How to learn a foreign language without spending a cent
Wouldn’t it be great if you could effortlessly communicate in another language? For many people, this seems like a pipe dream. We aren’t going to wake up one day (Ã la Jason Bourne) suddenly fluent in a bunch of languages, and we can’t download them into our brain instantaneously like they do in The Matrix. Such dramatic changes aren’t possible.
However, it is possible for the average adult to learn to speak a foreign language confidently in a relatively short time.
I’m sure you’ve met people who have managed to learn a foreign language, either by growing up with it or learning it as an adult. The only problem is that we tend to think they had resources we didn’t have: time, talent, and (above all) money. Surely it must have cost a small fortune for the courses they took, the software they bought, and the time abroad to study. It all seems out of reach for those of us on a budget.
Today I’m here to tell you that money has nothing to do with learning a language. In this article, I’ll give you several steps to learn your target language and reach a good spoken level — maybe even fluency — without spending a cent.
It’s time to start language hacking!
Finding the Right Mindset
I’ve been learning languages for about eight years, and can indeed speak several fluently now. I typically socialize and live my life almost entirely without using any English, depending on where I am and who I’m with.
However, at age 21 I could only speak English and had poor academic results in German from school. Learning a language seemed impossible.
- I didn’t have the right “genes”.
- I had to work full-time so I simply couldn’t spend all day studying.
- I have a terrible memory for simple information.
- I was too old (I heard from somewhere that 14 or something was a critical age limit for learning a second language, but it turns out this rumor is totally unfounded).
- I had just graduated in engineering — “you’re either good at Mathematics/Physics or you’re good at Art/Languages” I told myself.
I was so sure of all of this that I managed to spend six months living in Spain without learning to speak any Spanish!
But then one day I had a Eureka! moment. I realized what had been holding me back all this time: My devotion to the excuses, not the excuses themselves. It was a fear to speak, a fear of ridicule, a fear of annoying natives, a fear of making mistakes and looking stupid.
Only fear kept me from learning to speak another language.
In meeting thousands of language learners over the last decade I can confirm that fear is why they aren’t speaking — the actual excuses they give are what they lean on to justify that fear. But it’s unfounded.
After living in dozens of countries, I can tell you that most people across the planet have no interest in making fun of your attempts to learn their language. First, they’re generally thrilled that an English speaker is even trying to speak their language. And second, very few people are that malicious. When you try your best to speak to a person in their native language, they appreciate it. People’s focus is always on understanding and communicating, never ridiculing someone willing to try.
So, my top tip to learning a language is to deal with your fears. This is a psychological barrier, not a monetary or genetic or intelligence problem. Apply some of the other tips in this article, and try to use your new language at every opportunity. By doing this you’ll see that all your fears are unfounded and even when you are speaking with just the basics, you can indeed do a lot! Each time you try, the fear starts to seem more illogical until it vanishes.
Learn the Essentials
Too many people who have a real desire to use a language get caught up in the learning stage and stay stuck there indefinitely. Too many of us are perfectionists, so we feel that you need to know all of the grammar and all of the vocabulary before you can “bother” a native with your stumbles.
So they get the biggest, fattest courses they can find. Perhaps that’s expensive software, which in my opinion actually leaves a lot to be desired, (as you can see in my frank Rosetta Stone review) or maybe it’s signing up to a classroom-style course. These systems use a ground-level-up approach of trying to teach you everything, and in doing so tend to teach you nothing that you can use right now.
All you really need to get started is a vague understanding of how the language works and some key phrases and essential vocabulary.
There are many completely free resources for getting these basics. A few of my favorite include:
- Your local library for a book-based mini-course. I actually find these to be fine in many cases.
- If you feel you are finding it hard to memorize words, I have personally found that applying image association and sound association can be very effective to make sure you don’t forget them. It takes some getting used to, but after a few tries it becomes second nature to learn vocabulary quicker this way. Also keep in mind that they are not all entirely new words. There are thousands of words you know already, especially in European languages.
- Go through completely free online courses. Listing them here would be quite complicated, but one site that has done an excellent job of linking to some of the best online is Omniglot. Find your language in the list and scroll down to the bottom of its summary page to see the course links. Note that several will be (affiliate) links to paid products — you can get all the essentials you need from the free ones, such as BBC’s and about.com’s language overviews.
- When you aren’t sure of a particular word, no need to have bought a dictionary! Google Translate can help to give you the basic gist (I wouldn’t recommend it for anything serious) and wordreference.com and other websites (depending on the language) have extensive free dictionaries for individual words with proper context explanations.
- This may sound counter-intuitive, but I actually find that going through the shortest course is best when starting off. You just want an overview of the language — not the start of a very long and endless journey to find out everything about it. So after reading through and studying one of these online courses for just a few hours, and learning key basic vocabulary, focus entirely on learning phrases. Many of the courses linked to have some essential phrases included, but I actually find that learning a different set called conversational connectors can help you maintain the flow quicker in real conversations.
With just this handful of free tools, you can start learning the basics of your chosen language today.
Find People And Start Speaking the Language Immediately
Studying indefinitely is a waste of time in this respect. The purpose of studying should be to improve what you’re already saying, not to prepare to speak some day. (There are seven days in a week and “some day” is not one of them.)
