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Education

Best System for Learning a Foreign Language? 132

Posted by Cliff from the tu-hablas-español dept.
amrust asks: "I've set a New Year's Resolution for myself. Starting next year, I want to teach myself Spanish. However, looking in local bookstores and online, there are so many different programs and systems to choose from, that I can't decide which method is best. I'd like to learn the Spanish language itself, not just a few choice phrases and words, for traveling. I have a lot of patience for serious in-depth study, at home. I would prefer an easy-to-learn (but comprehensive) system that includes audio CDs, as well as textbook material, to follow along with. Which system can you recommend for someone just starting out, assuming they currently speak English, and have never previously taken a foreign language course?"
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Best System for Learning a Foreign Language? More

Best System for Learning a Foreign Language?

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  • Que? (Score:1)

    by jar240 ( 760653 )
    dónde está la biblioteca?
    • I suggest This book and cd [amazon.com].

      However this is only 1% of what you need. The other 99% is the actual drive to learn and study it EVERY DAY. When you take language classes in college (a good way to learn a foreign language in my opinion) you initially go 1 hour every day for a semester (about 18 weeks). That covers about 1/2 the language. The second semester covers the second half. That is approx 18 weeks X 5 days X 1 hour. This doesn't include time studying for tests and vocab quizes. I'd say I average about 3
      • This is good advice, but it leaves out one thing. You need to read books in your chosen language too. It's especially important to do so if you don't have anyone available to converse with. Translating articles is good, but there's a difference between translating short texts and just reading through a book. You need to get books appropriate to your vocabulary level, which means starting with children's books, and work up from there. The ideal book is one in which you know enough of the words to follow the
        • Proper usage of verbs is important too. To know (a fact) and to know (a person) tends to mess people up. In spanish they have Ser and Estar which mess me up. Books can be tedious (in my experience) and frequently use non-conversational tenses. For example simple past is primarily written in German but present perfect is spoken. The opposite is true in french (at least conversationally in the tu not vous form) where people speak in simple but generally write in passe compose (although coloquial writers use s
          • That's a good point you bring up. You can't really learn conversation from a book (except maybe from the conversations in it, depending on the writing style), but I do think they're a great way to learn grammar and new words though, as well as increasing reading speed, which is pretty important to me. I'm not trying to say reading articles isn't a great idea too.
      • How do you study while exercising? Do you just put your audio CD on and follow along as your working out, or is it more complicated than that?
        • I have typed vocab lists (while running on the treadmills next to hot ass college girls at OU) and I listen to my language CDs on my mp3 player. If you're going to run for an hour and you want to study for an hour, it sure as hell breaks up the monotony of running next to a post with CNN Headline News on the TV in front of you. BTW How many fucking times can VH1 show the same Madonna, Gwen Steffani and some rapper videos in a row? I've been running consistantly for the last 6 months and I've only seen those

    • ?Qué?

      ?Dónde está la biblioteca?

      I just realized that slashcode eats (ignores) the open question marks (rotated "?" sings that open question sentences in spanish)

  • Classes (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gulthek ( 12570 ) on Thursday December 22, 2005 @04:02PM (#14321025) Homepage Journal
    You can't learn a foreign language from a book, especially your first foreign language!

    Look up your local community college and enroll in a spanish class. Failing that look for a tutor or group learning sessions. They should be pretty easy to find as Spanish is widely taught.
    • Agreed. You can look at all the books you want but all you ever end up doing is translating. It is really about immersion and repitition. One class at a community college won't do it. You'll get the basics and then forget everything quickly. I have also found that having a good english background helps in learning a language as well. You have to know what you're saying and how you're saying it before you can try to say it in another language. I've learned a lot about the english language by studying

      • Re:Classes (Score:4, Funny)

        by Otter ( 3800 ) on Thursday December 22, 2005 @04:25PM (#14321308) Journal
        There is also the spanish equivalent to /. over at barrapunto.

        Hmmm...

