8 ms·
The best way to learn a language is to need to learn it. If you come in contact with a foreign language daily, it becomes much easier to both practice and motiv
by msvan 7y ago
The best way to learn a language is to need to learn it. If you come in contact with a foreign language daily, it becomes much easier to both practice and motivate yourself to continue to practice. As someone who has spent thousands of hours learning a foreign language, I've come to the conclusion that I will never do it again unless I have a proper reason for it. Might seem obvious, but it's worth pointing out.
- macleginn 7y agoAnother, closely related, case is when you love the culture the language gives you access to. Learning a language without interesting books/movies/tv shows behind it will most probably be a chore.
- StavrosK 7y ago> Learning a language without interesting books/movies/tv shows behind it will most probably be a chore. What language doesn't have interesting items of culture behind it?
- umvi 7y agoAnime and video games are a powerful cultural motivator for me learn Japanese because I enjoy those things almost daily. Russia no doubt has interesting items of culture as well, but I am not exposed to them at all and therefore have no desire to learn Russian.
- david-s 7y agoThe first sentence is important. It's not about the abstract idea of "interesting items of culture" existing. IME they have to be already interesting to the learner to be a motivating factor. Some people likely find any items of culture interesting. I'm not one of those people, and I suspect most around me aren't either, or we'd all know a lot more languages.
- StavrosK 7y agoPersonally, I like Spanish as a language and am learning it, and as a result I find that I have access to more Spanish movies/shows/books because I understand it better. It wasn't my goal, but it's a welcome perk, and my comment was mostly about the fact that even if you don't learn a language for it's culture, there's always a culture there for you to enjoy once you do.
- david-s 7y agoThat's fair. I suppose I treat learning a language as more utilitarian. I need the external motivating factor to stick with it. Languages often have neat features, but that isn't enough for me to prioritize learning one above other things.
- dominotw 7y agoI plan to learn Spanish by staying in Peru for a 2 months. I would duolingo spanish before that and put everything together and accelerate when i am in Peru. Thats the plan for now anyways :D.
- wallflower 7y agoHow serious are you about learning Spanish? One of the first things you will learn is the futility of “I am going to learn it in X months.” Try not to assign an unrealistic deadline (you don’t know what you don’t know), enjoy the long hike. Think of Duolingo as, at best, riding a scooter or tricycle, if your goal is to ride a bicycle for a century (competency). Check out iTalki. You can find hundreds of teachers for real live practice at reasonable rates. If you don’t click with a particular teacher, there are so many others to find a match with your schedule, learning style, and personality. https://www.italki.com/ https://www.italki.com/ Buena suerte!
- dominotw 7y agohey helps that my wife is Mexican :D but I've been lazy learning spanish all these years. I just need a full immersion where i can enjoy the full payoff.
- wallflower 7y agoI know you are qualifying your efforts with the weasel word “lazy”, and I hate to break it to you but there is no magic bullet to learning a language after early childhood. (Invested time x Motivation) ÷ Inhibition = Result https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kató_Lomb https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kató_Lomb As the Spanish saying goes: los idiomas se aprenden en la cuna o en la cama ("languages are learned either in the cradle or in bed") One of my acquaintances who is married to an Argentinian now does one day a week (Tuesday) in which they will only speak Spanish to each other the entire day and watch TV in Spanish. She is getting better. You might consider something similar. You definitely have an advantage there. I hope you use it. You don’t need full immersion. You just have to start vomiting words out.
- chungleong 7y agoThe best way to learn a language is spending a good size chunk of money. People are loss adverse. The need to extract value from the sunk cost is a powerful motivator. That's why in-person classes tend to be more effective than books. A book is always going to be there. Missing a class on the other hand is money down the drain.
- msvan 7y agoI don't think this is true. I've spent lots of money on "necessary equipment" for my hobbies, and that hasn't made me commit more time to them. People buy expensive running shoes because they see themselves as being runners, and then they never put them on.
- chungleong 7y agoRunning shoes don't integrate from lack of use. A membership at a health club, on the other hand, goes to waste if you don't use it.
- isbvhodnvemrwvn 7y agoYour language skills deteriorate without use as well. I used to know German at a passable level at school, I no longer do. I can see patterns ans know some words, but it's definitely heavily degraded.
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- kilroy123 7y agoAs a "gringo" who lived in Mexico for a few years, I completely agree.