The communicative approach of language learning involves using it naturally as much as possible and doing so immediately. Studying is a minor part of what you should really be doing. What you should really be doing is speaking the language naturally. And no, you don’t have to fly to the country to do this!
First, see if you can meet up in person to practice your language. This is a powerful way to make a language a truly natural part of your social calendar and life. Here are several ways I’ve been able to make this happen:
- Find a group that meets to practice the language on meetup.com — they can be very active in some cities for particular languages! There are many other learners here, as well as friendly natives in many cases. Nobody will ever judge you as they understand what you’re going through.
- Use Couchsurfing. This site is famous as a way for budget travelers to save money by sleeping on other people’s couches. While couchsurfing with natives abroad can be a great way to learn a language, traveling may not be possible for you right now, but that’s okay! Enter the site, sign up for a profile and attend the meetings that occur regularly in cities, perhaps including your home town. It’s possible a native is passing through. But even better than this is to go to the Couchsurf page and only select your home city and your target language among search criteria. You’ll be very surprised to see how many open minded people who speak the language fluently or as natives live just around the corner! Message them and invite them out for coffee.
- Depending on who you know, you may be able to meet up with family members or friends who speak the language. They’ll certainly be willing to help you practice! But otherwise be sure to ask in your local community: reading clubs, churches, sports clubs, classmates, work colleagues etc. You may be surprised to see that someone there speaks your language and would love to help out!
J.D.’s note: I’ve been learning Spanish for two months now. Over the past two weeks, I’ve begun to practice my new language skills with friends and strangers. One of my favorite interactions was with the gas station attendant, who patiently listened to my poor Spanish and offered corrections with a smile. It was awesome.
If you live in any major city you will find natives and fluent speakers of most languages if you look hard enough. They are definitely there! If you’re really stuck, or live too far from such cities, there’s another option: online (Skype-based) conversation!
There are many sites that you can use to find someone who actually wants to learn English who you can help, while they teach you their language. My own website, for example, has a forum section where plenty of people post the combination they are looking to exchange and many are finding a conversation exchange!
Other sites that can help include Livemocha and Busuu. These actually have paid course aspects that I really don’t recommend to people, but their social connections to find native speakers are great and free!
Be Imaginative, Confident and Let the Conversations Flow!
So you’ve got the basics, found someone to speak to, and decided to put your excuses aside and attempt to enjoy the experience. There’s still something missing though — what do you talk about when you’ve learned so little?
This is actually much easier than people think. A few weeks into learning languages I can have dozens of conversations, and it’s because I try to use my imagination (no, I don’t talk about the weather), try to be charming to balance out any minor slip-ups I’m making or simply laugh at them as not a big deal, and listen to the other person.
If you’re worried that you won’t be interesting enough for the other person, it’s important to realize that sometimes to be interesting you have to be interested. Being a good listener will have the other person appreciate your company all the more, and with time you will be saying more and more.
I discuss many other aspects of how to get into this flow of imaginatively in initial stages in a conversation on my blog and summarize my favorite tricks in this video.
As complicated as it seems, when you let go of your hang-ups then you may discover that you had the ability to speak all along, as my friend Geraldine showed me by speaking in Spanish all evening the first time she tried.
Rather than being a genius and needing to perform advanced grammatical calculations, to really speak a language you have to actually learn to stop thinking so much, learn enough to say something first, let go of your ego, make a few mistakes and just let conversations flow!
No credit cards or wads of cash are necessary for this.
Give it a try — with enough practice you will improve so quickly that soon you’ll start to wonder if you really couldn’t speak the language before!
J.D.’s note: This is one of my favorite GRS article contributions ever, probably because I’ve been so into learning Spanish lately. But it’s also because Benny is awesome. He and I met and chatted briefly in June, and then he spent an hour with my by Skype, answering my questions about travel and language learning. He’s a warm, funny guy, and genuinely wants to help others learn. I think that’s awesome!
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There are 91 comments to "How to learn a foreign language without spending a cent".
This post is right on, above everything else that I used to learn Dutch (and trust me, I used and still use a lot of things) the thing that helps the most is just talking and forgetting about the fact that you don’t speak the other language perfect. I amaze myself every day about some of the topics that I talk to people about in Dutch that I never practiced for or imagined myself talking about.
I know from experience that it is way easier said than done to just forget about being embarrassed and fearful, but trust me, it is so worth it once you get over that hurdle. Just talk and if the people try to switch to English on you, keep going in the language you are trying to speak, most of the time the will switch back to that language.
Happy speaking!
These are awesome tips! My wife and I are taking a trip to Italy next year and one of the big things we want to do is make sure we can communicate with the locals, at least in broken italian.
My fear isn’t that I won’t be able to learn the language, it’s that it’s going to take me a ton of time. That being said, if it’s going to take me a while, I’d rather it not cost me a lot, too!
Another site to check out (when it launches) is duolingo: http://duolingo.com/ The idea is that you learn a language and translate the web at the same time. This from the same guy/research lab who figured out we could transcribe books to computer with captchas and tag pictures on the web using a game. I’m looking forward to trying it in a few months!
My Wife is learning Spanish in county community school, they charge $70 for 10 classes, but since it’s instructor lead, we don’t mind paying this fee. We do feel that instructor lead classes are a better option to self learning. Cost is also not that much.
