Current Events > Anyone became fluent/semi fluent with a foreign language as an adult?

(+) Yeah! (+)

If so how did you become fluent or semi fluent in that language? How long did it take to learn?

Yup, I learned the language of spitting game in my mid 20's. After around 6 months I as fluent enough to go into any bar or club and have a successful conversation with anyone.

I'm semi-fluent in Mandarin and French. Mandarin was for university requirements. I can understand it best, speak it okay, read it okay, and write it like shit. For French, I learned on Duolingo. I can read and write pretty well, but I'm okay speaking/listening.

bump

I am 31 and learning Japanese. Still learning but I can see myself becoming fluent. I have taken two classes. If I succeed, I plan to move over into learning Chinese.
---

German. Duolingo, been studying about six months. Able to follow the plot of soap operas now. Grammar is mostly down, need to improve vocab.
---

I'm marrying a Bosnian, once I finish my degree I'll learn that (or "Serbo-Croatian" as I believe the official language is called"
---

It is possible. Look at Bradley Cooper. Although he did the immersion technique and studied in France.
---

Fluent in Japanese through a combination of classes, self-study, and living/working in Japan.

German. Duolingo taught me the basics, actually moving there and being in the environment did the rest.

I was 18/19 though, not sure if you'd count that as adult
---

Only using the Duolingo app helped you guys learn German and can communicate ok with a German?

Finished the skilltree for Spanish on Duo a while back. Aced a 202 class on it last fall.

Getting rusty though. I don't like how you can't repeat lessons on Duolingo now.
---

I'm learning Portuguese (slowly, not intently) with Duolingo and the lack of grammar lessons is frustrating to me.
---

I knew some French and Spanish before but never really used it so it's pretty much gone now.

Nearly 32 and I feel pretty braindead these days as far as learning new stuff goes. Like to learn another language or instrument? I feel like that'd be a solid decade investment while kid or teen me could have had it down in a year or two. Sigh.
---

Not fluent in any other language yet, but started learning Japanese as a joke about 5 months ago and decided to take it seriously when I realized I'd memorized the first 300 or so Kanji and the kana fairly effortlessly in the span of a month or so. Figured "what's the worst that can happen"

I reckon if I was studying a language like Spanish or French that I would probably be very very good at it by now, provided I dumped as much time into those as I have into learning how to read Kanji characters.

Basically, if you're serious about learning any language, you have to accept that it's gonna be a rather long, slow-going process. Learn just 20 new words a day and expose yourself to their usage in various contexts... if you did this every single day for 6 months you would have 3600 words under your belt, which offers theoretical coverage of around 95% or so of the language you would encounter every day. From there, you should be able to glean new meanings/words/grammar from context alone, except in odd cases where a unique grammar pattern arises or other things.

From there, you'll spend the rest of your life filling in the gaps for more specialized areas of the language.

Learning what I've learned now from studying Japanese, I know precisely how I intend to tackle Mandarin, Spanish, and French when the time comes. All of those will come with their own individual challenges, but they certainly CANNOT be worse than the broken-ass Japanese Kanji which have different readings (and even meanings) depending on context and the things that surround them.

tl;dr - learn 3000-4000 useful words and the sky is the limit from there
---

Verdekal posted...

Getting rusty though. I don't like how you can't repeat lessons on Duolingo now.

But you can ... plus you can get it to make a custom practice lesson that draws from all of them with the practice icon.

tamashiini posted...

German. Duolingo, been studying about six months. Able to follow the plot of soap operas now. Grammar is mostly down, need to improve vocab.

You are absolutely not fluent in German from 6 months of Duo

teepan95 posted...

German. Duolingo taught me the basics, actually moving there and being in the environment did the rest.

I was 18/19 though, not sure if you'd count that as adult

Where are you from originally if you dont mind me asking? I just assumed you were native
---

I took about 3 years of German in high school and two semesters in uni. Studied abroad in Germany for 5 weeks two summers ago. Difficult language, didn't really find it fun to learn. Outside of class, I'd watch shows dubbed in German or play video games in German. It's a long process, as an adult, since you can't naturally absorb new words and grammar (unless you're already very fluent in the language).

