learning a new language

[Panos]

Im 35 and can only speak english in this day and age i feel rather embarressed by this.

has anyone got any tips on learning a new language? ive been listeneing to hours of the learn while you sleep things (albeit not while asleep) i spend plenty of time in my car to and from work and listen to it during the day while at work. things dont seem to be sticking.

is this the best to go about it? shoiuld i keep listening over and over until it finally sticks?

its spanish im trying to learn. i know very very basic stuff, Hello, Good Bye, Goodnight, how are you etc.. stuff to get a conversatoin started but zero to back this up.

Get the Paul Nobles Spanish audio course and the book. When you finish it get part 2. You will learn both the Castilian & South American accents.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-Span...sr_1_7?keywords=Spanish&qid=1583858815&sr=8-7

Preferably get the "Audible" version to have it on your mobile and remove hassle.

Trust me this one works. Italian, French & Mandarin are great courses from his series also and happy especially with Mandarin as can watch Chinese series & films without crappy english subtitles let alone dubbed versions.

The German course struggled and abandoned it. However I am struggling to learn German since 1989 even when did 3 years school. So I blame the language.

Is shame he doesn't have Cantonese, Japanese & Russian courses. :/

 

[GGizmo]

My grandad learned German when he was in his late 60s.

He went to night school. Bought the class books they use. They also came with audio cassettes to follow along with the books.

If I was trying to learn a new language I would try and learn to write the basics of it, and build the verbal part on top of that.

 

[tom01]

I'm currently living in a French speaking country, I've been here a couple of years and I learnt GCSE French at school. Since arrival here I have been dabbling on and off with learning French via Duo Lingo, Paul Noble audio books and attending evening class at a local college. In the time that I have lived in the country I can just about communicate when out and about and in need of something and understand small parts of some conversations, however I am nowhere near fluent or able to hold a meaningful conversation.

I think as you get older it definitely becomes more difficult to learn a new language, however it's not impossible but it is definitely something that is picked up easier by those who have already mastered other languages or learn from a young age. I can recall the stuff that I learnt in GCSE French perfectly however attempting to learn certain new phrases or grammatical rules feel like it takes forever and often my pronunciation is off when speaking.

Another poster hit the nail on the head, you need serious motivation to learn (a real passion for wanting to learn that specific language) and I'd also add that you need complete immersion. Those two elements I feel are the most important parts to achieving true fluency. For me I only have 50% of that (the immersion) and even that is limited because my work environment is English speaking and I have no native friends so my immersion comes from interactions when out and about.

I no longer have the motivation to become fluent because I don't see myself being here much longer and it isn't a language that I have ever really enjoyed learning or speaking, I only made a half arsed effort because I wanted to settle a bit more when I first arrived in country. I work with some people who have been here for nearly 10 years and can barely say more than hello and I didn't want to be quite that bad! If you are serious about being fluent you need to interact with people verbally and listen and repeat how words are spoken and sentences are structured. Something which is very difficult to achieve when only using learning resources such as apps/books/online etc.

I'm now learning a new language, one that I have always wanted to learn and I'm trying to re-locate so I hope that the outcome will be a lot different this time around. Some great resources that I and others have used and recommend are:

*Paul Noble audio book series. They really are great value and you do learn a lot from them.
*Duo Lingo - Ok but most agree will not enable true fluency, however great for spelling and vocabulary.
*Hello Talk - Pen pal app on IOS, talk to native speakers in the language you are learning.

 

[delta0]

Learning a language you need to be really motivated to do. When you have that burning want to learn that language then you will be able to get through it. It will start ok and as you progress to the intermediate level you hit a wall as the amount of effort it takes to learn goes up considerably. Push through that stage and you will make it. Depending on the language it can take years to learn. Spanish is ranked as the easiest for an English speaker so it could be considerably quicker for you.

I’m learning Korean and have been doing so for around 3.5 years. It is regarded as one of the hardest languages to learn for an English speaker and it is still tricky for me after that much time. I have a strong want to master it that drives me through. It is very satisfying when I go there and I can understand most of what is being said to me. I’m at an intermediate level and have a lot more to learn.

