How to Learn a Foreign Language

fuck you bitches pimsler approach!

I needed to learn to speak 3-4 languages over the past few years for my job, and in the process have landed on a pretty damn good method.  It got me to C1 fluency in French in about 5 months, and I’m currently using it with Russian (and plan on reaching C1 equivalent fluency by September).  At this point, I go in 4 stages:

Stage 1: Learn the correct pronunciation of the language.  Doing this does a few things –  because I’m first and foremost learning how to hear that language’s sounds, my listening comprehension gets an immediate boost before I even start traditional language age learning.  Once I start vocabulary training, I retain it better because I’m familiar with how words should sound and how they should be spelled.  (Correct spellings in French, for example, are much easier to remember when there’s a connection between the spelling and the sound), and once I finally start speaking to native speakers, they don’t switch to English for me or dumb down their language, which is awesome sauce.

Stage 2: Vocab and grammar acquisition (itself in a few stages), no English allowed

I start with a frequency list and mark off any words I can portray with pictures alone (basic nouns and verbs).  I put those in an [URL=http://ankisrs.net/]Anki[/URL] deck and learn them.  Once I have some words to play with, I start putting them together.  I use Google translate and a grammar book to start making sentences, then get everything doublechecked at lang-8.com.  Turning them into fill-in-the-blank flashcards builds the initial grammar and connecting words.  As vocab and grammar grow, I eventually move to monolingual dictionaries and writing my own definitions for more abstract words (again doublechecked at lang-8.com).  This builds on itself; the more vocab and grammar you get, the more vocab and grammar concepts you can describe in the target language.  Eventually you can cover all the words in a 2000 word frequency list and any specific vocab you need for your specific interests.

Stage 3: Listening, writing and reading work

Once I have a decent vocabulary and familiarity with grammar, I start writing essays, watching TV shows and reading books.  Every writing correction gets added to the Anki deck, which continues to build my vocab and grammar.

Stage 4: Speech

At the point where I can write ‘fluently’, I find some place to immerse in the language and speak all the time (literally.  No English allowed or else you won’t learn the skill you’re trying to learn, which is adapting to holes in your grammar or vocabulary by going around them rapidly and automatically without having to think about it).  I prefer Middlebury college, but a few weeks in the target country will work as well if you’re very vigorous with sticking to the target language and not switching to English.  If you’re extremely strict with yourself, your brain adapts pretty quickly and learns how to put all the info you learned in stages 1-3 together quickly enough to turn into fluent speech.

I’ve written a (not yet available) book on the topic and a (now available) website, at http://www.towerofbabelfish.com

I think it is entertaining and cool. I already know my three native languages: Russain, French, English. but i want to know more and was about to buy the Pimsleur, “Learn a language in 10 days thing”, so thanks.  

Yes, it’s important to enjoy the process, but also not be afraid to make mistakes, everyone starts at zero, but if you continually practice, you’ll get to where you want to go.

I think the main problem is just doing it. We have a site at http://www.worldwordexchange.com and many people sign up to learn but very few actually come back and try it. Most methods will work to some degree but unless you do it you wont learn.