Introduction
Ask most Americans what they remember from their four years of high school Spanish, and you'll probably be lucky if they can order a meal in a Spanish-speaking restaurant! Then, ask them if they think they could learn to do so. If your experience is anything like mine, most will reply with serious doubt, saying "I'm just not any good at learning languages." And what's worse, they actually believe it!
The truth is, anybody can learn any language. While it may be true that some people are naturally good at picking up new languages, the notion that somebody cannot learn another language is completely erroneous. (See Jean Rondal's 2000 study on bilingualism in mentally-handicapped children, if you need inspiration.)
The truth is, there is really only one Golden Rule when it comes to learning a foreign language: you have to want to learn it. If you can manage this sincerely, then everything else will fall into place. Still, there are so many resources and techniques out there-many of them free-that knowing where to start can be positively daunting.
In order to save you time, here are some tips that I wish somebody had told me when I set out to fulfill my college bucket list and become trilingual:
1.) Learn the 10, the 100, the 1000 most common words, first.
Believe it or not, the one thousand most common words in a given language make up nearly 80% of everyday speech. Learn the most common 2000 words, and you should be able to understand 95% of what is being said around you! Learning 2000 words isn't easy, but it's not impossible, either, especially when you consider the fact that most people only have a working vocabulary of 10,000 words in their native language. When I decided to learn Spanish, I began by Google-ing the top ten most common words in the language while at work. Ten minutes later, I had memorized them and begun replacing their English equivalents in my head as I thought to myself in mixed Spanish and English.
One of the first skills you should learn master is using pronouns and conjugating verbs. Pronouns and verb conjugation is used in nearly every sentence in everyday speech, and learning how to express "I did this" or "he did that" will give you immediate speaking power.
A few weeks later, I went to the nearest Barnes and Noble and picked up SparkNotes® Study Cards for Spanish Vocabulary. Organized alphabetically, they contained 1000 common Spanish words and phrases, and I made a point to go through one or two letter's worth of cards a week. Whenever I had a spare moment at work, I pulled out my flashcards instead of getting on Facebook. I also made sure to do a quick run-through before bed each night.
Every day, I tried out what I learned on my Spanish-speaking bus driver on the way to work. This way, I got lots of practice speaking and listening, received reliable feedback on the most natural ways to say things, and had lots of fun making a new friend!
By the end of the Summer (after only two months of casual study) I felt comfortable ordering at a fast-food restaurant, talking about the weather, and discussing sports or music with people who I met around town.
2.) Using learning aides (e.g., books, software).
Some language-learning aides do a very good job of presenting you with the most useful vocabulary and grammar in the order that you're most likely to need it. Others are a complete waste of money. Both kinds will fail to produce results if you don't use them regularly and enthusiastically.
In today's online world of free and accessible information, it's quite possible to learn a foreign language without ever spending a dime. I first began teaching myself French as a child by flipping through my grandmother's French cookbooks and looking up words on Google Translator. My experience was that I achieved conversational fluency long before I bought my first textbook.
Still, many people swear by workbooks, audio CD's for the car, and computer software. For beginners who wish to become more comfortable in a foreign language for travel and pleasure, I recommend Bilingual Books' "10 minutes a day®" series. Their fun, non-intimidating style and intelligent introduction to the common language skills that you'll actually use is perfect for beginners in any language.
One product that has received a great deal of attention in recent years is the award-winning Rosetta Stone ® language software. I eventually bought Rosetta Stone's French course, and later received their Spanish and German courses as gifts. My experience is that they are very effective, but only when used as directed. Actually going through every unit's Reading-, Listening-, Writing-, and Speaking-sections can very well lead to fluency, but losing motivation or not keeping up will leave you with nothing but a very expensive desk-drawer filler. Compared to other software on the market, Rosetta Stone can be rather dry.
Before spending any money on books, audio CD's, or software, try looking up language-learning aides on Consumer Search to find the best investment.
3.) Get your feet wet!
One of the most important things you'll learn when you study a foreign language is not the language itself. Instead, you'll learn how to learn. More specifically, you'll learn how to learn a language. Tackling a third language is a piece of cake compared to a second language, and the process can be made even easier by learning a language that belongs to the same family as one that you already speak. Romance languages (e.g., French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese) are all descended from Latin and share a great deal of vocabulary and grammatical concepts. It's often said that French gives the language-leaner such a "discount" on Italian that the latter can be learned in 6 month's time! The same goes for Germanic languages...Dutch, or one of the Scandinavian languages, will come much more quickly after learning German.
Arguably the best way to learn a language is the same way you learned your native tongue-through "immersion." Granted, stranding yourself in a foreign country is not always feasible or desirable, but combining an orderly, directed learning effort with regular exposure and conversation with native speakers is the surest way to become comfortable speaking and understanding your new language. Even if you live in a place where your new language isn't spoken by anyone, face-to-face experience can be gained through internet pen-pal services such as "My Language Exchange." Creating an account is free and they have over 100 languages represented among their members!
Conclusion:
It's worth noting that some languages are simply more difficult for native English-speakers to pick up due to their radically different syntax (i.e., "word order"), pronunciation, grammar, and even tone (some languages, such as Chinese, actually have words that change meaning depending on the tone used when speaking: a flat tone, a rising tone, a falling tone, and a rising-falling tone!). In spite of this, native speakers of these languages learned them just as easily as you learned your native tongue. Don't give up! Practice! Try to speak to native speakers! When it comes to learning a foreign language, you really will get out of the endeavor whatever you put into it!
