BootsnAll Travel Community

hi English is my mother tongue, but I'd be open to moving abroad in the future(no plans at the moment), but would probably need to learn a new language.

Just looking for some advice to go about it, is it best to just jump in at the deep end and move over and learn it there, or is it best to learn before you go and improve while there?

I would do a bit of prep work before going. Buy a phrase book, watch some TV in the language (or if it's not available, rent or download some movies) - this will help you get used to the sound.

You can go the audio course route, some people have success with that. The important thing is to practise.

I've had good luck finding conversation partners online, through Skype. I've used www.mylanguageexchange.com to find a language partner. We skype once a week (he's in Brazil, I'm in Geneva) and my language is improving. We speak half an hour in Portuguese, and half an hour in English.

Once you have that basis - you don't need much - the best way to learn of course is to go live in the country.

While I've done it the above way, I've also gone the total immersion route, with equal success.

Having tried both, I would prefer having a bit of the language before going, just beginner's level is fine. The key phrase you need to learn is: "What is the word for..." and then point. I ended up with creditable street Thai that way!

It would probably be worth know where you are going first, no?

Once you know the suggestions above are useful. It is a lot easier to learn once you are really there - thought is worth learning some simple terms before you go - things like:

Thank you
Sorry
Excuse me
No problem
Slow down (for maniac taxi drivers)
yes
no
like
don't like
want
don't want

Many phrase books are full of silly things you would never use - my favorite is asking for opera tickets . . .

Think of things you will need to do every day - how to order a simple meal in a restaurant or finding the restroom somewhere.

Depending on the person, learning a new language (especially as an adult) can be either extremely easy, extremely difficult, or usually somewhere in between. People learn in different ways, so what works for one person may not work so well for someone else, or it might just take them longer.

For example: Before graduating from high school, I took five years of Spanish and my ex-husband, Ian, took four years of Spanish. While he only took a couple of classes in college, I studied an additional four years in college and somehow ended up with enough credits to obtain a degree in the language. A month after graduation, we popped down to Santiago, Chile to live for a couple of years. You would think that with a bachelor's degree in Spanish in my pocket that I would end up the better Spanish speaker, but I didn't.

The reason is that although I had the academic background, what I lacked was practical experience. Half of my required Spanish major credits were from literature classes, and it wasn't unusual to go through an entire semester without speaking any Spanish in class; the work consisted of reading and writing in Spanish. I'm a perfectionist at heart, and when I moved to Chile, I found that I was terrified of making any mistakes in grammar and/or pronunciation, so I was very reluctant to speak Spanish in front of others.

Ian, on the other hand, had no qualms about making mistakes when he was speaking. He actually joked about butchering the language and his dreadful lack of vocabulary! But unlike me, if he didn't know the word for something, he had the courage to spend five minutes trying to describe what he was trying to say with the basic vocabulary he DID possess, plus a lot of gesticulating, which ultimately made him more comfortable speaking Spanish in general. Whereas people probably thought I was shy and/or standoffish, they found Ian very endearing and were impressed that he was trying to speak in their language, so they were willing to be patient with him.

I'm not saying that my Spanish didn't improve during the two years I lived in Santiago -- it did, definitely! But I never reached the level of fluency that Ian did, because I just wasn't able to shake off my perfectionism -- degree or no degree.

All of that said, generally people find that full immersion is the fastest way to pick up a language. However, this can be difficult if you have NO background in the target language, though. Even names of simple, everyday items can be a stumbling block. I remember having to go to a huge home improvement center in Santiago to buy a lawn sprinkler -- only I couldn't find it in the store and had no clue how to say "sprinkler" in Spanish, despite 9 years of Spanish classes. I ended up doing what Ian always did -- describing it to the store clerk as best I could until he understood what I was asking for. It took 10 minutes, but I finally found it!

~ Jenney

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It would probably be worth know where you are going first, no?

I dont have any plans to move away at the moment but in the future it is something that I would like to do, and learning a language would widen my options greatly

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I've had good luck finding conversation partners online, through Skype. I've used www.mylanguageexchange.com to find a language partner. We skype once a week (he's in Brazil, I'm in Geneva) and my language is improving. We speak half an hour in Portuguese, and half an hour in English.

thats very ineresting and it sounds a great way to do it, as I've heard many people say how speaking it and learning the pronunciation is crucial and this seems a good way to do it.

I think language exchange would be great, especially when you know enough to start to have a conversation.

My opinion is that it depends on the person. I think a lot of us are just used to the traditional language learning things like lists of words, aiming to be correct all the time, learning grammar explicitly...and because of this we just feel like we're doing better if we learn something at home first.

In a way, learning the basics frees you up at least a little to try your own conversations abroad.

I personally think immersion - as far as just being there - is great but it's not anything magical, especially for native English speakers - just because SO many people in the world speak English. In addition to language exchange, I think trying to speak with people who really don't speak English at all - and aren't hoping to learn from you - is a good way to get a sense of how much you really can communicate.

Yeah, I'm kinda turned off by the language exchange thing, because there's always the option of doing it in English, which takes just a little bit away from the urgency to learn the target language. My new Korean tutors say they want to learn English from me, but I'm dead-set on learning Korean from them and have no desire to end up speaking English to them. I teach English all day and don't want to do it in my spare time, much less for free. Heck, I'd even pay them to never speak English to me (but they're Jehovah's Witnesses, and probably wouldn't accept monetary compensation).

I've had the same problems, i try to speak Korean wherever i go and have a few Korean friends who i speak to but all they ever do is reply in English and want to practice English. It can be very frustrating.