This has always been an academic goal I’ve put on the back burner – to learn a new language and specifically Spanish. I have heard from many people that once you learn one language aside from your native tongue, it becomes easier with each progressive language, especially if they have similar roots like French and Spanish. That being said, I am definitely a member of your “someday” crowd. I should really set a goal. My foremost academic goal is to finish my masters degree in education while working full time the next two years. If I can re-direct that energy after the masters degree (again, I know, “someday”) I think I could push through the psychological obstacles.
Perfection is the enemy of progress! So many people don’t progress in language learning because they are afraid to make mistakes. The person who makes no mistakes makes nothing 🙂
Definitely seek out opportunities to speak the language, maybe find a native speaker who is learning your language. With Skype this is easier than ever.
Visit language-tandem.com – a site where you can look for students of your language and set up practice, be epals or whatever.
Perfection is indeed the enemy of progress! I’m a language teacher (Italian and ESL) and the students who are willing to take risks and make mistakes are the ones who are able to communicate with others. That’s the goal of learning a language, right?
I love this post, even if learning a language is more a pipe dream for me than an actual priority right now. 🙂
One of my favorite experiences was when I was 21 and took an impromptu 24 hour trip to Paris from London by myself. I ended up bumping into a Parisian girl who was returning home after a summer of working as an au pair. She and her best friend ended up showing me all their favorite places in Paris, and although it had already been 4+ years since I last spoke my horrid version of French, I found that I could speak far more fluently than I ever imagined. It wasn’t perfect, but between my halting knowledge of French and their limited knowledge of English, we had a grand time that day, with no serious trouble communicating to each other. If you’d seen us that day, you would have had no clue that we had not even known each other 18 hours before!!
So true about the fear holding you back – think of how children learn to speak. They don’t worry about making blunders, which is good since they often ARE wrong (“You having fishes?”) but eventually they pick it up.
Awesome post! I love languages, and why would one learn one if it wasn’t to speak with a native speaker? Benny’s right, there are few malicious people that are going to pick on your faults.
Jump right in and try to talk, you’ll be amazed with yourself!!
“Awesome post! I love languages, and why would one learn one if it wasn’t to speak with a native speaker?”
I have an interest in Spanish but I don’t necessarily want to speak it. I would like to understand it when spoken and be able to read it. I watch a lot of foreign language films, particularly Spanish ones. I’d like to understand the dialogue in it’s original language since sometimes subtitles are less than accurate. I would also like to learn Portuguese for this same reason.
This is a great post and came along at just the right time! I was about to spend a bundle on Rosetta Stone so that I could at least learn the fundamentals of a new language. I’ll be living in a completely different culture if things go according to plan and I really want to be able to communicate with the natives of that country.
It’s good to have the fundamentals. You’ll learn a lot quicker if you have them. For the practice part, you’ll just need beer money.
I believe livemocha.com is the same thing as Rosetta Stone, except free. Fyi.
You’ve got an HTML layout issue with this article. You’ve got a centering DIV tag right before the photo of the 3 people laughing over drinks, but the corresponding closing tag is malformed. The closing tag should be </div>, but instead it’s </div/>. The extra ‘/’ is causing the closing tag to be ignored, so the centering formatting persists for the remainder of the article, causing all following text to be centered instead of left (or fully) justified.
Crap. Thanks, Kevin. I wish I’d spotted this before I left to the gym this morning. Instead, I didn’t get it fixed til noon Eastern. How embarrassing. 🙁
Benny, you’re everywhere man! I guess great information has no genre. Thanks for the post.
One thing I always do before going abroad is to learn a bare minimum of phrases – please, thankyou, numbers from 1-10, plus “do you speak english?” and “I have [insert medical condition here]” for emergencies. It’s amazing how much you can achieve with just these, from ordering food in a restaurant (“one please” + pointing at the menu) to buying cinema tickets (“7 please Romeo and Juliet” – a memorably successful ploy at a Finnish cinema where the only English-speaking teller was on her break) As I go along, I learn more words by listening, pointing, reading menus, looking at displays. Yes, I screw up. But it doesn’t matter. Simply by trying, I’m showing respect for people (even if all I can do is say thankyou in their language after they’ve been kind enough to help me in mine), I find they’re a lot more patient than with the people who go for speaking loudly and slowly in English. And occasionally I do far better than expected – and end up having a whole conversation in a language I didn’t think I knew enough of.
Two other fun ways to help with a foreign language which you can also multi-task are movies and GPS.
There are high-quality movies in every foreign language, especially Spanish and French. If you prefer Hollywood DVDs, almost all have subtitles. If you are watching a favorite movie for the nth time you probably have a lot of the dialogue memorized and you can try watching a dubbed version (or try it on your child when he wants to watch ‘The Incredibles’ for the 23rd time).
All GPSs have many language selections. While the vocabulary is limited, you can learn a little by having a different language on while you are driving a route you don’t need to use the GPS for.
I find it’s better to get an English language film and use the foreign language subtitles. Otherwise, you can confuse sounds…it’s better to see them written out without having to think about what’s being said.
Once you advance, then watch a foreign language film with the foreign language subtitles turned on. You can match sounds with words more easily.
When I was in the Netherlands for a couple of months, I learned more Dutch by simply watching a US TV show with Dutch subtitles than by doing much listening to spoken Dutch…plus it help my attention more than just hearing Dutch words.
