Learning another language

I speak down the bayou

Insult redacted - OP was apparently legitimate and not spam.

I had French in grade and high school. Learned some basics is about all I can say. 26 years later I worked in France off and on for 3 years and learned some more. Not fluent, but survivable. My ear for it never got to where I would have liked.

I am now using Duolingo, a free app, and it is pretty good at a beginner level at least. Better than any other lessons/classes I had.

I will have to check out the YouTube videos.

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Nope, not a bot.

I was just trying to start a post.

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My reply stands.

Fluent in Welsh, French, Dutch, German, Spanish. Can read and understand Norwegian fairly well. Good grasp of quite a few others. Growing up being moved all over the place and always being put in local schools, instead of International Schools teaching in English, made all that easier. The trick is to teach yourself to think in that foreign language instead of translating.

Duolingo. Not a silver bullet, but it's a fantastic tool, especially for being free.

I've been using it as my primary instructional tool to learn Italian for the past two years. The key is that you really have to stick with it, and use it every day.

I also watch movies in Italian with English subtitles and listen to children's audiobooks while I drive. Another good app is Linguistica which has a suite of sub-apps called "News in Slow (insert language)." They have Spanish, French, Italian, and German available. The app is exactly what it sounds like; short current event news stories that are spoken more slowly for language learners. All of these extra tools have helped with listening proficiency, which I think is Duolingo's weakest area.

I speak fluent Spanish. Studied it in school for 9 yrs. I also worked in several kitchens as part time HS and college gigs and got a lot of practice with the Hispanics working with me.


I currently use Duolingo and Memrise simultaneously and am concurrently learning every language on there daily. I just do the daily minimum....my goal is simply to learn. Duolingo recently added Latin which is awesome!

Memrise's Arabic module hasnt been easy. They didnt spend near enough time hammering home the alphabet. When the characters all look so similar to the untrained eye, you really need to spend some serious time just mastering those and getting the phonetics right before just jumping into the frying pan with words. Ive lagged way behind on that.

The Cyrillic alphabet is actually pretty easy. Took a bit of getting used to but a little persistence paid off. I feel more comfortable every day with it.


Anyway...I think theres 16 languages on Memrise and 30+ on Duolingo. My approach is definitely not recommended for most. This is totally a bite size of each every day, and solely for the joy of learning. Eventual fluency is the goal but it isnt urgent by any stretch.

Anyone can get off their butt, download the apps and learn a single language. It isnt rocket science by any stretch

I truly doubt I’d be able to learn another new language as easily now. The younger you are the easier. Not just from a learning ability to be able to absorb, but also because it’s totally different being immersed into a foreign culture at a young age. Also, children tend to have a far easier time figuring out how to communicate without words. Eventually you picked it up. These days English is so common everywhere that it is more natural for adult speakers to switch to it in order for you to understand them. And I’d guess the same probably also applies for younger folks too. As rough as it was as a kid having to learn a new language every few years, it ultimately really benefitted me and I consider myself very
lucky my parents afforded me the opportunity to learn.

As a monolinguist, I have felt inadequate since I went to Europe 30 years ago.

More recently I met an extraordinarily beautiful young woman at a cocktail party and engaged her in conversation. Another woman approached who I knew to be Russian, a violinist with the orchestra, and the two carried on a conversation obviously in Russian. A Chinese woman joined in and the beautiful young woman conversed with her in Chinese. Then she turned back to me and asked in perfect English, "Where were we?" She speaks seven languages fluently, and is somewhat conversant in a few more.

I'm willing to let her teach me each and every one of those languages by whispering in my ear, however long it may take.