Move to a country that speaks that language and pretend you don’t understand english when they try
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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 .
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don’t look for a best way, just get busy studying. The worst learning methods still beat endless searching for the best.
If you must look for a best way, at least look in your target language.
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.
Can confirm this works surprisingly well.
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Estoy muy embarazada.
Mazel tov!
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?
Yes. The basic method is listen and repeat with variations thrown in. You might be able to get the old FSI recordings for free, and I think there’s a commercial remastering or something like that available for sale. I got those out of curiosity at one point. Pimsleur is an updated version of the same approach with better structure, better voice actors, and in the most updated version available as an app/application.
I’m going off of memory here, but they’re a series of about 3-5 courses (the most popular languages go further) of 30 hour long sessions each, and I would do them while commuting. It would generally take me a few times to get through each course, but it’s really remarkable to think about how in the first course (and many after) what starts out sounding like a string of completely undifferentiated sounds turns into language. At some point some dial really starts to turn and you’ll have your first dream in Spanish or whatever. It’s pretty amazing.
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Total immersion. Nothing else comes anywhere close.
Used in VR, it offers some great immersion learning without any pressure.
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.
Practice every day. You’ll find the best way for you by working at it at least a little each day and not giving up.
If you’re trying to learn a somewhat common second language where you live, and you want to supplement / reinforce other learning, I’d suggest changing how you watch television. Instead of watching, say, Stargate (bc someone mentioned it below) in English, watch it with the German soundtrack and English subtitles. You’ll still be entertained, but you’ll be learning as well.
You can also do something similar, usually with more language options, if you borrow movie DVDs from your library.
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.
I’d recommend doing it with a game you’re somewhat familiar with then, like Minecraft where the names are always there but not 100% required for playing
Children’s TV shows are a good way to get started though
Use it.
If you are trying to watch movies or series to understand a language i have a tip : don’t select the best movie or series from the language you’ll get too immersed and watch it in english dub to understand and enjoy it better (thats what i did).
Do you know how, near the beginning of the Stargate movie, the leader of the Egyptian-like peoples was given a chocolate bar so they could extract the word for “good”, and then the linguists from both cultures went around touching random objects naming each one? That’s a good representation of how language learning would work if you were choosing something effective. Apps mainly don’t 100% go that route and aren’t taking the best modus operandi.
