Those of you who speak foreign languages: how did you learn?

School :embarrassed:

English and 3 years of German was mandatory back then. I also took a 6 month Italian course when I was studying music (more for learning pronounciation properly), can't remember much of the glossary/rules of that these days though. :embarrassed:

That's enough to get by in most European countries, except some regions in France.
 
My dad and grandparents were from Italy. Italian was the house language.
Mom was from Ireland,that's how I learned to curse.:grin:
 
I know enough Canadian French to be very dangerous. I learned it playing hockey in Canada.

Criss, tabernak... That's about it
 
I have been teaching myself German for the past couple of years .i started with teh Living Language series and combined that with Podcasts,youtube channels and a few books
 
I learned a lot of Hindi from the Pimsleur Hindi audio course. I taught myself to write devanagari (the writing system used for Hindi) with a few books and flash cards. But I never use it.

The real problem with learning a foreign language—at least in the USA—is remembering it. I gave up on non-English languages because the only people I come across who speak them are my housekeepers, and they’re only here for an hour once a week. Even online many native speakers don’t want to converse in their language, because they’re fluent in English and I can only get started in their languages. Maybe I’ll try again when the kids are older and I have more time for reading.
 
Rosetta Stone
Assimil (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assimil)
Innovative Language website/app subscription (http://www.innovativelanguage.com/)
Youtube children's shows in foreign language, and any other shows/movies I could find

The language I tried to learn was/is Dutch. I probably studied off and on for 3 years. We went to the Netherlands during our honeymoon in June and I could make out the gist of what people were talking about some of the time, if they spoke slowly. And I could mostly get my point across when needed. However, almost everybody there speaks English so it's almost useless.

Oh, and not everything above was acquired in a perfectly "proper" manner. *cough*bittorrent*cough*

Oh, and there's also the Foreign Service Institute that has free courses. I never used them, but it would be worth a try.
http://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/
or here
https://www.livelingua.com/fsi-language-courses.php

Oh, and of course trying to read foreign websites/news and using Google Translate to help. And also Flash Card type vocab apps on your phone and tablet are nice for just learning raw vocabulary.
 
Assimil Dutch; an old grammar book; reading a lot of pulp literature; moving to the Netherlands and marrying a Dutch woman; courses at the local university.

Duolingo is very good at what it does.
 
Much by "Learn in your car Spanish" cds, some by "bargirl thai"... most by a lot of Latin America GFs .
And I learned French in high school. Which came in really helpful in the Dom Rep. I can now speak four languages and read seven.
 
Last edited:
English, french and german in school, spanish while traveling, now taking finnish courses.

Though, except for english, I wouldn't say I really speak those languages, I can just get around with them and get a small conversation going...
 
ColourofFire said:
My god, dutch grammer :facepalm:

"here's the rule, then here are the 2349248732874 exceptions".
Click to expand...

Luckily I only got the little Dover grammar book (would recommend) which doesn't allow itself to get too bogged down.

51jpdgWYCBL._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

One day I'll get the big Routledge grammar and find out how I've been doing it wrong all these years.
 
vonbladet said:
Luckily I only got the little Dover grammar book (would recommend) which doesn't allow itself to get too bogged down.

51jpdgWYCBL._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

One day I'll get the big Routledge grammar and find out how I've been doing it wrong all these years.
Click to expand...

Haha spare yourself the effort of getting the bigger one. Dutch grammar (to me at least) is so utterly random it's best to just roll with it :embarrassed:

Also, as long as you make yourself clear, don't worry about it, I think 80% of dutch people couldn't write a paragraph without errors if their life depends on it.
 
I was stationed in Panama for a year and a half and learned Spanish from my girlfriends, but lost much of it over the years, especially after coming to Germany. I never shied away from speaking a little bit of German at any opportunity out of respect for my hosts. Then I moved back here and lived with my in-laws for about a year which got me rolling big time, now I work for the last 12 years with Germans in security. There you go. TV taught me quite a bit as well.
 
School: English, French, German

Studied English in uni, then moved to the UK
 
Books, immersion, Rosetta Stone, classes, married a speaker.

And there is still lots of room for improvement. :messedup:
 
vonbladet said:
Assimil Dutch; an old grammar book; reading a lot of pulp literature; moving to the Netherlands and marrying a Dutch woman; courses at the local university.

Duolingo is very good at what it does.
Click to expand...
Where in the Netherlands do/did you live?

sent using the eloydrummerphone.
 
I've been thinking of posting a want ad on craigslist for a language learning partner or something like that, i.e. let's hang out, you can teach me your language and I can help you not sound like an idiot even though your knowledge of my language is vastly superior to mine of yours. My patience for puter stuff is really low but I want to learn conversationally.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top