What do you think is the best way to learn a language?

General discussion about learning languages
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Lysander
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Re: What do you think is the best way to learn a language?

Postby Lysander » Thu Jun 21, 2018 12:00 am

iguanamon wrote:2) Don't Be inconsistent; Do be regular and consistent with your studies every day. Do try to get in at least an hour a day, most days. 10-15 minutes a day won't cut it for an adult, monolingual beginner.

Is there a point of minimum time where you'd say one may as well not bother? I can do an hour most days, so this is not for my situation. But I find it interesting in a more theoretical way. If someone can only spare, say, 20 minutes a day daily and one hour one day a week, for example, would you suggest it is not even worth the frustration for them to try?

I wonder what the minimum daily contact time of a successful learner on this site is.
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Re: What do you think is the best way to learn a language?

Postby smallwhite » Thu Jun 21, 2018 12:13 am

Lysander wrote:
iguanamon wrote:2) Don't Be inconsistent; Do be regular and consistent with your studies every day. Do try to get in at least an hour a day, most days. 10-15 minutes a day won't cut it for an adult, monolingual beginner.

Is there a point of minimum time where you'd say one may as well not bother? I can do an hour most days, so this is not for my situation. But I find it interesting in a more theoretical way. If someone can only spare, say, 20 minutes a day daily and one hour one day a week, for example, would you suggest it is not even worth the frustration for them to try?

I wonder what the minimum daily contact time of a successful learner on this site is.


You can start a thread and ask people who have reached B2/success and who didn't study much each day, what their study schedule was like. I'm curious, too.
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iguanamon
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Re: What do you think is the best way to learn a language?

Postby iguanamon » Thu Jun 21, 2018 1:36 am

Lysander wrote:
iguanamon wrote:2) Don't Be inconsistent; Do be regular and consistent with your studies every day. Do try to get in at least an hour a day, most days. 10-15 minutes a day won't cut it for an adult, monolingual beginner.

Is there a point of minimum time where you'd say one may as well not bother? I can do an hour most days, so this is not for my situation. But I find it interesting in a more theoretical way. If someone can only spare, say, 20 minutes a day daily and one hour one day a week, for example, would you suggest it is not even worth the frustration for them to try?
I wonder what the minimum daily contact time of a successful learner on this site is.

Expugnator has shown that he can make progress in 10-15 minutes a day, but, he's an experienced learner with languages already under his belt. He knows what works for him. He knows how languages work and what he needs to pay attention to while learning. I just think for most monolingual adult beginners, who don't yet have this knowledge, more time is needed with the language because the whole concept of learning a language is something that hasn't been done before. That doesn't mean an hour of continuous study a day. The hour can be broken up in chunks throughout the day. This helps to focus the learner on learning- to get them through a course/courses. I'm just basing this on my observations here and at the old forum, I may be wrong. 20 minutes a day doesn't seem to allow for momentum to build. If I were told that I need to put in at least an hour a day to advance in a language, it would focus me more than if I were told 20 minutes is enough. If the 20 minutes were focused and had no wasted time, it could work but I don't see this level of efficiency and focus with monolingual beginners here. Repetition is so important in language-learning, so the more time spent on a course/courses allows for more daily repetition. Still, it's a guideline, and guidelines are not laws. If someone has learned a language as an adult monolingual beginner with 20 minutes a day, like smallwhite, I'd like to read their story and see how that worked for them.
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Re: What do you think is the best way to learn a language?

Postby Lysander » Thu Jun 21, 2018 2:47 am

smallwhite wrote:
Lysander wrote:
iguanamon wrote:2) Don't Be inconsistent; Do be regular and consistent with your studies every day. Do try to get in at least an hour a day, most days. 10-15 minutes a day won't cut it for an adult, monolingual beginner.

Is there a point of minimum time where you'd say one may as well not bother? I can do an hour most days, so this is not for my situation. But I find it interesting in a more theoretical way. If someone can only spare, say, 20 minutes a day daily and one hour one day a week, for example, would you suggest it is not even worth the frustration for them to try?

I wonder what the minimum daily contact time of a successful learner on this site is.


You can start a thread and ask people who have reached B2/success and who didn't study much each day, what their study schedule was like. I'm curious, too.

Your wish (or shared curiosity) is my command: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =14&t=8445
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Re: What do you think is the best way to learn a language?

Postby SM11 » Fri Aug 31, 2018 2:35 pm

Bruco wrote:Please share your ideas


Hi Bruco !

I think first you have to ask yourself the right questions!

What is your objective?
What do you want to obtain?
Why do you learn? (just because you like it, for profesionnal reasons, because you are asked to do so, to be able to read in that language, because you're in a relationship with someone of that language...)

I think it's very important to find an answer to these questions because you'll be able to be more clear in your motivations. It's important because the probability that you reach the fluency level in a language increases with your motivation.

Your motivation is like the fuel that makes the engine work. If you're not motivated enough, you might start to find excuses and procrastinate. If you want to be productive, you need to have good habits:

- Study at the same place
- It has to be clean (your desk has nothing else than your language books on it)
- Cut all kind of distraction sources (mobile phone, facebook, internet...). It's as if you were taking a plane, nobody can reach you.

It's important because your brain is not good at doing 2 things at the same time. Once you got distracted, it's very hard to go back to this same concentration state you just had.

If you study every day, I would suggest to have one day to rest during the week. Your brain needs time to assimilate new information.

Regarding the work time, there are many possibilities, but it really depends on you. You could do 15 minutes every day, which is 1 hour and a half per week for example.
Or maybe you could gather the learning time by doing 3 times one hour during the week for example. If you do that, you should have a short break (3-5min) every 20 minutes. Drink some water, get some fresh air...

Each method is different, and it's up to you to find your rythm, but unfortunately, that's not enough...

If you really want to improve your level, you have to create the opportunities to take action.

You can organize a meeting with some friends who speak the language you want to learn. If you don't know anybody to practice with, use apps like Tandem or Hello Talk to find a conversation partner.

You can alway listen to the radio, watch movies in ov, read newspaper...

Of course the best is to go in the country. Not only you can practice the language, but you also live with the culture of the country, so your motivation increases a lot. It's also a great way to step out of your comfort zone and kill that shyness in you.

Try to set goals to your learning: like 10 words per day , 3 study session per week...

Anyway, to resume: ask yourself the right question, be regular, and take action !

I hope that can help some people ^^ Good luck !
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Re: What do you think is the best way to learn a language?

Postby Juan learns » Wed Apr 17, 2019 2:35 pm

I believe that the best way to learn a language is committing to doing it for years and forgetting about short term goals but what do I know do what motivates you most
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Re: What do you think is the best way to learn a language?

Postby mkasu » Fri Apr 26, 2019 4:01 am

I believe there are like a hundred and ten ways for a hundred people to study a language and everybody needs to find their own way. I'd argue, though, that a) consistency (even if just a couple of minutes on busy days or so) and b) interest in the target language, are pretty much necessary to gain a higher level of fluency.
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Re: What do you think is the best way to learn a language?

Postby Rosewyne » Sat Apr 27, 2019 3:28 am

My belief is that the best way to learn a language is through immersion, primarily through hoarding material from your target language, such as music, videogames, movies, (dubbed) anime, comics, etc, and then committing to a new lifestyle where your target language becomes your priority. Study without any use for the language will just make the language easily forgettable.
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