Essential guide to learning a language
Maybe seeing how not to learn a language it can help us to see more clearly. Here are 3 common heresies about language learning : The hair shirt way of language learning : Monks of some orders use hair shirt, a shirt with something inside that itches their skin. They wear it all day long, don't ask me why. Some people seem to think that language learning, like a hair shirt, must be painful to work. That's not true. You'll learn a language much more efficiently with a Peruvian girl friend than with several years of grammar at school.
The phonebook approach to vocabulary learning : Vocabulary, beyond the first 100 words, is best learned in context. Ask what the word means. Look it up in the dictionary when reading. Try to guess its meaning. But some people will tell you to learn huge word lists. That would be nice to learn all the necessary words like this, wouldn't it ? Yes, but it doesn't work. You won't be able to use words you learned in lists, they will never come to your mind quickly enough. All you can do with them is to get good marks.
The physicist way to grammar : Ask a six year old to explain you verb conjugation and he will stare at you like if you were Freddy Kruger. But the same boy will tell you he eats and never he eat. Grammar is best learned by seeing examples and imitating (infering the rule) until your ear recognize what sounds right and what does not. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to learn the grammar book by heart, then learn a few pages from the phonebook-vocabulary lists, and here you are, you have all you need ! It just doesn't work that way.
So how should you learn the language ?
First you need a good basic book, if possible with tapes. If there is a good method for the language you want to learn, that can spare you weeks of study. For example for spanish there is an intelligent method that covers almost everything you will use, and I needed nothing else. For italian, there are very few things so you have to make it on your own, it's longer.
Finding the right books and tapes
If there is a good method with plenty of cassettes (that means at least 12 hours by book, with audio drills included), you're lucky. It may be sufficient to learn a lot and you will only have to follow, always knowing where you are in your learning. The best I know are FSI (Foreign Service Institute, the language teaching section of the US Department of State). You can buy some of their products through Audioforum, or buy directly from them. Both are more expensive that they could be, but still well worth the money.
If you find nothing there, you may wish to head for a tape only course, but this implies you'll need additional material if you wish to achieve fluency in all situations. Pimsleur is the best there is, however it is also the most expensive. Nevertheless if you buy them, you will be able to learn your language while driving, and your pronunciation will be as perfect as can be.
How you should work
There is no such thing like regular work : you can study as little as half an hour a day, but you should not stop for extended periods of time. Why ? Because you would lose the thread, you wouldn't remember what you learned in the preceding lessons sufficiently to build another layer. Weak foundations, short buildings. The best thing would be to work 1:00 to 1:30 a day, maybe with a short pause in the middle.
What to do if you stop in the middle
Most people will, during the course of their study, stop for a few day or even a few months, for all kind of reasons. So, if it happens to you, what should you do to begin again ? Take your book and begin at the last lesson you studied, and from there go to the previous lesson. Look at the material, do an exercise. If you do not master it sufficiently, go the the lesson before and do the same self test until you reach a lesson you master well. Then redo completely every lesson where you failed this little test. Again, there is no one to watch you but if you think you can go on without knowing well every lesson you studied, you are wrong. Better lose a few days of repetition than to see after 2 weeks that you are not confident in your skills and risk abandonning everything.
The 1000 most common words in italian make 85% of normal speech. If you think you know them (a good book will teach you these words first), then you are in intermediate learning,
Once you've started learning your language and you've mastered the basic structures and at least 1000 words, you can begin to read. Indeed, you must read, and read authentic material, not texts you find in your textbook. Reading will challenge your knowledge, increase your vocabulary and make you want to learn more. And you'll know precisely where you are in the learning of this language, at least from the passive side (reading/understanding).
Finding something to read or listen to
Once you're started in the language, you need some stimulation, that is, you need to create some situations in which you want to use the language. It's easy for many language. Buy books, read newspapers, watch TV, go to the movies, listen to the radio, all of this in your foreign language. If you can, try to meet people from the target country. Well, as most readers of the internet now are Americans, and most Americans want to learn spanish, let's assume you want to learn spanish. There are so many resources in spanish that your problem becomes one of choice. And the mere fact that you read this is proof that you have some basic knowledge of the internet. Did you know that you can listen to Colombian and Paraguayan radio on the internet ?
At the same time you should go on with your method (books and
tapes), working regularly. Toward the end of the method, you should be at the advanced
learning stage, topic of the next page.
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