Way of Learning a New Language?

ConsPark · 2012-07-02, 11:28 AM

About a year ago I needed to decide on a foreign language to take at uni, and I chose German. Since then, my understanding of German has considerably improved, but I'm still a long way from anything resembling fluency.

I wanted to ask you people what your experiences have been in learning new languages. Did you take it in school and follow through, or did you pick it up as a 'hobby' and it ended up being a passion? How did you go about learning that language?

Personally I end up reading random things in German and consulting Reverso.net for translations these days. Staring at my school textbook is so dull and I'm too poor for something like Rosetta Stone.

How about it?

maradine · 2012-07-02, 12:55 PM

If you want to learn the language, live in the country for a year. This is, without parallel, the fastest way to fluency.

I have the (mis)fortune of running with a bunch of polyglots. In every instance, they spent a considerable amount of time in the host country. Obviously, it may not be practical or financially viable to truck off to München for a year, but even a few weeks of immersion is mammothly useful. You're still in Uni - getting a grant to take an immersion trip should be very doable.

Captain1nsaneo · 2012-07-03, 02:58 AM

Originally Posted by ConsPark

Rosetta Stone.

Eh, quick word about Rosetta. Their system is to teach you to learn a language the same way children learn. The problem is that adults learn differently than children do and as such it's not necessarily the best value for your dollar.

zomg · 2012-07-03, 05:53 AM

I would recommend using twitter or whatever and just follow a bunch of people tweeting in german you find interesting.

You get a steady flow of things you can practice your translation with, and you can often also interact with these people by replying so you also get practice writing the language.

nattpyre · 2012-07-03, 08:27 AM

Get thrown into a region of a Country where only the language you want to learn is spoken. That would be the best way, since you HAVE to use it.

Try to read German newspapers or news websites. Try to view German television. Talk to Germans

Be active in the language. Simple as that.

Rosetta Stone is an interesting approach and it works to some extent. Downside is that it's pretty high priced software.

Mongo · 2012-07-03, 08:51 AM

Basically the best advice has been given, if you cant afford or are too young to move to that country to get forced into fluency you can do little things like mentioned, reading german sites etc etc,

I would also advise joining a german guild that uses voice coms - valourgaming has been going in one form or another for 14 years now, and as an eu based community we get alot of non native english speakers come and go and hands down they have all (obviously) improved their english and said that it was the best way to learn compared to doing courses or lessons.

You also pick up alot of slang and sound alot more natural.

Gandhi · 2012-07-03, 01:20 PM

There's just no substitute for practice, both for speaking and reading/understanding. Watch some German TV (or dubbed movies/shows, there's loads of them), try to do a lot of writing in German, either from scratch or from English text. Don't start by trying to translate text into German though, that's pretty difficult even for someone who's fluent in both languages. Just use the English text as a guide.

Talking to other Germans is of course the best way to do it, and it's really helpful that most Germans know enough English to help you out if you're stuck on something. I'm sure there will be a few German outfits, spend some time on their VOIP channels.

If you want a real challenge