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View Full Version : What's the most efficient way to learn a new language?



milehi
23rd July 2013, 03:05 AM
I'd like to know before I go, so immersion is out of the question. There are the usual avenues like Rosetta Stoned but that seems like snake oil.

Publico
23rd July 2013, 03:46 AM
I'd like to know before I go, so immersion is out of the question. There are the usual avenues like Rosetta Stoned but that seems like snake oil.

What language?

milehi
23rd July 2013, 03:56 AM
What language?

I have business in Montreal at the end of the year. I'm sure everyone speaks English but what fun is that? Besides, I'm not lazy. I think I can be pre conversational by then with the correct tutelage.

sirgonzo420
23rd July 2013, 07:04 AM
Tu veux apprendre le français, n'est-ce pas ?

Comme tu as dit, le meilleur choix est bien sûr l'immersion, mais, si on n'a pas du temps pour ça, tu dois écouter de la langue autant que tu peux. Lire c'est aussi important, mais pour communiquer en personne, la capacité de comprendre la langue parlée est plus utile. Par exemple, écouter de la radio française ou canadienne, pour un bon sens de la langue comme elle est parlée. Force-toi d'apprendre - tu dois parler seulement la langue que tu veux parler (en ce cas, le français, bien entendu !).

Arrête de parler l'anglais. Si tu le fais, finalement tu peux commencer à penser en français.

Heureusement, il y a beaucoup beaucoup des ressources disponibles qui sont gratuites (sur Internet), avec qui on peut apprendre la langue, si tu travaille assez dur !

Bonne chance !

gunDriller
23rd July 2013, 07:47 AM
practice makes perfect -

"avez-vous les gars tout bon pot ?"
(do you guys have any good pot ?)

"est-ce que je peux voir votre tas de compost ?"
(can i see your compost pile ?)(could be mis-interpreted)

"Je peux vous acheter une bière ?"
(can i buy you a beer ?)

JohnQPublic
23rd July 2013, 08:49 AM
I studied German in high school. When I took a trip to central America, I decided to learn some Spanish. What I did was:

1. I got a conversational Spanish book and read through the lessons. This was my main source.
2. I I got a small text on grammar and studied past/present/future tenses plus some endings for adjectives and adverbs.
3. I got the Spanish version of 501 verbs as a reference.
4. I got a small book on Spanish idioms, because idioms are what can make you sound like an idiot (if you don't know any).

Over about 6 weeks I learned enough Spanish to be dangerous. I basically took all the elements I needed to learn German and short-cutted the process.

The highlight of the trip (linguistically) was when I was able to help a German couple (who spoke little English) communicate with a local Spanish speaker (who spoke almost none) using a combination of German, Spanish, Spanglish and, Germish.

French is much more difficult than Spanish or German, especially in Montreal where they are more French than the French.

sirgonzo420
23rd July 2013, 10:34 AM
I studied German in high school. When I took a trip to central America, I decided to learn some Spanish. What I did was:

1. I got a conversational Spanish book and read through the lessons. This was my main source.
2. I I got a small text on grammar and studied past/present/future tenses plus some endings for adjectives and adverbs.
3. I got the Spanish version of 501 verbs as a reference.
4. I got a small book on Spanish idioms, because idioms are what can make you sound like an idiot (if you don't know any).

Over about 6 weeks I learned enough Spanish to be dangerous. I basically took all the elements I needed to learn German and short-cutted the process.

The highlight of the trip (linguistically) was when I was able to help a German couple (who spoke little English) communicate with a local Spanish speaker (who spoke almost none) using a combination of German, Spanish, Spanglish and, Germish.


This is pretty good advice. One thing that I would add would be to listen to some material, so you can get a feel for the spoken language.

Also, this site is awesome: http://www.wordreference.com/


... especially in Montreal where they are more French than the French.

There is a great deal of truth to this methinks.

JohnQPublic
23rd July 2013, 10:43 AM
...I would add would be to listen to some material, so you can get a feel for the spoken language...

At some point I did end up with a tape. Maybe it came with the conversational book. Good point. This is real important.

I went to France quite a lot over a period of about 8-9 years (at least once a year for 2 weeks, sometimes twice). It took about 7-8 years of this intermittent travel before I actually started to hear and distinguish French words (and I still don't speak any beyond a few simple words).

Horn
23rd July 2013, 11:13 AM
I'd like to know before I go, so immersion is out of the question. There are the usual avenues like Rosetta Stoned but that seems like snake oil.

Regress your brain back to that of a 2 year old, and think in the other language.

Publico
23rd July 2013, 11:14 AM
Hire yourself a French hooker for the rest of the year with one rule French only. By year's end you should to be able to scream and moan in French.

osoab
23rd July 2013, 11:22 AM
Hire yourself a French hooker for the rest of the year with one rule French only. By year's end you should to be able to scream and moan in French.


Or he could just hire a French hooker for his travel to canuuk land to "serve" as his translator.

Horn
23rd July 2013, 11:24 AM
Or he could just hire a French hooker for his travel to canuuk land to "serve" as his translator.

That would be a translicker, not a translator.

steyr_m
23rd July 2013, 11:28 AM
I learned German in a class-room setting [adult education, not HS] but didn't learn much until I immersed myself in the culture when I lived in Germany.

I've heard of people learning the basic grammar then watching movies with the Eng. subtitles on....

Bigjon
23rd July 2013, 12:16 PM
French In Action
http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html


http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html?pop=yes&pid=705

One of the first courses using immersion technique.

Horn
23rd July 2013, 12:32 PM
I've got that "navita translator" on a blackberry that talks back to you.

Is cheaper than a hooker, well depending on how often I use her.

JohnQPublic
23rd July 2013, 01:21 PM
I've got that "navita translator" on a blackberry that talks back to you.

Is cheaper than a hooker, well depending on how often I use her.

You can get an STD from the Blackberry (Signal Transmission Disruption). I would recommend using a RUBBER (Redeployable Urban Blackberry Baluns Equipped Radio).

Horn
24th July 2013, 09:30 AM
You can get an STD from the Blackberry (Signal Transmission Disruption). I would recommend using a RUBBER (Redeployable Urban Blackberry Baluns Equipped Radio).

I have one of those rubber diaphragm type drop protection devices that surrounds her entire body, is that enough?

PatColo
24th July 2013, 09:48 AM
French is much more difficult than Spanish or German, especially in Montreal where they are more French than the French.

I was in a small spanish class in MX, and the frog classmate mentioned spanish is easy to learn for frogs- something about the grammar/sentence structure being about the same. Also the "gender" of all the inanimate objects around us, same.

JohnQPublic
24th July 2013, 10:53 AM
I was in a small spanish class in MX, and the frog classmate mentioned spanish is easy to learn for frogs- something about the grammar/sentence structure being about the same. Also the "gender" of all the inanimate objects around us, same.

Once you know Spanish, French is probably not too difficult. They are both romantic languages (i.e., they have benn grammatized by the Romans, so follow similar "rules").

Horn
25th July 2013, 12:39 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZLRwu_f8Oc

Just bark alot, people will understand.