Learning a new language

duolingo got me to about 70% fluency. I highly suggest it.

>>17744390
if you can afford uni, just take the introduction language classes they teach you all the basics. then buy book/movies and read and practice

It depends on a bunch of stuff. What do you plan to do in this new language? Why do you want to learn it? How dedicated are you?

The best way, the absolute best way, is to live in a place where that language is the dominant language spoken, so you have to use it at least a little bit every day to get by.

Consume foreign media, like books, music, movies or forums

The good 'ol days when they taught Latin in grade school. Where did that go?

>>17744580
They still do, ya old cunt

>>17744575
I was thinking about studying abroad for a year somewhere in europe or japan.

>>17744580
My high school has AP latin classes

>>17744701
You're not gonna reach anything near fluency from studying a year in Japan. East Asian languages are vastly different from English and take a long time to learn properly.

Europe is a better idea, any of the romance languages will be significantly easier to pick up.

t. currently studying in Japan

>>17744719
It depends on a bunch of stuff, like how much time you dedicate to studying, how much you practice, how good you are at learning new languages, and how much support you have from people willing to translate for you. (that last one is actually a negative - the more people translate for you, the less you have to learn to communicate yourself).

I taught English in China for a year. By the end of it, I could have a very basic conversation - I could introduce myself, ask directions, so shopping, order food, really simple stuff. I couldn't get to know someone on a personal level though. But I also had people translating for me all the time.

>>17744390
the way my friends from sweden and netherlands learned (having absolutely no knowledge of english, they came to america in childhood) was by attending classes and shit.

i assume an app like duolingo would work, however, for actually forcing yourself to learn, get into a class and talk to people, if not in your community at least online, who speak that language and

DO NOT BE AFRAID TO BE SHIT AT THE LANGUAGE

>>17744741
>DO NOT BE AFRAID TO BE SHIT AT THE LANGUAGE

Yes, this, a thousand times this. You will and must make mistakes, and say embarrassing things, and get frustrated. If those things don't happen, it's because you aren't trying hard enough, and it means you aren't learning. These are essential steps to getting where you want to be.

ESL teacher here.

>>17744738
Basic conversational level doesn't equal fluency. I can speak some really good Japanese, been studying it for 3 years now, but I know that to a native I still sound strange and foreign. Consequently, the same amount of work/time will get you much farther in a romance language. It's a lot more closely related to English in terms of vocabulary, grammar, everything.

While those factors you mentioned are certainly important, I'm stating that romance languages are objectively easier for a native English speaker to learn and someone will reach the same level of communication much faster than you would in a language like Japanese or Chinese which is completely unrelated to their native tongue.

>>17744719
Eh. This really hasn't been my experience. I've studied Arabic (Egyptian/MSA) and Chinese, and although it took me a good couple years to really get comfortable talking in Arabic (and I still haven't gotten there with Chinese), I've seen people do it in about a year. Maybe they weren't "fluent" but they were definitely upper-intermediate conversational. Depends a little on your natural aptitude, but mainly on whether you have the courage (and energy) to just dive the fuck in there and speak and listen constantly, *without recourse to English* (so tough when you have colleagues, classmates or expat friends who speak even a little English). Sadly I don't have that kind of courage or energy, but some people do, I've seen them in action.

That's for the spoken language, of course; I'd be incredibly impressed if anybody achieved fluency in reading or writing Chinese or Japanese in a year.

>>17744390
There is a lot of good content out there which you can use to learn at home and that's good enough to get your started, to get around while travelling, to meet basic needs etc. To go beyond that you will need to make an effort to practice with other people. Formal classes are also important for learning the specifics of the language and for getting qualifications which you can use to prove your ability. Immersion/living in the country is an important step towards fluency but it's not necessary for a beginner, it's more beneficial for an intermediate/advanced speaker.

So I think a good process is as follows:

1. Take some time to decide which language to learn - ideally you want one that is useful from a travel/employment perspective, but also one that is from a culture that interests you.

2: Test the waters with an introductory course, something like Michel Thomas is good because it's fun and gets you speaking straight away.

3: Look into formal classes at a nearby university or college

4: Supplement formal training with practice at home via more audio courses or various language learning apps.

5: Once you have the ability to understand at least some of it, start consuming media in the new language.

6: Start seeking out people to practice with, if you live in a small town buy a webcam and microphone.

7: Consider travelling to the country, ideally with some kind of exchange or intensive course to really push you towards fluency.

>>17744772
cont'd since I just saw this reply
I don't disagree with most of what you're saying, but I think you gotta remember that the similarity of the language to English isn't the only factor at play here -- how interested you are in the language also matters a LOT. Spanish is objectively easier for English speakers to learn than Japanese, but if you have zero interest in Latin culture and think Spanish sounds like shit, and you're just enchanted with the sounds of Japanese & Japanese pop culture (as many people are) then I'd give you better odds to learn Japanese than Spanish.

Also as far as spoken Mandarin goes it's worth noting that its grammar is really not all that frustrating, since it's an analytic language with somewhat similar sentence structure to English. Yes, obviously its grammar differs from English, but compared to really synthetic languages like Arabic, Latin, or any given Slavic language, it's honestly less of a headache.

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>>17744399
>duolingo percentage fluency