NationStates Jolt Archive

I was just wondering, is it possible to teach yourself a foreign language?

if so, Can I get some recomendations? books, software, whatever....

I was just wondering, is it possible to teach yourself a foreign language?

if so, Can I get some recomendations? books, software, whatever....

Wikibooks til you get the basics. Then find a penpal site. Then you have to learn to speak it somehow. The easiest way is to move though.

Heh. Try skype. It works for me. I also have a decent IM translator plugin for Mozilla, but it has become a crutch. Avoid convenient and easy to use translators, just keep a dictionary. that way it is a pain in the arse enough for you to want to stop using it. Definitely recommend skype though. I have 100+ friends in China to practice chinese with.

Watching subtitled TV shows will also help, give you a grasp of more conversational things. Yes you can teach yourself a language, it's just not easy.

I was just wondering, is it possible to teach yourself a foreign language?

if so, Can I get some recomendations? books, software, whatever....

Which language did you want to learn?

You can learn classical languages such as Latin or Koine Greek from books fairly easily as there's no need to learn the pronounciation; if you want to learn a modern language for listening and speaking then I wouldn't recommend teaching yourself. You should be able to find an evening class in your area to join but failing that find a friend or two and learn the language together with the help of audio tapes/CDs.

I taught myself Klingon. ;)

Oh, what language do you want to learn? there are all types of software available on Ubuntu for learning languages. My kids use them in homeschool, they are easy to use and free (easy if you aren't afraid of Linux)

Certainly. I reccomend Scheme for starters. There's plenty of good resources available for it.


... Oh, I see. You mean a talking language, not a programming language.

Which language did you want to learn?

You can learn classical languages such as Latin or Koine Greek from books fairly easily as there's no need to learn the pronounciation; if you want to learn a modern language for listening and speaking then I wouldn't recommend teaching yourself. You should be able to find an evening class in your area to join but failing that find a friend or two and learn the language together with the help of audio tapes/CDs.

Haven't decided yet. Either Russian, Arabic, or french; though now that you mention it Latin would be both cool and useful.

Depends what kind of language it is. I've self taught myself French and Italian, but before I even began teaching myself one, I created one, allowing me to learn how (fundamentally) language works.

Haven't decided yet. Either Russian or Arabic, though now that you mention it Latin would be both cool and useful.

Cool, perhaps, but I don't know how useful it would be.

Sure you can, it's just harder and takes longer. I have a friend who's taking a self-taught course in Swahili. He only meets with an instructor once a week, and the rest is on tape.

It's hard, but it can be done.

I tried to teach myself Italian, Quenya, Welsh, Aramaic, Ancient Greek, and many more. But, I always got bored and moved on. You have to be truly interested in it and work hard.

You have to be truly interested in it and work hard.

Keeping motivated, especially if you have a full-time job, a social life, and NS, can be very difficult. Even more so if you're not likely to actually use the language regularly.

I taught myself American Sign Language, but I got a lot of help from my mother, who is fluent. I found a website that has a video dictionary of a woman signing each word. It made it a whole lot easier. Then my mom quizzed me every week, and now I can sign pretty fluently.

As for all my other languages, for French and Spanish, I took classes. It made it more social and fun, and you always had people who you could talk in that particular language to who wouldn't make fun of your atrocious accent or improper conjugation or something. For Italian, I bought a CD and a workbook. I practiced pronunciation with the CD, and did a daily lesson in my workbook, so I guess that was by myself, but I dunno if it's the same as teaching yourself. As for Hebrew, I've known it my whole life, so I can truely say that the best way to learn a language is full immersion. You catch on after a while, if people only speak a certain language around you.

It's hard, but it can be done.

I tried to teach myself Italian, Quenya, Welsh, Aramaic, Ancient Greek, and many more. But, I always got bored and moved on. You have to be truly interested in it and work hard.

lol, aramaic I thought that was completely dead and lost to history, where is it still spoken?

I taught myself Klingon. ;)

Oh, what language do you want to learn? there are all types of software available on Ubuntu for learning languages. My kids use them in homeschool, they are easy to use and free (easy if you aren't afraid of Linux)

That's so sexy.

Haven't decided yet. Either Russian, Arabic, or french; though now that you mention it Latin would be both cool and useful.

I have no experience with Russian or Arabic so I can't help you there. If I were you though I wouldn't try either of them: self-teaching a language is hard enough as it is without trying to pick up a middle-eastern or Cyrillic dialect which would be radically different from English.

If you're looking for a useful language French is very widely spoken, as is Spanish. If you want to try Latin I can thoroughly recommend Peter Jones' book 'Learn Latin' for a readable introduction to the language. If I remember tomorrow I'll copy the French language links from my college's intranet page, you may find them helpful.

lol, aramaic I thought that was completely dead and lost to history, where is it still spoken?

It's not.

But neither is Ancient Greek and Quenya is a fictional language (Tolkien's Elvish Latin).

But that makes it all the more alluring.

About.com (http://about.com) is good. I tried to learn Japanese, I actually got pretty far with the basics.

Teaching yourself you get to decide whether you start with the written or spoken language. I always like to learn the written language first, but most classes start with the spoken language (and I don't speak much).

This is a nifty place to learn to read & write Japanese:

http://www.kanjisite.com

I was just wondering, is it possible to teach yourself a foreign language?

if so, Can I get some recomendations? books, software, whatever....

Well, all it takes is learning (i.e. using your mind instead of books, software, whatever....). Learn vocabulary first and basic grammar, the rest will come automatically as you practice.
Thus I learned English, Latin, some French, some Greek, some Egyptian, some Akkadian, some Sumerian, some Hebrew...

I'm teaching myself Spanish right now. It's actually a relatively easy language (especially compared to English). Books and tapes are good, but the best way is to talk to native speakers; fortunately, I'm surrounded by them at work and they're all willing to help out.

I'm teaching myself Spanish right now. It's actually a relatively easy language (especially compared to English). Books and tapes are good, but the best way is to talk to native speakers; fortunately, I'm surrounded by them at work and they're all willing to help out.
Just about to say this. Spanish is very easy to learn yourself, I did it. Plus in a place like the US you can always find spanish whether its on the tele or in public to help.

I'm teaching myself German and damn is it hard. :mad:

Well, I made up a number of my own languages. Ey eti mris.

lol, aramaic I thought that was completely dead and lost to history, where is it still spoken?

In Yeshivot where Talmud is studied.

Well, I made up a number of my own languages. Ey eti mris.

I speak 27 dialects of Gibberish fluently!
(No, I'm not trolling!)