After spending many years learning languages, I'd like to think I've learnt a thing or two about how to learn them - so I'll try share some of my main tips.
I'm sure some have been covered here before, but in this thread people can add their own tips too to help others.
I've learnt two languages formally in school - French and German and I learned two languages through exposure to them - Italian and Spanish.
Why?
Why do you want to learn the language? Do you just think German would be cool to learn and you'll end up jacking it in after 2 months? Or do you want to live in Germany in the future?
I can't stress this enough. You have to have a real and tangible reason for learning the language, or you'll never stick with it.
For example I recently started Brazilian Portuguese but I have no Brazilian friends and my plans to go to Brazil in the near future have changed, so my interest has dwindled.
Which?
Similar to above. Which language do you want to learn? Spanish, French, Russian, Mandarin? This question should be aligned with your long-term goals.
It can coincide with your preference for Latinas, you want to make a move to Russia to exploit business opportunities or perhaps you like spending summers in the French Riviera.
If it's a niche language spoken by only a small percentage of the world - e.g. Czech, then really consider your motives for learning that language. Would you be better served learning a widely spoken language over multiple countries like Spanish?
Dedication
To really master a language, you have to either go balls out or not at all. It really is that simple.
You cannot put in an hour or two a week and expect results. Your brain will simply not retain the information.
You have to be prepared to graft and grind out the work. At times learning a language can be VERY boring. Endless grammar, repetition and practice. But it can also be immensely rewarding - like entertaining a beautiful foreign woman all night in her language.
I really dislike the culture of 'exercise hacks' and 'language hacks' that flood the internet and bookshelves these days. There is no shortcut to become proficient in either, and they are similar in many ways.
Building muscle takes a lot of effort and work, but something that is so difficult to attain does not disappear in a small space of time, like aerobic fitness does.
The same applies to languages, even if you don't end up speaking it all the time, the hours you put in will be retained in your brain years later when you want to impress that French girl on the beach.
I would suggest at the absolute minimum an hour a day of your time.
The Snowball Effect
Once you have learned one language, the process of learning another becomes exponentially easier. Your brain now knows a few shortcuts and what works best for you when it comes to learning languages.
This is even more so when learning languages that are from the same family. For example if you learn French then Spanish is much easier and Italian and Portuguese even more so once you've learned Spanish.
You will never know however what system works best for you until you try.
Where?
First and foremost, there really is no substitute for being in a country where the target language is spoken. Especially if the level of English locally is poor, simply put you will have to progress rapidly. Or risk being sidelined as an ignorant gringo who never bothered to learn the language by the locals.
Secondly, if you're fortunate enough to work with people who speak the language you want to learn, befriend them, ask them questions about their culture and show a genuine interest in them and their country. I did this with Italian, and I went from basic to fluent in a year or two without living there.
These are the two best ways. However if you're not able to do any of the above, then never fear you can still learn!
After that long winded introduction I'll give you some tips...
Take a Class
If you're an absolute beginner in languages, then just fork out the money and take a class or get a personal tutor (preferably a native speaker). This will ground you in the basics and correct errors in your pronunciation that Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone will not.
Electronic Devices
If you've got a basic understanding of the language, so much so that you won't end up getting your phone blocked - then change your phone into your target language. Obviously I wouldn't recommend doing this in something like Mandarin, otherwise you may never get back into your phone unless you can read the characters.
However with a Latin language like Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, etc you can do this quickly because lots of the words are intuitive to a native English speaker and you can guess your way around.
- Inteligente - Spanish
- Intelligent - French
- Intelligente - Italian
- Inteligente - Portuguese
You see where I'm going with this?
After a while, because you use your phone all the time, you will subconsciously learn all these words without making much effort.
Now I can tell you the words for message, telephone, settings, contact, send etc in Portuguese. But I didn't make any conscious effort to learn these.
If you're feeling adventurous you could also do this with your PC or Mac. Same applies to tablets and Kindles.
