Learning Other Languages

[SecretPro]

Has anybody learnt to speak a foreign language through self tuition?

 

I'm going to be doing a lot of cycling around France and feel like I want to delve more into the culture and be able to properly communicate with the locals whilst I'm doing it.

 

So, any tips, porcasts, learning tools etc?

 

(none of that Babbel or dualingo sh*t though please!)

[Voll Blau]

I do use Duolingo but all I can suggest is try to immerse yourself in the language you're learning. I find watching German dramas with English subtitles helps me pick up sounds and words. Conversely, watching English language shows but with foreign language subtitles can help too.

 

The best tool at your disposal is knowing people who speak the language and are willing to converse with you in it (via text or speaking), which challenges you more if they're using terms or phrases you aren't familiar with.

[Carl the Llama]

Depends on how much of a base you already have but general good practice is to immerse yourself in the language:  Watch films in English with French subtitles, eventually swapping for French with English, buy some French kids/young adult literature to read in bed, if you play video games set them to French etc.  

[David Guiza]

As above - there are a few good podcasts and YouTube videos out there too for free, and, if you're happy to spend a little and don't mind the interaction side then you can usually find tutors on a number of websites for circa £20 p/h. 

 

I think Universities often provide good quality block courses too for a couple of hundred too.  

[Vacamion]

 

As a language nut, I’ve learned Hindi, Russian and bits and bobs of a few other languages from Teach Yourself books and tapes as an absolute beginner.  They are old fashioned but I find them the best way to get into an entirely new language.

 

Beyond that, we’ve never had it so good for access to foreign languages, so I would suggest you follow French news sites on Twitter and then follow anyone commenting who you think is interesting.

 

I find following foreign subreddits on Reddit is quite good for keeping up with modern usage and slang (although for me I’ve found this mainly with German)

 

One of my degree languages was French (a long time ago now) and I would suggest that book French / starter French differs massively from what people there use day to day.  People use words, even for everyday stuff, that they don’t teach in school here or in courses online, and you can get a nasty surprise thinking you speak their language and find no one uses the words in the dictionary!  I would suggest it is worth looking up lists of slang /everyday terms.  

 

And that’s before you get to local flavours of language.  

 

Good luck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FerrisBueller]

Basically the answers above, I watch everything with Danish subtitles now and it’s really helping. Can recommend watching kids films in the language and with subtitles, as the language is a lot more audible and spoken a lot slower.

[Vacamion]

 

Singing songs in the target language is a great reinforcer (I love a good Bollywood song).

 

[UpTheLeagueFox]

Some really good advice in this thread. 

I picked up a few words of Spanish over 20+ years going abroad but decided to get stuck into DuoLingo during the March 2020 lockdown, and now on my 479th consecutive day.

The best practice was in Tenerife last month, hugely helpful, especially with the Spaniards who could speak decent English, I could ask them what this or that means.

Good luck with it.

[Samilktray]

When I worked night shifts and could listen to whatever on my headphones all night I started learning Italian on duolingo. Quite enjoyed it but forgot it all now 

[Buce]

1 hour ago, SecretPro said:

Has anybody learnt to speak a foreign language through self tuition?

 

I'm going to be doing a lot of cycling around France and feel like I want to delve more into the culture and be able to properly communicate with the locals whilst I'm doing it.

 

So, any tips, porcasts, learning tools etc?

 

(none of that Babbel or dualingo sh*t though please!)

 

There are loads of language exchange pages with native speakers on Facebook.

 

I wouldn't be so quick to knock Duolingo; not so good if you're looking for fluency but it will give you a good grounding in the basics, particularly useful for visiting countries with uncommon languages or where English is seldom spoken.

Edited 16 July 2021 by Buce

[Sampson]

You can have tutor lessons over Skype on iTalki.

 

Generally hit and miss but a lot of them are people new to the country so are generally much cheaper than in person tutors.

 

You can try a few tutors to see which ones you like best.

 

Never done it, but my nephew loves it and has 3 or 4 lessons a week on there. If you buy in packages it can work out only around £10-£12 for an hour lesson.

