Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

How long does it take to get fluent in another language??

If you are ready to study intensively you can obtain a broad grammatical and vocabular knowledge in a very short time.

While studying grammar and vocabulary, listen/watch also the media in the target language. Follow a soap serial. Folow children's programs.
To broaden your insight and your vocabulary read comics in your language, next the same story in the target language.
Then do the same with textbooks.
Read outloud. Record your reading. Compare your pronounciation with native speakers. While listening to them, concentrate on how they use their voice.
If you get insight in how a singer uses his voice, you canlitteraly feel how a sound is produced by no matter whom. Such basic singing education is not difficult to get and really helps very much with every language you study.

Seek the company of native speakers. Subscribe to a message board and get an online dictionary. Start reading and posting. That is how I started with writing English and I suppose you are not dyslexic ;)


salaam.
 
Sing a song in the language

I learnt enough Dutch in 18 months to be able to hold a job down. Becoming fluent takes years and years. You have to live in the country itself. One person teaching you in the UK would not be enough to learn all the expressions needed to be fluent. 34 years of Dutch and I'm still learning. I suppose the moment you start to think and dream in the language, gives you the confidence to become fluent. Don't worry about having an accent when you speak another language.
Tip: read comics because they use short sentences. Practise the vowels out load. Sing a song in the language.
 
dr ringding...im VERY keen to meet the italian anarchist if zenie doesnt want him...!!! please PM, im serious

im left wing,live in south hackney and im a proud lifelong dole-y and an experimental musician and artist...i can speak a bit of spanish and would LUV to learn italian! i want to meet openminded sensitive non macho creative guys into reading,bears,cooking,cycling and wrestling....also if you know any SPANISH anarchists who want a date please PM me :D

re getting fluent in a language(cos dont wanna hijack yr thread zenie)ive never been a disciplined person so didnt do esp well with french at uni(i studied in america, you have to take a language there as part of yr degree course)because i didnt have a STRONG motivation to learn french..if you REALLY want to learn italian cos you love italy and plan to spend lots of time there you will do well..also being naturally outgoing helps when u are learning a language, A LOT..so push yrself to start conversations with italians
 
BEARBOT said:
dr ringding...im VERY keen to meet the italian anarchist if zenie doesnt want him...!!! please PM, im serious

im left wing,live in south hackney and im a proud lifelong dole-y and an experimental musician and artist...i can speak a bit of spanish and would LUV to learn italian! i want to meet openminded sensitive non macho creative guys into reading,bears,cooking,cycling and wrestling....also if you know any SPANISH anarchists who want a date please PM me :D

re getting fluent in a language(cos dont wanna hijack yr thread zenie)ive never been a disciplined person so didnt do esp well with french at uni(i studied in america, you have to take a language there as part of yr degree course)because i didnt have a STRONG motivation to learn french..if you REALLY want to learn italian cos you love italy and plan to spend lots of time there you will do well..also being naturally outgoing helps when u are learning a language, A LOT..so push yrself to start conversations with italians
Click to expand...


Heh you're welcome to the Italian Anarchist :D

Ermm mainly wanna talk it and just be able to have conversations. Have booked myself on the first part of an intensive course for a few weeks time, so I'll see how I get on! :)
 
so will you be studying italian in italy or london?
maybe if you are gonna study in london you can get over to italy for a few days (at least:D ) straight after the course finishes..you will have a blast and all that knowledge of italian will be fresh in yr mind :cool:

maybe this sounds like a nutty idea but hey lots of people think im eccentric..there is this sort of new age community in northern italy where they have built a series of underground meditation halls..very beautiful, ornate and elaborate and they welcome guests..it is cheap or even free to stay.i know some folks who went a few years ago and said it was great..www.damanhur.org

well dr ringding never contacted me about meeting the beautiful dreamer italian anarcho..i shall be "interviewing" all non macho anarchos from italy or spain at "the dove" on broadway market E8 at a time to suit. if my social cheque has come in there might be a free drink in it for them :)
 
Well, I once worked with a lass from Romania who was fluent in English, but had never lived in an English speaking country - so it looks like you can get fluent without actually going to live in the place. I know a few other ppl who have near fluency in other languages, but have never lived in the countries where they are spoken.

Practising with native speakers helps, as does listening to the radio, watching tv, and reading in the target language.