        Quien modera? [barrapunto.com] (Puntos:-1, Fuera de Tema) por pobrecito hablador el Jueves, 22 de Diciembre 2005, a las 15:29h (n664129)

        Quien se ha quedado moderando? Para el caso mejor que cerreis la página hasta despues de las fiestas. Devolved a Richelieu al psiquiatrico, que despues se transforma en Menguele, etc.

        I'm not sure learning Spanish from them is any better an idea than trying to learn English here...
    • Yeah, it's very difficult to learn a language in a vacuum, unless you just want to read. I'd strongly recommend taking classes for at least the first year. The interactivity is key and the structure will also be valuable once your initial enthusiasm runs into reality.

      Good luck, though! That's a great resolution, and if you stick out you'll be glad you did!

    • Re:Classes (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mmaddox ( 155681 ) <oopfoo AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday December 22, 2005 @04:24PM (#14321296)
      The BEST way? Easy:

      Go somewhere Spanish is spoken. Live without English for some time, and you'll quickly pick up the basics as a matter of survival. This is the essence of the exchange programs--immersion. Immersion is the best way to learn a language, bar none.
      • To add to this, another good way to learn is to get involved with a special someone that speaks mostly that langauge. You can also learn a language very easily like this.
        • Luckily for most slashdotters...

          "No" is the same in both english and spanish

        • Re:Classes (Score:3, Interesting)

          by mjpaci ( 33725 ) *
          I've been with my German woman for 10 years and my German still sucks. I never take a deep enough breath for some of the words and I wind up wheezing through a short phrase...

          I learned passable Italian by taking a 4 week class and travelling in Italy for another 10 weeks. Northern Italians though my accent was southern and southern Italians thought my accent was northern. They were all quite suprised when I told them I was American -- they thought that if I were NOT Italian, I was Armenian.

          mike

      • Re:Classes (Score:5, Funny)

        by drsquare ( 530038 ) on Thursday December 22, 2005 @07:38PM (#14323203)
        The BEST way? Easy:

        Yeah, what could be easier than quitting your job, selling your house, abandoning your family and going to live abroad in a Spanish-speaking country?

        • Re:Classes (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Grab ( 126025 )
          Erm, possibly learning the basics at home, then going on vacation to that country for 2 weeks armed with a really good English-to-whatever dictionary?

          I know that when I go to another country, as a minimum I'll always pick up a decent phrasebook at the airport and learn some basics. That way I've got a chance of at least saying "please/thank you/excuse me/yes/no" and working out how much checkout assistants are asking for, without looking like a complete tourist tosser. (And in Greece, being able to deciph

      • I agree.

        Spend a lot of time with Spanish-speakers, preferably around someone that also speaks good English (to translate for the first few days).

        In my experience with French, you need to start thinking in the language that you want to learn. Native English-speakers trying to learn other languages seem to be always welcomed. Culturally what that means, you figure it out.
      • Or just buy some Spanish novellas (soap opera) on dvd.

        The dialog is easy and exagerated (makes it easier to pick up). The visuals and the story line will help you follow and understand the conversations.

        I did this with "Betty La Fea". As a bonus, it was funny and entertaining. Spanish soaps arent like US soaps. They start, go for a while, and then FINISH. They're more like miniseries than anything else. Very elaborate and well done (most of them).

        Plus the women are invariably hot.

        Try "Amor Rea [amazon.com]

    • I've taken 3 years of High School German and can't say I've learned the language. I've studied Japanese on my own for many more years and even bought software to help. Can't say I've learned that language either, though I watch subbed anime as well. I have mostly learned hiragana and katakana, though I sometimes get letters mixed up. The show, Bobobo's use of printed characters is helpful though.

  • Learining a Foreign Language? (Score:4, Funny)

    by FFFish ( 7567 ) on Thursday December 22, 2005 @04:02PM (#14321032) Homepage
    Dude, it looks lik youve alraedy Learined a Foreign Language.
    • How is this funny? I read the Original Question twice, and I didn't see any spelling errors, so HOW does it look like he's learning a foreign language? Or is it just funny as in jackass style funny. I had assumed that ./ people were a little bit more refined than to stoop to that level for entertainment.
      • Clue to You: I embarassed the editors into correcting their typo.