Films & Music
When I learned Spanish, watching Spanish films and listening to Spanish music helped immensely. It also gives you a good insight into the culture of the people who speak the language.
1) If you have a basic understanding, then try watching a film with subtitles in that language, e.g. Tropa de Elite with Portuguese subtitles. The chances are you will understand more what's written than spoken, over time this will change. This is absolutely the best and most fun way to learn in my opinion.
2) Do you have a TV series you like to watch or watch English speaking films? Then download subtitles for that film of whatever language you're speaking. You will learn different ways of saying things you never knew before, e.g. watch game of thrones with Spanish subtitles.
3) If you're not feeling too confident in your language ability just yet, don't worry. Watch the film in the language with English subtitles.
How do you think the Scandinavians and Dutch speak such good English? They have films in English with their own subtitles.
Finally, listen to music - everyone loves music, so I'm sure you can find a genre in the language you like. Then listen to that music and read the lyrics online while you listen to the song or read them afterwards, this helps process the words in your brain and cement your understanding.
Read the News
Try reading the news in the language you want to learn for 10 minutes every day.
Do you like sport? Even better read a sports newspaper, if it's Italian you can read http://www.gazzetta.it for example.
http://www.lefigaro.fr
http://www.elmundo.es
http://www.spiegel.de
http://www.corriere.it
http://www.lenta.ru
When you read online in the target language, make sure you have wordreference.com open in another tab to look up words you don't understand. They only have the main languages, but that's still good. This page is your best friend! It's very thorough and even has plenty of idioms you can translate.
Language Exchange
I'd wager that if you live in a large, urbanised city that there is a language exchange going on somewhere.
Find out where they take place. This is a great way to meet native speakers who want to improve their English, you can then improve your language.
Do this for 45 minutes over a coffee or a beer once or a couple of times a week and you will notice the difference.
It's also a good way of meeting people if you've moved abroad. I actually made some good friends from this in Spain and got a girl out of it once...so you never know.
That's all I can think of for now, if I think of any more I'll add them.
I'm sure some have been covered here before, but in this thread people can add their own tips too to help others.
I've learnt two languages formally in school - French and German and I learned two languages through exposure to them - Italian and Spanish.
Why?
Why do you want to learn the language? Do you just think German would be cool to learn and you'll end up jacking it in after 2 months? Or do you want to live in Germany in the future?
I can't stress this enough. You have to have a real and tangible reason for learning the language, or you'll never stick with it.
For example I recently started Brazilian Portuguese but I have no Brazilian friends and my plans to go to Brazil in the near future have changed, so my interest has dwindled.
Which?
Similar to above. Which language do you want to learn? Spanish, French, Russian, Mandarin? This question should be aligned with your long-term goals.
It can coincide with your preference for Latinas, you want to make a move to Russia to exploit business opportunities or perhaps you like spending summers in the French Riviera.
If it's a niche language spoken by only a small percentage of the world - e.g. Czech, then really consider your motives for learning that language. Would you be better served learning a widely spoken language over multiple countries like Spanish?
Dedication
To really master a language, you have to either go balls out or not at all. It really is that simple.
You cannot put in an hour or two a week and expect results. Your brain will simply not retain the information.
You have to be prepared to graft and grind out the work. At times learning a language can be VERY boring. Endless grammar, repetition and practice. But it can also be immensely rewarding - like entertaining a beautiful foreign woman all night in her language.
I really dislike the culture of 'exercise hacks' and 'language hacks' that flood the internet and bookshelves these days. There is no shortcut to become proficient in either, and they are similar in many ways.
Building muscle takes a lot of effort and work, but something that is so difficult to attain does not disappear in a small space of time, like aerobic fitness does.
The same applies to languages, even if you don't end up speaking it all the time, the hours you put in will be retained in your brain years later when you want to impress that French girl on the beach.
I would suggest at the absolute minimum an hour a day of your time.