In the UK learning another language is seen as an extraordinarily difficult thing to do, and ppl tend to fight shy of it, but in other places picking up a few other languages is seen as commonplace. So I think it is important to try and get out of the "UK mindset" and to really give it some welly.

Your local library should have some courses with tapes and/or video. These are quite useful.

Learn a bit and you'll find it pays dividends when you go there.

Also try:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/
 
Took me a couple of years to learn Spanish and most of it had gone by the time I went out with a Spanish girl - but I was / am hardly fluent in it.

It took Ninja about a year to be fluent in Italian

My housemate OTH... well she could try and try but she'd never 'get it' - too dim to be blunt :D :( she could barely string a phrase together after studying Italian (and going there for a few weeks) for a year. Great tits but brains :D
 
:cool:

I'll be studying in London @ City Lit.

Mate is near enough fluent in Italian and she spent a year there so hopefuly she can help me out a bit if I get stuck, plus parties are always full of Italians :D

Will look @ the BBC sit ta!
 
gaijingirl said:
Good luck - Italian is a beautiful language. I became reasonably fluent after a year's part time study 11 years ago. Nowadays I can get by on holiday but that's about it. :(
Click to expand...


that's me, pretty much - lived there for a few months 20+ years ago, and now (as i found out this weekend) i can pretty much make myself understood about most things but not with any real skill. The vocab is still there, the conjugations less so, so my sentences are messy but they have the germ of what i'm trying to say.
 
Dubversion said:
that's me, pretty much - lived there for a few months 20+ years ago, and now (as i found out this weekend) i can pretty much make myself understood about most things but not with any real skill. The vocab is still there, the conjugations less so, so my sentences are messy but they have the germ of what i'm trying to say.
Click to expand...


oh yeh I forgot you lived there! :D

*remembers cool anecdotes Dub told her in Rome* :cool:

Did you know any Italian before you went? :)
 
I lived in Spain for a year and studied Spanish, but I hung out with loads of English-speaking people so by the end of a year I thought I could speak pretty good Spanish but most Spanish people didn't really understand me as I was thinking in English and translating into Spanish. Then I learnt Slovak in Slovakia for two years but the grammar was just too strange for me to achieve fluency (six cases: nominative, accusative, dative, instrumentive, locative and another one)
Then I lived in Germany for four years and my German got pretty good. I can understand nearly everything but after nine years back in the UK it's a lot more difficult to speak fluently. However, after a couple of beers in Berlin last February I was blathering on in German like Helge Schneider.
 
I'll second everyone wbo says read your target language and listen to radio/watch DVDs, hang out with native speakers even though you never know what they're talking about. Gradually understandable words will begin to emerge. We read translations of Agatha Christie (they were very cheap) watched Bond movies over and over again (there was a cinema in Duesseldorf which showed nothing else) and watched TV. One-to-one practice with a native speaker is a bit overrated I reckon (assuming they're not your teacher), especially if they speak your language; the conversation will be slower than it should be, vocab simpler and gradually you will both start insinuating english words into your speech to speed things up. Unless you're very stern and dedicated.
If you're willing to work at it you should be reasonably fluent within a year. By reasonably fluent I mean able to chat to colleagues and friends; talk to the landlord/garage/handyman; handle bank, insurance, bureaucracy; do your job. Philosophy, literature, fine art and politics will have to wait for the following year ;)
 
electric.avenue said:
In the UK learning another language is seen as an extraordinarily difficult thing to do,
Click to expand...

In my experience this counts also for other countries where English is the only language. I don't see where that idea is based on. You only need to get started, really.

salaam.
 
guinnessdrinker said:
learn the grammar and words in the normal way through schools. then move to the country and get drunk in the pub with the locals. you will lose all your inhibitions....
Click to expand...

i agree with this. my danish is best when in the pub speaking to danes. you lose your inhibitions. With my teacher or one to one it seems forced. it just seems to flow more.
This is after a year. Although apparently one of the most difficult languages to learn due to spelling and pronounciation quirks, along with idiosyncracies that have no rule associated nor can anyone explain why.
I only wish I'd done it sooner.
 
To get properly fluent in Chinese - i.e. where you could pick up, say, Crime and Punishment in Chinese and read it straight off, I would come up with an estimate of round about, roughly, forever.
 