        As for "refined" Slashdot users, I gotta larf at that. Check my ID# and then understand that I have never found Slashdotters to be the least bit refined. This is an ornery, crass bunch of meglomaniacs and pointyheads clashing in a streetbrawl of language and lies. Pantywaists like you don't want to play this game!

        Arrrr. Avast, ye scurvy dog!
  • for Learining a Foreign Language

    I suggest learning your own language before attempting others.
  • I just noticed that /. user's signature [slashdot.org], in a comment to a previous story [slashdot.org]. I think it can help.
  • the pimsleur series....gets you actually speaking it out loud, you can hear how it's supposed to be said...and it starts with the more useful stuff that you could actually use, and builds up from there

    this in addition to working on it with ACTUAL fluent spanish speakers has really worked well for me
    • I've heard about the Rosetta Stone system of learning on the radio...but has anyone tried it out? Any good?

      Just wondering.
      • Yes

        Yes: expensive but worth the money

      • I've used rosetta stone for both polish and spanish and find it to be a very useful part of learning a new language. The key there is part. I also have the pimsluer stuff for both and took a spanish class with my wife. Different people learn in different ways and rosetta stone is probably the single best tool for me (much better than classes, for example, due to my hectic schedule), but having several different approaches is very useful.
      • The key aspect about Rosetta Stone is the method of learning that it uses. It tries to imitate the learning environment of growing up in the culture so that you can learn it more naturally than from a "class teaching" type of system.
    • I want to second this. When I was looking to brush up on my french, I had a friend strongly recomend pimsleur, and I sought out some samples of their instructions (napster was great wasn't it).

      I only went through a couple of lessons, but it was excellent. I definitly wish I had had it as a study aid back when I was in school.

      -Steve
    • Agreed! I did the first CD in the learn Chinese series (and then got bored of it)

      I still remember everything almost word for word, and how to manipulate sentences and everything.
      It's kinda cool that it stuck so well.

  • Pimsleur (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Smidge204 ( 605297 ) on Thursday December 22, 2005 @04:09PM (#14321105) Journal
    I have had some experience with Pimsleur [pimsleurapproach.com] language learning materials (Japanese though). I found the material started out pretty easy and got more difficult in later lessons, but was not unmanagable.

    It's also a tad expensive, but if you are serious about learning then combining this with other sources reading websites or other publications in the desired language, etc) would probably be a great start.

    (I personally wouldn't pay that much for it, though.)
    =Smidge=

    • Re:Pimsleur (Score:4, Interesting)

      by kherr ( 602366 ) <kevin&puppethead,com> on Thursday December 22, 2005 @04:28PM (#14321343) Homepage
      I am currently learning Spanish using Pimsleur and it's very effective. Half an hour of audio work per day, and the retention of what you learn is very high. Successive lessons bring up material from earlier lessons, providing a rather organic conversational approach to the language.

      I only had two weeks to learn Spanish, so I went with the audio-only approach. There's a comprehensive entry at Kuro5hin on how to learn a language [kuro5hin.org] that covers other learning methods and technologies, providing a good overview of what options there are.
    • I did the Pimsleur Russian course. It's tape or CD-based, with only a minimal written suplement to help you deal with the written form, and the Cyrillic alphabet.

      Highly recommended, but subject to a few caveats:

      1. It's very expensive.

      2. There's a full course, but they also sell various abbreviated introductory courses: Make sure you get the full course. You'll know you have the right one if it comes in 3 levels, each consisting of about 16 cassettes. The levels are also sold separately. (I used casett
    • Your local library should have a collection of the Pimsleur tapes/cds. if not, hit usenet : alt.binaries.world-languages posts a lot of this stuff in mp3
    • Pimsleur is excellent for getting acquainted with speaking and hearing a language. Two lessons a day will get you through parts I, II, and III in two months, with a natural feel for the grammar and a battery of vocabulary. Buying it outright is a little pricey, but there are a number of online stores that sell used copies and buy them back from you again when you're done. You could also check your local library for Pimsleur CDs. Put it on your iPod and you're good to go.

      Pimsleur isn't enough, though. I high
    • Pimsleur sells a few different bundles for each language ... roughly 10/20/30 lessons each.

