{"id":55237,"date":"2018-03-24T19:36:25","date_gmt":"2018-03-25T03:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=55237"},"modified":"2018-04-01T23:38:17","modified_gmt":"2018-04-02T07:38:17","slug":"learn-language-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/learn-language-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn a Language Online and on Your Own"},"content":{"rendered":"
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First the bad news.\u00a0 I’m not going to tell you learning a language is easy, it isn’t.\u00a0 Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably selling you something .\u00a0 You may be able to “speak” a language in a few months, but if you want to reach a level where you can read, work, live and study in the language, it’s going to take longer.\u00a0 For most languages, the time to become truly fluent is five months to a year of dedicated study.\u00a0 For English speakers, check out the Foreign Service Institute’s guide<\/a> if you’re curious about where your language falls.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, you didn’t stop reading, because there is a lot of good news.\u00a0 Can you think of a more useful skill that virtually anyone can acquire in six months?\u00a0 I did it, and I’m not being falsely modest about my abilities, either.\u00a0 I was awful at French in high school, I mean really really bad.\u00a0 No blaming the class either, the teacher was great.\u00a0 Everyone else in that school learned French, just not me.\u00a0 Despite this, I later decided to learn Spanish for my career and spent six months in Guatemala.\u00a0 It was intense, but after six months I understood a completely new culture, could communicate with millions of people throughout the world, and read and write well enough to enter a Latin American Literature graduate program at the University of Delaware.<\/p>\n

More good news, you no longer have to live abroad to immerse yourself in a language.\u00a0 Everything you need to practice is online and probably free.<\/p>\n

Getting Started<\/strong><\/p>\n

Get a textbook or at least a grammar guide.\u00a0 I know it isn’t sexy, and I know new commercial textbooks are ridiculously expensive, but you need something to explain how to form the past tense, if the adjective goes before or after the noun, etc.\u00a0 Besides, your textbook doesn’t have be new or even commercially sold.\u00a0 Odds are pretty good there’s a free open access book that’s just as good, if not better.\u00a0 Here’s my quick list, but there are many more.<\/p>\n

Spanish
\nCOERLL Spanish Grammar in Context – http:\/\/grammar.spanishintexas.org\/<\/a>
\nSpanish 001 PSU – https:\/\/psu.pb.unizin.org\/spanish001fa16\/<\/a><\/p>\n

English\/ESL
\nCommunication Beginnings – http:\/\/open.umn.edu\/opentextbooks\/BookDetail.aspx?bookId=502<\/a>
\nAthabasca University – http:\/\/eslau.ca\/e.php<\/a><\/p>\n

French
\nFran\u00e7ais interactif – https:\/\/www.coerll.utexas.edu\/coerll\/project\/fran{54c12dad2cc2b53ae830e39915b1a3e70288dbcbbeb8bbf8395437c5dc3c512c}C3{54c12dad2cc2b53ae830e39915b1a3e70288dbcbbeb8bbf8395437c5dc3c512c}A7ais-interactif<\/a>
\nLibert\u00e9 – http:\/\/open.umn.edu\/opentextbooks\/BookDetail.aspx?bookId=194<\/a><\/p>\n

German
\nDeutsch im Blick – http:\/\/coerll.utexas.edu\/dib\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fun Part<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you’ve read this far, I’ve hopefully convinced you that learning a language requires a major time commitment, and there’s no avoiding learning some basic grammar.\u00a0 Like a lot of things, the hardest part of learning a language is getting started.\u00a0 So you have your textbook and you’ve looked through the introduction, maybe learned greeting or even a few basic sentences, now it’s time practice.\u00a0 Anything you do in a foreign language is helpful, so pick things you enjoy.\u00a0 Just try and be sure to practice all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.<\/p>\n

Listening<\/strong><\/p>\n

Got Netflix?\u00a0 Netflix is our first global on demand TV station, so they have lots of multilingual content, especially their original content.\u00a0 Depending on how you watch, you can either set the language of the audio and subtitles before you start the program or via an icon bottom right after you start.<\/p>\n

No Netflix, no worries.\u00a0 The web is full of sitcoms from around the world.\u00a0 Sneer if you like, there’s no better language learning tool than a predictable yet enjoyable sitcom.\u00a0 If you’re learning German, search for MediaThek.\u00a0 \u00a0Otherwise YouTube is the way to go, search for “Episode” in your language of choice and filter for length.<\/p>\n