Learning a new language

Tapes and books hardly work. You have to find interactive ways to pick the language up. Listening to music is probably borderline, while watching TV in that language, listening in on conversations (be sure they have your approval!), and visiting the countries are the #1 ways.

Tapes and books require a lot of motivation, and you're still distracted by your native language.

Music and TV are more practical ways, but you find later that there's a lot in the language you still don't know.

Visiting native countries for that language is the best. The number one roadblock to language acquisition is the distraction of your own language. And don't be afraid of forgetting your own language, it doesn't happen :)
 
I'd LIKE to forget my own language.. Yeah, i figured first-hand experience in the country would be the best. However i'm only 16, not that wealthy so i can't travel that much yet. This coming school year our school is scheduled to go to spain! I just hope we can still go, considering all that 9-11 bull crap.
 
same here man. My school is supposed to be going to spain next year, I think I might go, but I am not sure. My spanish is not much. I wish people still spoke latin, because I can actually say something reasonable in that.
 
It seems like every school is going to Spain next year. Damn, nobody wants to go to Germany and learn a more guttural tongue. Ach warum?
 
I'm actually opposed to going to spain, because we're not learning Spanish Spanish, we're learning Mexican Spanish. The two are pretty different, they use different verb forms, and different words for food. But hey, it's still spanish, so that's why i'm goin. Besides, it'll be fun,n most of my buddies are probably going
 
I was studying Lithuanian online a while back. And then after listening to sound files for the same word from different online sources, they were often pronounced very differently. I figured that different regional slang might account for this, but for all i knew the version i was learning wasn't correct. And sometimes the words given for a particular phrase were something else entirely. I read on amazon.com this one book reviewer say that her mother who had lived her whole life in Lithuania had read some of this Lithuanian-English dictionary that she was studying, and her mother said that many of the translations weren't even correct.

So eventually i got frustrated enough to stop, as i didn't want to be possibly wasting my time not learning it correctly.

But here's a good place full of links for learning most languages online:

http://www.elite.net/~runner/jennifers/language.htm
 
Yeah, same thing at my school. He are learning like south american spanish. Not the spanish you would necessarily use in spain. It would be like an american speaking english in Great Brittan.
 
Yeah Spanish is cool, as are any foreign languages (to me anyway). My list to eventually learn, aside to espaÑol:

Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Norweigan.
 
I actually had the oportunity to study Russian,(I am currently studying it) and I tell you, it has got to be the coolest language to learn. I also know a couple phrases in Norwegian, and that is interesting.
 
I am currently determined to study some russian the rest of the summer, on my own of course. How are you studying it? Maybe you should PM me instead of us cluttering up the thread? THat'd be cool
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top