[enmac]

1 hour ago, Carl the Llama said:

Depends on how much of a base you already have but general good practice is to immerse yourself in the language:  Watch films in English with French subtitles, eventually swapping for French with English, buy some French kids/young adult literature to read in bed, if you play video games set them to French etc.  

Met someone abroad once. Forgotten which nationality, who said that he gained rudimentary English by watching the same dvd in English with subtitles over and over. 

[Izzy]

I’m one of those arrogant English bastards who’ve never learnt another language because the rest of the world speaks English so well.

 

I work with people remotely from all over the world and it never ceases to amaze me how brilliant their English always is.
 

Fair play if you want to invest your time in learning a new language but frankly in today’s world, I can’t really see the point.

[Fox92]

I'm currently using Duolingo to try and learn Spanish.

 

Trouble is it's only basics really. What I want to do is start lessons where you can talk etc. I feel duolingo only gets me so far, however I have improved from when I started last year as there are words/sentances I can read now when I see them on tv/internet.

 

I bought a phrase book also, which is decent, but I think it's aimed at taking it somewhere to assist.

 

[Buce]

4 minutes ago, Izzy said:

I’m one of those arrogant English bastards who’ve never learnt another language because the rest of the world speaks English so well.

 

I work with people remotely from all over the world and it never ceases to amaze me how brilliant their English always is.
 

Fair play if you want to invest your time in learning a new language but frankly in today’s world, I can’t really see the point.

 

I guess it depends on what experience you want from your travels.

 

English isn't as widely spoken as you might imagine; take Spain as an example - you'll have no problems on the Costas but if you venture into rural Spain you'll find very few English speakers. Just being able to order food and ask for (and understand) directions makes a huge difference. When I travel I try to learn as a bare minimum enough of the language to get from A to B without starving, and I can do that in about a half-dozen languages, though I'm conversational in none.

[martyn]

I reached a good level of conversational Spanish about 10 years ago.

 

The Michel Thomas audio courses played a big part in that. I've not kept up with some of the newer courses and how they rate, but you wouldn't go too far wrong with Michel Thomas.

 

Ally that with watching some TV in your target language and it'll get you a decent way.

Edited 16 July 2021 by martyn

[Arriba Los Zorros]

2 hours ago, SecretPro said:

Has anybody learnt to speak a foreign language through self tuition?

 

I'm going to be doing a lot of cycling around France and feel like I want to delve more into the culture and be able to properly communicate with the locals whilst I'm doing it.

 

So, any tips, porcasts, learning tools etc?

 

(none of that Babbel or dualingo sh*t though please!)

Speak Spanish and French, I'm a translator, and had to learn both from scratch, no multi lingual parents in my family.

Basically, talk to as many people as you can, you'd be surprised how many friends a language barrier can help you make. Don't let them talk to you in English if you can help it. In the meantime, watch TV, listen to podcasts, radio in French, it'll be a chore at first and just picking out to the odd word, but give it time and you'll start noticing a huge improvement.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

Also, try looking for language meetups near you if you have the time, there's a wide range of levels of competency there and its a good place to start over a pint.

[Trav Le Bleu]

Basho giks y fohbazi soo mak?

 

Fabbilogi hashk y popo kack, dasso dasso spunket. Jaequil hashk fofo popo y da mushkie zarbow.

 

Admiralmuskwe?

[Soup]

I'm embarrassed to say that I've had a property in Spain for 5 years and now living here full time (only the last few weeks though) and my Spanish is terrible.

 

In my defense I was picking up a fair bit before lockdown but due to the restrictions we only got out here for a few days last year. The misses has remembered most of what she'd learnt, but not me.

 

When all this Covid stuff kicked off I thought I'd be able to really get in to learning more but I ended working more than I ever have. I find that if my mind is occupied with other more important stuff then nothing else seems to stick in my mind. Absolutely no excuses now as I've got loads of time on my hands.

