A specific conversation jumps to mind when I think about the answer to the title question.
One I had with my friend in Korea about 2 years ago.
Who was I to argue with a linguist graduate? He had all the "science" ready, aimed at my each and every suggestion.
Not that I disagreed with him, but I felt I knew better.
So I started peppering the conversation with passion and saw it hit home.
Yes, my love for languages does get me passionate.
So how does one learn a new language from scratch? Obviously the best way, as most will agree, is complete and total immersion.
To be left to fend for yourself in an environment in which your very survival is directly linked to your communication capacity.
For those of us who can't, or want, that, from what I can see, there are 2 schools of thought.
The first one revolves around learning the structure of a language.
This includes intensive studying grammar and vocabulary.
"Understanding" the language before you actually speak it.
This feels to me a bit like a "learn everything at once" approach and once you get it, the getting to communicate part will come much faster.
The second approach is more about "feeling" the language.
Complete random learning - study words and phrases and grammar items in random order and letting it all blend together like one gigantic fruit salad in the brain.
The idea is that your mind will do the sorting, in time, and everyday your skill will improve slightly.
People often have those sought after "Eureka" moments, when the mind matches apple with apple and pear with pear.
I personally believe that our mind works in both ways.
We're logical AND creative.
We didn't study grammar when we were babies, but we've also lost some language absorption goodness along the way.
However this has been replaced with a logical and creative mind, capable of grasping complex concepts.
Just as a number of scientific theories have blended together as of late, I think the same can be said about language learning.
The most important thing is to be engaged and to have fun.
Just turn on the fun factor.
Most engaging things tend to have a measure of enjoyment attached to them so wherever you're looking for a language course, if you find it engaging, you'll be talking foreign in a surprisingly short time span.
There are online courses that can bring exactly that to the table.
One I had with my friend in Korea about 2 years ago.
Who was I to argue with a linguist graduate? He had all the "science" ready, aimed at my each and every suggestion.
Not that I disagreed with him, but I felt I knew better.
So I started peppering the conversation with passion and saw it hit home.
Yes, my love for languages does get me passionate.
So how does one learn a new language from scratch? Obviously the best way, as most will agree, is complete and total immersion.
To be left to fend for yourself in an environment in which your very survival is directly linked to your communication capacity.
For those of us who can't, or want, that, from what I can see, there are 2 schools of thought.
The first one revolves around learning the structure of a language.
This includes intensive studying grammar and vocabulary.
"Understanding" the language before you actually speak it.
This feels to me a bit like a "learn everything at once" approach and once you get it, the getting to communicate part will come much faster.
The second approach is more about "feeling" the language.
Complete random learning - study words and phrases and grammar items in random order and letting it all blend together like one gigantic fruit salad in the brain.
The idea is that your mind will do the sorting, in time, and everyday your skill will improve slightly.
People often have those sought after "Eureka" moments, when the mind matches apple with apple and pear with pear.
I personally believe that our mind works in both ways.
We're logical AND creative.
We didn't study grammar when we were babies, but we've also lost some language absorption goodness along the way.
However this has been replaced with a logical and creative mind, capable of grasping complex concepts.
Just as a number of scientific theories have blended together as of late, I think the same can be said about language learning.
The most important thing is to be engaged and to have fun.
Just turn on the fun factor.
Most engaging things tend to have a measure of enjoyment attached to them so wherever you're looking for a language course, if you find it engaging, you'll be talking foreign in a surprisingly short time span.
There are online courses that can bring exactly that to the table.
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