Your Top Five Language Learning Tips

Arabic english spanish french italian

Do you speak all those languages?  How did you learn them? What are some tips or ideas to help others learn languages?

I know five languages very well.
These are: Arabic, English, Urdu, Hindi and Bhoj Puri.
I know how to read French and Persian.

all these people who say they can read and understand English don't seem to have actually read the original question!

my top tip is to join a choir, since it puts you in a group of people who'll be pronouncing things correctly all around you, and if it's a church choir, you'll be repeating texts that might already be familiar to you in your own language. Plus, church choir people are generally very welcoming & patient in my experience.

it's definitely not for everyone but I learned more this way than in any classroom. It's also an interesting way to learn about the musical heritage of a country. Plus, I've had the opportunity to sing in some amazing places, including in a lava-tube cave below one of Iceland's most famous volcano/glacier combinations. Not bad!

A bit of wisdom from my fiance, who learned Danish (which I am now trying to learn):  A lot of people will say it only took them 6 months to learn a language... and a lot of those people are lying (not all, but most), so don't be disheartened if it takes longer than that.

Thank you, it gives me encouragement! Not easy when you 'think' first about how to say something in your own language, then try to organise the phrase in another, while using correct grammar..
Looking forward to thinking and dreaming in italian, instead of english..

I went to the church where there are many chinese people to learn cantonese, it worked to me... i'm not in any religion though...
Beside, online chat is a certain way to help you with spelling as well...

First I got myself into a demanding language class. I had to try and keep up and it was very frustrating at first because I didn't understand but oh lordie it feels good when the words actually begin to mean something. So complete immersion where u cannot speak any English is that class. Then I beat the books like crazy to try and get the grammar down pat. That is very important. Then try and use the knowledge that u have gained- speak! at first I was very afraid of speaking because I was so concerned about all the mistakes I would make but u know what, the people actually didn't care. I meant more that I was actually trying to speak the local language. But the more u speak in public, the more courage u will get and before long it will be almost second nature to answer in the local language. Another thing that helped a lot was that my husband and I decided from the get-go that we should try and speak Finnish at home as well. That helped big time.

I've been learning Chinese for almost a year and all I can do is order food - with a lot of pointing - and ask the price.  I'd be very surprised if anyone can really learn a language in 6 months.  I don't think knowing a few phrases is the same as knowing the language.

My advice for learning a new language: don't do it my way.

Maybe im old School or something but it seems easier to me to learn another language by being among the people that speak that laungauge Daily. I dont do well with the Courses but i learned enough Japaneese to get by quiet well that way.

                                        David1946

Hi all ,

1. I've found (my own conclusion/observation) that people take, naturally, 2 years (max) to learn a language. Otherwise you are not really trying at all!
    Meaning they are engaged (in the process of learning a language) daily in their daily life with minimum effort (passively). Just listening & talking.
    In fact, kids starts talking in about their 2nd birth day. It seems we are wired this way, 2 years for high skills.
    However, through my own methods, I’ve shortened it down to 3 months! I believe this is the min. amount of time to do so & no less.

2. Basically, there are 2 variables here: You & your environment.
    When it comes to you, you have to know this one important fact: Everyone learns in a different way!
    Maybe you are a visual learner, so you’ll need to watch movies (not music) etc. You have to know your self & what best suites you!
    The environment: The more you are surrounded by a supportive environment they less time it’ll take you & it’ll be easier.
    Best one will be to live in a country where the language you want is the official one there or marry a native speaker lol.

3. I am in the process for creating the ultimate language learning course & the next method/tip is part of it.
    So, I’ll give one of the most important tips you’ll ever have, you can thank me later :
   
    Repeat aloud any phrases/words/sentences you hear immediately the moment you hear them! Best will be when watching a movie or a TV show (that you like) ...
    Even if you don’t understand anything.
    Fact: Learning a language is like acting! So, get the voice tone, facial expression etc.

   Sound deceivingly simple enough! But this will actually accelerate you learning by folds & like nothing else. It combines many things in it.
   One of these (scientific) facts is that for any learning to “stick” you have to create a new map in your brain for that skill (new neural pathways).
   So, by just acting a language out you start creating that new map!

   Good luck!

There are some great suggestions.

Learning Spanish is my thing. In another year I will speak Spanish good enough to go to a University in Columbia. One of my many goals.

Five things that worked for me.

1)Total Immersion in the culture. (That means I had to schedule time to travel to Guatemala from Belize and 2 weeks to a month of time) Total time in Spanish School over the last few years is, 2 and a half months. In May I am going for another month.

2)Go to a recommended language school that offers one on one instruction.

3)After 4 hours of Spanish tutoring I go out in the streets and practice what I have learned at the restaurants, stores and vendors.

4) Watch the News and music videos.

5) Spend most of your time speaking to native speakers. Avoid the urge to hang out with other students or travelers who do not Speak Spanish.