Dubversion said:
that's me, pretty much - lived there for a few months 20+ years ago, and now (as i found out this weekend) i can pretty much make myself understood about most things but not with any real skill. The vocab is still there, the conjugations less so, so my sentences are messy but they have the germ of what i'm trying to say.
Click to expand...

That is what I am like with Spanish. I can sort of bumble my way through in a very clumsy manner and now and again I'll no exactly what to say. Can't read / spell Spanish for shite, has to be done phonetically!

Comma eh stahz? How are you? :D

My ex told me what she me wanted me to do to her in Spanish and I spent the next three hours with toys, tongues, fingers and cocks trying to establish what is she said :D :o
 
Japanese is much more complex than Chinese and even children can learn it. Which shows that no language is "impossible to learn" for anyone.

salaam.
 
RenegadeDog said:
Of course it depends on what one's definition of fluent is...

If it means generallky pretty good converesational abilities, i reckon about a year.
Click to expand...

Based upon my recent experience, I'd say that's probably about right, if you are willing to put the work in. I expect it may be different if you want to learn a language which doesn't use a familar alphabet though.

The only other language I'm fluent in is Polish, but it doesn't really count as a "foreign language" for me, as I was brought up to be bilingual. However, as I have found over the years, it's easy to lose it if you don't lose it, and during my teens, I came very close to losing the language almost completely. But I've made a point over the past 5-10 years of using it whenever I can. I never thought my Polish was particularly good, even recently, but I was paid several compliments during my recent visit to Poland; the best of which was being told yesterday, by a girl I only met for the first time at the weekend, that "not only have you got very little trace of a foreign accent, but about 85% of what you say is just like a native Pole", which made me feel really good. :)

I only started learning Italian about six weeks ago (and didn't know a word of Italian before then) but I've been making a point of learning/reading/saying something in Italian every day ever since. When I was last in Italy, just over a week ago, I was surprised to find that I actually understood enough to find out for someone if they were using the correct Metro line to get to a particular destination. Learning words and phrases is comparatively easy, but understanding replies, or unexpected questions which catch you off guard on the street, is a different matter altogether!

Nice choice btw, zenie. I *heart* Italy and Italian. :)
 
Appassionata said:
I only started learning Italian about six weeks ago (and didn't know a word of Italian before then) but I've been making a point of learning/reading/saying something in Italian every day ever since. When I was last in Italy, just over a week ago, I was surprised to find that I actually understood enough to find out for someone if they were using the correct Metro line to get to a particular destination. Learning words and phrases is comparatively easy, but understanding replies, or unexpected questions which catch you off guard on the street, is a different matter altogether!

Nice choice btw, zenie. I *heart* Italy and Italian. :)
Click to expand...

cheers

How have you been learning it?

What books and stuff or did you do a short course? :)

Do you go in Polish shops especially to talk Polish? :D
 
I became fluent in french langauge at A Level - some years ago..when i was dreaming in it ;)

But i have lived for my french from the age of 8. Spent every school holiday i could out there, and my older bro have a french girl friend..Who had a lot of patience with me ;)

However my written work, I was never "fluent in" but then i am not in English either ;)

I would say.. if you want to learn the lingo enough to get by on holiday, a few hours a day for two months would mean you could get buy. With only needing to dip into a dictionary if something technical came your way.

We are currently trying to get our heads around Welsh.. now with my difficulties its proving very problamatic.. but i am sure that within 6 weeks, I would be able to do an informal chat, and ask basics.. enough to show i have made an effort!
 
embarrassment stops some

I have experienced that the main problem with British people learning a language is the embarrassment factor. To use the tones and sounds of the language, nasal, guttural, sharp or sing song sounds that many languages have and be confident about it. The "G" and "CH" in Dutch is very hard and guttural.
At first it's like bring up phlegm but after you learn it propely it becomes a normal sound to you. Not wanting to sound like a show-off when you speak the language in front of your "British friends" with a good pronunciation.
Not wanting to offend anyone is another problem the British have with languages. You will always make mistakes but in 99% of the time people do take that into consideration. Laziness is the worst offender, often when if gets difficult to express yourself and you revert back to English because they all speak English anyway. Just keep practising with the natives and you'll get there.:)
 
zenie said:
Italian
Click to expand...

