Has anyone learned a foreign langauge on their own? Without the help of a classroom teacher? If so, how? Thnx!

Question

I'm trying to learn to speak French. My close girlfriend and I are planning on studying together and we're looking for alternative methods besides being in a classroom.

Answer 1

I'm a canadian, but of chinese heritage. When I first started learning chinese, I found it extremely difficult, as most westerners do. I felt ashamed that even though I was chinese, I could not speak the language. Slowly, I developed an interest in the language of my forefathers. Everytime I ate at a chinese restaurant, I studied the chinese on the menus. I watched chinese movies and vigourously studied the subtitles until I could understand the film without them as well. I made friends with chinese people on the web. Eventually, our family took a vacation to china , where I was able to fully immerse myself in the environment.

I'm am now proud to say that I am fluent in chinese french and english!

The most important thing is to immerse the language into your daily life.Watch some films or make some friends on the web.
Try: www.frenchtutorial.com

Answer 2

I somehow don't think dropping a language counts. Anyway, I know how you feel. I'm an AP English student, and I get really tired of all the bad grammar. I do use contractions too much, though. Anyway, I took two years of German, and tested straight into 104 at my local community college (I'm still in high school, so I had to go to a close college so I could take the class and come back for my other classes). I write fairly well in German, and am working on speaking it better. Good for you for not accepting ignorance as an excuse.

Answer 3

I learned German from the television. When I was 8 years old, my parents bought the dish antenna, and I watched the German channels a lot! My father speaks German, so I was asking him several times: what do they say?what is it about?...And after a period my mother noticed, that I don't ask anymore, I just laugh:) So she knew I understood already.
However for children it is easier to pick up a language, but neither for adults is it impossible. For ex. I learned Italian on my own in the past 2 and a half years, because I moved to Italy.I bought some grammar books, I watched television, for ex. cartoons have an easy language, I read the newspaper...I had to talk to people...and now I can speak pretty well Italian.Not perfectly, but it's ok.
Good luck to you!

Answer 4

I started learning French on my own, and by the time I got to high school, I could qualify for 3rd year French.

I've been learning Catalan (the language of Barcelona, Spain) on my own for 5 years and speak it OK. There are no Catalan classes, so I'm making do.

Answer 5

I've learned French on my pc through an immersion program - it's where you literally learn the language by speaking and reading the language with very little translating.

Answer 6

There's some really good computer programs you can get to help you with this, but honestly, the best method is submersion in the culture where the language is spoken. Why not take a trip to Paris?

Answer 7

I learned how to speak Spanish when I was a baby because my family's spanish but maybe you could hang out with people who speak the language

Answer 8

I learned by myself mainly listening to music, paying attention to pronunciation while watching TV and in the movies, reading magazines, consulting dictionaries and asking English speaking people, when I went to college there ( USA ) I understood it all, could write it and read it but was shy about speaking it but when you are forced to speak you just do it and it comes out right just for minor adjustments in pronunciation

Answer 9

I've been trying to learn French, Czech, and Japanese w/ self-help books and audio tapes. My friends are helping me w/ French

Answer 10

Living on my own in the country (Korea) for two years helped speed things up a lot. Also had a Korean bf for awhile who taught me to read it.