- I take classes, once a week for 2 hours.
- Watch youtube, tv etc.
- Shadow youtube, tv conversations
- Repetitive listening
- Take any opportunity to practice the language with someone (go to a restaurant, a friend that speaks the language and visit the country)
- Never give up. Your learning rate will slow down to a crawl and it will get tremendously difficult at times but keep wading through and you will get there.

 

[explicit4u]

thanks for the replies chaps.

i guess in my setting there isnt a real need to learn, just a want. i guessed with all the time i have available to listen to things it would be an obvious starting point.

as far as what has made me now want to learn. i work with people for all different countries. the guy i sit next to at work is portugese and he can speak, portugese, spanish, italian, french and english.

its always kinda annoyed me that whenever i have been to spain that i am expecting them to speak english. the majority do but im taking it for granted.

i dont want to be fluent, but would love to be able to have a general conversation with someone.

I have quite a few Portuguese friends and most of them can speak all those languages too. Portuguese is hard to learn but once you’re fluent, french, Italian and Spanish (Romanian too I imagine) come relatively easy.

I’m attempting to learn Portuguese and found the best way to learn is frequent visits to the country. Nothing makes you pick up a language faster than full on immersion.

I picked up the basics from the likes of Duolingo, and then practised off YouTube and talking to friends that speak Portuguese. If you don’t have any Spanish speaking friends there’s loads of online services and plenty of classes/meet-ups of people who just want to speak the language and improve with other learners. I’ve definitely picked up the most vocab by going to Portugal whenever I can. Although duolingo is Brazilian Portuguese which complicates things slightly.

And as much as I hate to admit it, having a significant other who knows another language is a godsend.

 

[Mr Jack]

If you figure it out, let me know, I've been struggling to learn German for years now

That said, I've read a lot about how best to learn languages and traditional language teaching is basically garbage, as is stuff like Duolingo. It just doesn't work. What you need is a "natural learning"/language acquisition approach. This video has a pretty good description of how it all works, you can find others that talk about the research behind what he is saying. Even so, it takes 600 hours or so to properly learn an "easy" language, and a couple of thousand for a hard language. The guy in that video goes on about how that is nothing. I think he's on another planet. An hour a day is a hell of a lot of your free time, and it's gone for two years if you want to learn.

I know some people enjoy learning languages, but I find it miserable and I struggle to find advice for people who need to learn a language but hate doing it.

 

[CircleFaust]

thanks for the replies chaps.

i guess in my setting there isnt a real need to learn, just a want. i guessed with all the time i have available to listen to things it would be an obvious starting point.

as far as what has made me now want to learn. i work with people for all different countries. the guy i sit next to at work is portugese and he can speak, portugese, spanish, italian, french and english.

its always kinda annoyed me that whenever i have been to spain that i am expecting them to speak english. the majority do but im taking it for granted.

i dont want to be fluent, but would love to be able to have a general conversation with someone.

always felt the same , would love to be able to speak a different language , can i be a*sed learning it though? no haha, maybe some day.
with the amount of exposure non english speakers get to english it is very easy for them to pick up i've heard
always respected those that can speak a few languages

 

[Dave M]

Number of hours is important, especially to understand natives speaking or to be anywhere near conversational - but if you want to improve understanding get a tutor - one or two hours a week on skype will see your understanding increase massively over a year or two. I had a tutor for 2 years, sadly I was very lazy and did zero outside of the 1 hour a week, but still years later I can read mundane notices with a near complete understanding (eg work announcements or notices in hotels or excursions - context known) - and I read aloud German passages at full speed as if I understand it (I can't, my vocabulary is too low, I just know how to say the various word groups).

Recording your own word lists can help with vocab re-call, you'll find you not only remember it easier but you self critique your pronunciation after re-playing repeatedly (recording 10 or 15 minutes the night before then looping it on your commute is good). Consistency is the key, do it every day.