Antigua Guatemala is where I go to Spanish school when I can set aside the time.

People keep talking about listening to music.  I think you have to be careful with that.  You won't learn any English from a Black Eyed Peas song.

Arab => my parents
French => native
English => school + friends
Spanish => school

But the best way to learn a language is to practice it EVERYDAY! Skype is very useful for that

top 5 tips? LOL
There s only one: Motivation
Ciao

Decide early on what you want to acheive.
For me the best part is to learn phrases in order to ask for the things, functional language. Once you have then add to it, make those phrases longer.

3 key ingredients: motivation, practice and repetition

As an English teacher (ESL) for 24 years I am always asked by people what are the best ways to learn English. The tips I give my students apply to learning any language and I will pass them along here.

Learning any language involves working on three aspects, the spoken language, the written language and listening. You have to work on developing all of them.

Tip No. 1 - Use the internet, chat-rooms, websites in the language you are trying to learn. Spend as much time as you can in that site or chat. You will be learning all the time and guess what.... it's free. What's better than FREE?

A site that I recommend to all of my students is PalTalk, it's a great way to help learn the language.

www.paltalk.com

Tip No. 2 - Use music a lot, this will build your listening skills. Put on a CD and play it, try to write down the words as it plays, play it again and fill in more that you missed, and again a third time, four, five........... soon you will be able to repeat every word from memory. Music is a level between the spoken language which in most cases is too fast for language learners to understand (native speakers everywhere speak fast) and reading which is slow and boring. Using music slowly builds you up to that conversational speed. Sing along with the CD it's more fun!

Tip No. 3 - Buy a common notebook (kind students use at school) on the first page in the upper corner write "A", flip two pages and write in the corner "B" and two more "C". What you will end up with should look sort of like a blank personal telephone book. In fact if you can find a REALLY big one of these use it instead. With it you will start to make your own 'personal' dicitonary writing the words, their meaning and examples. Study from your dictionary regularly it builds your repertoire of 'sight words', words you no longer need to think about, translate, etc. because you know them on SIGHT.

When you learn a new word write it in your dictionary under the appropriate letter. If you just use a notebook and write down one word after the other and have no order it just becomes a mess and you never find it again.

When you learn new vocabulary, don't just focus on the word. Write down the word and a few complete sentences using it. If you're learning English especially because we have verbs that have about 20 or so different meanings when we use them.

Tip No. 4 - DVDs are fantastic learning tools. Watch a film at least twice, three times is even better if you have the time (doesn't need to be in one sitting - no). The first time you view the film it should be AUDIO only in the language you are learning and no subtitles you will understand a lot just by the action and your basic understanding of the language. The second viewing AUDIO in your new language and SUBTITLES in that language too, this will help fill in your understanding gaps, the words you missed in the audio. A third or more viewings (if it isn't too boring for you to do this) will help even more.

Never use subtitles in your mother tongue because that defeats the whole process and won't help you learn.

Tip No. 5 - Join some group, social club, community association, church group in the culture of the language you're learning. The more you expose yourself to the language the better you will pick it up. Also, the culture of any society has a great influence on their language and the WAY they speak it. The more you learn about the culture, the better you will understand the language too.

Most important of all is don't set your goals too high. If you're a perfectionist this will be difficult. You must understand that this will ALWAYS be a foreign language for you no matter how long you study it. Unless you grow up from childhood with a language you will never speak it as well as a native speaker. I have lived in Brazil for over ten years, arrived here with an upper intermediate fluency level after diligent study - I now have total domination of the language, writing, spelling, vocabulary, etc., to the point where I do complex translations. However, the finer points of the grammar sometimes illude me and when I speak the language my accent will never disappear, and sometimes in my haste to speak I use the wrong verb form. This will happen to anyone so don't expect that  you will ever speak the language as well as "they" do.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog

i see a lot was added up there. my tiny advice would be about listening.

don't mistake it with hearing, we hear stuff all the time, rather pay attention and listen well. that will help take you a long way.

5 tips to read a new language:

1. be open to read, show interest- keep your antennae open
2. try to socialise more - meet people - eg: Use Expat.com
3. spend time with kids
4. get a girl/boy friend
5. read local news paper

1 - A solid basic knowledge of the language, i.e.: school
2 - An understanding of the culture, i.e. art, movies, music, sports...
3 - TV, especially local news and commercials since they are purely contextual and cultural
4 - Work or volunteering
5 - Make local friends, co-workers, neighbors. Don't stay in your communities, total cultural immersion will make you learn very quickly.

Try joining a local sports club or if you have hobbies like sculpturing, join a local organization that does that. Another thing you can do is try to stop yourself from watching TV in your mother tongue and instead watch the local TV. Soon you will find that you are able to listen to your surrounding and understand

One is make a girlfriend who speaks that language.

Second is live in that country and mingle with locals.