Learning a foreign language in retirement (move, community, graduate, years)

[equinox1]

A long time ago, I coordinated a workshop that included an anthropologist and other culteral experts. I asked about learning a language as an adult. She said it would take studying 3 hours/day for a year or two to become proficient.

[RockyTopNC]

Originally Posted by equinox1

A long time ago, I coordinated a workshop that included an anthropologist and other culteral experts. I asked about learning a language as an adult. She said it would take studying 3 hours/day for a year or two to become proficient.

She was probably right! I need to quit wasting time and get to work on it!

[Happy in Wyoming]

Originally Posted by equinox1

A long time ago, I coordinated a workshop that included an anthropologist and other culteral experts. I asked about learning a language as an adult. She said it would take studying 3 hours/day for a year or two to become proficient.

That's only true for a very few languages. But asking an anthropologist or a "cultural expert", whatever that is, about language is like asking a plumber about electrical work.

For an English speaker it's easy to acquire a reading knowledge of a Germanic or Romance language in three to six months depending upon your intelligence. That assumes three hours per day. Add another few weeks for compositional skills. Smart people don't need instructors.

Then start on spoken. That requires either a native speaker or someone just as good. You need to speak and a native speaker needs to listen and correct. It also depends upon your ability to mimic. People getting a BA in a modern language normally spend their last year in a country where that language is spoken. Getting together with a bunch of Americans every week for an Italian language lunch may do a little good but it's insufficient.

[Wwanderer]

I have a friend who has been studying Spanish seriously for at least 10 years, private tutors, lengthy trips to South America, etc.

I suspect he feels he might just be close to being "proficient"!

[Ulysses61]

She said it would take studying 3 hours/day for a year or two to become proficient.

Unless you have a native speaker to listen to, you will you never become remotely fluent in a language. Studying for three hours a day may enable a person to read a language but they will never understand it unless they are constantly exposed to hearing the language, whether it's on TV or from native speakers.

[slackjaw]

Rosetta Stone = huge marketing but very little quantifiable results to back up their claims. On a purely anecdotal note I do know quite a few people who have tried their program (often repeatedly) and not a single one of them can carry on a reasonable conversation in the foreign language they studied, so I'm fairly skeptical.

Key to proficiency in a foreign language is exposure and if needed in a shorter time frame hard work. There are no shortcuts and any product you see advertised that promised fluency in xyz months is full of it.

StealthRabbit mentioned an immersion school, if you are fortunate enough to want to learn a language that is spoken in a relatively inexpensive location and have the time that is the way to roll.

Good luck all, and remember you are doing it for fun, so have fun.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by slackjaw

...Key to proficiency in a foreign language is exposure and if needed in a shorter time frame hard work. There are no shortcuts ... and remember you are doing it for fun, so have fun.

Surely someone on here has been through 'State Dept' Foreign Language training. I met a few who had been through while I was stationed at International locations. I'm sure it depends on the difficulty / availability of centers, but I understood it was often a VERY intense 6 wk program. (Like 12+ hrs / day 6-7 Days / week). Considered OVERLOAD by most... I don't remember them saying it was fun...

I will hope to get an 'econo-immersion' experience with 3 sessions of 2 wks on, and 2 wks off (traveling and staying in same dialect region). 12 weeks should make me or break me And that is a very trivial time frame in the BIG picture of things. I will be doing my 2 wks off volunteering with regional humanitarian and economic aid programs. Thus I will be learning + contributing and travel weeks will be very cheap, as well as the language school.

[equinox1]

As to the 3 hr/day quote, I wrote c"ultural expert anthropologist" because I can't remember her specific field (there were several presenters), but she was a nonnative expert on Alaska languages and taught at U level. She was well qualified to answer the question. She had lived in villages to increase her proficiency and knowledge of the culture so immersion worked I guess.

A young women who grew up across the street from us joined the peace corps and had their language training. She did some classes in French before she joined PC also. It took her a couple months after she was in country to pass the basic proficiency test-took her 2 tries. After being there 2 years and getting married to a native, she's very fluent now. It can be done. : )

[slackjaw]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

Considered OVERLOAD by most... I don't remember them saying it was fun...

Wow you missed the point by about a mile.

I'll say it another way... if you are retired and looking to learn a foreign language why bother engaging in it in a manner that makes it seems like arduous work? I'd assume you'd be doing it to enjoy the learning process and achieve some reasonable goals.

I certainly wasn't claiming that people in full day immersion programs for government cram sessions are all having fun.

[Falconman]

SPANISH SPANISH SPANISH...... why are we so interested in spanish. When I go to frikkin SPAIN then I might be interested in spanish....screw spanish