What's the best and quickest way to learn a new language for you? It amazes me the grip some folks have on two or three languages. Being a native English speaker I find it somewhat quite difficult sticking with learning a new language.

What languages would you like to learn/master? Any tips on learning a new language...

It is soooooooo difficult learning Thai, but I'm ok at it I guess.

Vocbulary, Vocabulary, Vocabulary.... nothing beats vocabulary.

You recognize the words, then when you hear people speak them, even if your grammar in

that language is shit, you can put together the pieces and get the gist of their comment.

I'm interested in learning:

1. Thai (difficult to pronounce, but the grammar is so damned easy)

2. Chinese (probably the most difficult)

3. German (lawd, this one is difficult)

4. Spanish (probably the easiest of the languages)

Thank you for this thread. I'm sick of the GD threads.

imago said:

Thank you for this thread. I'm sick of the GD threads.

Thank me for being here.

imago said:

It is soooooooo difficult learning Thai, but I'm ok at it I guess.

Vocbulary, Vocabulary, Vocabulary.... nothing beats vocabulary.

You recognize the words, then when you hear people speak them, even if your grammar in

that language is shit, you can put together the pieces and get the gist of their comment.

I'm interested in learning:

1. Thai (difficult to pronounce, but the grammar is so damned easy)

2. Chinese (probably the most difficult)

3. German (lawd, this one is difficult)

4. Spanish (probably the easiest of the languages)

My new girlfriend is Korean and she's hot. I'm trying to impress her with my Korean skills and french which she's learning. French is ok for me but Korean! Jeez!

JDInteractive said:

imago said:

Thank you for this thread. I'm sick of the GD threads.

Thank me for being here.

Yes, thank you.

Have you seen the thread titles up in here (including my own)? It's unbearable.

imago said:

JDInteractive said:

Thank me for being here.

Yes, thank you.

Have you seen the thread titles up in here (including my own)? It's unbearable.

Are you trying to get a rise out of me! Im a lot more mellow than I used to be! I do find a lot of the threads very tedious though so I create my own. I'm like the Prince of the Org. 'When I want new threads, I make 'em'. The difference between me and Prince though is that I'm not a knob.

the best way to learn a language is to visit the country for a lengthy period of time

because of the 'needs' basis, u learn fast

FuzzyWitch said:

the best way to learn a language is to visit the country for a lengthy period of time

because of the 'needs' basis, u learn fast

I regret not emersing myself in the Korean language. I should definetely be doing it more.

FuzzyWitch said:

the best way to learn a language is to visit the country for a lengthy period of time

because of the 'needs' basis, u learn fast

This is exactly why I think Canadians and Brits need to visit America.

JDInteractive said:

FuzzyWitch said:

the best way to learn a language is to visit the country for a lengthy period of time

because of the 'needs' basis, u learn fast

I regret not emersing myself in the Korean language. I should definetely be doing it more.

because english is global, it makes it tuff

just dont get those cd's that repeat the words like a broken record

imago said:

FuzzyWitch said:

the best way to learn a language is to visit the country for a lengthy period of time

because of the 'needs' basis, u learn fast

This is exactly why I think Canadians and Brits need to visit America.

i think every one should come down under

FuzzyWitch said:

JDInteractive said:

I regret not emersing myself in the Korean language. I should definetely be doing it more.

because english is global, it makes it tuff

just dont get those cd's that repeat the words like a broken record

Yeah, I don't think I need directions to the town hall or feel the need to order 6 slices of ham.

I'd go with speaking first. Lots of vocab, like Imago said. It's what gets you in there, feeds your enthusiasm and rewards you instantly. Once you can banter a bit you're on your way, whereas if you get bogged down in reading and writing first you may just give up.

I want to learn Japanese, but I doubt I'll do it. More likely to brush up on my Russian.

Not even being sarcastic here, I know several people who have used Rosetta Stone and SWEAR that it really works. I think it has a lot of speaking the words like Imago and Fauxie are talking about.

Yes, Spanish is relatively easy, and you can understand some Italian if you speak it. Weird, right?

I absolutely have to speak polish and [egyptian] arabic fluently. I have an egyptian dad and a polish mother . Even going to poland&egypt as a kid, I didn't quite pick up either language as well as I should have.

I plan to go to egypt for my first two years of college, go to AUC, learn arabic, live near my grandma, then transfer & go to NYU or something so I can be close to home. I know some arabic so I'll be okay. Then I have polish to check off my list.

After that, somewhere in the future I would love to learn russian . Since polish and russian are very close, once I'm fluent in polish it won't be too bad to learn.

The best way to learn a language is to surround yourself with people who speak it.