      I've done parts of the 18 lesson packs for Italian and German ... I think they set me back about $70 each. It's the 'Comprehensive' set (30 lessons), that run for $200+ (US$350 MSRP) that are expensive. You can introductory lines for the $50 range, which gives you enough of a basis to get some basic concepts and be able to muddle through a conversation.

      But ... as others have said .. try your local library, and see i

  • My advice (Score:4, Funny)

    by BaudKarma ( 868193 ) on Thursday December 22, 2005 @04:11PM (#14321135) Journal
    Get yourself a totally hot Hispanic girlfriend who doesn't speak a word of English.

    Well, that's what *I'd* do.

    • tried this you still need to learn the basicis....

      B
    • Get yourself a totally hot Hispanic girlfriend

      Are you aware you are posting on Slashdot? I mean, a girlfriend... come on! You insensitive clod :P
      • Are you aware you are posting on Slashdot? I mean, a girlfriend... come on! You insensitive clod :P

        How about a hot-enough hispanic hooker? It wont cost much more than private lessons, and it is a lot more fun.
    • Everyone thinks it's cool to hit on girls that don't speak english. I've done it, only with Japanese ESL students. This is what I learned: It's hard to be witty when you have to repeat yourself three times. (So very cute, and so very frustrating.)
      • girls that don't speak english ... you have to repeat yourself three times

        They don't speak English, but repeating yourself multiple times somehow helps?
        • They spoke some english. They were ESL students. Whenever you talked with them, you ended up having to slow way down, and simplify your speech.

          Nice girls. Very cute. One said she was an electrical engineering student and the other said she was majoring in "eng-eh-er-ish." (She said it with four syllables.) I'm not entirely sure the "english" major understood the question, but then again someone has to go back and provide the world with engrish [engrish.com].
    • What if he wants to know more than the Spanish for 'suck on this bitch'?

  • That's easy! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Bob_Robertson ( 454888 ) on Thursday December 22, 2005 @04:12PM (#14321143) Homepage
    A lover who only speaks the language you want to learn. Don't learn, don't get laid.

    Talk about motivation! Nothing else can come close.

    Bob-

    • Almost. Being alone in a foreign country in which very few people speak English and needing to learn the language if you want to eat is a tad better because, you know, survival.
      • Ok, point in your favor.

        One problem I ran into in Japan is that some of their English was better than mine.
  • Get a (live-in) significant other that only speaks the language you want to learn. You'll learn fast, or die trying. Better yet, move in with her whole family.
  • I've heard Rosetta works fairly well. It's not cheap though.

    Rosetta Stone [rosettastone.com]
  • Specially if you have never taken courses in foreign languages, I would recommend conversation-based courses to go with whichever method you pick (tapes, Rosetta Stone, etc).

    A good conversation course is carried only in the language to be learned. It sounds odd in theory, but it is one of the few alternatives to immersion, short of taking a trip and living abroad for a while.

    Soon you learn to ask your question in $LANGUAGE. I remember in Japan I had to ask things like: "What is the opposite of far?". It wor
  • Sleep with their women.

  • Suggestion: Define your target listeners (Score:4, Informative)

    by durandal61 ( 705295 ) on Thursday December 22, 2005 @05:02PM (#14321757) Homepage Journal
    Most spanish teaching CDs that I have heard teach Spanish from Spain, español. If you plan on travelling a lot in Latin America, bear in mind that not only will you be a gringo with an accent, you will be a gringo with a very silly accent.

    Around here, a Spanish accent is generally heard from two sources: spaniards and people telling Gallego jokes, which would roughly correspond to Irish jokes in English.

