To ask how you learn a language?

[ThatCyanSheep]

I’m totally embarrassed to not be able to speak any other languages, I did German and French in school but gave up at GCSE level. I’d like to start learning French again but have no clue where to start? ChatGPT had suggested purchasing textbooks and working through them to get the basics, but is there another way?

I share a house with one. Years and years of Duolingo, unable to order a beer 😀

I have some sympathy as I did A level French and had to sit on a bench in the Gare du Nord working out how to order my breakfast when I went to be an au pair.

I just spent a month in a country where I didn’t speak the language at all. I did 100 days streak of Duolingo (the full premium version which included speaking exercises) and tried to listen to the news in easy (language) a couple of times a week before I went. I was amazed when I got there to find I could get by very easily - had all the vocab I needed for basic interactions and could understand what was being said to me. I’m sure my grammar and accent were not fantastic but it certainly wasn’t a waste of time and in fact was a good starting point and confidence builder.

Go to the country and find a boyfriend/girlfriend from that country who lives there.
You'll soon learn.

I studied it in primary school, had extra tuition outside school, did it for GCSE, then A level, then went to uni and did a degree in it including a year abroad. I still don't speak it all that well 😂😂. I obviously speak it a lot better than your average person, but I'm not fluent at all.

I think I made the most progress during my year abroad, so think the answer is probably to spend lots of time in the country where they speak the language you want to learn

Ah, thank you, that's very kind of you!

I love languages and really enjoy learning them, because I find it makes the experience of travelling more enjoyable - I find that people are almost always friendlier and more accommodating if you've made the effort to at least learn please, thank you etc in the language of the country you're in.

I started with Duolingo, developed a long streak, but quickly realised it was more of a game really. I completed all the German, and English from German too (as that taught more German), but there are definitely much better options out there for language learning. I actually play around on the Duolingo Maths now, but because I added that while in German to English mode the Maths is actually using German language terms.....🤣🤣🤣🤣

If there are no face to face classes within reach, research online language classes. Lots of respectable educational institutions provide them. It's not a cheap option, and you may have to commit to a full term in advance as well as buying a textbook, but it's a reliable way of being taken through the language in a logical progression and at a realistic pace.

Have a look at BBC Bitesize for the language you hope to study.

If you've got some experience of language learning, Duolingo isn't completely useless. I've found it helpful in introducing vocabulary and grammar beyond what I'm getting in class. As a sole resource, however, it's possible to play it as a game without learning any of the language, and I believe it's now a pain in the neck to use without a paid subscription. I decided the cost of a subscription was worth it because it's an easy way of doing half an hour of the language every day on top of whatever else I do.

Learning a new language as an adult is HARD. There's no way round the need to put in the work of learning lists of words and memorising irregular verbs as well as becoming familiar with the structure of the language and its pronunciation.

If you can have the time off work, an intensive course may be an option.

Hope something works for you and good luck.

SquaredPaper

m Sorry but you’re lucky you’re in that area, there have been talks and talks about how to get more people speaking and understanding Irish, it’s always asked how schools get it so wrong (except Gaeltacht areas and gaelscoils) and how we only know about five phrases etc. I had a grinds teacher who used tk bitch about how many people marked on the census that they were fluent. It’s something I’m interested in because I did it for years and still just can’t wrap my head around it so am always looking out for ways to learn it (I listen to raidio and gaeltachta, used to read the Irish newspaper- everything!!)

SquaredPaper

Ah I think I just went off on a tangent- not what you were saying, sorry!!!!

I completely agree we have a complex about Irish! I moved back to Ireland with a foreign-born seven year old and within a month at his school, he’d already absorbed from his new classmates that Irish was boring and pointless.

You have to experiment and decide what works best for you. Personally, I find reading a book in the language I'm learning the best. That, combined with YouTube videos.

I have taught myself French that way. I'd especially recommend dual language books, where you have the French on one side and the English translation on the other. They have done Flaubert, Proust, Maupassant, etc. You can also buy English-language classics with the French translation on the other side. Don't rush. The key is keeping at it. Just do a little every day. I have dual language copies of Oscar Wilde's Portrait of Mr W. H., D. H. Lawrence's short stories, and Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway. I'd rather try something lighter like P. G. Wodehouse, or even the Narnia books, but I don't think they've been turned into dual language editions (then again, Wodehouse is probably untranslatable.)

The infuriating thing is that you think you are making amazing progress and then suddenly find all your confidence knocked out of you. I actually read a few pages of Proust a while ago (Proust!!) and found I could understand it. I was buzzing. Then I tried to hold a conversation with someone in French and mumbled and stuttered and hadn't got a clue. I find the same with reading. Sometimes I'll pick up a French book, open it at random, and find I can read an entire page. Then a week later I'll be in a different shop, pick up a crappy detective novel, and struggle to get past the first sentence.

