Discussion Best strategies or ways in which to efficiently & successfully learn a new language to fluency

[rdemeij]

Please share the strategies that you use, or have used in the past, that helped you in efficient & successful language-learning. We can all learn from the successes of one another! Let's start and maintain a rich discussion!

 

[kkck]

Re: Best startegies or ways in which to efficiently & successfully learn a new language to fluency

Well, my first language is Spanish and my second english... I picked up english basically by watching TV as a baby. In that regard I don't really remember learning or not knowing it honestly (although when I speak I do have an accent, mostly because I got to listen the language a lot more than speak it). However the thing there is that I simply used the language and the rest came by itself. I don't think there are any secrets to this. I know people who have learned 3 or even 4 languages and the ones who are competent at them simply got the chance or made the effort to use them and immerse themselves in it. Some went to italy for 3 months (which admittedly is not too far from spanish). Some added german radio to their daily routines. And so on.. With that in mind I don't think there are secrets to learning a new language. The trick is to take the classes you need and complement that with something which allows you to immerse in the language. If you can't go to wherever it is that the language you want to learn is spoken normally then make the effort to be exposed to it. Read a book, listen to music, listen to the radio... The more exposed you are to it the better. What does not work though is speaking in the language you are learning to people who don't know and care about the language. If you do that you are just a pretentious asshole (I am actually surprised by the amount of people who do this).

 

[xanorkid]

Re: Best startegies or ways in which to efficiently & successfully learn a new language to fluency

Just practice and practice and practice! I was born in Sweden, so you could kind of understand the pain of translating English, then Japanese due to my love for anime. What I did is, I joined a few english classes until I knew the basic words/articles/nouns/pronouns. Right now, whenever I see an english word that I don't understand, I ask someone for it's meaning. Also, that's another thing you should practice, never be afraid to ask for help.

 

[benelori]

Write a lot...that's what helped me the most with my Japanese, and English too...
I've started studying French a while ago, and all I did was occasional reading, some tests and whatnot => I completely suck at French even though it would be really easy for me to learn, because it has Latin origins...

So write, write, write

PS: having actual conversations with people helps a lot too obviously, but the writing is essential in the beginning

 

[M3J]

Communicate with people, and watch movies in that language, if possible. Though if you want to get near perfect dialect, I guess talking to a native speaker is extremely important.