    Personally I find that Latin American spanish, castellano, is more neutral, if you pick the right national accent. Peruvians, for example, have a particularly neutral and well-pronounced one, while Chilean Spanish is practically incomprehensible. As a native Spanish speaker born in Perú, it took me several years in Chile before I could understand over 90% of what was said to me. Frankly, I don't expect you to come across a Chilean "Aprenda Español" package anytime soon, and personally, I think that's a very good thing! :-)

    p.
  • While I have yet to actually try it myself, I have read many good reviews regarding this series of audio CDs. The nice thing is, I was able to find it at my local library so there was no initial cash outlay on my part. I have listened to a few of the "Lessons" and it seems like a viable alternative to traditional spanish courses. Basically it is the teacher (Michel Thomas) sitting with two students go over conversational Spanish. I took Spanish in high-school and college and the one hurdle I never made it o
  • If you get really, really, drunk frequently enough, you'll eventually find yourself lying naked in an alley in Tiajuana. You'll learn Spanish fast...oh, believe me you'll learn!
    • So true! It didn't take many trips to TJ to learn the phrase "Yo no vendo los drogas, pero vendo mi querpo." (I'm sure that my written spanish is significantly worse then my written english, but I don't know how to say Ie dun Spel gud in spanish.)

      -Rick

  • If you want to learn and retain extensive vocabulary, you're going to have to repeatedly test yourself on it (relying on "real life" conversation will not work, as some words are far too rare), so it makes sense to optimize the scheduling of that learning according to what we know about memory formation.

    The most effective software for this purpose is SuperMemo [supermemo.com], but it is non-free, so you may instead want to use the slightly inferior, but still effective Memaid [sf.net]. I have found memaid very useful for teaching

  • Easy way to learn a language (Score:3, Informative)

    by shdowhawk ( 940841 ) on Thursday December 22, 2005 @05:09PM (#14321842)
    I'm currently working on Japanese as my 4th langauge. I speak Hungarian and French fluently (obviously I speak english too). This was a trick taught to me by a linguist I'd met. The best way to START learning a language is actually with 2 books. A travelers dictionary, and an actual english-spanish dictionary. In the first few pages of the travelers dictionary you will a BUNCH of very important phrase starters. For example: "Where is _____." "What is ___ in english." "How much is ____".

    A Ton of phrases can be created with this simple intro. It will also teach you the basic grammer ideas in the travelers dictionary (and you can always look up sentances later in the books as guidelines). After that... you can walk around on the streets, look up one single word in the translation dictionary like... post-office... and you can already as a bunch of questions relating to a post-office (like where it is!)

    After that comes the hardest part of learning a language. Vocabulary. This is what kills most people. My honest best suggestion to you is to buy post-it notes, and stick them all over your house with the english / spanish translation. Literally everywhere. Even on the milk jug inside your fridge. While it is embarrasing, being exposed to all those words will help you learn them MUCH faster then just staring at note cards or words on a screen. With a good computer program (hopefully someone will suggest a good one) you can learn many other vocab words WHILE being exposed to all the common things inside the house that have post-its on it (shoes, tv, books, computer, paper, house, door... lots of things to put all over your house that can be useful in daily conversation).

    Good luck with your language learning resolution!

  • is found on this website [apronus.com]. I watch some movies in german with german subs. I read some books in germarn and mostly try to avoid my german-english dictionary if at all possible. I found that reading out loud is a good way to practice saying words and to start recognising the sounds of words when you hear them.
  • The Pimsleur series of audio clips will help you with your conversational speech. Check it out on iTunes or your local book store.

  • Pimsleur Language Method (Score:3, Informative)

    by Paul Burney ( 560340 ) * on Thursday December 22, 2005 @05:19PM (#14321942) Homepage
    I know you're looking for something comprehensive, but you may want to consider learning conversation using the Pimsleur series. It's basically an audio only method of learning language which works great on my hour-long commute each morning and evening.

    Wikipedia has more information here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimsleur_language_lea rning_system [wikipedia.org]

    I find that as you learn more and more, you subconsciously start to learn grammar. For example, I'm currently learning German, and though I can't tell you the rule for where to put time and place in a sentence, I know which one "sounds right."

    I rent them using my Recorded Books Unlimited subscription, but you might be able to find them at your local library.

    (I personally speak Spanish and English fluently. I used the Pimsleur series to pick up quite a bit of Italian, French and German).

    Hope that helps.

    -Paul

    P.S. The way I personally became fluent in Spanish was to grow up in Southern California to learn the accent, take French in middle school to learn some basic non-English grammar, take a freshman Spanish class in college, meet and marry a wonderful woman from Guatemala, then practice for 11 years.

