How to learn a new language in 90 days • Hacker News Board

Re: How to learn a new language in 90 days

#21

Post by riffraff » Fri, May 14, 2010, 3:09 PM UTC

hugh3 wrote: post #14

splat wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very true, and I think it's one of the reasons that Esperanto works so well as one's first second language. (I recall seeing one study where a group of students who learned Esperanto for one year and then French for three years ended up knowing French better than a group of students who studied French exclusively for four years straight. Not conclusive by any means, but suggestive.) By eliminating the complic…

Does anyone in the world have Esperanto as their first language?

apparently, george soros is a native esperantista :)

Re: How to learn a new language in 90 days

#22

Post by GiraffeNecktie » Fri, May 14, 2010, 3:18 PM UTC

In 90 days, you can certainly memorize X number of useful words and phrases. If you are actually living in an immersive environment (and you have a reasonably outgoing personality) you'd probably become pretty fluent within the small domain of that X number of words and phrases. But as for mastering a language, there's no situation, tool or technique that will do more than get you started on your journey within three months.

Having foreign words and phrases available in your memory is very different than having those words on your tongue as part of your ingrained language. It's a bit like the difference between off-line tape backup and RAM. Yes the data is there somewhere and you can get to it eventually but you probably can't pull it up fast enough to be useful.

Re: How to learn a new language in 90 days

#23

Post by c00p3r » Fri, May 14, 2010, 3:32 PM UTC

dragonquest wrote: post #20

c00p3r wrote: post #17

It might be not so difficult to learn Spanish if you know French or English. Try to learn some language from the different family (non Latin), like Hindi, Nepali, Tibetan, or even Japanese at least in one year. =) btw, to know a language doesn't mean that you've memorized some basic phrases and most used words. I, for example, can read and translate on the fly to my native language some scientific books on subjects w…

Not to nitpick, but I think you meant Hindi (the language) as opposed to Hindu (the religion). :)

Thanks! =)

Re: How to learn a new language in 90 days

#24

Post by c00p3r » Fri, May 14, 2010, 3:50 PM UTC

ecaradec wrote: post #19

"How I Learned French in One Year" : http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/29/15258/287 is a very insighful article on how to learn language without going to the country. Advices are not specific to french. The best advice I retained is that commute time are your friends when learning a language.

There are more self-praise than real stuff. To learn French to appropriate level, that native speakers could understand you without a pain takes a whole life, especially when started not so young.

It is just a cognitive stuff - it is very difficult to distinguish where the one vowel ends and next one starts when you're listening to a native speaker and almost impossible to articulate correctly such difficult and beautifully sounded language if you started to learn after 25-30 years old.

Re: How to learn a new language in 90 days

#25

Post by ecaradec » Tue, May 18, 2010, 10:16 AM UTC

c00p3r wrote: post #24

ecaradec wrote: post #19

"How I Learned French in One Year" : http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/29/15258/287 is a very insighful article on how to learn language without going to the country. Advices are not specific to french. The best advice I retained is that commute time are your friends when learning a language.

There are more self-praise than real stuff. To learn French to appropriate level, that native speakers could understand you without a pain takes a whole life, especially when started not so young. It is just a cognitive stuff - it is very difficult to distinguish where the one vowel ends and next one starts when you're listening to a native speaker and almost impossible to articulate correctly such difficult and beau…

I'm french, so I may miss in what way the language is difficult.

I agree, there is a lot to learn to speak a language correctly. I was very average at english at school, but I improved by reading and recently listening everyday. I'm not going to write novels, I'm interested at communicating with others and as long as I can do that, I'm fine.