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First language (German): mother tongue
Second language (English): 9 years at school and 9 months in Oxford and London -> PASS, I am fluent
Third language (Spanish) : a few university courses -> FAIL, I can read Spanish newspapers with the help of a dictionary, but I cannot speak Spanish
Fourth language (French): no courses, but a French girl friend -> PASS, I am fluent
Fifth language (Indonesian): self-taught + private lessons from a university teacher, -> FAIL, was able to make my way through Indonesia a few years ago, but forgot most of it because I did not have the opportunity to practice
Learning a language is probably most effective, when you listen to simple sentences and repeat them. Best have a private teacher who corrects your pronunciation and makes you repeat the sentences until you pronounce them correctly. Listen to those sentences over and over again. Do not even try to learn single words or get a deeper understanding ofthe grammar in the early stages of learning a language. Neither will help you.
The most difficult bit is to get started with the language and attain a level that allows you
- to do small talk and order food
- to read a newspaper or magazine with the help of a dictionary
- to watch TV news and understand them
From that stage it is best to move to a country, where that language is spoken. Once you are there, meet a lot of people, and what is most important: avoid using your mother tongue.
This would probably have resulted in a slap in my face. And then I would never ask a question that can be answered with "yes" or "no".
When I started out, that sentence was ways beyond my language capabilities. Otherwise my remark was quite serious. It was never an easy task for me to learn a language and actually I failed several times. If you live with a local family or have a girl friend, this drastically increases the odds that you will succeed to become fluent in the language.
I've had in-earnest language hobbies since 14, when I decided languages were at least as cool as math (and the same, in their structuredness, complexity, etc.). They've helped my work at times.
Bottom lines first:
Language learning is a long-, long-term undertaking...years. Just like music and trading. (All are time-sensitive performance arts.)
Surround yourself. View and hear the world through it. (YouTube and internet radio help a lot.)
Involve your family.
Everyone needs a goal. For a trader, it's to be rich and independent. For a serious language hobbyist, it is parity: to be mistaken for a native, to understand everything, to empathize with others, to say anything you want, and never even think about using English.
Also -- and I have to check myself a couple times before saying this -- When you hear music in the language and it makes you sing along or cry, you know you're on-track...you're doing more than just learning the language...you're becoming one of the speakers. Or, when you hear a Spanish-language sermon, and you're guessing a couple words ahead and remembering what he said.
Most people who learn a language as an adult do not dedicate themselves to parity. You will be unusual to commit to parity. Go for it.
B/t/w, to your question, my languages:
75% Spanish fluent (Wife and kids are working on becoming blingual. Spanish is the house language.) I learned Spanish by listening to FM radio, and eventually marrying a Spanish-speaker.
60% Russian fluent (Long-term hobby, revived now that Internet radio is available.) I learned Russian by typing and making it a long-term hobby.
Russian and Spanish interfered with each other for many years. I did Russian for ~15 years, and then Spanish for ~15. Then, finally they separated in my mind, and now I can grow both.
I got a degree in Linguistics. Mostly that whetted my interest, and gave me a framework for describing sounds (articulatory phonetics). Read a book or a Wiki article about that; it will take the mystery out of how sounds are produced.
Useful hint for a Spanish or Russian student: To learn to roll an "R", say a "D"...a tongue tap, a quick one. Later, you can work on speeding it up, and doubling it up to make an "RR".
I speak 4 languages, English being the fourth, and Spanish is not one of them. Unfortunately, our Spanish speaking maid does not speak one word of English after living here for 20 years, but fortunately reads Spanish. So, we have resorted to writing in English whatever we want to tell her then translate it using Google and have her read it. It seems to have worked in the past years. Although, Google sometimes really misses the point.
Her kids were born here and are fluent in English but not she or her husband. One must have strong motives and willingness to learn a new language, and preferably in isolation in a non-native country forced to speak the new language. The fact is people hanging around with their kind of people in a new country will never learn that new language well, perhaps just enough to get by. Best is to mix up and start relationships with the locals, my experience.
Like Mike and others, I also took High School Spanish and that's about it. I remember much, but understand little.
A few weeks ago I set my TiVo DVR to record "Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish" on PBS. Its basically a soap opera-like show to help you learn Spanish. I just found that link so I'll have to check the website out. The episodes are available there. I'll eventually take it more seriously, but I enjoy this concept for now.
Its funny you say this cause after watching the Destinos show I have caught myself thinking in Spanish.
It is very nice to own "Communication Tools" ... so the benefit of expressing thoughts ... exchanging ideas ... is constructing the power of knowledge...
My "tools" are : Greek, Italian, French, English ... For me Greek is "The Language" ... because our thinking, our ideas, our sentiments and much more ... can be expressed precisely ...
I take the opportunity to thank Big Mike and all Members that are contributing to this community...
- I needed a girl friend to learn French
- or needed to learn French to talk to my girl friend
- or maybe both
I believe the motivation was there before I moved to France, because otherwise I would not have done it.
Even if you are highly motivated and use a false approach, you won't go anywhere.
The most important thing in a foreign country is to create opportunities for learning. During the first weeks you may need a few (audio-visual) lessons, then progress is proportional to the time you spend listening to the language and repeating what you have heard. For example, I had developed the habit to listen to "France Inter" (radio station) every morning and repeat entire sentences. As I only could repeat simple sentences, my communication was less sophisticated, rather childish. This created a second personality, while I was growing into that new language. I ended up behaving in a different way, when talking French. There is some truth in the saying that clothes (or a language) makes the man. At least there is a feedback loop between one's personality and the language capabilities.
To get there it is important to avoid the use of the mother tongue and go through that child experience. If you keep up speaking the mother tongue, your neurons will not accept the new structure, but you will use your old language setup with the original words replaced by foreign words. This is unavoidable to some extent, if you learn a language in a later stage of your life, but should be avoided.