Learning a language

yvonneem_2

kb36 is correct. Best way by far is to speak with a native every day. My cousin has been staying with me since end of march. She spoke no english at all only Spanish and has just gone back to Spain with enough English to land a job with a Spanish airline. She learnt so very quickly because we only ever spoke to her in English. Same goes for my nephews who came to England with no English and now speak with the most awful Nottingham accent, its lovely.
As for which language I think speaking to my friends who are from all over europe they say English first then Spanish. Armed with both you will go far. My own son speaks English Spanish German and Dutch but only ever uses English and Spanish apart from when the flower lorry from Holland blocks the street where he lives. Ha

knightstyle

A good way of learning is to get a satelite system that picks up childrens programmes in the language of your choice. Then ban English TV for an hour or more a night.

miss_edith

Just another thought but why not go straight to the foundation of all these languages and try Latin? It makes learning French, Spanish, Italian very easy (I've never learnt a word of Italian but can understand a lot of it written down). It also helps with all their other school subjects and of course looks great on your CV!

El_Rey

I'd really like to learn another language. I studied French to GCSE level and did well, but I've now forgotten quite a lot of it.

Going slightly off topic, which foreign language is the easiest to learn?

misscomickat

If you're going to spend time learning a language, don't do Latin. You can't speak it to anyone. And I am speaking as someone who did learn Latin at school. I would have much preferred to learn Spanish or something practical during all those hours churning out verbs and what Cacilius did in the atrium.

boombap

I'd go with Spanish.....like another poster has said, it is a lovely sounding language and it is very widely spoken (second most spoken in the world I think). Although Mandarin is on the up I assume your more likely to go to Spain than China on your holidays and the best way to learn a language is to mix with the locals. I wish I did Spanish - did French at high school and can only remember about five words!

Au revoir!

S.

budgetflyer

If you are going for Spanish, and dont forget, if you know Spanish, then Portuguese and Italian are pretty similar so its like 3 for the price of 1 then I highly recommend Marcus Santamaria's various courses, his 2 begginner ones are -

Synergy Spanish and Shortcut to Spanish Success , both are brilliant, better than Michel Thomas, Lingaphone etc IMO and very reasonably priced.

The best thing , you can get a feel for them and try b4 you buy at

http://www.spanish-is-easy.com/Marcus-Santamaria.html

miss_edith

misscomickat wrote: »

If you're going to spend time learning a language, don't do Latin. You can't speak it to anyone. And I am speaking as someone who did learn Latin at school. I would have much preferred to learn Spanish or something practical during all those hours churning out verbs and what Cacilius did in the atrium.

And speaking as someone who has done both Latin and Spanish to degree level I know which has been the most useful in my life and it definitely isn't Spanish. It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that churning out Latin verbs has helped you to understand how language works, made other languages' grammar seem very simple, helps you to understand words in English and other languages that you don't understand and helped to develop a logical mind. Don't forget that Latin is still used in medicine and law, not to mention the Latin phrases in everyday use in English.

But on the other hand I am now able to order a cup of coffee in Spanish and comment on the weather :rolleyes:

Voyager2002

sturll wrote: »

Thanks for the advice.

The thing about Mandarin is that supposedly its near impossible to learn. I thought Spanish would be ideal since its spoken in somany more places than languages such as German - Practically the entire of South America - and those who have been to Western USA will notice it seems to be more widely spoken than English!

Chinese -- including Mandarin and Cantonese -- offers both challenges and easy aspects. The difficulty is that it is a tonal language: we are used to the way a person's tone of voice changes the emotional impact of a sentence, but in China it can completely alter the meaning! That takes a bit of getting used to, but is something that millions of young children learn naturally every year. OTOH Chinese grammar is very simple (no subjunctive) and I have met English people who found it a very easy language to learn. Sadly, written Chinese is difficult and takes Chinese children ages to learn: even the simplified form used in mainland China now.

Yes, I used Spanish in South America and even when speaking with highly educated people there English was not available as an option. However, Brazil occupies nearly half of South America, and they speak Portuguese in Brazil. While the two languages are sufficiently similar that a Portuguese-speaker can understand Spanish, they feel insulted if they are expected to communicate in Spanish and that would be a very poor foundation for a business relationship.

On a more positive note, Spanish grammar is very regular, and very close to Latin. Many of the benefits from studying Latin (ability to understand how languages work and so to learn new languages) can also be gained from Spanish.

jamescredmond

most look at a euro- langua (french, german, spanish, etc.), given that these languages are international.

the 'true international' though, is english, and - I suspect - remain so for yrs to come.

I started dutch, as a gateway lingo, last yr. but my efforts have all but failed.

bijna elke nederlander spraykt engels!!

(nearly all dutch speak english!!)

and they want to prove it to me !

china won't have the same cultural impact as colonial UK