Learning a New Language

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Keeper

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Has anyone done this?

I'm maybe interested in learning a 3rd language, perhaps french.
is it difficult?
What are the best ways to go about learning a new language? Audio CD's/good PC programs?

last question - how long does it take to be able to speak semi-decently?
(meaning, proficient enough to understand/speak around 80% of "regular conversation" ?)


Thanks for the input guys! :)
 
It depends on your environment...You can't expect to learn something by only 1hr a day of medeocre exposure.

It took me 2 months to learn conversational German (Gave a 45min keynote after 4 months) from scratch, but this is because I lived in the country where everything around you is German.

So choose a language, get books, newspapers (with pictures) and movies and keep going at it. Read shot comic strips too. That's how I learnt it. 1st book I read in German was The Hobbit, but undoubtedly it was due to watching TV in German (where you can see words spoken and associated with objects.) as well as reading as much as possible ... even if the meaning of the word isn't familiar to you, at least the word itself will be.

Lastly, start by thinking up the most basic sentences you think you'll use. Translate them and practice them...then every week you add a few words to compound the sentences. Eventually you'll have a paragraph memorised ... and more than likely you'll be able to branch off new sentences just from knowing the words, without premeditating it.
 
i learnt javascript, python, php, java, erlang, c++ and objective c in 8 years. oh.. sorry.. wrong language. ; )
 
@Voicy - but what about if you don't live in a country where people speak german/french?

Aren't there any good PC Software out there that people have used successfully?
 
Keeper said:
@Voicy - but what about if you don't live in a country where people speak german/french?

Aren't there any good PC Software out there that people have used successfully?
Click to expand...

Also wondering that though my mother and sister speak French so that can help me.
 
Hi Keeper,

French is very difficult to learn. I've been attending language school for French for a quite a while now (I'm talking years) and although I'm gaining remarkable fluency, it really takes a lot of effort, especially if you're not in an environment where you get to speak, and hear, it regularly.

Do you have your heart set specifically on French? When you say third language, which other language do you speak other than english? If it's afrikaans perhaps have a look at German, Dutch, or even Flemish that might be an easier language to get into.

With all it's challenges, French is really rewarding once you get the hang of it. Books and audio aids are good to have, but if you are serious about it, I suggest you look for a language school close to you and enrol.

EDIT:
I can strongly recommend these guys:
http://www.alliance.org.za/
 
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I'm a native zulu speaker and it took me about four years to fully learn setswana. And that's just to speak it and understand it... I am not very much interested in learning to write it.

I can tell you that nothing facilitates learning than living and socialising with people who speak the language...

I don't believe that any software would help...
 
How similar is dutch, and also German, to Afrikaans? (% wise?)

My Brains OS runs Afrikaans natively :p
 
zululami said:
I'm a native zulu speaker and it took me about four years to fully learn setswana. And that's just to speak it and understand it... I am not very much interested in learning to write it.

I can tell you that nothing facilitates learning than living and socialising with people who speak the language...

I don't believe that any software would help...
Click to expand...

Immersion is the fastest way to acquire a new language - best is actually a situation where nobody else speaks your language so you really have no choice but to learn theirs. Software may assist in expanding vocab, learning grammar and such but it's some way away from interacting with native speakers.
 
Keeper said:
How similar is dutch, and also German, to Afrikaans? (% wise?)

My Brains OS runs Afrikaans natively :p
Click to expand...

Dutch you should be able to understand, if the other person speaks clearly enough.
Although German is pretty close to Afrikaans, their tenses are worse than English with gender thrown into the mix.
To see the tenses in action, look here for the word "haben" (to have): http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/German/haben.html
 
I'm still trying to learn Afrikaans >.< Luckily my work environment is full of it now so I'm hoping that at least by the end of the year I should be able to understand it :p
 
Keeper said:
How similar is dutch, and also German, to Afrikaans? (% wise?)

My Brains OS runs Afrikaans natively :p
Click to expand...

I have some Dutch friends and I can understand the majority of what they say. Accent can be problematic if they speak it at speed. Some words are weird and take learning.

I have some German friends too. Nutcases. All of them. (Just kidding). Maybe 10% of words are understandable directly. Simply because those words are similar to Afrikaans. The grammar is the major difference, as well as the fact that objects have gender, so you need to know which to use and when.
 
Keeper said:
How similar is dutch, and also German, to Afrikaans? (% wise?)

My Brains OS runs Afrikaans natively :p
Click to expand...

It took me about 6 months to get moderately good at German, anyone who is Afrikaans should be able to read dutch within weeks and speak it within a month or so. It all depends on how much effort you put into it, I found that after the basics I was able to watch german series and I also played online games with germans. German is basically like Afrikaans with those 9 English tenses that we did in school. However even the Germans hardly use all of them. I also had a few Afrikaans german textbooks so it was easier to learn the language.


I still forget the german genders from time to time, but the german speakers in SA hardly cares about them. The nice thing about German is that it is a very logical language in my opinion, which is why most people find it hard to learn.
 
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