A fun post and dear to my heart. Benny mentioned the library for “book based” resources, but my public library in the U.S. had numerous tape/CD-based resources as well. My public library in Ireland now has free online resources too. A few years ago, I was going to Japan for work and used podcasts on my MP3 player to learn some phrases. There are TONS of online resources out there for many, many languages. I just did a quick search on “language resources” on ITunes as an example and came up with a list of free resources for French, Portuguese, Japanese, and even the one I want to work on next, Irish Gaelic.
I used the Pimsleur method to teach myself basic Dutch before I studied abroad. I got the tapes from the library, and it was awesome. I always recommend the library to folks wanting to learn a language. Now, I work with a little girl who can’t speak, and I’ve been working on learning signs from websites to help us communicate with each other
We are using Pimsleur, too, but I’m really excited about Anki. I just installed it on our computers. I have a huge deck of (hardcopy) Sparknotes Study Cards I can load into Anki for vocabulary.
Spot-on post! I have been “learning Spanish” for years now and I feel like I’ll never truly be fluent. But it’s fear that holds me back from attempting to talk to others in Spanish. 🙁
However…after I’ve had a few drinks, I become bold and suddenly I’m fluent in Spanish and will chatter non-stop to anyone who will listen. :p
I feel the same! I’ve been learning Spanish for so long and really just learning words that I am not quite sure how to use! I practice sometimes but I tend to use the same phrases over and over and I do feel like I run out of things to talk about. Lately I’ve been listening to Spanish music. Then once I memorize the melody I look up the words to go with it and start singing along. Then I try and translate it with Google and see if any of the words make a connection for me. There are lots of short phrases in songs that are great!
Drinking is an almost foolproof way of immediately improving your fluency!
(although possibly the improvement is just in your mind)
I’m currently learning basic Japanese. When reading texts, I prefer to read the romanticized version because I can easily remember how it sounds.
We had a wonderful afternoon when we tried to speak Greek to an older man who was sitting just in front of his little shop. It was our 3rd day on Rhodes and our Greek was not much more than “hello”and “thank you”. He did’nt speak any English so we tried to communicate with the help of our small language guide. We used the phonetic spelling to say something we would thought of as something similar to Greek. He didn’t understand. Then we showed him the sentence in the guide. He found our personal version of Greek so funny that we stayed there for nearly two hours, trying to learn a little bit of his language from him. With our less than perfect tries, we made an old man in a very small Greek village very very happy. If we hadn’t tried we would have missed a wonderful and very funny afternoon.
Follow this guy! Benny is real and genuine. I stepped away from his website for a while …probably that fear of being expected to speak thing… 🙂
I am headed back there now with resolve, but mostly renewed excitement. He really is genuine.
Great post! I took 7 years of Spanish in middle and high school and thought I spoke fluently. I didn’t REALLY learn the language until I moved to Mexico and started speaking Spanish 24/7.
Best way to practice is by chatting with native speakers, hands down.
I wish I’d read this decades ago. I learned French all through high school, but I was extremely shy about using it so I didn’t when we travelled (unless the other person’s English failed and then I’d pop in a French word). About 8 years ago, we travelled to a French country and I started using some French (but was still too worried about not speaking it perfectly). We returned to that country 4 years ago and then travelled to Quebec (Canada) and Paris, France and I’ve simply launched in and spoken French, trying to not be embarrassed when I make a mistake. I’ve only been corrected seriously by one woman (from France when we were in Tahiti), but I also understand now that it’s not unusual to have that happen since France strives to have everyone speak properly (when you see it as a cultural survival tool, it’s less rude).
It’s funny that one of Benny’s excuses was that he’d just graduated from Engineering. I have degrees in Engineering and Science, but I almost went into languages when I headed to university! I don’t think they’re on opposite ends of the learning spectrum–I suspect they’re actually closely related due to organization, memory work, etc.
Great article (I think it’s my favourite)!
As easy as it is to tell people “to just go out and find people to talk to” … it’s not always that simple. I have trouble starting up English conversations sometimes, so it’s not easy to chat someone up when you have a limited vocabulary.
And I have been laughed at by a foreigner for mis-hearing a phrase that I thought I understood. While these strangers weren’t trying to be mean, I was quite embarrassed by their insensitivity.
Great tips! I learned Spanish as a little girl, and my mom gave me some sort of word association computer game to help me. I will never forget that cabra means goat because I envision a cobra striking a goat 🙂 Figure out what works for you (visual cues, rhyming, etc) and use that to learn vocab.
Great tips, Benny!
When I lived in the US, my local library also had stacks and stacks of language courses, from which I learnt the basics and then went to do immersion language courses in Peru, Argentina and Brazil.
The best progress is definitely made when you are interacting. I think I received the most practice from chatting to taxi drivers in Lima!
The best teachers in the language schools were always the ones that made you want to speak and by extension, the most social students made progress the quickest. Your grammar and reaching for vocabulary may be horrible at first, but most people are very patient when they see you are trying.
I must say, though, the best teacher is the 24-hour kind: (for those who are single) a boy/girlfriend really makes the language come alive 🙂
I am currently learning mandarin chinese through free resources through the library and skyping. I’m definitely going to be checking out some of the resources here.
Thank you!