Immerse yourself in the language/culture

Lots of vocabulary

Listen to songs (Prince helped a lot to learn english ) / Watch movies (skip subtitles ASAP) / Read books, novels and stuff (tip: read a book in your first language first, then read it again in a foreign language, it helps a lot to guess meanings without necessarily isolating the word from the context)

Hang out with people who speak the language

Participate to foreign language boards

Practice, practice, practice...

spelling edit, again

[Edited 8/19/11 2:51am]

There's a lot of motherfuckers talking dumb shit in English. I sure as hell don't wanna know what they're saying in another language.

Watching TV shows in the original language with Englis subtitles.

Watching American shows with subtitles of the language I want to learn.

CD Sessions. The ones from Primsleur (?) are good. They're the ones used by Government officials for crash courses in conversational foreign languages.

Outside of taking an actual, structured class, that's usually what works for me.

[img:$uid]http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q163/phattebytch/stair-sledding.gif[/img:$uid]

paniuroczy said:

I absolutely have to speak polish and [egyptian] arabic fluently. I have an egyptian dad and a polish mother . Even going to poland&egypt as a kid, I didn't quite pick up either language as well as I should have.

I plan to go to egypt for my first two years of college, go to AUC, learn arabic, live near my grandma, then transfer & go to NYU or something so I can be close to home. I know some arabic so I'll be okay. Then I have polish to check off my list.

After that, somewhere in the future I would love to learn russian . Since polish and russian are very close, once I'm fluent in polish it won't be too bad to learn.

Enjoy Egypt and the AUC!

imago said:

It is soooooooo difficult learning Thai, but I'm ok at it I guess.

Vocbulary, Vocabulary, Vocabulary.... nothing beats vocabulary.

You recognize the words, then when you hear people speak them, even if your grammar in

that language is shit, you can put together the pieces and get the gist of their comment.

I'm interested in learning:

1. Thai (difficult to pronounce, but the grammar is so damned easy)

2. Chinese (probably the most difficult)

3. German (lawd, this one is difficult)

4. Spanish (probably the easiest of the languages)

Totally agree, I'm at college learning Italiano and vocablary is it!

roseypink56 said:

paniuroczy said:

I absolutely have to speak polish and [egyptian] arabic fluently. I have an egyptian dad and a polish mother . Even going to poland&egypt as a kid, I didn't quite pick up either language as well as I should have.

I plan to go to egypt for my first two years of college, go to AUC, learn arabic, live near my grandma, then transfer & go to NYU or something so I can be close to home. I know some arabic so I'll be okay. Then I have polish to check off my list.

After that, somewhere in the future I would love to learn russian . Since polish and russian are very close, once I'm fluent in polish it won't be too bad to learn.

Enjoy Egypt and the AUC!

Thank you love. Still have one more year of high school left. (:

Cerebus said:

Not even being sarcastic here, I know several people who have used Rosetta Stone and SWEAR that it really works. I think it has a lot of speaking the words like Imago and Fauxie are talking about.

Yes, Spanish is relatively easy, and you can understand some Italian if you speak it. Weird, right?

I found a torrent because I wanted it to help my kids learn German and it had ALL the languages... I even have Swahili flyin' around on my PC...

But Rosetta Stone is fantastic... it treats language learning like a game instead of just monotonous repetitions...

Cloudbuster said:

[img:$uid]http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q163/phattebytch/stair-sledding.gif[/img:$uid]

Immersion Spanish was the first language I spoke, but I pretty much forgot all of it once I started school as a child. When I wanted to re-learn it, I took classes, but the best thing was to put myself into situations where I would absolutely have to use it and it helped tremendously.

I a brand new hot and heavy relationship with someone that doesn't speak YOUR language could be a good head start

My brother knew well over a dozen languages fluently. More than understanding them, he was able to speak them incredibly well, hitting the accents and pronunciations properly. He had a remarkable gift for languages that I really wish I could have as well. I've studied French, and a smattering of Russian and Spanish, but languages do not come easily for me. I'd love to immerse myself in a language to be forced to learn it, though.

LionsAndTigers said:

Immersion Spanish was the first language I spoke, but I pretty much forgot all of it once I started school as a child. When I wanted to re-learn it, I took classes, but the best thing was to put myself into situations where I would absolutely have to use it and it helped tremendously.

yup hearing it all the time is GREAT

I used to only speak swedish as a kid, but for the longest time only had a child's vocabulary. It's not a widely spoken language where I live, so unless I seek out swedish films on TV or pull out my swedish magazines now and then, I'm NOT getting any practise. It's certainly taken its time for me to learn some more grown up words like styrelse, not a word a kid needs to know