Been learning Madarin for about 6 months. Easier to learn than a lot of European languages (may be shocking to read that, however Mandarin has a lot less grammatical bullshit to worry about, but it's still time-consuming to learn). Native speakers are plentiful where I live, so finding a friend to help me was not difficult at all. Contrast that with German, where it can be a challenge to find native speakers depending where you are. I'm liking Mandarin Chinese the best.
---

ASithLord7 posted...

You are absolutely not fluent in German from 6 months of Duo

I'm almost 2000% certain they didn't say they were fluent.
---

DuoLingo is OK but it's not gonna get you too far without other resources.

I super duper highly recommend Babbel. It's a paid service but it is so friggin' well organized. I use it for Swedish and it is the friggin' bomb.

You might also check out the channel Language Transfer on youtube, the guy's got a really awesome method.

Besides that, knowing what you want to study can help with recommendations.

Learning a language at any age isn't hard. It's really all about having an open mind and realizing it's a different language based on a different culture, and getting the grammar concepts down sooner rather than later. And the more languages you study the easier it gets to study even more.
---

scar the 1 posted...

ASithLord7 posted...

You are absolutely not fluent in German from 6 months of Duo

I'm almost 2000% certain they didn't say they were fluent.

It's...uhh...in the topic title <__<

bob742omb posted...

Difficult language, didn't really find it fun to learn. Outside of class, I'd watch shows dubbed in German or play video games in German. It's a long process, as an adult, since you can't naturally absorb new words and grammar (unless you're already very fluent in the language).

Adults learn languages better and most importantly quicker than anyone, this is a common misconception. Small children absorb the deep structure and grammar of a language more solidly and permanently, but as far as vocab and everything else goes, adults have the clear advantage.

I also wouldn't say German is at all difficult but different strokes :]
---

Not fluent, but I do speak some Finnish.

Was in a hockey camp over there when I still played junior so you pick up on it. Never learned too much though because they dropped me a level (Went over to play Junior B, they dropped me down to Aluedivisoona, AKA Junior D, eff that)

Currently trying to learn Russian.
---

Oakland510_ posted...

Only using the Duolingo app helped you guys learn German and can communicate ok with a German?

Anyways, back to this. For my part I'm absolutely not fluent or semi-fluent. I've only been learning German for a year now, and it's hard to say how I'd be classified. A2? Stronger in reading and writing than in speaking but all-around strong enough to impress most of the Germans I know.

I started with Duolingo, which I only recently "finished," as I took it slow and did a lot of reviewing. I listen to a lot of German music. A lot. My best friend is German (though we actually don't talk in it as much as we probably should), I have another close German friend, and I spent a few weeks there last winter. I've also been using Assimil, reading simple stories in German, and now plan to start using Anki pretty feverishly and I've recently started watching some shows in German with German subs. Want to get a solid B1-B2 before I go spend a month or so there next summer.
---

electricbugs2 posted...

Not fluent, but I do speak some Finnish.

Was in a hockey camp over there when I still played junior so you pick up on it. Never learned too much though because they dropped me a level (Went over to play Junior B, they dropped me down to Aluedivisoona, AKA Junior D, eff that)

Currently trying to learn Russian.

Russian is a fun one
---

I lived in South America for 6 months and went from "uh... uh... HOE-LA" to comfortably conversational

I spoke english twice the entire time. Immersion works.

I haven't been back in two years and I forgot a LOT
---

Yeah there's absolutely nothing that can beat immersion if you're able to do it and make an effort to avoid your L1 (also easier in countries without a strong English-speaking population). It's also a real mark against the misconception that adults don't learn languages easily.
---

Hexenherz posted...

Russian is a fun one

Easy to speak, fucking nightmarish to write lol.
---

electricbugs2 posted...

Hexenherz posted...

Russian is a fun one

Easy to speak, fucking nightmarish to write lol.

To this day there are some shitty words that trip me up and it's annoying. Also the , I understand the difference I'm just too lazy to improve it at this point.
---

I don't need to TBH. I already know English, and I live in America.
---

@ASithLord7 posted...

Where are you from originally if you dont mind me asking? I just assumed you were native

Born in Germany but I grew up in the UK, so it was practically a foreign language to me.

Ethnically I'm Desi
---

teepan95 posted...

@ASithLord7 posted...

Where are you from originally if you dont mind me asking? I just assumed you were native

Born in Germany but I grew up in the UK, so it was practically a foreign language to me.

Ethnically I'm Desi

Ah, cool!
---

bump

---