For those in Paris, the famous English bookstore Shakespeare and Company has events specifically designed to help French/Anglo speakers. A group composed of both French native speakers wanting to improve their English and English native speakers wanting to improve their French meets weekly. I just dropped in and attended, but I think it is better to make arrangements ahead of time.
During the two hour meeting, they read an article in English and comment on it in English for an hour. Then they read another article in French and comment on it for an hours in French. Since everyone was there for the express purpose of improving their language skills, it was a great way to improve in a risk-free atmosphere.
I believe that they meet on Thursday at 7:30 or 8 pm, but if you are interested you can email them at [email protected] for more information.
Howdy! (how do you spell Howdy! with a Spanish accent?)
Maybe having my equal but opposite perspective may help. My original language was Spanish, I grew up in Puerto Rico, and English was a required subject starting in Kindergarten, but of course it was taught as a foreign language. Thus, when I came to the states at age 25, I could read and write it very well, I could understand some…and spoke it horribly. I learned to identify “the look”, when people had a hard time understanding what I was saying and I learned to slow down. It’s gotten better with time, but I never lost the accent to this day (I’m now 51). Curiously, my preferred language now is English as for my daily life it is more convenient, of course there are just some things that won’t translate well. Eventually you get to the point that you simply THINK in the language, as I can think (and yes, even dream) in English, separate from my ability to think in Spanish. It’s hard to explain, but I would venture to say that instead of questioning why things are worded a certain way, you just do it without putting on that mental filter. So, instead of me thinking in terms of a “house blue” (casa azul), I learned that in English you say “blue house” and didn’t question it any further, it just is what it is.
Over time, I’ve learned to distinguish different regional accents (ie, Southern accent vs midwest vs New York) and when I first move here, everything sounded the same.
One advantage of having a strong accent is that I can get away with mispronouncing things, as it is clearly not my language, should I go into the incident in which I asked for a sheet of paper? (I hope you get the picture). Also, having an accent gives me the license of asking a person to repeat themselves or to clarify something without sounding stupid. And, keep in mind, no matter how long you are learning a language, there will always be something, a word, an expression, that you’ve never heard before, to this day, after 27 years in the good old US of A, I may make a double take and ask for clarification on something or other. Also, the slang and colloquialisms are quite varied, sort of the differences between British, US, and Australian versions of English, so it’s important to be aware of these, but for the most part, basic Spanish is the same pretty much anywhere. It’s just the way it is and you’ll learn to feel comfortable. You may want to try reading online version of Spanish newspapers, like: El Mundo, El Pais (Spain); El Clarin (Argentina), El Nuevo Dia (Puerto Rico); Listin Diario (Dominican Republic); El Mercurio (Chile), and so on. (in the case of Spain, you might stumble on Galician or Catalan/Valencian language papers in case you are curious about these distinct but closely related languages, your Spanish might actually help you with these. Also you may try watching Spanish TV through Telemundo, Galavision, WAPA America, as well as watching You Tube videos. Hey, how about putting out a little video of you speaking Spanish (when you feel comfortable, of course), to impress all of us?
Bueno, eso es todo por ahora (well, that’s all for now). Buena Suerte! Good Luck!
When you start dreaming in a language that you’re really starting to get it.
I completely agree that fear is a great hindrance to learning a foreign language. I’ve studied many languages over the years, and I definitely found my perfectionism got in the way of freely speaking the language. This is a very big hurdle to jump over.
Having said that, I don’t think you can ever be “fluent in 3 months” like his blog purports. Hopefully that is just a catch phrase and he doesn’t really think you can learn a language that quickly. I studied German at my university for four years, including one year living in Germany and taking classes, living in a German dormitory, speaking German all day (well almost!), and I STILL wouldn’t describe myself as fluent after all of that. At best, I would have said I was “near fluent.” I think fluent and bi-lingual are terms that people tend to misuse.
I think that what happen is that the better you become, the more you see that you still have a lot to learn!
I think that maybe this is why you wouldn’t describe yourself as fluent but some people would after few months.
Many libraries also have online software you can use to learn as well– Mango Languages and Byki Online both have nice websites and apps you can use to learn tons of different languages. This in addition to the print material and courses on audio! Many also have conversation groups where you can try out your language skills in a low-key setting, and maybe even find someone with whom to practice.
Hi! Most all USA libraries have an online Language learning courses. They now have Mango & used to have Rosetta Stone. Ask you local libray about online resouces.
Also check with your public library for online language training available anytime from anywhere.
My local library (in Alberta, Canada) offers “Mango” which has training in 36 different languages including: Arabic (Levantine), Czech, Danish, Farsi (Persian), French, French (Canadian), Hindi, Irish, Spanish (Latin America), Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, and Vietnamese.
They use to offer another online product called “Tell Me More” (AKA “Auralog”).
The public library also probably has MP3, CD or DVD sets for language learning.
The libraries in Suffolk County, New York also subscribe to Mango. I have yet to meet the person who didn’t immediately fall in love with it.
I’m learning French right now and something that has been very helpful to me is to check out children’s DVDs from the library. Most have audio tracks in English, French, and Spanish. Since they are geared toward the young set, the language is usually pretty clear and the same phrases are repeated frequently so you can start to pick up on them. Plus, there are usually lots of visual clues to help you decode what’s being said.
True the story lines in Bob the Builder aren’t especially gripping, but I learned all sorts of everyday phrases that way.
