Is it difficult to teach yourself a new language?

Comments

1. HipHopeAnnonymous says:

   October 2, 2009 at 6:31 pm

   It may be difficult, but if you really want to learn, you’ll be fine. i’m teaching myself Korean and it is very rewarding. Since you already know a second language, the third one will be much easier to learn.
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2. Peter M says:

   October 2, 2009 at 7:16 pm

   Unless you are an experienced linguist, teaching yourself would be more futile than anything, you’re probably best off to take a class.

   Hope it helps.
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3. ettlemontree says:

   October 2, 2009 at 7:48 pm

   A new language is always difficult, you have to get used to a whole new way of thinking. But it’s always easier if you know any language similar to the one you’re about to learn. So since you know spanish I guess french will be a littleeasier, but still hard. I think italian is even more similar to spanish, why don’t you try that instead? Hope this helps you!
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4. Tracing Karma says:

   October 2, 2009 at 8:03 pm

   I know Spanish too and took 3 years of French at school. It definitely is a lot easier since they are similar languages. I have been trying to teach myself Japanese for about a month now and have made steady progress. If you are truly committed to it, I say go for it. I certainly wont be a waste of time to try. If you start learning basic words and phrases, then move up to verbs, verb tenses (the order in which I learned French), I’m sure it wont be too hard.
   There are tons of websites you can use to learn a language and a great portion of them are free. If you really want to buy a program, you can do that too if you feel like you would need it. Start with the basics using a google search on specific vocabulary you are looking for and work your way up.
   Good luck!
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5. oh_mon_dieu says:

   October 2, 2009 at 8:36 pm

   Well with classes you get to be corrected if you pronounced it wrong and get to talk with people in the language. But, they can also be quite boring and you might not learn a lot depending on the course. I used to take spanish courses but found them too boring so I quit. So, instead I took courses online and I found it learned more. If there are many people around you who speak French it would be easier since they can correct you and you can speak it with them. I speak French and found that it was quite similar but I also got mixed up with my French and Spanish. But with my French background and a little bit of knowledge in Spanish I found I could read texts in spanish easier, even a little bit of Italian. I heard somewhere that if you speak Spanish you can understand French a lot better than if you spoke French and tried to learn Spanish. In all, yes it is hard to teach yourself a new language. But if you have people around you who speak it, it will be much easier. Good luck with whatever you choose:P
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6. yokucielo says:

   October 2, 2009 at 9:17 pm

   Haha, nope!
   It’s definitely not difficult to learn and teach yourself another language.
   As long as you understand their culture, there should be no problem in learning. Thing is you have to be interested in it. Well it’s obvious that you learn and remember things better when you’re interested.

   Websites and softwares help but best thing is to get a tutor or just like you said there, take a class.

   Whatever you learn is going to be useful someday.

   Oh, and just because the language is similar doesn’t mean it’s gonna be hard or easy to learn. It depends, whether you really want to learn that language or you’re just thinking about learning it because it’s similar to a language you already know.

   Well the conclusion is it’s not hard to teach yourself another language.
   I’m up to my 5th language and I’ve been teaching myself before taking class
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7. Jσє Jα¢ksση says:

   October 2, 2009 at 9:57 pm

   No, is one question of a personal decision. You can get it if you really want. My native language is Portuguese and I make lessons of English about 2 years ago and reading and writing Spanish to, and I have make much progress for myself. I am a kind of proper teacher for myself. You have in the Internet a lot of sites and web pages wich you can study and learn French, so try for yourself, and take lessons of coversations with some group of others students. In question of short time you will speak a good French. You can visit the Y!R at French and talk with the native people.
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8. Brian A says:

   October 2, 2009 at 10:39 pm

   Hey kay,

   let me try to help you out with this one.

   I wouldn’t suggest taking a class. The class will stress you on getting a good grade or performance, generally taking classes alone aren’t going to be enough to really TEACH you a new language. But you seem to be in the right space to do it, so maybe it could work.

   What I did to become fluent, and what I’d sugget for you is a software program. These are worth it aslong as you put in the time. Besides that it’s a great investment (basically investing in yourself if you think about it) and will be very worth it in the long run (you’ll save tons of money, and not be bummed out about wasting time in a class).

   You go at your own pace, etc etc I’m sure you can think of other reasons why taking a class would be the wrong thing to do.

   As you already know Spanish, French should certainly be a smooth transition for you – I wouldn’t be too concerned about it being too hard.

   I would personally suggest Rocket French, it’s what I used the most (I also tried Rosetta Stone and Fluenz), it’s the best and most affordable (it’s $99). Rosetta is $400+, Fluenz is $300+. If you choose not to get Rocket French, I suggest going with Fluenz, if not Fluenz then get Rosetta stone. If neither of those…I can’t suggest anything else because those are the only programs I’ve used.

   Check the website I included (/french) there are reviews for all those and for other products I haven’t even used or heard of. Rocket French is the first, Fluenz third, Rosetta second product reviewed on that page.
   References :
   http://abclearnlanguage.com/french
   http://abclearnlanguage.com/free-resources
9. Matthew V says:

   October 2, 2009 at 10:52 pm

   I think you may be able to do it, but it’s always good to have a platform to build a bridge from. Learning a foreign language from scratch is always extremely tough. But to warn you, French isn’t as similar to Spanish as you might think. It’s about as similar to Spanish as English is to German.
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