What is the best way to learn another language as an adult?
As a child its easy to pick up languages because a child’s brain is essentially a learning machine. As an adult its harder to really retain a lot of new information. People who have successfully learned a new language as an adult, what is the best way to do that?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
8 Answers
I tried to learn Arabic by the Immersion method, I can make myself understood but little more. I had learned French as a child, but then never used it. My wife reaquainted me with the language (Quebec dialect) and it became our household language. I’ve found learning a completely new language as an adult extremely difficult, I’ve also failed miserably at Urdu.
Part of the reason young children learn languages is not only because their brains are like sponges, but also because they are usually immersed in the new language and we take time with them, “this is a table” and we point to the table, “table, table, say it table.” With adults we tell them to memorize a list. Totally different. I think a combination of studying some vocabulary and havign an understanding of the grammar and how to conjugate verbs along with eventually spednign some time totally immersed is the best way. My conversational Spanish is pretty good after studying a couple of years in high school and then years later spending three months living with my mother-in-law who only speaks Spanish.
Learning spanish? Date a spanish girl.
Learning french? Date girl from Paris.
And so on.
Get a language course. That’s what they made for.
Rosetta stone? I hear it all over TV.
Immersion is the only way to go to actually learn a foreign language to a point of being able to communicate freely. Everything else will teach you what you need to know, but will not help you actually talk and completely understand what you are being told.
@stranger_in_a_strange_land @gtreyger Agreed. I want to really pick up my spanish but I didn’t know where to start because It’s very difficult when you are not using what you know often at all. Roseta stone.. i heard its used in all these government branches. Does anyone know what makes it so remarkable?
Find a language course with a really good teacher. The teacher should either be a native speaker or a non-native speaker who lived in a country where this language is spoken for at least a year. Later also use books, magazines, newspapers, DVDs and so forth as well as emails and online forums. To practice speaking try online tutoring, for example offered by
http://www.tutorvista.com
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