My students(international schools) used to learn English through Sesame Street. When we moved to China I put my children in front of the local Chinese children’s show. By the time we left (18 months) they could converse in two dialects and Tagalog. When we moved to the middle east- they did the same. They picked up Arabic and got better in Tagalog. I was too lazy and let them do all the talking for me.
The thing about learning a language before 14…
the rule of thumb is IF a person learns a new language from a native speaker before the age of seven- the child will speak that language without the accent of their first language.
GREAT article. Maybe there is hope for my Spanish afterall.
My library has online language courses (Mango language s/w) available for everyone. This is in addition to the print and media that you can check out. Our library also has conversation groups for practicing.
Also the “FSI language courses” (google that for the link) has a lot of public domain courses.
This truly was an excellent guest post.
I want to learn several languages. I learned sign language in high school and really immersed myself into learning it (finding deaf people to speak to, signing while speaking English, etc). I’m going to definitely give these tips a try.
Another great post from Benny. I am excited that more and more people are being opened up to the idea of learning another language. Thanks for your great work in this area and thanks J.D. allowing Benny this platform.
Aaron
Watching tv, especially with subtitle, is a great cheap way to learn another language. Reading a blog too!
The challenge is to find something interesting that you can easily understand.
Also you still need to have a lot of motivation because it is not always easy… I spend a lot of time helping chinese student to learn French and even if they are working very hard (and I am doing my best too!) It does take time and effort.
Our preschooler did a year of German immersion classes last year and now speaks with a perfect accent (as judged by German grandparents) and understands/speaks German at her age-appropriate level. So for kids, two thumbs up for this method, though it’s pricey.
As an added bonus, I’ve been reading German kids books to her for two years and my understand of German and vocabulary has expanded at a much more natural level than when I took the two years of college classes about 25 years ago. They’re MUCH more enjoyable than the reading material your given in classes.
I’ve found cheaper foreign language kid’s books at Half-price, Powell’s (in Portland), eBay, and the local German school flea market. For those learning Spanish, there’s an even bigger selection.
The German classes did help me have the basics of translating, esp. verbs. But the kids books are a really fun way to learn a language from the “ground-up”. And I am SO ready to go to a German zoo now.
Also, YouTube has many videos. The German preschool recommended this method, and my daughter spent many hours watching My Little Pony online in German this summer.
I heartily agree that the fear issue holds many people back. I have been on both sides of this. As an ESL teacher in Japan, it was so incredibly painful that my students so carefully measured every single little word, out of fear of making a mistake. They knew a lot of English- I mean, really, a lot- but they were so insecure about it that I had to virtually trick them into distractions so that they would speak more confidently- playing games that got them laughing and talking, for example, or joking about pop stars, etc. (these were conversation classes, they had grammar/vocab in school every year since 6th grade). A lot of my very good Japanese friends- people I never had any trouble communicating with- would insist that their English was terrible and they would often clam up around new people, even though we would laugh and talk a mile a minute between ourselves. Personally, when I went to Peru and Ecuador and found myself forced to speak Spanish, I suddenly found myself having many lengthy conversations a few times a day. Was it perfect? Certainly not. I’m sure my verb conjugation wasn’t always the best. But we got along and understood one another and I found I knew FAR more than I ever thought I did.
Man, tell me about it. I’m an ALT here, and it’s a common joke that you can have a perfectly comprehensible English conversation with a Japanese person – on paper. But when it comes to actually SPEAKING, my students are incredibly shy.
I’m friends with an older woman here who has never had more than high school level English – but she USES it. For most of my first year in Japan, we spoke mainly in English. I think she’s at a point in her life where she doesn’t care about being shy or perfect, and it makes such a difference in communicating.
Now if only i could do the same with my Japanese….
Knockout post. I think he is absolutely on the money here, with everything. Once you learn the basics of a language – even notoriously difficult ones like Japanese, which I’m learning now – just run with it!
I wish I did more of it myself. I live in Japan and rarely speak the language. And I wonder why my skills are so bad after 1 year? My listening abilities are off the chart, of course, because I hear it everywhere – but speaking-wise, no matter how many classes I take or textbooks I work through, I won’t get better until I start talking more.
The single best thing I recommend for language learners is to GET A LANGUAGE PARTNER. Find someone who wants to practice Enlgish, and alternate speaking in your target languages. I did this when I was living in France and it was tremendously effective.
I speak Dari (Persian) because I grew up speaking it but now I want to ‘up my game’ and learn how to read at a higher level than 2nd grade and add to my vocabulary. Any tips?
Good post. I’m a Spaniard trying to improve my english. In the last years I’ve improved a lot my reading and understanding abilities just with free or inexpensive resources: watching movies or tv series with english sound and english subtitles, reading articles on the internet and reading books in English (I’ve found it’s very cheap to buy second hand books, including the shipping costs from England to Spain)
I’m not fluent speaking, though. I haven’t had much chances to practice spoken english and as the article says, for me is very common to be affraid of not speaking properly. I’m sure Benny’s right: the only way of improving is stop worrying about making mistakes and talk.
on the subject of fear – me and my brother spent about 4 days in mexico some time ago. at the time, i knew enough spanish to confidently communicate if i didn’t mind looking like a fool. my bro didn’t say more than 2 or 3 words…until one night, when we had been out drinking. he was really, really drunk, and started speaking fluently mediocre spanish out of the blue for the rest of the evening. i think he forgot that he had forgotten all of his spanish.
also, one of the most helpful phrases i know is “once more, and more slowly, please?”
oh! also, if you are nervous, and you have the chance, converse with children! they are likely much closer to your fluency, and tend to be very understanding and accepting of quirks and mistakes =)
That’s interesting – I’ve found it’s almost impossible to converse with children in a language I’m unfamiliar with. They don’t enunciate, they don’t speak slowly, and they often get grammar wrong in ways that can throw off a learner.