If you are willing to go further, sourcing German dubs of all the american films / tv you watch (with English subtitles), reading German news papers (can do online, use translate browser extensions as needed but not full page), then you can get a level of immersion without actually reducing your free time - you've just adjusted some of your existing leisure time. This is even easier these days with Netflix and vpns but there are plenty of means of obtaining the material.

Day to day routine interaction is the best way to progress to conversational, and nothing beats the necessity and back and forth of living in or visiting small German towns (Berlin is no good, they speak better English than you!). Don't discount community websites that allow native speakers to pair up for online convo's. They're usually free and it helps them as much as it helps you (pick people living in Germany learning English obviously - their lower level of English will help avoid them switching to help you when you struggle).

But it's hard, and requires constant effort. Don't believe you forget it if you don't use it though - it gets rusty but like exercise, if you were a runner once it's a lot easier to regain your previous performance than for a true beginner. The same applies to languages - I did French GCSE and after 20 years if I was struggling to think of a German word a French one would just pop out in it's place. To this day I remember einfach because it's similar to facile which obviously shares a common Latin root to facilitate (to ease).

If you figure it out, let me know, I've been struggling to learn German for years now

That said, I've read a lot about how best to learn languages and traditional language teaching is basically garbage, as is stuff like Duolingo. It just doesn't work. What you need is a "natural learning"/language acquisition approach. This video has a pretty good description of how it all works, you can find others that talk about the research behind what he is saying. Even so, it takes 600 hours or so to properly learn an "easy" language, and a couple of thousand for a hard language. The guy in that video goes on about how that is nothing. I think he's on another planet. An hour a day is a hell of a lot of your free time, and it's gone for two years if you want to learn.

I know some people enjoy learning languages, but I find it miserable and I struggle to find advice for people who need to learn a language but hate doing it.

 

[ic1male]

Spanish is a great choice. It's really one of the easiest for us to learn.

My recommendation is buy Michel Thomas's course. He'll teach you the building blocks (aka grammar) and then there is another course you can do for extra vocabulary. There is also Linguaphone allTalk which is like a 16-hour soap opera. Although it's not particularly gripping as I have never made it past hour 8 yet.

You can also access RTVE Player. I've been watching Spanish Masterchef to pick up some more colloquial lingo. And follow Spanish people on Instagram or other social media. You'll learn a lot there.

And the question I find most interesting - are you lisping or not? I like to do it but sometimes get in a complete mess. None of my nieces at school have learned it though.

 

[jamoor]

Im 35 and can only speak english in this day and age i feel rather embarressed by this.

has anyone got any tips on learning a new language? ive been listeneing to hours of the learn while you sleep things (albeit not while asleep) i spend plenty of time in my car to and from work and listen to it during the day while at work. things dont seem to be sticking.

is this the best to go about it? shoiuld i keep listening over and over until it finally sticks?

its spanish im trying to learn. i know very very basic stuff, Hello, Good Bye, Goodnight, how are you etc.. stuff to get a conversatoin started but zero to back this up.

Exposure is the best way.

Going to Sucre in South America and immersing/leaning there is probably the best way.

I've learnt French, German, Mandarin and Spanish over the years. The most I learnt in the shortest amount of time was 3 weeks of Mandarin in Shanghai on an intensive courese (3 hours a day) and I really learnt a lot very quickly.

If I did it for 6 months I am sure I would be near conversational fluent.

 

[arknor]

always felt the same , would love to be able to speak a different language , can i be a*sed learning it though? no haha, maybe some day.
with the amount of exposure non english speakers get to english it is very easy for them to pick up i've heard
always respected those that can speak a few languages

It's not only learning a language you have to keep practising that language or you will slowly forget most words

I'm sure any language is easy to learn when you're forced to in order to be independent.
The biggest problem with self learning a language is your pronunciations will be utterly crap to the point native people of that language will struggle to understand you.


so if you don't have people to correct you... it's almost pointless

 

[Dave M]

It's not only learning a language you have to keep practising that language or you will slowly forget most words

You don't forget as such, but you find recall more difficult - those pathways are still there though and will quickly be reinforced when you do start using it again. It really is like riding a bike.