How to learn a new language quickly

[Darin]

Hi guys,

I would like to know if a person with a full-time job can learn a new language up to conversational frequency in a short duration. If yes, please provide me with some tips, hacks or routines that can be employed so that conversational frequency can be achieved.

Thanks,
Darin

[zenmonkey]

What to answer?

I think you might find confirmation that it is possible here https://www.fluentin3months.com/start-here/

By "conversational frequency" do you mean "talks often" or "talks fluidly"?

My answer is no, you generally cannot learn a new language to conversational fluency quickly.

[tastyonions]

Let's say "a short duration" is a few months, since you didn't specify.

If it's a language close to one you already know well and you have a few free hours every day, it's probably doable if you're motivated enough.

If one of those conditions is lacking: good luck!

[garyb]

Usually I'd be reluctant to link to Fluent in 3 Months, but it's focused on "hacks" to get conversational quickly which is what you're looking for, so you should find something useful there. Just bear in mind that learning a language is not a quick process, so by taking shortcuts to conversational ability you're necessarily having to compromise other aspects of the language, like grammar/correctness, listening, reading, etc.

[Alina Kuimova]

There's a study by Foreign Service Institute made exactly on this subject. They calculated how many hours you need to learn a certain language depending on how different it is from English. You can read it here:
http://linguapath.com/how-many-hours-learn-language/

But honestly, if you do want to learn a language and speak it more or less fluently you have to really devote some time... Try to practice every day for at least 30 minutes. You can always use your "dead time", or waiting time, to learn new words, repeat your vocabulary or listen to podcasts on your target language. There are plenty apps that would help you on this path like Memrise and Duolingo.

But if you want to concentrate on speaking part, I would go with Pimsleur courses.

What language do you want to learn by the way?

[nkaretnikov]

Hello!
I would say no time at all. Take advantage of google translate conversation mode and express yourself in English. Make sure GT gets your input right. Tell your interlocutor in his native language "Please excuse me.. I am going to use machine translation tool" or "Disculpe ... Voy a usar la herramienta de traducción automática" or "请原谅..我打算用机器翻译工具" or "يرجى أن يغفر .. أنوي استخدام أدوات الترجمة الآلية." You will be surprised how well the tool translates any basic level dialog these days.

[Cavesa]

Don't use Google Translate!!! It is improving for some language combinations but it is definitely not that reliable. It does have some uses in language learning (single words or very short combinations, and only for learners who have already learnt enough to detect weird stuff).

Basically, you need to do the same stuff as if you were learning slowly. You just need to do more of it per day. Of course you can learn in a month as much as others learn in a year, but it mainly depends on your ability to put in 12 times more time per day or week.

Two things that have helped me a lot already:

1.Don't look for too many short cuts. They can often lead you nowhere and just make you waste time.

2.Don't use not too serious resources. When you need to learn faster, or a better term is more intensively, you need to cut some things out. Many people choose to cut the wrong stuff out, the serious resources. No. Toys like Duolingo need to go first.

[eido]

Hello!
I would say no time at all. Take advantage of google translate conversation mode and express yourself in English. Make sure GT gets your input right. Tell your interlocutor in his native language "Please excuse me.. I am going to use machine translation tool" or "Disculpe ... Voy a usar la herramienta de traducción automática" or "请原谅..我打算用机器翻译工具" or "يرجى أن يغفر .. أنوي استخدام أدوات الترجمة الآلية." You will be surprised how well the tool translates any basic level dialog these days.

I thought you were joking, but apparently not. I'm a fan of SpanishDict's three translators since they helped me learn about sentence structure, but even using them to compare they are not a replacement for cramming the grammar in your brain and practicing it, drilling it even.

[tarvos]

Give me a timeframe, and I'll give you an answer.

[SM11]

Hi guys,

I would like to know if a person with a full-time job can learn a new language up to conversational frequency in a short duration. If yes, please provide me with some tips, hacks or routines that can be employed so that conversational frequency can be achieved.

Thanks,
Darin

Hi Darin,

I think the answer is very simple: it all depends on how motivated you are, and how motivated you can stay.

Anybody who's really willing to learn will start to study realistic conversations and try to apply them as soon as possible. So one of the first thing to do is to find a conversation partner. You can do that with apps like Tandem or Hello Talk. Of course, you have to step out a bit of your comfort zone, but that's essential if you want be conversational in the language in a short duration, and yes, that's where your degree of motivation gets involved: are you motivated enough to step out of your comfort zone?

I think if you can
- study everyday life dialogues regularly (let's say 1 hour every day) with some small grammar explanations and the written transcriptions with it
- have conversations with a partner (another hour every day)
- and maybe also add another hour of listening practice (radio, TV, movies, songs...), you'll progress super fast.

But yeah, that seems pretty tough to do regularly when you have a full time job (once again, it depends on your motivation).

The most important is to talk though, so if you have to focus on one, it should be that one. Also, whenever you have some spare time in public transports or whatever, try to learn vocabulary with flashcards, it's really effective.

All the best for your language learning ! You can do it !