Ask most Americans what they remember from their four years of high school Spanish, and you'll probably be lucky if they can order a meal in a Spanish-speaking restaurant! Then, ask them if they think they could learn to do so. If your experience is anything like mine, most will reply with serious doubt, saying "I'm just not any good at learning languages." And what's worse, they actually believe it!
The truth is, anybody can learn any language. While it may be true that some people are naturally good at picking up new languages, the notion that somebody cannot learn another language is completely erroneous. (See Jean Rondal's 2000 study on bilingualism in mentally-handicapped children, if you need inspiration.)
The truth is, there is really only one Golden Rule when it comes to learning a foreign language: you have to want to learn it. If you can manage this sincerely, then everything else will fall into place. Still, there are so many resources and techniques out there-many of them free-that knowing where to start can be positively daunting.
In order to save you time, here are some tips that I wish somebody had told me when I set out to fulfill my college bucket list and become trilingual:
1.) Learn the 10, the 100, the 1000 most common words, first.
Believe it or not, the one thousand most common words in a given language make up nearly 80% of everyday speech. Learn the most common 2000 words, and you should be able to understand 95% of what is being said around you! Learning 2000 words isn't easy, but it's not impossible, either, especially when you consider the fact that most people only have a working vocabulary of 10,000 words in their native language. When I decided to learn Spanish, I began by Google-ing the top ten most common words in the language while at work. Ten minutes later, I had memorized them and begun replacing their English equivalents in my head as I thought to myself in mixed Spanish and English.
One of the first skills you should learn master is using pronouns and conjugating verbs. Pronouns and verb conjugation is used in nearly every sentence in everyday speech, and learning how to express "I did this" or "he did that" will give you immediate speaking power.
A few weeks later, I went to the nearest Barnes and Noble and picked up SparkNotes® Study Cards for Spanish Vocabulary. Organized alphabetically, they contained 1000 common Spanish words and phrases, and I made a point to go through one or two letter's worth of cards a week. Whenever I had a spare moment at work, I pulled out my flashcards instead of getting on Facebook. I also made sure to do a quick run-through before bed each night.
Every day, I tried out what I learned on my Spanish-speaking bus driver on the way to work. This way, I got lots of practice speaking and listening, received reliable feedback on the most natural ways to say things, and had lots of fun making a new friend!
By the end of the Summer (after only two months of casual study) I felt comfortable ordering at a fast-food restaurant, talking about the weather, and discussing sports or music with people who I met around town.
2.) Using learning aides (e.g., books, software).
Some language-learning aides do a very good job of presenting you with the most useful vocabulary and grammar in the order that you're most likely to need it. Others are a complete waste of money. Both kinds will fail to produce results if you don't use them regularly and enthusiastically.
In today's online world of free and accessible information, it's quite possible to learn a foreign language without ever spending a dime. I first began teaching myself French as a child by flipping through my grandmother's French cookbooks and looking up words on Google Translator. My experience was that I achieved conversational fluency long before I bought my first textbook.
Still, many people swear by workbooks, audio CD's for the car, and computer software. For beginners who wish to become more comfortable in a foreign language for travel and pleasure, I recommend Bilingual Books' "10 minutes a day®" series. Their fun, non-intimidating style and intelligent introduction to the common language skills that you'll actually use is perfect for beginners in any language.
One product that has received a great deal of attention in recent years is the award-winning Rosetta Stone ® language software. I eventually bought Rosetta Stone's French course, and later received their Spanish and German courses as gifts. My experience is that they are very effective, but only when used as directed. Actually going through every unit's Reading-, Listening-, Writing-, and Speaking-sections can very well lead to fluency, but losing motivation or not keeping up will leave you with nothing but a very expensive desk-drawer filler. Compared to other software on the market, Rosetta Stone can be rather dry.
Before spending any money on books, audio CD's, or software, try looking up language-learning aides on Consumer Search to find the best investment.
3.) Get your feet wet!
One of the most important things you'll learn when you study a foreign language is not the language itself. Instead, you'll learn how to learn. More specifically, you'll learn how to learn a language. Tackling a third language is a piece of cake compared to a second language, and the process can be made even easier by learning a language that belongs to the same family as one that you already speak. Romance languages (e.g., French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese) are all descended from Latin and share a great deal of vocabulary and grammatical concepts. It's often said that French gives the language-leaner such a "discount" on Italian that the latter can be learned in 6 month's time! The same goes for Germanic languages...Dutch, or one of the Scandinavian languages, will come much more quickly after learning German.
Arguably the best way to learn a language is the same way you learned your native tongue-through "immersion." Granted, stranding yourself in a foreign country is not always feasible or desirable, but combining an orderly, directed learning effort with regular exposure and conversation with native speakers is the surest way to become comfortable speaking and understanding your new language. Even if you live in a place where your new language isn't spoken by anyone, face-to-face experience can be gained through internet pen-pal services such as "My Language Exchange." Creating an account is free and they have over 100 languages represented among their members!
Conclusion:
It's worth noting that some languages are simply more difficult for native English-speakers to pick up due to their radically different syntax (i.e., "word order"), pronunciation, grammar, and even tone (some languages, such as Chinese, actually have words that change meaning depending on the tone used when speaking: a flat tone, a rising tone, a falling tone, and a rising-falling tone!). In spite of this, native speakers of these languages learned them just as easily as you learned your native tongue. Don't give up! Practice! Try to speak to native speakers! When it comes to learning a foreign language, you really will get out of the endeavor whatever you put into it!
William M. Webb is a language enthusiast who taught himself French at a young age and later became interested in comparative linguistics and linguistic geography. His bucket list in college included "becoming trilingual," a goal which led him to learn English, French, and Spanish so that he could communicate anywhere in the North American continent.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=William_M_Webb
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