Learning a language

[Benny Profane]

How should one approach learning a new language as a working adult? Anybody have some success?

[iceman]

There was a thread not too too long ago, I can't find it offhand, but I agree with this guy in another thread:

Best suggestion though: choose a foreign land, get fucked up on your inbound flight. I mean really fucked up. Fucked up like they take you I to custody - but not so much u get deported. Lose your wallet, you credit cards and cash. After a week or two of sleeping on the streets and starving, you'll start to pick up the native tongue. Shit, you'll know all you need to know if u live through it.

Other than that, look at Rosetta Stone and Berlitz for starters.

[Hugh Conway]

worst to good:
Tapes
Online Courses
Courses, Physical
unless you are young, or got the time and the willingness to immerse yourself (and are somewhere where the locals won't revert to English because they are tired of dealing with yet another illiterate foreigner) good fucking luck

[Benny Profane]

Well, yeah, ain't nothing like diving into the deep end with total immersion, but, I guess I'm looking for a life jacket first.

Is Rosetta Stone all that good?

[MarcusBrody]

It's no substitute for serious classes or immersion, but the Duolingo app for phones and tablets is very good for what it is and free.

[Flyoverland Captive]

My wife is trying an app on her ipad called "Duolingo" to learn Spanish. It seems to be working; very interactive. I think it's free, so maybe worth a try?


***Edit: beat me to it^^^

[The AD]

My wife and I have been taking an in-person language course for the last year or so. It's good, but it takes a long time to learn when you're only doing one class per week. Supplement by going to websites in the language you're trying to learn and listen to streaming audio in that language. Obviously practice, practice, practice is the only way it's going to sink in. And be sure to actually speak the language as much as possible.

[Like a Boss]

For Spanish, get a job at a golf course/landscaping company/construction company. Then habla with your nuevo amigos. Seriously though, Fluenz is really good. But I think that the market will evolve into a model of free apps with advertising rather than purchased software. I'll have to check out Duolingo. My dream is to acqurire a south american "sleeping dictionary" but estan locos guey!

[Mazderati]

Rosetta Stone is decent but I've read the company doesn't like their software installed more than two or three times, no matter the situation. Which may or may not be an issue.

[wicked_sick]

Check out that Duolingo app. It's free, it's easy, and damn good so long as you want to learn German, French, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese. I like it because you can spend a few minutes learning something useful when you have some downtime, rather than looking at naked redheads or playing candy crush.

Otherwise a foreign girlfriend works pretty well, but they probably come with more strings attached than a smartphone app.

[assman]

ogay otay oolscay iway iday otay ekspay igpay atinlay.

[ate'em]

Some mags recommended LiveMocha website to me a few months back. It's free, and pretty good. If you have learned a foreign language before I think you could self-teach like this.

If you are old and monolingual, well, good luck. Find a foreign chick online that wants to marry you for your cash, and use the hoe to learn the language. Bail before alimony.

[gaijin]

All apps and all textbooks will work if you're willing to work. As an adult it's 90% autonomy and 10% external curriculum. Barron's 501 Verbs has a great conjugate format for self-study if you want to hold paper and pen.

What's your art? Find a way to express yourself in your new tongue. The deeper/more profound the better. Don't get hung up on a need for quantity for your sense of limited time.

I tested 300 students -

Vocab Flashcards:
Image --> Word = 41% of new language retained after 2 weeks of no study.
Word --> Image = 38% of new language retained after 2 weeks of no study.
Word/Image together = 49% of new language retained after two weeks of no study.
(Flipping flashcards back and forth doesn't work well.)

Walking vs. Sitting while studying Word/Image together (10 minutes & 10 vocab words):
Walking = 58% of new language retained after 2 weeks of no study.
Sitting = 48% of new language retained after 2 weeks of no study.

The last thing you want to do is sit down and study flashcards via Rosetta Stone.

Most people can only retain 7 new vocab words per grammar structure.

A highly productive thing to do is read aloud. (Situated Cognition)
A highly productive thing to do is write/perform a drama. (Social Constructivism)
A kinda productive thing to do is get off your ass and move around your house labeling things with sentences. This links new memories to memories you already have. (John Anderson's ACT-R Theory)

Regardless, the ones I see most successful carry a pocket sized notebook everywhere they go all the time and they also write diary entries daily for years. Language is like food. You have to eat healthy all the time to be healthy. Diets don't work.

apps are either a supplement to other studies or a time-filler. If you're trying to fill time, or study in single chunks of time, you're doing it wrong. 10 minutes 3 times a day has a 21% bigger impact on acquisition than studying once a day for 30 minutes. Why? because your mind still works on problems away from study.

If you only study once a week you might as well be in JHS studying the alphabet and "trying to establish a positive relationship with a new language."

Learning foreign languages isn't hard. Changing your lifestyle to constantly be thinking about target language is very hard. Hence, find your art.

[fatnslow]

Pick a language/country/dialect then get yourself a mail order bride from that spot. Bring her parents over to live with you and next thing you know you haven't had action in many, many months but you'll be conversational in the language of your choice

[OldLarry]

All apps and all textbooks will work if you're willing to work. As an adult it's 90% autonomy and 10% external curriculum. Barron's 501 Verbs has a great conjugate format for self-study if you want to hold paper and pen.

