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I speak English (obviously), French and Italian. I took a course in Spanish but it was too easy for me. Its very similar to Italian. I also took a German class but didn't continue with it. I learn languages easily.
Immersion is definitely the best way for me to learn. I learned two West African languages when I lived in Sierra Leone, one pretty fluently and one passably. I went through 6 weeks of training, and was then dropped off in my village where I had to learn to speak it if I were to make any friends or make myself understood. I lived there two years. While that kind of immersion is pretty much impossible (unless you join Peace Corps like I did,) there are programs where you can spend a month in certain places learning languages. I know that there are programs in Costa Rica and Guatemala for learning Spanish. I haven't looked into any others - you might want to try googling language immersion vacations or something like that.
I have been working on Spanish for a little over a month. It is tough to learn in hawaii, because there are almost no native speakers here and most people learn japanese or filipino. I've made some decent strides and this is the little advice i can give. I started reading childrens books in spanish (trying to not too look up words) its actually pretty easy with the pictures and spanish and english are usually close enough to discern. I've only been listening to spanish music on my ipod. I have some book to try and guide me, but most of my growth has been through SRS. I use Anki, an SRS is like online flashcards where you choose options of difficulty, the more difficult, the more often you see it and the easier is vice versa. Good luck to all fellow language learners.
Tessek? (te shake) "Excuse me" in Hungarian. The one problem with learning a foreign lamguage is the pronunciation of one or two letters together which are not the same as in English. Having grown up with a Hungarian mother spoke and understood the language but not able to write any of it. If I think in Hungarian I'm able to read most words/newspaper etc.
I have that problem with Spanish and as long as I think in terms of the Spanish letters I'm able to read quite a bit but fail to understand most of what I'm reading. Reading Yes...comprehension something else.
I'm learning Italian. I've been self-studying for just over three years, and just this fall started a beginner's class at the local community college. I thought the classes might give me more structure and motivation. But so far the things that have worked best for me were children's learning CD's (especially the sing-a-longs) and picture books. Also agree with another poster, it's best to try to do something every day with it. For example, when I was trying to learn to count to 100, I would practice counting in my head when waiting in line at the bank, when trying to fall asleep at night, etc. Sitting around watching TV, a commercial comes on - pick up the picture book and try to memorize one new word.
It has also helped listening to Italian podcasts and radio on the Internet. We also listen to Spanish radio in the car sometimes - since the languages are so similar, I've actually been able to pick out more Spanish since studying Italian, and the Spanish is helping with Italian too.
Meanwhile I'm attempting to study Greek. It's going a lot slower since I'm taking the Italian classes now, but it is helping make new language connections in my brain and I get lots of "ah-ha" moments, also seeing better memory retention with each language the further I go down this path.
My goal is to one day be able to live in Italy and translate professionally. I'll probably be old and gray but it's a dream!
Hmmm I've always wanted to learn French, seems some of you like Rosetta Stone for learning a language. I'll have to look into it and then plan a trip to Montreal to practice....of course there is Louisiana to practice too, but I somehow think Cajun & French spoken in France or Canada are worlds apart
spanish--similar to italian and at my age am getting both languages mixed up at times constantly sending my hispanic friends into peals of laughter(heaven knows what i am saying during those times--eek!
German. Took two semesters at Community College. Went pretty well for the most part. Until I discovered the dialect I need to learn they don't teach in formal German classes. I can converse with my in-laws for the most part but my Father in Law corrects my High German into Austrian dialect which makes learning German a little more challenging.
I'm not currently learning any languages but it is a struggle to maintain the ones I have. I try to spend as much time as I can reading news sites in the languages I am most fluent in - Dutch and French, and try to make my way through some articles in the ones I didn't learn so much of - Italian and Swedish. I just made friends with a neighbor who speaks Spanish so I spend a lot of time listening to her. I thought my Spanish was pretty bad until I was in Spain and got put to the test. You may be surprised as to what you can conjure up when you need to!
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