Becoming a polyglot

[Anonymous]

My goal is to achieve fluency in four more languages.

What I love about the current method I’m using is that don’t need to study vocabulary or grammar out of context. Instead, I listen to 1-2 hours a day of podcasts, TV, or other videos. I might ask my more patient fluent friends to speak Spanish to me.

I’m starting with the non-English language I know best (Spanish) and will work my way through to others I sort of know.

For many years, I took classes and didn’t realize that wasn’t the best way to learn. Now, I’m learning from videos and podcasts. When I listened to a Spanish language TV program yesterday, I was surprised by how much more I could understand than just two months ago.

Anyone else out there learning a language?

Any tips to share from learning a language?

[Anonymous]

Visiting in living in other countries is the only way I learn other languages as an adult.

[Anonymous]

I mean, I think you are being a little optimistic. It is great to listen to podcasts etc, but that won’t turn you into a polyglot. I agree with po that unless you have a very strong natural aptitude, full immersion is the best way to fluency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean, I think you are being a little optimistic. It is great to listen to podcasts etc, but that won’t turn you into a polyglot. I agree with po that unless you have a very strong natural aptitude, full immersion is the best way to fluency.

Thank you. I agree and that’s a good point. I’ve spent time in Spanish-speaking countries and made huge gains there. France, too.

Next summer, I plan to visit another Spanish-speaking country to build on what I’m doing now. By then, I’ll have 600 hours of listening under my belt.

Overall, I’ve made more gains by listening than I did in a USDA conversation course I took.

[Anonymous]

Join the US foreign service and if you're lucky--they pay for you to sit in DC for 9 months and learn a language. the ultimate in cushy jobs...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Join the US foreign service and if you're lucky--they pay for you to sit in DC for 9 months and learn a language. the ultimate in cushy jobs...

I'm probably too old for them!

OP

[Anonymous]

Podcasts and videos are great aids, but you must be in regular conversation with native speakers, and to achieve true fluency a period of immersion is a must.

Spanish was recently moved to the second level of difficulty in the state department system. Do you plan to stay with Romance languages? Obviously if your goal is to learn more, this would be easier.

Learning a new language is a wonderful thing and one of the best steps people can take to preserve brain function. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Listening and reading are passive skills. They're great, but they don't help you build active skills like writing and more importantly, speaking. You can get a conversation partner (paid) to help you practice. You might want a book as a reference to help you study grammar.

You can have a written and interactive conversation with ChatGPT. I just tried it with Spanish, it prompted me to suggest a topic, so I mentioned climate change. It seems decent, but again, it's heavier on reading and you're not getting a lot of feedback on your production of Spanish. You can probably play around with it though.

[Anonymous]

In addition to what other people posted, I use the Teach Yourself language learning series, which includes reading, listening, and writing exercises, in addition to any online resources I can find that include interactive language learning mediums. Some universities have free or inexpensive options to learn various languages. Google Translate is also helpful for learning pronunciation, dictation, and spelling

Here is the link for Teach Yourself. You can get their books on Amazon, and use their app/website for listening exercises:
https://library.teachyourself.com/

FWIW, I grew up speaking Portuguese; and have formally studied Spanish and Arabic. Now I am learning Icelandic, Finnish, and Persian.

[Anonymous]

I watch the news and period dramas in other languages. They tend to use the formal language and speak more slowly so I can catch everything.

I follow a ton of Spanish, French, and German news agencies on twitter and that's really helpful, too.

I follow a ton of French influencers on tiktok who specialize in sharing language and culture. The AT Frenchies guys are adorable...they started their channel while they were in college in the US and now they have a huge following. They even has Pres Macron on their channel. Hello French as well.

[Anonymous]

Ich lerne Deutsch, aber bin ich nicht sehr gut.

[Anonymous]

I'm a polygot. I can speak/read 18 languages. It just comes easy for me.

[Anonymous]

Watching tv and movies in the language you are trying to learn is highly effective. But get your dictionary out, and pause it and look up each word you don't know and record it.

[Anonymous]

I've been learning languages for years but I only spend like 5 minutes a day. I think your method probably would result in faster progress.

[Anonymous]

Thank you!

After a lot of listening, I was able to watch a sports program in Spanish and understood what they were saying as well as if it were English. It was exciting!

I’ve just read the story of a woman who achieved B2 in German mainly by listening to podcasts and TV shows.

The studies about focusing on comprehensible input were inspiring. For the first few hundred hours, it’s actually quite useful to focus on listening.

The best way to learn is crosstalk but that’s more challenging to arrange. Crosstalk means I’d speak English and listen to the other person’s Spanish.
While they speak Spanish, they listen to my English. With a lot of miming and pointing and drawing, communication happens and language is acquired.

Interesting to hear about using chat gpt!

OP