Attention all bilingual people!

[L. Bartholomew]

Hey all you people who speak more than one language. (And I know there are a bunch of you.) How the hell did you learn it? I need to learn to speak Spanish, but for some reason I just can't. It isn't clicking like other things I learn, and it just isn't making any sense. Any ideas/effective ways to learn? (I have been trying various methods for years now. No progress. So the more innovative the better...)

[melancholeric]

I learned English by watching TV and hanging on useless discussion boards...

I tried to learn Swedish at school, but that was a disaster. I don't think I can learn languages by sitting in a classroom.

( Damn. is it learned or learnt? I swear I've seen both... That's the downside of the learning style I mentioned. )

[Hypnos]

Yup, it's about immersion. If you dedicate yourself to language specific media and personal interactions, your brain will connect the dots.

[L. Bartholomew]

thanks. i'll give it a shot...

[Tybeas]

I learned english mostly thru immersion also : video games, internet, tv. Have to say that the fact it started young helped, but I also had classes in school. The good side of living in a uni-langual but officially bilingual country I guess...

I aslo learned a little bit of spanish and german in school also. I agree that the regular school-class type of learning is not the fastest, but at least it forces you into the basics of new languages. Grammar and all...

[L. Bartholomew]

yeah. i've taken so many spanish classes in school, but like you all said, there's absolutely no application. that's definately a big problem with the foreign language program in public school...

so all you did was just watch tv and read, etc? And you just picked it up? How long did it take? (this amazes me. is it really as simple as you make it sound?)

[Avengardh]

Eh, yes, I read a lot.

And I went to live where the language was spoken, try, if you can, to go to a country where you want to speak Spanish.
I am sure you keep in mind the fact that there is different words and the Spanish is different in each country, almost even in each state. Cuban and Mexican Spanish are vastly different.

Or, get yourself a friend who is willing to speak Spanish to you, perhaps you will have to pay them, who knows.

Otherwise, hang out where the Spanish-speaking population does, watching TV is good, even just listening to music...I learned how to pronounce Japanese thanks to it a lot.

Good luck.

[sbw]

Yup, it's about immersion. If you dedicate yourself to language specific media and personal interactions, your brain will connect the dots.

Perfect. I took 2 years of spanish class in school and didn't learn a damned thing. Now I work at a landscape company, and am probably 60% of the way to fluency (after several years), just from utilizing it on a daily basis.

Scott

[Clara]

Perfect. I took 2 years of spanish class in school and didn't learn a damned thing. Now I work at a landscape company, and am probably 60% of the way to fluency (after several years), just from utilizing it on a daily basis.
LOL. Wrong. The verb congugations, spelling... and little details like "learned and learnt are both correct, in English" ( yeah. right. ... when these are the headaches a person has with a language :rolleyes: ) ... these all fall into place, too - Only, using a language, until you find yourself thinking in it ( waking from a dream, thinkng in it, eventually ) is the "goal" ... It's a matter of saturation.

Spelling and grammar always count... in life. :P ( If you want to be perceived as intelligent, that is ;) )

[sbw]

LOL. Wrong. The verb congugations, spelling... and little details like "learned and learnt are both correct, in English" ( yeah. right. ... when these are the headaches a person has with a language :rolleyes: ) ... these all fall into place, too - Only, using a language, until you find yourself thinking in it ( waking from a dream, thinkng in it, eventually ) is the "goal" ... It's a matter of saturation.

Spelling and grammar always count... in life. :P ( If you want to be perceived as intelligent, that is ;) )

Which part is "wrong"? also, it strikes me that english has many more such "rules" and "exceptions" and things; as such, I think it much easier for an english speaker to learn spanish as a second language than vice versa.

Scott

[Sugaraddict2702]

Dutch is my native language, so not much learning needed for that.
I learned French in school (since I live in a country with three official languages: Dutch, French and German), and after 8 years, I dare say I'm able to make a decent conversation.
I'm also learning English in school, but reading forums like these really gives you a boost in understanding it. tv was also very helpfull.
German is my most recent language, but it's very basic. and again school is responsible for me learning German.

and the funny thing is, math is my main subject in school :blink:

[Boneca]

As several people here have already said, the only way to become completely fluent in another language is to live where it's spoken.
If you don't have that option - try combining grammar studies (unfortunetely they are necessary) with something you enjoy. Read magazines, watch movies, listen to radio...whatever you have access to. But if you have the choice, read/listen to stuff you are actually interested in, otherwise you risk getting a negative feeling about the language.

How long it will take depends on your previous langauge skills (if you don't know much about grammar f.ex. it might take longer), and your motivation!

I can also tell by experience that there is usually a certain "treshold" you have to get over once you have a reasonable command of the language. This comes when you can read the language, you understand it reasonably well, but you cannot bring yourself to actually speak it. To overcome this, you have to put yourself in a situation where you don't have a choice - speak it, or nobody will understand you. You'll find then that you know much more that you thought!

[L. Bartholomew]

I've just been looking at this the wrong way. It is a really abstract concept when you pick it apart, language is. Language is what? A means of conveying the pictures and images in your mind to the outside world. But it's not just that either. Without it what is humanity? Nothing but another species of mammal... You almost can't talk about language (as a concept) without getting into evolution and neuroscience and psychology....
and that was a nice little tangent to go off on.
I've been all hung up on the generalities, such as that. Thinking that i can't understand how to speak another language unless i understand the processes of the human mind. Heh. And then i am baffled at the amount of people in the world that can...frustration ensues. I have a horrible habit of thinking of Spanish in terms of english. I translate in my head.

[Boneca]

I have a horrible habit of thinking of Spanish in terms of english. I translate in my head.That's a common problem. I think you might have to see yourself as a child trying to learn how to speak instead of acting like one of those translation web-pages that only translates word by word. It's hard, but with that mindset, you'll become fluent instead of just "understandable".

I find that a good way to achieve this is to use the same method we use when we teach our own kids to read - pictures! Try to connect a Spanish word with a picture, instead of with the English word. And why not try reading children's books in Spanish!? (This is how I started learning English, I had a wonderful picture book that was supposed to teach English kids how to read.)

Then again, as adults, we have the advantage of understanding grammar rules, which makes learning easier. And grammar can be quite interesting...think of it as a system that has to be figured out (a treat to the INTP mind).

[nBT]

some pointers: start with numbers,and common words. i, you, we, us etc. some important verbs like want, have, go. also i have arabic colleuges wich i can ask anything. any word or sentence.
the fun thin of learning a language is that you find for instance that there are two words in the new language for one word in your original language. its important to also learn when to apply wich word. wich is slang and wich is official.