Learning another language

[schoi]

Took a couple years of Spanish in high school - never made below a 95 or so on anything.



Can't speak it worth a damn now (21 years old, college junior working on psychology/pre-medicine.)



Taking French in the Fall (didn't want to take Spanish again!) - obviously, applied practice and immersion is the best way to go there.



But for those of you that have learned a language in a non-university, non-"everyday" setting and to the point where you were reasonably competent with it, what language was it, and how did you do it?



Just wondering.

 

[zippymbr]

try an immersion program. All three of my kids are in a total immersion preshcool and after a year are totaly fluent in spanish. Now if we can train the gringo father (me).

 

[kompressornsc]

I have Rosetta Stone. Works pretty well. I'll pull it out before I travel somewhere and do a few hours of it and it helps. They use video, audio and the written word all in combination. And something else that I like is that each pronunciation is by a different person, so you don't get stuck listening to how it sounds from just one voice.

 

[percynjpn]

Spend at least one year in the country where that language is spoken. I've been in Japan for about 13 years, but I could carry on a decent conversation after living here about a year (and Japanese is MUCH more difficult than Spanish or French). Whether you have the time or inclination to do so is another question, of course.

 

[medic159]

Total immersion is the best way, I lived in France and Italy for many years and I'm quite fuent in both... except I can't write either one very well. If you have a good ear for languages then about six months living a language as well as classes will make you quite proficient.



If that's not practical then take language classes but also rent movies in that language as "seeing" a spoken language is just as important as hearing it.



I highly recommend French as a second language. No matter where you go in the world you will ALWAYS find people who speak either English or French. These have always been the two most taught languages in other countries.