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Learning a language is a huge endeavor and requires that you spend some time in the country where they speak it (Spanish might be the one exception).
I took German in high school and then in college up to literature level. I even took it on my own after college. I went there to live and while yes, I certainly could make small talk and read signs, I was still out of the ballpark. Two immersion courses and 6 months later I was doing pretty well.
By all means start taking it here (I asssume you are in the States) but take an immersion course in the native country. Get a tv over there and leave it on all the time. Read lots of newspapers- start with the local rags and tabloids as they are the easiest.
You can learn any language. It just takes time and effort. It cannot be done in a crash course.
I definitely second Moth. I studied Chinese in high-school from a man who wrote Chinese text books for colleges, and continued to what was considered "Level IV" Chinese in college. I can read practically anything in Mandarin. However, when I started traveling for work my senior year, I ended up in China, lost, with very little communication skill. Since then, I've honed my speaking skills with an accumulated 6 weeks in China, but they're still rough, only enough to get my point across.
That being said, just out of curiosity, what language are you trying to learn? I know that Spanish is probably the easiest to learn, with my personal opinion being Italian is a close second. Both considered "Romance" languages, and are actually very, very similar to one another. French is also up there, but I never tried to learn it myself, so I couldn't vouch.
Which language? I don't know the cost, but have known others who took Berlitz courses for several weeks in order to learn conversational languages quickly for biz travel, 1-mo of pleasure travel & in one case, to meet the soon-to-be in-laws. I just checked the site & they even offer online classes. They weren't initially able to read/write well, but spoke confidently & it seems this is what you need now. You can always return to study it thoroughly later. The most important thing is to learn phrases you'd actually need to use now & by memorization, you can certainly get by.
I speak several languages fluently & can barely read/write in them, just from talking with my mom at home. Memorizing phrases has helped me so that when visiting those countries, I stumbled a bit, but got along just fine without much struggle.
Also, check on craigslist.org for local classes to get yourself conversational as soon as possible. I've seen even obscure languages (the ones I speak) offered in Boston with craigslist groups.
Yes, you're both right & as you've both said, some languages are easier than others & some people just have a gift for languages. One of my brothers spoke German & Russian in a matter of months out of need (required by whatever Air Force job he held at the time, so no choice).
I took a quick nightschool course (twice/wk for 2-mos) to learn conversational Italian before moving to Milan & my interest & desire to learn got me along just fine speaking IT. I did struggle with some dialects (I learned proper IT), which we never discussed in school, but they can only teach so much in a pinch. Upon returning to the states, I forgot 1/2 in 6-mos & probably the rest within a year, but it's nice to know I could learn it quickly again, should I desire. The nice benefit is Spanish & IT for the most part, are easy to read/write, too.
It sounds like the OP just wants to be understood & have a conversational level of understanding, if s/he's asking for a crash course. You're probably right in that, if it's Mandarin, well, perhaps the best to hope for is very basic phrases that can be memorized. I don't yet know what s/he means by crash, which may be weeks, months or a year.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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Thank you all for your replies. I really want to learn Spanish. My 1st language is English (I'm in the states) and I studied French for six years. French is definitely my first love so I want sort of a refresher course French because I haven't used it in recent years. Spanish is something I want to learn for travel/business.
I took a year of Spanish in college in an immersion course and loved it--I learned so much. I cannot remember the name of the course, though, or the materials used. What I do remember is that I had a workbook and watched a Spanish soap opera. My classes were in Spanish, too. It was just amazing to me how much I learned just listening to people speak the language. Not to mention watching they're inflections and gestures, the subtle stuff that isn't in a textbook.
Anyway, my goal is to be conversant in both Spanish and French for some upcoming trips I'm planning. I realize my accent will leave a lot to be desired along with any writing. I just want to have a clue as to what people are saying and be able to read signs/menus that sort of thing. Plus, I just think that when you visit another county, its respectful to try to learn the language and I'm hoping my efforts will at least be appreciated
Well if you have that much background in French, then you probably just need to read in French for an hour every night and rent some movies. Of course resuming coursework would not hurt either.
As for Spanish, as I alluded, I think this is the one language Americans can get a good handle on without going to a Spanish speaking nation. Basically, we have a lot of native Spanish speakers here, so there are plenty of people to practice with. And there is also a myriad of media sources- newspapers, radio and tv stations.
So just jump on in. Start a Spanish course and watch the news every night.
I definitely second Moth. I studied Chinese in high-school from a man who wrote Chinese text books for colleges, and continued to what was considered "Level IV" Chinese in college. I can read practically anything in Mandarin. However, when I started traveling for work my senior year, I ended up in China, lost, with very little communication skill. Since then, I've honed my speaking skills with an accumulated 6 weeks in China, but they're still rough, only enough to get my point across.
That being said, just out of curiosity, what language are you trying to learn? I know that Spanish is probably the easiest to learn, with my personal opinion being Italian is a close second. Both considered "Romance" languages, and are actually very, very similar to one another. French is also up there, but I never tried to learn it myself, so I couldn't vouch.
awesome.
Chinese is obviously more difficult than most languages in the world.
Italian is the easiest language for English speakers to learn because the vocabulary is very similar. Spanish is actually harder than Italian for an English speakers; Spanish has many Basque and Arabic loan words with no English cognates- "alfombra", "ojala", "izquierda", etc. It is easy in the US because you can immerse yourself in Spanish fairly easily here.
You would think a language like Swedish or Dutch would actually be the easiest to learn because it is closely related to English, but this isn't the case. I'd say Swedish is only slightly easier to learn than Russian. I only know some Swedish. I used to be conversant in Russian and fluent in Spanish and Italian.
Oh, and learning a foreign language means nothing to Americans. They simply don't care, not unless you also have an MBA attached, it will not open any doors. Now, if you know Arabic or Farsi the government wants you badly.
Oh, and learning a foreign language means nothing to Americans. They simply don't care, not unless you also have an MBA attached, it will not open any doors. Now, if you know Arabic or Farsi the government wants you badly.
And even then they do not care. I finally took my graduate study time in Germany off of my resume as it invariably confused HR people, many of whom thought I was German and probably foresaw visa issues.
Its a tough call though. On one hand, English has become the lingua franca of the world. On the other hand, it would do us well to have more language skills here. The problem is we start so late compared to the Dutch or Swedes. Even if you never become proficient or fluent, it helps you to understand them all the better. Something that would have helped with regards to Iraq one way or the other.
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