    The above may or may not work in your situation.

    • ANd make sure you get the full version (yes, the expensive version). There are cheap, pseudo-abridged versions of the Pimsleur method out there, and they aren't going to be as much help.

      Also try Destinos.

      Alex.
  • I've studied four foreign languages, though I wouldn't say I "know" (am proficient in) any of them. But I have a few comments.

    Immersion is the best, if you can afford the time/stress. Learning really sinks in when you need phrases to find food or a place to sleep. To this day I remember what a Vesperkarte is.

    For a first foreign language, taking a class is probably next best. I think the quality of classes varies a lot so ask around. In my experience, one class (one hour) per week with no reinforcement
  • First, if at *all* possible, get a partner, someone else who wants to learn the language too and will meet with you weekly to quiz each other and go over the next section of grammar. The extra motivation of being "ready" for your weekly meeting will often give you the extra shove to do the studying when otherwise you might just let it ride for another day or two. Another day or two, and then another day or two, rapidly turns into months and years. Regular deadlines help to prevent this.

    Second, harness ot
  • Perhaps you'll find this [digitalpublishing.de] useful. I work there as a programmer. It's a multimedia language learning system with speech recognition. Runs only on Windows. You can also have a live native-speaking tutor to guide you over the Internet.
  • Language Acquisition Made Practical [sil.org] is a method developed by Elizabeth and Tom Brewster. It's a great method because it allows you to combine technology with contextual learning.

    In a way it's like the "girlfriend" comments, but it gives you a place to start in the conversation. Try it!
  • http://www2.rosettastone.com/en/?a=b [rosettastone.com]

    It's on the expensive side, but it is extremely fast and it works well. Instead of trying to teach you grammar and memorize conjugation rules and nouns, it immerses you in a Spanish environment so you learn in the same fashion a native spanish speaker would have at first (only sped up 100x).

    To the best of my knowledge, Rosetta is even what the US military and Diplomatic Corp use for language training (although anyone with first hand experience feel free to correct m
  • Assuming you can't do what I did, which is live in a Spanish speaking country, I suggest the audio series by Michel Thomas. [michelthomas.com] I didn't listen to it until after I'd learned Spanish, so it's a little bit hard to fully judge the value, but listening to it now it seems to be quite good.

    Thomas is an interesting guy. A Polish born Jew, he landed in a Nazi concentration camp, from which he eventually managed to escape. He speaks at least a half-dozen languages, and when he made his way to the US he started his lang

  • Apart from some of the other good advice, if you want to build vocabulary and you are not living in the country that speaks the language - simply subscribe to a newspaper or magazine (or both). The first few weeks will take forever flipping back and forth between a translating dictionary for literally every second word, but in no time you'll be able to read articles fluently. Due to the scope of newspapers and magazines you'll get introduced to new words and concepts over time as they become newsworthy.

    I bu
  • I would prefer an easy-to-learn (but comprehensive) system that includes audio CDs, as well as textbook material, to follow along with.

    As an immigrant who had to learn English from the scratch, that statement is almost offensive.

    Learning a language is not easy. Especially if you actually NEED it, it's painful. You'll fucking hate it. You'll hate all the Spanish speaking countries. You'll hate all the fucking Mexicans. And THAT'S what it takes to learn a language "comprehensively".

    You should get yo
    • As an immigrant who had to learn English from the scratch, that statement is almost offensive.

      Submitter here. I just wanted to say that I in no way intended to offend anybody with that sentence. I guess I'm so oblique that I don't even fully understand how I offended you. But I sincerely apologize for doing so.

      • The horrible memories of having to learn English over the past 8 years overwhelmed me and I went berserk.
        The following sentence: "I would prefer an easy-to-learn (but comprehensive) system" hit me on the personal level, because at the moment it sounded like you were completely undermining the difficulty of learning a language and trivializing all my effort to learn English.
        Now that I'm calm, I understand that what I just said is completely ridiculous and irrational, but that's how I felt at the moment. I
  • The languages page of my website [compsoc.com] is about my experiences in learning a few languages. I moved to a French-speaking country 18 months ago, and for my job it's useful for me to have a grasp of a few other languages. (I'm a lobbyist - working for free software and against software patents.)
  • Yep, nothing'll teach you a foreign language like being immersed in it and finding a girlfriend. I learn ASL (American Sign Language) this way, and paid a large chunk of my college tuition being an interpreter.
  • Others in this discussion have suggested ways you can acquire basic fluency in a language (courses, making friends with speakers of the language, TV, radio, etc.)

