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>I've lived abroad in multiple countries and have met a lot of people trying to learn the language. Without fail, you absolutely have to have either a full-time

by Tenoke 8y ago

>I've lived abroad in multiple countries and have met a lot of people trying to learn the language. Without fail, you absolutely have to have either a full-time job in the language, or be romantically involved with someone in the language (without falling back to English) and spend a ton of time with them. That's simply the only way you'll get enough hours of exposure in. I've met many people who have learnt to speak a language (most examples would be for English and German, latter without consuming that much German media) without having this, and am currently learning a language without anything resembling this. Your statement simply seems wrong to me no matter how I read it.

dorchadas 8y ago
Agreed. There's a a few guys on /r/languagelearning who learned Italian to a C1 level without ever stepping foot in the country, or being married to a native. It can be done, it's just more difficult.
crazygringo 8y ago
Let me clarify: get beyond intermediate proficiency, which is what the article was about. I thought that was understood from the context, sorry. So it really depends on what you mean by "leaning to speak a language". You can learn to speak at an intermediate level just by taking courses for a couple of years, dedicated study with books/tapes, etc. But I don't mean that. I mean getting to the point where it being a foreign language becomes a non-issue. Where you can travel to the country and interact fully in any social conversation, normally understanding every single word (i.e. at the same level of your native language) and speaking with appropriate vocab and grammar so everybody understand every word of yours. Without having to constantly ask for clarification, or just "not get" half of it, or constantly re-explain what you meant using other words because people were confused the first time you said something. They're worlds apart. And that real fluency just absolutely requires thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of constant real-life interaction (and real-time correction, whether from friends or coworkers or romantic partners) in the language. There aren't any shortcuts to that.

by Tenoke 8y ago

dorchadas 8y ago

Agreed. There's a a few guys on /r/languagelearning who learned Italian to a C1 level without ever stepping foot in the country, or being married to a native. It can be done, it's just more difficult.

crazygringo 8y ago

Let me clarify: get beyond intermediate proficiency, which is what the article was about. I thought that was understood from the context, sorry. So it really depends on what you mean by "leaning to speak a language". You can learn to speak at an intermediate level just by taking courses for a couple of years, dedicated study with books/tapes, etc. But I don't mean that. I mean getting to the point where it being a foreign language becomes a non-issue. Where you can travel to the country and interact fully in any social conversation, normally understanding every single word (i.e. at the same level of your native language) and speaking with appropriate vocab and grammar so everybody understand every word of yours. Without having to constantly ask for clarification, or just "not get" half of it, or constantly re-explain what you meant using other words because people were confused the first time you said something. They're worlds apart. And that real fluency just absolutely requires thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of constant real-life interaction (and real-time correction, whether from friends or coworkers or romantic partners) in the language. There aren't any shortcuts to that.