What's your art? Find a way to express yourself in your new tongue. The deeper/more profound the better. Don't get hung up on a need for quantity for your sense of limited time.

I tested 300 students -

Vocab Flashcards:
Image --> Word = 41% of new language retained after 2 weeks of no study.
Word --> Image = 38% of new language retained after 2 weeks of no study.
Word/Image together = 49% of new language retained after two weeks of no study.
(Flipping flashcards back and forth doesn't work well.)

Walking vs. Sitting while studying Word/Image together (10 minutes & 10 vocab words):
Walking = 58% of new language retained after 2 weeks of no study.
Sitting = 48% of new language retained after 2 weeks of no study.

The last thing you want to do is sit down and study flashcards via Rosetta Stone.

Most people can only retain 7 new vocab words per grammar structure.

A highly productive thing to do is read aloud. (Situated Cognition)
A highly productive thing to do is write/perform a drama. (Social Constructivism)
A kinda productive thing to do is get off your ass and move around your house labeling things with sentences. This links new memories to memories you already have. (John Anderson's ACT-R Theory)

Regardless, the ones I see most successful carry a pocket sized notebook everywhere they go all the time and they also write diary entries daily for years. Language is like food. You have to eat healthy all the time to be healthy. Diets don't work.

apps are either a supplement to other studies or a time-filler. If you're trying to fill time, or study in single chunks of time, you're doing it wrong. 10 minutes 3 times a day has a 21% bigger impact on acquisition than studying once a day for 30 minutes. Why? because your mind still works on problems away from study.

If you only study once a week you might as well be in JHS studying the alphabet and "trying to establish a positive relationship with a new language."

Learning foreign languages isn't hard. Changing your lifestyle to constantly be thinking about target language is very hard. Hence, find your art.

Wow- I couldn't even finish that post. Guess a new language is out of the question. Took French from6-12th grade, retained 0. Took a class 3x a week in my 30s to try to come up to speed as the only non French speaking person on my team and got the axe before being able to ask for the bathroom. Fucking frogs. Good gig, too. Half the time spent in eu/uk on the company dime, heh.

[RiderX]

My method.
I met a Puerto Rican woman while I was living in New York. Decided to marry her. Took a three month class in Spanish and then moved to Puerto Rico. Not sure that would work for you.

Anyway, immersion works best. But if you can't do that, often you can find programming on TV in different languages. Spanish is the easiest to find, but I have seen French and Italian programming as well. Turn on the closed captioning and you can read what they are saying in order to figure out how words are pronounced. You can also listen to the radio, but I still find it hard to understand people when they are singing. Also try to read articles from an online newspaper. First just read it and see if you can figure out what is being said and then go back and look up words you don't know.

I have found that reading books and listening to CD's from Living Language, Rosetta Stone etc. are the hardest way for me to learn. Although they do explain the grammar, which is essential to learn, no one talks the way things are written in those books.

I think the most important step is trying to think in the language you are speaking. If you are constantly translating from one language to another, it is almost impossible to have a conversation.

[Hugh Conway]

Anyway, immersion works best. But if you can't do that, often you can find programming on TV in different languages. Spanish is the easiest to find, but I have seen French and Italian programming as well. Turn on the closed captioning and you can read what they are saying in order to figure out how words are pronounced. You can also listen to the radio, but I still find it hard to understand people when they are singing. Also try to read articles from an online newspaper.

Youtube. Change your google search language and find the world outside of english.

[Tye 1on]

Youtube. Change your google search language and find the world outside of english.

whoa. Stupid simple and free. Brilliant.

i've been giving learning Spanish a half-assed effort on and off over the last five years. What seems to work for me is a combo of 2 hr/week classes. flash card work, and drinking tequila with the Mexican cooks at the bar. But my definition of 'works for me' may be quite different than what the OP's seeking...

[RootSkier]

Study Rosetta Stone:Spanish for three to five years.

Listen to Argentino futbol match broadcast.

/killself in despair.

[MarcusBrody]

Study Rosetta Stone:Spanish for three to five years.

Listen to Argentino futbol match broadcast.

/killself in despair.

To be fair, when I was happily and functionally living in Spain and would go see Argentine movies, I was lost half the time.

[Hugh Conway]

omgurd! acents! tey be de debil fur un-fluenters!

10% of the spanish speaking world lick at the balls of the lisping spaniards, the other half laughs.

[Like a Boss]

^^^^Good thing this isn't a math thread, huh Yogi?

[The AD]

Youtube. Change your google search language and find the world outside of english.

Good idea, but I'm not sure watching funny cat videos in Spanish is going to help me learn the language.

[54-46]

IME, some tape/book learning helps with structure and basic vocabulary, but you really have to live it, i.e. speak only that language for a period of time. It forces you to use it to function.

Once you have some basics, you can learn something watching TV. I used to watch American TV shows dubbed in Italian for about an hour each morning, and it helped.

[Gripen]

X2 on immersion. And drinking. I learned far more doing this then in courses. (once I had the basics don)

I also find watching Swedish language movies with the Swedish subtitles on is a great way to expand the vocab.