
Ask HN: How did you teach yourself a second language? - mattwest
Without formal education&#x2F;classes, what are the best ways to become fluent in another language? I would like to increase my ability to speak German and begin to learn Russian by using many different resources. Advice?
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sova
Okay you gotta immerse yourself as much as possible.

From experience, you gotta learn that language is like a filter through which
ones' mind/heart/intentions are shaped. Then, you master getting into the pre-
language state of mind that has no language, and from there you train yourself
to see the world with a different organization of concepts.

First, learn the 200 most common words in the language. Do whatever it takes
to learn all the verb conjugations. Spend countless hours listening to real
humans talk in conversation and repeat exactly as well as you can over the
tracks whilst listening (like singing along to a song) so you can master the
ups and downs of tonation in pronunciation.

Top 2 tips: One) 15 minutes every day is worth so much more than 150 minutes
in one day every 10 days. Meaning: frequency is key, and quality over
quantity.

Two) to truly become "fluent," that is, to make the leap from "this is
something I can use" to "re-experiencing life through the frame of a German
person / Japanese person / Swedish person / whatever" you must spend time in a
place culturally saturated in the language.

That said, you can spend 2-3 years of your life immersing yourself in radio,
news, television, movies, and learning mnemonic methods (whacky stories and
images that help you retain meanings) and make incredible progress.

~~~
stevekemp
I've recently moved from Scotland to Finland, and I agree with your post 100%.
Immersion is what made me learn more than anything else - just being able to
pronounce the difference between "o" and "ö" was hard at first, but with more
exposure it became natural.

I'd also suggest learning sets of words, as you say the most common. I started
with days of the week, months of the year, numbers up to 20, and similar.

Though I'd probably suggest having lessons, be they official at a
college/university/academic location, or low-key chats with locals over
coffee/beer/cake is a good thing to do. I had a lot of questions about grammar
and how to chain words that were easily resolved with chat.

~~~
Broken_Hippo
I second your lesson suggestion. I was lucky enough to have lessons, and was
very happy I did.

That said, if one can't do the lessons, I fully suggest working through some
of the adult learner workbooks - the ones for immigrants. Some are more
grammar-heavy than others. The draw is twofold: You learn some common speaking
terms plus you get introduced to grammar, complete with exercises.

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Broken_Hippo
Immersion helps.

But outside of that, there are some great suggestions. A few things I have to
suggest:

Get ahold of some of the books and workbooks for adult learners. This is an
easy way to learn grammar and common phrases. I'd use these in conjunction
with other things.

Next, watch children's cartoons. Here (Norway), adult films often simply have
subtitles and leave the English audio, but children's shows are dubbed with
simple words and clear language. It is a bonus if it is a crossover - I
watched many hours of "Spiderman" cartoons in Norwegian.

Read books, especialy ones you've read in English. Harry Potter, for example,
is available in multiple languages. It'll be difficult at first, but you'll
increase vocabulary from the repetition in the book. Terry Pratchett is
another choice for German, at least (I can find some in Norwegian).

For speaking, Skype is popular for tutoring and speaking practice, though you
might have to pay for this.

Good luck :)

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pmontra
I wasted 8 years studying English at school without being able to write this
sentence (I'm sure I'm still making mistakes but you get the idea.) I could
read basic software documentation and school books, but nothing real. Then I
subscribed to Newsweek and started playing Nethack. Both built my vocabulary.
Reading Newsweek was a pain at first, one article per week with the dictionary
constantly open. Eventually that let me read anything. A couple of years of
English courses paid by my company made me able to understand people. I
understood 50% before that. Then the Internet, movies, TV.

If you're not in Germany or Russia, get a teacher with a small class. Mine was
4 people so we could speak and exercise a lot.

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120bits
I have started learning French few months ago. I started with Duolingo for
couple of weeks to get the basics. I liked there tutorials. The APP even has a
built-in messenger where you can chat in French with a bot(guessing same for
German too).

The first book I read was Beauty and the beast in french. It's a short story
to start with. It took me a long time to just read some sentences with proper
pronunciation and I'm still working on it. I look up youtube videos for some
extra info. The frenchpod101 videos are good. I guess you might have already
tried these, but just wanted to mention it anyways. Hope this helps! Good
Luck!

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zhte415
Move there, live there. If there or not, a recent link from HN is global
radio. Plenty of talk stations in different languages and dialects.
[http://radio.garden/live/](http://radio.garden/live/)

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silvaben
I've had success with Duolingo.

I've been doing Duolingo's French lessons every day for 15-20 minutes during
my commute to work. I find it quite engaging and useful.

~~~
dirktheman
I second Duolingo, and I also did it while commuting. I used it to learn
rudimentary Russian, but it was enough to roughly understand the people there.
Build your language skills from there.

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pasbesoin
Find shows, movies, music that interest you. Watch them (with subtitles).
Listen to it.

A lot of language learning exists below the "level" of words and sentences.
The sound of a language.

And even when you progress to words and sentences, phrases, idioms, and the
like differ. Gender exists, or differs. Native speakers don't memorize these.
They learn by absorption. You are fortunate in that, with today's connected
world, so can you.

P.S. The rest of it, e.g. working through texts, tutoring videos, and all
that, I leave to you. Just remember: EXPOSURE. And that you can't and
shouldn't try to consciously process and monitor it all. Steep yourself in it,
and let your whole mind (including sub-conscious, or whatever we're calling
it) process it.

P.P.S. Approach it this way, and you will find that some of the "much harder
than when a child" belief doesn't actually really of fully apply. I became
conversational in French, starting from zero, in about seven weeks when I was
22. In the middle of Vermont.

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seanccox
Thirty minutes of TV every day. I'd pick a character and repeat all their
lines after they delivered them. It helped me wrap my mind around the rhythm
of the language and form words, prior to understanding anything. That, and a
good grammar and dictionary for reference.

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jfc
Rosetta Stone online. For me, picture-based learning seems to work well.

I also use online flashcards (Anki can be a useful tool for making your own
online flashcard decks).

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sheraz
Live there. Immersion. Anything else is a distant 2nd and you will never
"feel" the language.

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kobeya
ajatt.com

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cynosurelabs
I use Benny Lewis's advice (He founded FluentIn3Months). You can even use
services like FluentU or Duolingo.