The Snowball Effect
Once you have learned one language, the process of learning another becomes exponentially easier. Your brain now knows a few shortcuts and what works best for you when it comes to learning languages.
This is even more so when learning languages that are from the same family. For example if you learn French then Spanish is much easier and Italian and Portuguese even more so once you've learned Spanish.
You will never know however what system works best for you until you try.
Where?
First and foremost, there really is no substitute for being in a country where the target language is spoken. Especially if the level of English locally is poor, simply put you will have to progress rapidly. Or risk being sidelined as an ignorant gringo who never bothered to learn the language by the locals.
Secondly, if you're fortunate enough to work with people who speak the language you want to learn, befriend them, ask them questions about their culture and show a genuine interest in them and their country. I did this with Italian, and I went from basic to fluent in a year or two without living there.
These are the two best ways. However if you're not able to do any of the above, then never fear you can still learn!
After that long winded introduction I'll give you some tips...
Take a Class
If you're an absolute beginner in languages, then just fork out the money and take a class or get a personal tutor (preferably a native speaker). This will ground you in the basics and correct errors in your pronunciation that Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone will not.
Electronic Devices
If you've got a basic understanding of the language, so much so that you won't end up getting your phone blocked - then change your phone into your target language. Obviously I wouldn't recommend doing this in something like Mandarin, otherwise you may never get back into your phone unless you can read the characters.
However with a Latin language like Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, etc you can do this quickly because lots of the words are intuitive to a native English speaker and you can guess your way around.
- Inteligente - Spanish
- Intelligent - French
- Intelligente - Italian
- Inteligente - Portuguese
You see where I'm going with this?
After a while, because you use your phone all the time, you will subconsciously learn all these words without making much effort.
Now I can tell you the words for message, telephone, settings, contact, send etc in Portuguese. But I didn't make any conscious effort to learn these.
If you're feeling adventurous you could also do this with your PC or Mac. Same applies to tablets and Kindles.
Films & Music
When I learned Spanish, watching Spanish films and listening to Spanish music helped immensely. It also gives you a good insight into the culture of the people who speak the language.
1) If you have a basic understanding, then try watching a film with subtitles in that language, e.g. Tropa de Elite with Portuguese subtitles. The chances are you will understand more what's written than spoken, over time this will change. This is absolutely the best and most fun way to learn in my opinion.
2) Do you have a TV series you like to watch or watch English speaking films? Then download subtitles for that film of whatever language you're speaking. You will learn different ways of saying things you never knew before, e.g. watch game of thrones with Spanish subtitles.
3) If you're not feeling too confident in your language ability just yet, don't worry. Watch the film in the language with English subtitles.
How do you think the Scandinavians and Dutch speak such good English? They have films in English with their own subtitles.
Finally, listen to music - everyone loves music, so I'm sure you can find a genre in the language you like. Then listen to that music and read the lyrics online while you listen to the song or read them afterwards, this helps process the words in your brain and cement your understanding.
Read the News
Try reading the news in the language you want to learn for 10 minutes every day.
Do you like sport? Even better read a sports newspaper, if it's Italian you can read http://www.gazzetta.it for example.
http://www.lefigaro.fr
http://www.elmundo.es
http://www.spiegel.de
http://www.corriere.it
http://www.lenta.ru
When you read online in the target language, make sure you have wordreference.com open in another tab to look up words you don't understand. They only have the main languages, but that's still good. This page is your best friend! It's very thorough and even has plenty of idioms you can translate.
Language Exchange
I'd wager that if you live in a large, urbanised city that there is a language exchange going on somewhere.
Find out where they take place. This is a great way to meet native speakers who want to improve their English, you can then improve your language.
Do this for 45 minutes over a coffee or a beer once or a couple of times a week and you will notice the difference.
It's also a good way of meeting people if you've moved abroad. I actually made some good friends from this in Spain and got a girl out of it once...so you never know.
That's all I can think of for now, if I think of any more I'll add them.
