Learning a new language: How long did it take before you were able talk with others in the language?

Question

Did anyone take foreign language classes before becoming fluent?I am learning French, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese. What techniques do you all use to learn languages better? (Currently speaking,reading, writing and listening)

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Hi, Dear



I am a tutor, so I couldn't speak for myself, but here is a list of people who share their experience on learning French:

http://bit.ly/11LIKl4



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Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Never learnt to write it but I learnt to speak Spanish when staying in the Canary Islands within 3 weeks, with some help from my unlce who is fluent. It was only basic conversation, like what you'd have in a coffee shop but once you learn to get an expected response from somebody it gives you the confidence to continue.



My uncle moved to Barcelona 15 years ago. He took a few classes before he left so he was able to complete forms and interact with people but the rest he learnt after he moved and it took him about a year to be fluent and get to a point where there were no longer words or phrases that he didn't understand.



So I guess the best way is to spend an extended amount of time amongst native speakers, where you are forced both physically and mentally to piece things together.

Answer 3

You have to fully immerse yourself and you can't really do that if you are learning so many languages at once. Try to focus on your favourite one, and learn the others later.

There is no one way to learn a language, different approaches suit different people. Some people like to learn the grammar first so that they construct sentences more easily when they learn the vocab. However, it is probably easier to learn a language the way you learnt it as a baby - random words first, try to make sentences which aren't grammatically correct, and then learn the grammar.

Things like Rosetta Stone are great for learning the basics, but to truely become fluent you need professional teaching and you need to live in a country which speaks the language for at least a few weeks to a month.

It took me until the age of five to be considered fluent in English, then when I was 20 I spent 3 years learning Russian, but I wouldnt consider myself fluent.

Answer 4

It's best to learn from someone who is fluent, for example I speak Dutch and English, my mother is fluent Dutch my Father English, you could go to the country, be surrounded by the fluent people and pick up on what they're saying, listen to music or watch TV shows in a different language to see how they speak in their tongue, learn a new word or sentence one at a time, Foreign language classes are OK depending whether the teacher is fluent in the language and it's usually your opinion if you want to learn in a class or outside with people, people have their ways and techniques on learning a new language and hopefully you can find yours :), it wont be easy as you have chosen many languages, BUT remember learn one language at a time as your brain is limited on information and you could jumble your words up ;o. Hope this helps! :)

Answer 5

Wow! You are learning quite a few languages at once.



It took me about 6 months after living in Holland before I was able to converse with persons in Dutch. Mind you, this was only at the basic conversational level. It was only after 3 years did I think I was in any way fluent. Fluency at a native level comes after many, many, (think 10+) years.



I find that you will understand a language and can read it much faster than you can speak or write it

Answer 6

I've been studying Japanese for a year and can have a basic conversation (I'll probably make a bit of a mistake but a small one).



It depends on how serious you are about the language, if you don't study a lot of course then it'll take you longer.

Answer 7

huge variety one people who're deaf are no longer dumb in any respect. ASL or customary as American sign Language is taught worldwide. people who're deaf and their families be taught this language from a variety of faculties, if a toddler is in a school for the listening to impaired it quite is taught there. If the be certain is familiar with that their toddler is deaf whilst they are born they might attend college to be taught ASL so that they might instruct it to their toddler as a classic toddler learns to communicate. the cost that a toddler learns this language relies upon on the youngster like all different variety of discovering. people who're deaf be taught this language at a variety of a while as all people who learns a 2nd language, and individuals who be taught this language are no longer constrained to the listening to impaired a lot of human beings be taught this language to enhance themselves. the main element which you ought to appreciate is which you ought to offer up making use of the word deaf & dumb, might you like somebody to call you that? listening to impaired or deaf will suffice, purely because of the fact a man or woman can no longer pay attention does no lead them to dumb. all people with a disability isn't dumb because of the fact they are in a various way abled a remember of fact maximum of them are greater sensible than so referred to as well-known human beings.

Answer 8

It took me 6 months to start talking to other people in French. When my Grandad emigrated from former yugoslavia it also took him 6 months to start communicating with people in English. I learnt French using livemocha and staying over in France.

Hope I helped:)

Answer 9

takes the same amount of time as you learnt ur first words