Anyone learned a new language without a teacher?

Question

Those of you who were determined enough to teach yourselves a new language (without ever learning it from a teacher), please tell me your native language, the language(s) you learned and how long did it take you to achieve a good conversational level.

If you have any special tricks please do mention as well. Thanks!

Answer 1

I'm currently learning Serbian on my own. I just started, so I don't have a conversational level yet, but being a linguist I know a little bit about language learning.

The first thing that I've done is started exposing myself a lot to the language. I have been listening to a Serbian radio station on mikesradioworld.com frequently and, even though I don't understand much of the words of the music, I have learned a few things, like how to say "www.radiobuca.co.yu" in Serbian. You can get this kind of exposure to the language from many sources such as radio, TV, and/or movies. Try to make it so you can understand as much as possible. This means that you can select materials on topics that you already know about (or are interested in) because you will already have more general knowledge about them that you can use to understand and incorporate the language content. Likewise, if you are going to see a movie, you can read the synopsis of the plot online or something so you will already have some understanding of what's going on that you can use to help you get more meaning out of the film. Don't use subtitles though; your brain will have no need to learn new language if it has acces to language that it can already understand.

I also have access to a couple of native speakers, who have taught me some phrases. The native speakers that I know are pretty knowledgeable about linguistics, so I can ask them technical questions, but if you are acquainted with native speakers of the language you want to learn who don't happen to be linguists, you can have them simply talk to you in the language and have a conversation. If they repeat, talk slowly, and gesture and stuff, you'll be surprised how much you can understand. Likewise, you'll have an opportunity to practice your use of the language in a friendly environment.

I also got some "teach yourself" type books from the library. The one that I prefer is not heavy on grammar and also not just a phrasebook, but rather a true teach-yourself language course. Stay away from books whose tables of contents are organized around the grammar point that each chapter teaches. Likewise, stay away from books that encourage you to memorize and repeat dialogues. These are both marks of old language teaching methods that have been found to be relatively ineffective. There's nothing wrong with having dialogues in the book that you can read to understand, but if the book says that you should memorize and repeat them, look elsewhere.

Finally, my main advice would be that you don't have to know everything about the language to be a good user of the language. I, for example, know very little vocabulary in my native language that has to do with fields like hang gliding, rocket science, and so forth. I just don't have a need for that language. In a similar way, you don't need to learn things that you won't use in your new language. For example, do you really need to know the word for "coffee table" in your new language? Learn language that you will really need and use, and it will provide its own motivation for learning.

Have a great time learning language!

(P.S. I disagree with the first answerer, who seems to believe that speaking your native language while learning a new one will somehow mess up your new one. While our native languages (or whatever one we've learned just previously) seem to have an effect on our new language, I don't think that you can avoid these effects by not speaking your native language while learning another one. In fact, I would say that the psychological hardship from not talking to your family, etc. might actually undermine your language learning.)

Answer 2

Yes, my mother tounge is English, and I learned Spanish w/o a teacher. First memorize a basic vocabulary - ty using index cards with the word in your language on one side, and the subject language on the other and shuffle through the cards trying to see if you know the word on the other side. After that get a book to learn basic grammar, and some pronounciation.

Take this basic knowledge and go talk to people, and don't be afraid to make mistakes. The best is to go to the country, and don't speak your mother tounge if you can avoid it (no phone calls home, don't hang out with people from your country, etc., etc.) I needed about 6 weeks to get to a conversational level, but talking about stuff like the weather and not necessarily astro-physics. One key is really DON'T speak your mother toungue while doing this!

Answer 3

My fiance learned englishin 6 months. He originally spoke Russian. He still makes some MINOR gramatial mistakes, but he's at what I would say 98% fluent. He speaks 6 languages in total, most he learned on his own. He learned english when he moved to america. Sometimes submerging yourself into the culture and the language is the only way to learn.

Answer 4

Native language: English & Tagalog.

Language learned: French 1 year to go to conversational level. And then I took advanced classes. I've been speaking it for 10 years.

Language learned: Catalan. 2 years to go to converstional level. Speaking it for 5 years.

I used books, radio, movies, TV and native speakers.

Answer 5

My native language is U.S. English. I learned Esperanto from a book, "Teach Yourself Esperanto", in about 18 months. (I went very slowly to try to learn it in depth). I was conversational in 3-4 months, fluent inside of 2 years.

After learning Esperanto, I went through a three year Spanish Curriculum in a little more than one year, then spent a year and a half on a German course, but didn't complete it.

At the end of that, I knew Esperanto much better than either of the other two languages. I'm fluent in Esperanto, but barely conversational in Spanish, and not really conversational in German.

Answer 6

Well, the only case I know was Tranquilino Sandalio de Noda, Cuban scientist who taught himself seven languages. Also described many Cuban especies, including a blind fish that lived in caves and had lost the eyes. Wrote dictionaries of several African dialects and performed other scientific feats.
About the tricks, I don't know how he did it, sorry

Answer 7

i did just by listening to spanish ppl...it took me about a year to learn a little bit of spanish...for example >>> bamonos comer a la resturante... like that basic spanish but i havent learned other kind of spanish(what i mean y other kind of spanish is really fluent, spelling perfect, and all that other hard spanish) but basic is good anough. But i have a spanish family and was born spainsh but forgot spanish and learned it again in about 1 year and a half :)... and i didnt learn it from teachers or any cd's...well some times i used a spanish dictionary but that was rare... and i used card A LOT your welcome for the help have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!1