Press 1 for English

Disregarding the ultimate power of chance (as in, opportunities to learn languages as a child), I think learning a language takes the following steps.

1) Recognizing that the target language is actually a spoken language in the world. This happens by either spending time with native speakers or by a shocking experience (being thrown into the culture). Study the basics...and only the basics...for at least a year. Little by little until your brain gets used to the strange, funny sounds it hears.

2) A buildup of enthusiasm. Learning a language is no simple task. Expect to spend hours studying and hours forgetting what you studied. Expect to spend 5 years or more studying your language to total fluency. Along the way you will suffer defeat (days where you don't feel you have any grasp of it), but more importantly you will gain small victories that accumulate over time into a final product. Strive for spoken power, and slow but accurate speech...if you can say it, chances are, you can understand it being said to you. We learn to speak before we learn to read.

3) After you learn the basics, emerge yourself in the world of your target language. If you don't have fun doing this, then you've chosen the wrong language.


It's friggen difficult...but it's so worth it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.