I go to a university with a lot of students from outside of the UK. When I was younger I learnt French at school, and after making friends with a girl from Paris and a Swiss-French speaker, I was hoping we could hang out, maybe chat a little in French and I could get some feedback and get back into learning the language. Well, they both just laugh at me whenever I attempt to speak it, even if I’m saying something correctly. It’s mean, and I’m supposed to take it in good humour, but if I say a word in English they don’t understand and I don’t immediately explain it, then they get instantly annoyed at me. Such double standards.
I also have a very slight speech impediment, and often when I try another language it feels like my tongue is trying to get itself in a headlock in my mouth. I know how to say it in theory and in my head, but I just can’t get the words out.
Some of us have reasons to be afraid of trying new languages 🙁
1. I had the same problem with Parisians myself: http://www.fluentin3months.com/closed-minded/ They are terribly unhelpful to learners – hang out with Quebecers, Belgians, French from other cities, Africans etc. instead and you’ll have access to very helpful French speakers.
2. I had to go to speech therapy when I was growing up, as explained here: http://www.fluentin3months.com/destiny/
Fear is rooted in excuses. Let go of them and the fear will dissipate. Over half of the planet speaks more than one language, there is no valid excuse.
How unfair! I’m a French teacher in the US, but lived and worked in France for a few years. There are plenty of lovely French people (yes, including Parisians). I’ve witnessed many Americans who laugh at non-native speakers’ efforts. The French are generally quick to correct, but this is a part of the culture and is not considered rude, but rather a way to facilitate conversation. Those girls are just immature, and it has nothing to do with their being “Parisian” (one is Swiss, remember).
Their reactions are probably from a place of fear- they don’t know exactly what to do. I say seek out other French speakers for conversation, and keep up your work! There are so many other people out there who are willing conversation partners.
I agree with you there. Parisians have a bad rap but almost all of them that I have met are genuinely nice. I wish I had the problem of people correcting me all the time. In Holland while speaking Dutch a lot of times people with just switch to English (almost everyone here speaks it) like you never even spoke in Dutch to them in the first place. That I consider to be very rude, this doesn’t happen to me much any more but for a lot of beginners it certainly does. My advice, just stick with the language and usually the person will switch back.
The other thing the Dutch do is they hardly ever correct you even if they are speaking Dutch with you. It makes it a lot harder when you keep saying the wrong thing all the time and thinking that it is correct. Every time someone corrects me in the middle of a conversation, it might make me feel a little bad at the moment, but you better believe that I remember the right way to say something from then on, so for that I am very thankful for the corrections when I get them.
Thanks for your input, I read your links and they’re great! Also read through another few pages, including the crybaby one, and bookmarked your site. What is it with Irish guys wanting to learn Spanish so bad? I am friends with a wonderful man from Dublin who walked across a huge chunk of Spain.
I think one of my problems is focus; I look at a country and go “oh Cuba, I should learn Spanish and go there for jazz and rum cocktails!” or say “I should learn Polish, it would give me an edge in the jobs market” or “if I learnt Japanese, I could get a pottery internship”. Then I learn a little and wander off without really committing, getting put off by the slightest bump in the road. I think I need to remind myself that I actually can teach myself things- I taught myself crochet, quilting and how to bake- there’s no excuse!
I’m going to commit to learning French properly this time and drag all my dusty resources out from their boxes. There’s millions of speakers only stones throw away and my university is just behind the eurostar station!
To #69 Ru – Don’t give up. I’m Portuguese and started to learn German at 18, stopped and restarted at 26 again. The German accent is very difficult to pronounce for a Portuguese because the sounds are very different. Although I don’t have any speaking disability, there were words that took me lots ans lots of practice to pronounce, I had to repeat and repeat and repeat. (Also, I can’t memorize the sound If I can’t write the word.) I got my best reward when, in a more advanced stage, I could read books aloud and, even without understanding what I was reading, any german speaking person could undersatnd what I was saying. So, don’t give up: your mind and your muscles will unite their efforts! 🙂 And it is a fantastic feeling when a bunch of “hieroglyphs” turns into something that actually means something to you! (Oh, and it was also very funny when I started to learn English and I noticed that the lyrics I had learnt by ear meant nothing and the words I sung didn’t exist at all 🙂 ) Happy learning!
I have a speech impediment, too. I had speech therapy when I was a kid, so most people don’t hear it, but in Spanish, I have to “speech therapy” myself all over again.
If anyone’s interested in learning Vietnamese, check our our web site, http://www.everydayviet.com – We offer free short videos (also accessible on YouTube) about every day phrases in Vietnamese.