 

I do actually want to learn as I don't want to be one of those lazy can't be arsed Brits but I do really struggle with anything academic. I'll wing it somehow though, I always do 

[Izzy]

1 hour ago, Buce said:

 

I guess it depends on what experience you want from your travels.

 

English isn't as widely spoken as you might imagine; take Spain as an example - you'll have no problems on the Costas but if you venture into rural Spain you'll find very few English speakers. Just being able to order food and ask for (and understand) directions makes a huge difference. When I travel I try to learn as a bare minimum enough of the language to get from A to B without starving, and I can do that in about a half-dozen languages, though I'm conversational in none.

Fair point and probably highlights the cultural differences between you and I.

 

You're a man of adventure who likes to experience real life off the beaten track. Whereas I'll sit by the pool or in the Dog & Duck in Benidorm 

[Captain...]

My view on languages is, it is not difficult to learn a language we are all capable of it having learned one. It is just time consuming.

 

Latin languages like French and Spanish are very grammar heavy and if you get the grammar wrong things can make no sense to a native speaker. As a fellow English speaker the concept of verb conjugation is pretty alien. One thing you can do on your own is just buy a grammar book and work through it. It will do bugger all for your fluency and verbal communication but it will give you a good grounding.

 

There are 4 real disciplines in languages, reading, writing, speaking and listening. You need to practice all 4. I've met Spanish people that can read English perfectly but can't speak for shit. Split your focus between all 4. Writing is probably the least useful but it all builds on your language skills.

 

Know your limits, I read somewhere you can only remember 7 new words a day, so don't waste your time trying to remember long lists of words it's not going to work. Just immerse yourself in the basics and practice a little everyday and build on it.

 

Duolingo, grammar books, watching foreign films all help, but you can only get any real fluency by talking to native speakers. Meetup.com will help you find language groups and others have mentioned links to talk to a native speaker 

 

Final bits of advice on speaking. Put on a French accent, if you're speaking French. Don't speak a foreign language in your normal accent, people won't understand you. Putting on an accent helps with the rhythm of speech and pronunciation. It was probably the one single thing that helped me go to the next level with Spanish, I felt stupid and like I was taking the piss, but I got a lot of compliments on my pronunciation and that helped build my confidence. Don't be afraid to make a mistake, some how in Spanish I managed to announce to my language exchange group I had penis's on my feet after walking for 4 days. Blisters - ampollas, penis - una polla. I've never forgotten that word.

 

 

[TonyN11]

Started using Duolingo March 2020 when on Furlough and improved my German (which is still basic) and it has helped along with reading German publications, newspapers and I have German speaking work colleagues which helps a great deal (have a better understanding now when they are complaining about me).

Had a go at Dutch also - my impression is that it's similar to German but much easier without umlauts or 3 genders for nouns.

Also tried Spanish which is probably my favourite.

Russian was OK to start but switching between Roman and Cyrillic keyboards was a pain.

 

In summary, I'm only fluent in English   

Edited 16 July 2021 by TonyN11
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[SecretPro]

Lots of great stuff on here - thanks!

 

So, for those that do learn other languages, which is the easiest? I must admit I hated French at school because most of it was reading/writing based and built around words/conversation nobody would actually ever have and the grammatical differences fecking killed it. Maybe I'll cycle around a country with an easier language

Edited 16 July 2021 by SecretPro

[shen]

3 hours ago, FerrisBueller said:

Basically the answers above, I watch everything with Danish subtitles now and it’s really helping. Can recommend watching kids films in the language and with subtitles, as the language is a lot more audible and spoken a lot slower.

Kudos for trying and good luck!

Danish is a tough language for most foreigners due to our near impossible pronunciation and disconnect between written and spoken Danish. Well done if you can connect the subtitles to the spoken language in those shows.

 

1 hour ago, Izzy said:

Fair play if you want to invest your time in learning a new language but frankly in today’s world, I can’t really see the point.

Language is essential when trying to understand another country's culture. I have been fortunate to grow up in a multilingual and multicultural society and it really eases communication and understanding - and relationship building - when you can switch and adapt. I'm also certain it's helped my mental faculties and ability to recognise patterns beyond language as well.