Current Events > Anyone learned how to speak a new language as an adult?

(+) Yeah! (+)

If so how long did it take you to become fluent and how much effort you put into learning?

My BF has been learning a new language for months. He has an an app on his phone, and a website that he visits daily that has him practice his vocabulary. He also started watching shows (kid shows) in that other language.
If you really want to learn you'll probably need to put at least 30-60 minutes into it daily, and it'll probably take a couple months for you to become semi-sufficient.

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I've been learning German for almost 4 years (in Septemberish). I'd say I'm a solid B1, have some way to go into B2. My comprehension is far better than my production. I can read articles on Der Spiegel or listen to news clips from DW pretty comfortably for example.

Effort has been off and on over those years. I'd be further along if I lived somewhere where I could use it more or studied more per day. I'd caution against getting hung up on "fluency" though, as that means different things for different people. B2 is pretty conversationally fluent, while C2 is probably more proficient than most native speakers.

Started with Duolingo, which is good for the basics, learning vocabulary and some basic grammar rules. No app is going to get you past ~A1, keep that in mind, always. From there, listen to music in the L2 as much as possible, watch youtube videos (quality and amount will vary greatly from language to language), watch tv/movies as soon as possible, start with English subs, move to L2 subs as soon as you comfortably can. Assimil is a good tool that combines listening, reading, and writing. Comprehensible input is key. Ensure whatever you're taking in is within your ability to understand, and whatever you don't understand you can glean from context. And read. Read as much as possible, it's probably the single biggest thing for acquiring a new language. Additionally, Anki is a great tool for spaced repetition flashcards. If you make your own deck, that's even better, but nobody has time for that so download one. Make an effort to acquire the accent as best as you can but don't get hung up on that either. It will come with time and proficiency.

Daily practice is just going to depend on your goals and how quickly you want to progress, but yes generally you want to engage with it as often as possible as much as possible.

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Not quite adult when I started (was late teens), but sorta. Korean. Probably rusty now as I haven't spoken it in ages, but I was able to hold down a conversation pretty well.

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Bump because never enough language topics

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I'm trying to learn Louisiana Creole. It was my grandfather's first language. I want to keep that history alive because a lot of the old timers that speak it are dying out, and they were discouraged from speaking creole French when they were younger so many didn't pass it on.

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Yes I lived in South America and didn't speak English at all, it took about 8 months with a shitty high school Spanish background to start having deeper conversations with strangers -- if I'd taken classes I bet it could've been 4 months

I lost a significant amount of my Spanish after not using it at all for 5 years back in the US

i've been teaching myself Russian for the past 2 years or so. i'm nowhere near fluent, but i find myself able to read more and more every day. these days, i spend at least 5-30 minutes a day on an app i found called FunEasyLearn. it's basically a giant collection of words and common phrases (thousands) with exercises that i find useful to memorize.

i bought a textbook to study the rules and language, but i only went through it for the first 6 months or so. i also started with Duolingo but got tired of it after a year. i think i got as much as i could of the very basic rules, but realized i needed to just know more words in order to be able to do anything, so i found the word app and i've been memorizing words since. it helps a lot.

i've also started communicating with russian natives, they're learning english but they use translators, but i ask them to write to me in russian so i can start learning the "casual" way of typing or talking to others. it's also fun to share and compare cultures and such.

oh another great idea is to watch (bad) movies without subtitles (so you don't feel bad you missed the story), listening to music and researching lyrics, and looking for podcasts or channels that give an american perspective on the language and culture. watching movies is especially helpful for me to start properly hearing words, with different accents and such, i highly recommend it.

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Aeriis posted...

I've had good experiences with italki, it's a website where you hire native speakers by hour to tutor you for like 15 dollars

Yeah italki is good if you can afford it. Anytime you can communicate with speakers of the language is ideal

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