I very much enjoyed this article and it’s pushed me to go ahead and start seriously learning Spanish. I suggested it to my 8-year-old daugther and she said “Yeah, we can learn together!”. I asked my 3-year-old if he wanted to speak Spanish and he said “Hola Boots!”. So, I guess we’re going to try to figure out something easy and simple to get started with. They already know colors and counting to 10, along with a few simple phrase like What’s your name, hi, bye, very good, very little. My daughter has actually picked up a little due to her Spanish speaking friends in school. Sad to say, my high school Spanish class is very far behind me now!
I found when I wanted to learn spanish some fantastic free podcasts that I downloaded and then listened in my car trip to work which taught me a great deal. Coffee Break Spanish was the podcast and I think they also do a variety of other languages. I was also able to subscribe to SpanishDict.com to send a word a day which is terrific as well. Just thought I’d throw in these few free things I found great. Kathy
Learning a new language is possible for anyone and just requires some confidence and perseverance. LiveMocha is a great free resource online and you can chat to native speakers if you wish. Spending time with someone who speaks your target language is definitely the easiest way, as I found out when living in Portugal.
Also check out FSI: http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php
Free courses used by the State Department in educating and training its personnel.
…as would be said in Eurovision Song Contest: “Ireland 12 points!” 😉
To JD, 24 – for your blog! Thanks for everything. And when you learn Spanish you will be closer to learning Portuguese 🙂
Obrigada e até breve!
Just have to plug CouchSurfing.org again, which Benny has been using for years. It’s not just about a couch to surf on — the social groups in every city are fantastic, too. In Melbourne alone, we have fortnightly French, Spanish, and German language exchanges, where people can meet and practice the language of their choice — yup, for FREE!
When I travelled through Europe the first thing my sister and I did when we got to each new country was learn to Thank You in the native language. Being gracious – gets you A LOT further than not.
I can vouch for all these tips, having done more or less the same thing myself. And I agree that the most important thing by far is to get over your fears! People will be nice to you even if you butcher their language at first, I promise. You also just might avoid being ripped off if you attempt to speak to them in their native language, especially in Latin America (but probably also true in other regions as well).
I suggest http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/. As the title suggests,it’s aimed at learning Japanese, but the ideas can be applied to any language.
Learning a foreign language is open to anyone willing to exercise patience and perseverance through the process. Benny, I think you are a really great example for all those who want to learn a new language. I think that fear and procrastination are probably are two thins that hinder most from accomplishing most goals in life. I agree that spending more time with others that speak the language is the best way to learn as I found out traveling to various Spanish-speaking countries. Benny keep up the good work!
I agree with a couple of things, first that a private tutor is the best way to go. There are inexpensive options for private tutors, I paid $8/hour for a Spanish tutor via Skype, I think they might have French tutors now: http://www.languageconvo.com
If you’re in the US, meetup is a great way to find a local language group. And couchsurfing is also awesome, especially if you’re traveling. Private tutoring was the best by far for me though.
Hello everybody,
I’m Spanish and I live in Spain. My last name is Fernández. I’m male and seventy years old, pensioner and pupil of Languages Official School. I’m in a intermediate level, but Listening and Speaking is very hard for me.
I want to speak with British or Irish people by Skype, in English and Spanish language, for example, twice week.
If you want it, can write me to [email protected]
That’s all.
Thank you for this extremely helpful article. The acknowledgement of the psychological reasons for not learning/speaking a new language were especially interesting to me…I really need to take a look at my own barriers.
Great article hear. Really like how it has been presented, very clear!
I have been using http://www.easylanguageexchange.com/
which I didn’t see on your list. Very active with lots of native speakers to practice with.
I know this is older, but it’s a wonderful post, so I had to comment to say thanks for it! It’s practically helpful and encouraging… not much more to ask for 🙂
These are some great tips! It’s very true that fear is probably one of the main factors that hinder learners from progressing with a language. You gotta really put yourself out there and be willing to speak and not be afraid to make mistakes while learning. Mistakes come with the territory. Great article!
I have been playing with Spanish for almost a decade now and I can comfortably claim that it is more than possible to get proficient in any language in the world without spending a dime. The Internet is brimming with resources today that could get one from zero to fluent in no time. Anki, children’s storybooks, grammar tips, slang tips, colloquial constructs, online dictionaries, thesauruses…you name it!
I, by the way, happen to run a Website called http://www.alwaysspanish.com, where I regularly post articles discussing various tips and tricks for Spanish learners that are often skipped by regular language courses. You might find it interesting as a reference if Spanish is your target.
Hi! I show you a channel for learning Spanish. In this channel 2Day Languages offers you free Spanish videolessons with our teachers Fran and Biel. Every class and every video are a funny and instructive experience. If you want learn Spanish, 2Day Languages is the best way to do it.
http://www.youtube.com/user/2DayLanguages/videos?sort=dd&view=50&shelf_id=2
Reading and listening are things that you can do alone and straight away. If you have even the basics in your chosen language then pick up a book, find a newspaper and just read. Similarly, listen to the radio or get yourself on YouTube and just listen.
Free courses are worth every cent! Actually, it’s a complete waste for 99% of all adults to try to learn a foreign language. They’re called foreign for a reason; they’re not yours, and they never will be.
Given below are some of the tips by which you can become a bilingual-
-know why you’re doing it
-find a partner
-talk to yourself
-have fun with it
-keep it relevant
-leave your comfort zone
-watch people talk
Great stuff ! thanks for the post!