Oh that's cool. I was very tempted to try and get an urban75 italian class together at the beginning of the year to practise for the unsound holiday- but after the way the other urban language classes went i couldn't quite be arsed...having said that the brixton branch of my german conversation class is still *going strong* with a monthly meet-up with Blind Lemon and a friend of his.
I have got very little to teach them though as they are both scarily fluent and Blind Lemon completely accent free, too. Some people just got that 'language brain' and the ability to emulate accents (I've resigned myself to the fact now that I'll never lose my german accent which i found a bit frustrating for a while but now I think that basically most native speakers have got some kind of accent so why the fuck should I lose mine?) /slight tangent

Two years will get you a long way towards very good reading and listening comprehension and basic communication, but I've very rarely come across anyone who has achieved what could be termed fluency in conversation without having spent some considerable amount of time in the country in question.
 
zora said:
I've very rarely come across anyone who has achieved what could be termed fluency in conversation without having spent some considerable amount of time in the country in question.
Click to expand...

Every year thousands and thousands in the world get their diploma as interpretor/translator in several languages without having spend a day in its country of origin.
And more specifically in Eastern Europe there are training courses aimed at becoming fluent - wihtouth accent - in a foreign language in exactly 3 months, in order to work as tele-operator (sales- or cleintservice) for foreign companies.

All this talk about languages being so difficult that it is pictured as an almost impossible task to learn even a single one. I really don't understand where people get it.

salaam.
 
gaijingirl said:
Japanese doesn't have an alphabet at all!! :p :D
Click to expand...

Er, they have three!

One for small Japanese words like prepositions*, one for words from other languages, and they formally count Romanji as one of theirs.

Then there are the "Chinese" characters for nouns and so on...

* This may technically be a syllabary rather than an alphabet - or kind of a mix.
 
I was thinking I could construct some hilarious gag about communicating online and being e-fluent. But I couldn't. Gah. :( :)
 
laptop said:
Er, they have three!

One for small Japanese words like prepositions*, one for words from other languages, and they formally count Romanji as one of theirs.

Then there are the "Chinese" characters for nouns and so on...

* This may technically be a syllabary rather than an alphabet - or kind of a mix.
Click to expand...

I think she meant that there is no actual 'abc' alphabet. There is Katagana, Hiragana, Romanji (the romanised verson of those two) and Kanji.

Hirigana is not only used for small Japanese words and prepositions. You can write all words out in full hiragana if you wanted to.

And yes all japanese letters are syllabals apart from the Kanji which can be several syllables. The Kanji can be mixed and matched with hirigana, infer something into a word and be read in many different ways.
 
laptop said:
Er, they have three!

One for small Japanese words like prepositions*, one for words from other languages, and they formally count Romanji as one of theirs.

Then there are the "Chinese" characters for nouns and so on...

* This may technically be a syllabary rather than an alphabet - or kind of a mix.
Click to expand...

Your last line is exactly what I was getting at and your description of hiragana and katakana are inaccurate, as is your description of romaji and the way in which Chinese characters are used. Atomic Suplex's description is much better.

Additionally, the correct transliteration of the combination of katakana and kanji which denotes the Roman alphabet (ローマ字) is "romaji" not "romanji". The first character being "ro" the second elongates the "ro", the third character is "ma" - the first and third characters are katakana which is often used, but by no means exclusively, for foreign words. The fourth character is kanji - a Chinese character. Katakana originally comes from Chinese characters and was used by monks whilst hiragana was used by women (during the Heian period).

Have your forgotten that I teach Japanese when not researching it? :D In fact, I have just spent the day translating the 2006 Fundamental Law of Education from Japanese into English.

That is why I am now drinking vodka.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

frogwoman
Any lawyers in the house?
Replies
6
Views
360
frogwoman
frogwoman
mod
A graphic designer looking for a new job / trade in the age of AI
2 3 4 5
Replies
135
Views
5K
freshapple
F
savoloysam
Is there an easy way to get all my pensions in one place?
Replies
24
Views
958
Hollis
Hollis
starfish2000
Calling out a racist to his workplace & school?
Replies
8
Views
245
AnnO'Neemus
A
skyscraper101
Pension query (another one)
2
Replies
44
Views
1K
InArduisFouette
I
Back
Top Bottom