have the discipline or the interest, realistically. Learning a different language is a difficult thing.
In my opinion, the best way to learn a language is be forced to use it. So for example if you move to Germany, you’re going to be forced to learn German so you’re subconsciously and consciously paying much more attention.
You don’t have to move anywhere necessarily though. For example I know Americans that speak fluent Portuguese. Why? They married a Brazilian.
I learned Spanish working with Cubans that didn’t speak English. I already knew Portuguese so it was a lot easier for me, but I couldn’t speak Spanish for most of my life. It was only when I had incentive to learn, did I learn.
Immersion.
Are you young? Move there, get whatever work you can. You’ll speak the language enough to get by within 3-4 months (depending on how much the language differs from your own). By 2 years, if you have an ear for accents and a little ability to mimic, you can be fluent enough to pass for native. It really helps to take language courses at the same time, or else you’ll find your conversational skills to be excellent, but your reading and writing skills will suck.
Great, but if you learn somehing like german, you can’t get a job in germany without passing tests, I think it is the same for english speaking countries.
You can easily get jobs in Germany without passing tests. Your options may merely be limited, but that’s part of why I suggested this would be easier for a younger person. I got a job at UPS in Germany doing data entry and I didn’t understand a stitch of German. This was many years ago, but the point is that there are many entry-level jobs where grasp of language is not so important, and EU laws are very amenable to migrant labor.
You may be picking grapes, or loading trash bins into the trash truck, but you’ll probably be able to find some job where language skills are not required.
Incidentally, it’s gotten much harder to do this as an American than when I did it, but as an EU member citizen it should still be easy. Plus, that’s just the EU. OP didn’t say what they wanted to learn. How easy this is varies from country to country, but the fact remains: it’s still the easiest, fastest, and cheapest way to pick up a language.
Immerese yourself into the language. Do everything in your power to convert your surroundings in such a way, that you’re forced to use the language:
- change your phone’s language
- join chatrooms, websites, gameservers, etc.
- do tandem
- watch shows/movies in that language
- read books, magazines, etc.
- practice grammar and extend your vocabulary
Always find this hard when I don’t know 95pc of the language.
Children’s TV shows are a good way to get started though
Perhaps find somewhere local that offers part time courses, maybe a college etc. Or volunteer somewhere in an Italian community, for example, if you want to learn Italian.
I have no idea if the second idea would work but if you surround yourself with people from different cultures, maybe you might pick up words and basics.
Just a thought. Good luck!
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Most of these " tips " kinda sound sociapathic sure if you only have one life goal and it us to learn a language but still some of these are kinda disturbing . Like get a girlfriend or boyfrien just for language learning do connections or humans mean nothing what are you gonna do after you learn the lunguage just dump them ? And also would you just leave your family and friends and only talk to people who know that language what will you do before you learn the language talk to no one ? But yeah these maybe effective but i wouldn’t say worth the cost .
Immersion, Girlfriends, Apps, Textbooks, Lectures are all good methods but the underlying problem is consistency. To learn a language you need to spend hundreds of hours studying so it won’t happen in a day or a week. The best method is the one that you like and you are consistent in it.
Get a girlfriend who only speaks that language.
Compared to the other options here, I think this one definitely has the highest barrier to entry
I can confirm even just the first 3 words are impossible.
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Estoy muy embarazada.
Mazel tov!
Contact. Start with duolingo then move onto youtube start with small videos in the language and your native language usually by teachers.
Set a goal like one Duolingo lesson per day and or one 5 min video in the language with subtitles on in the target language when you’re good enough.
Read articles on news sites in the language and pick a few words you dont know and look them up.
You could also use anki to make flash cards.
Look for local language meetups so you can practice.
Last and most important dont be afraid of making a mistake or not getting it perfect, its all about the process. Have fun
Things like this help:
Used in VR, it offers some great immersion learning without any pressure.
Try learning a decent language learning app:
- Busuu
- Tandem
- Duolingo
- Memrise
- Babbel
- Rosetta Stone
- Language Transfer
- Pimsleur
- Drops