    For those who are not within broadcast range of TV or radio stations in the foreign language, audio and video streams over the internet are a great alternative. News broadcasts are especially useful: the language is spoken well, and the context of current events helps with comprehension.

    Of course, one really needs to practice in all four areas (re
  • Let me preface this by saying that I haven't yet taken the time to try to teach myself a second language. I would like to learn German, but I've got too many other projects going on right now. However, when I do finally commit myself, I can tell you what I'd like to do.

    Since you're asking this question on Slashdot, it's assumed that you're at least moderately well-immersed in technology. Why not use technology to your advantage? If you're like me, a large amount of English that you come across in your daily
  • I'm Spanish from Catalonia, so my mother tongues are Spanish and Catalan [wikipedia.org]. I can also speak English and Japanese, and now I'm learning Chinese (Mandarin). I also understand Galician/Portuguese (my grandparents were from Galicia [wikipedia.org] and spoke it at home), but that doesn't count because I cannot speak it.

    I don't know what are the best methods for learning a language, but at least I can tell you what works for me.

    Vocabulary:

    Read books in the language they were written (the one you're trying to learn). Underline wit
  • I learned survival French in a couple of weeks with EuroTalk [eurotalk.com]. It's an instant immersion, CD-ROM based program. Words and phrases are picked up visually. You don't want to be memorizing words and their English meanings. You will pick up Spanish a lot faster if you don't have to translate in your head.
  • I know a guy that learned my language this way (he's really smart and he's from India):

    1. Buy some comics. Read them. Look at pictures, you know how this was when you were a child - the comics are still readable even if you don't know the language. After some time, you will learn some of the words..

    2. Read some literature for a little older children. I don't know any spanish famous literature for children, but I guess it won't be that hard to find using some googling..

    Finally, you should have some kind of l
  • Nothing beats immersion. In order to succeed you need to be surrounded by people speaking the language and use it to communicate with them. Stop using English altogether while you are immersed. if there is something too difficult to explain in the new language use paraphrases, hand waving or body moves but do not give in to the convenience of switching back to english. When you need explanations about a new word, get them in the new language. When you take notes about that you word, take them using the word
  • I have my own technique for languages - not sure if it will work for anyone else. Just watch films with the audio in your native language, and read the subtitles that are in the new language. It's a fun way to learn - it helps you learn grammar, vocabulary, and also the way that they say things differently from the English. Once you've done that, learn the pronounciation for the language, and attempt to speak as much like they do as possible. I've learnt Spanish and Dutch like this, but the bloody Russians
    • Be exceedingly careful with this method for languages that are not closely related. At least between English and Japanese, there are many times were even a great subtitler (AnimEigo, ADV Films, etc.) will have to take liberties with translation of native idioms in Japanese, which just don't map one-to-one to English. Example:

      Japanese: "shikatanai"/"shikataganai". General meaning is: "no way around it; nothing to be done for it", but I've seen it subtitled in English as "Nothing we can do" or "Oh well, yo
  • I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the translating pen scanner from WizcomTech: QuicktionaryII [wizcomtech.com].

    Dictionaries are too slow when you are trying to read a language that is new to you.
  • Get a spanish-speaking girl/boyfriend.
  • I have taken a few different languages, and have to say Immersion is the way to go. Now, short of actually going to the country for an expanded time, there are usually ways to do that locally.

    For French, the French In Action series is great. Starting on day 1, we were not allowed to speak any English in class. In addition to the classroom, we also did a French Conversation class (usually at a cafeteria or pub) on our own. One year of French via immersion was much more useful than 3 years of High School
  • ...get a job in the construction business. You will be fluent in Spanish and Russian in no time.

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