What is the best and most surefire way to learn a language?
Saturday, March 12th, 2011 at
3:09 pm
I’m an American who has been speaking English all his life. I want to learn Mandarin, master Cantonese and Spanish because I know some of it, and Japanese. What is best and most surefire way to learn them all and be fluent with them by age 30? Im already 19 and I got plenty of time..so please answer my question. thank you.
Tagged with: cantonese • mandarin
Filed under: Learn to Speak Mandarin
Living in countries where those languages are spoken will help you alot + Having friends who speak those languages fluently
well, the best way of getting fluent in a language is living in the country where they speak it. if you immerse youself in the culture, you understand the mannerisms better. you can always learn through books, but you don’t really get the feel for the language that way. i mean, i’ve been learning german for 4 years in school and i’m far from fluent.
definetely travel through the countries. It’s the only way to efficiently learn to speak a language fluently as such.. with an absolute understanding.
It really depends on the individual. Some people will be better learning a language through study and language courses. Others will learn more easily by living in an environement where they are forced to try and speak. You can judge for yourself depending on how well you did with languages school. What does your instinct tell you? Some tips for learning, read very basic children’s books in the desired language/languages. This will enable to you to learn the basics and you will soon progress. Look at tv or films in this language. Find someone to speak with, you can do an exchange for your English for example. Don’t be afraid to try speaking, even with a basic knowledge. If you drive, get a tape in whatever language you want to learn and play it whilst driving every day. you can practise your pronunciation this way. Lending librairies often have tapes or cds in languages which you can borrow to learn from.
Your ‘ear’ will take a certain time to adapt to the new sounds and you may find that you understand what is being said but are not able to formulate a reply in time to keep up with a conversation. This is normal, but one day, if you persist, it will click and you will find yourself more at ease with speaking. Don’t worry too much about your accent, correct pronunciation is more important. I found that people love it when you try to speak with them in their own language and I love it when people try to speak english with me. I live in a French speaking country and don’t hear English too often. All of the above are tips I used to learn French from scratch and I am now completely at ease speaking it. Unless you know that you are really gifted dor learning languages, I would suggest that you take one at a time to learn thoroughly. If you have the opportunity to go somewhere they speak the language then do so. there is nothing like being put in the position where you are forced to speak another language. good luck.
Go live somewhere where the language is the only language spoken.
That way, you HAVE to learn it, or you can’t even buy groceries!
Live there for at least ten months. The recommendation might be longer for Mandarin…I’m not sure. Cantonese, surely longer.