Learning a foreign language as an adult

How motivated are you?

as an adult, or younger for that matter, best method is total immersion. not really practical in the home, unless you move your home. if you cannot, then isolate yourself from english as much as possible, and surround yourself in your new language.

Being someone who is close to fluent in one language outside of English and conversational in another, Rosetta Stone is a horrible teaching tool. It will show you a picture of a horse or cat and you have to guess the word. Stupid.

You best option outside of immersion is to find textbooks for either high school or college level language course. Read the material that takes you step by step, and do the work. You don't even have to sign up for a class, but it would probably help. Try and get books that come with CD's and they can also help you listen to how the words are pronounced. Amazon has a ton. You just need to know the book titles. If you have trouble finding a good textbook, just e-mail College language departments and ask for book recommendations.

What language are you considering? Depending on the language too, it could be difficult. I have friends who have had Spanish for a few years and are pretty close to fluent. I also have one who has been taking Arabic for 6 years and not even near to being fluent.

Agreed - even good classes are agonizingly slow compared to total (or even partial) immersion.

It's never been easier to get access to foreign language material. I'd suggest buying a good grammar, a good dictionary and then try reading the news online in that language and watching videos on youtube. :)

I picked up spanish rather easily at 20-21 just by taking a year of 100 level courses in college......

go and live in that country. Piece of urite.

If I were comparing my motivation to run vs my motivation to learn a foreign language, I'd say I'm about 5x more motivated to run.

German is the language I'd be trying to learn. I took three years of German in high school (96-98), so I know most basic grammar rules and a very small vocabulary, but my listening skills are terrible.

Maybe I should just try to find textbooks that have audio CD's.

Thanks for the input everyone. :)

bw wrote:

If I were comparing my motivation to run vs my motivation to learn a foreign language, I'd say I'm about 5x more motivated to run.

German is the language I'd be trying to learn. I took three years of German in high school (96-98), so I know most basic grammar rules and a very small vocabulary, but my listening skills are terrible.

Maybe I should just try to find textbooks that have audio CD's.

Thanks for the input everyone. :)

I know of some German books

Here are some links:

bw wrote:Does anyone know of an effect way to learn a foreign language as an adult? ...

An adult? An adult is defined as being someone over 18, or 21? What are you really asking? Are you 42 and wanting to learn? 37? 84? A reasonably common language?

My wife and I took Spanish (at approx age 50), learned it enough to read, write, and talk, and then spent two months walking around Spain.

You can learn whatever you set your mind to learning.

bw wrote:Does anyone know of an effect way to learn a foreign language as an adult? ...

Maybe you should focus on properly learning the Englsih language first. I believe the question you were trying to ask was, "Does anyone know of an EFFECTIVE way to learn a foreign language as an adult?"

I've also been trying to brush up on my German recently - I had 6 years of it in hs and college, but didn't have great teachers and haven't kept up with it. One thing that I've been doing is reading Harry Potter in German. I know it sounds silly, but it's an easy book and I've read the English version enough times that I can almost always figure out the words I don't know.

For speaking/listening - I just recently discovered this website where you list the languages that you want to learn and then you can talk to other people that speak that language. I haven't actually talked to anyone yet, and it seems that the site is pretty new, but it looks like it could have potential.

http://myhappyplanet.com/my_home.php

For listening skills, what I did was check out the Pimsleur series in my chosen language (48 CDs), loaded them onto the iPod and then listened to them while I was walking places. Each lesson is 30 minutes. Could also be done while running, but I don't think it would be very effective for me.

I meant, checked the series out from the library.

justintherunner wrote:

Maybe you should focus on properly learning the Englsih language first. I believe the question you were trying to ask was, "Does anyone know of an EFFECTIVE way to learn a foreign language as an adult?"

Why don't you focus less on being an ass and more on learning to spell "English?"

Go to the link below and click on 'radio live.' Listening to this broadcast has helped me immensely. Also, you can build on your fundamentals and expand your word base through reading books and online newspapers. Or rent a movie and try not to lean too much on the subtitles. The more effort you put in and the better you get, the more enjoyable it becomes. Sort of like running.

Forgot the period. Hope this works!

My brain stopped functioning after running a very hot 18 mile race in NJ today.Sorry.

I'm surprised that Ghost hasn't weighed in yet...

Anyway, I think he'll say to go to the country in question for a year or two. I suspect that the OP might not have that as an option. A lot of people with families, certain careers, etc., can't do that.

So thanks to those who've been making suggestions that don't involve relocating. This is helping me, too--even though I've already studied a fair number of languages (some successfully, some not), I appreciate the tips. Keep 'em coming!