God how I wish I'd concentrated at school. Education really is wasted on the young. I had such brilliant, keen French tutors, and I just sat there in a sulk ignoring everything they said.😕If I was 16 today, I'd do A Level French and A-Level Italian (or maybe Latin) and work like a slave.

If you have Netflix, watch it in French. Just 30 mins a day.

You can find a 1:1 online tutor through italki.com. One of my son's friends tutors English and the organisation is quite picky who it uses.

City Lit has a good reputation for language learning classes online.

I did GCSE French and failed it.
As an adult I tried German at night school. It was full of people wanting to learn as part of their job.
I can not get my mind to get past direct word for word translation. It is ok for numbers and not much else. I am rubbish with grammar anyway so learning another lot in another language is too much for me.
I have made my peace with it.

Duolingo doesn’t actually “teach” you anything. I’ve been enjoying Coffee Break French/German/Italian, though I can already do at least the basics of them all but it might suit if you don’t have much time to commit.

Duolingo is a good starting point to help build up your vocabulary and grammar knowledge and help your pronunciation. It's not good enough on its own, so maybe supplement that with evening classes, and also use some of the other resources suggested upthread. Netflix is a particularly good source for foreign language programmes as you can slow down the speed.

Oh that's really good going! It was a very blanket statement I know, it's borne from years of frustration of having had so many students say "I've been learning on Duolingo, I've worked through so many lessons" and then I find they can't put piece of grammar A together with any other vocab, or they've never been told how the sentences are made and so they're limited to these rote responses.

I used Duolingo to learn Italian. I thought i was doing really well and was pretty confident when we went to a small non English speaking town in southern Italy. I confidently asked a group of elderly women for directions -
“scusa, dov ‘è la piazza per favore?”

They understood and fired off a detailed set of instructions to reach the square. I smiled, nodded and said “grazie!”

as we drove away DH was so impressed and asked me what they said. “No idea” I replied “something about a church” 😂😂

moral of the story - Duolingo does NOT prepare you for actual conversation!

Try to learn how most used verbs work in the language "to be/want/like/go/drink/eat/talk/have/buy etc...". Try to learn how to use "I/you/he/she/we" with said verbs in a past,present and future tense.
Learn "question" words such as "where,when,how,why,who...". Then,practice your vocabulary from a specific topic (work, home, places, hobbies, food, animals etc...".). With that under your belt, you will be able to communicate /understand basic conversations. Try to find a sympathetic native speaker to practice on, or find a tutor online if there's no evening class nearby. Have fun!

This is known as "sleeping with a dictionary" and is a tried and proven method 😏

On a more practical front, immersion is a great way to learn and the internet is full of resources. As well as online language courses there are TV programmes, films, YouTube videos and computer games etc. to watch - which is one of the ways that Scandinavian and Dutch kids become amazingly good at English at a young age. Try listening to a foreign radio station or have it playing in the background - things like the news, sport and weather are all repetative and recognisable. If you know what the world headlines are on a given day, you'll pick up very quickly the gist of the same news report in German, Spanish or whatever.

Chatting to native (or near-native) speakers is a huge bonus - if you ask around you might be surprised at how many people actually speak another language, and all major towns and cities will have informal social groups of language speakers (e.g. foreign spouses, second generation immigrants, people who have lived abroad) if you can locate them.

People learn in different ways, so while Duolingo (and similar) courses work well for some people, for others this type of course has no value at all, and another approach such as immersion might work better.

Well, you can't be bothered with duolingo so im not going to convince you otherwise.
Ill just say that I went to Italy for the first time this summer and I started duolingo Italian in February. By August I was able to use my new language skills in Italy and helped me a lot with buying things, asking for directions and even have very simple conversation with people.

Yes to this! I’ve learnt and taught languages and have always picked things up really quickly, but never understood how. You’ve really hit the nail on the head with your explanation, thank you! Especially the talking to yourself and making up dialogues part, if you know you are going to order a coffee/chat about your food/explain your opinion, then it’s definitely a confidence boost to have a few phrases memorised.

I also found learning the parts of language to give opinions (‘because it’s…’), connectives, more/less than, sometimes, never etc. also helps with fluency. Then it really is the case of swapping out nouns/verbs and repeating those sentence patterns.

A good translation app and a small pocket dictionary are also your best friends!

You could join an online class or get a tutor, and complete KS3 and (later) GCSE workbooks alongside it (Pearson do good ones). If finances allow, you could do a course at a language school in the country where the language is spoken. I’ve been teaching languages for 21 years so feel free to message and ask anything.

Look at www.languageforfun.org for friendly group classes. If there are no classes near you, there are also plenty of group online classes (max 8-10 people with full interaction between learners and teacher)