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Learn any languages in 3 months | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4705 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 17 of 36 20 June 2014 at 2:35pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Here's another blog post
about one woman's experience of learning Hindi at FSI. It sounds like a pretty intense course that lasted 30 weeks (7 1/2 weeks). She doesn't mention anything about what level they attained, but it's an interesting read. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4329 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 18 of 36 20 June 2014 at 2:51pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Judging by her test results she should be at B2 level, which sounds right from her description. Though it sounds like she has a pretty narrow vocabulary and shaky grammar, which you'd expect if you were rushed through. EDIT: Actually 2/2 in the exam might be closer to B1. Edited by patrickwilken on 20 June 2014 at 3:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7001 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 19 of 36 20 June 2014 at 6:56pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Related languages have a vocabulary discount. Let's say it's 7000 words you need, and the vocabulary discount is 50%. 7000 is the figure Professor Arguelles says, "just to get started with extensive reading". Six months, 6 days a week would be about 25 words a day, which is a lot, but seems possible if one is dedicated full-time to the endeavor. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5226 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 20 of 36 21 June 2014 at 2:04am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I won't start my usual rant about how many words one needs to be able to speak a language at a certain level. I'll
just say that I think this idea of 8000 words to "really start getting comfortable" is totally incorrect. But that's a different debate. On the current topic of the time to learn a language, I would suggest that you must look at the learning environment in addition to all the issues of method and individual aptitude. In terms of learning environment, there are some basic questions such as: 1. Do you live in the country of the language? 2. Do you have easy access to to a place where the language is spoken? 3. Do you hear the language spoken around you on a regular basis? 4. Do you have a spouse or a significant other who speaks the target language and is willing to help? 5. Is there some financial or professional incentive associated with high achievement in the target language? What this all boils down to is the amount of real and significant contact one has with the language. We observe here at HTLAL most multilinguals or polyglots are Europeans or people living in multilingual environments. By contrast, the least multilingual tend to be North Americans or people from large countries with little incentive or need to learn another language. In the ideal conditions, I think one can learn a language very quickly. I wont attempt to put specific numbers or timelines, but I think it's pretty self-evident that in-country immersion with good classes and friendly natives is much more effective and more fun that trying to learn a language holed-up with a book and some CD's. Edited by s_allard on 21 June 2014 at 4:06am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5116 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 21 of 36 21 June 2014 at 6:07am | IP Logged | ||||||||
These factors certainly matter, but I'm pretty sure that you know many non-francophone Canadians in Quebec who've never learnd Québécois in spite of being surrounded by native speakers and having Québécois speaking spouses. OTOH, I've met some polyglots who mastered a foreign language without without the help of natives and without ever setting a foot in a country where the language was natively spoken. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5032 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 22 of 36 21 June 2014 at 9:35am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I'm fairly sure they were saying if you had those things you'd be better able to learn in only 3 months. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6393 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 23 of 36 21 June 2014 at 1:48pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7001 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 24 of 36 21 June 2014 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Another thing. The two FSI courses I'm most familiar with, Basic French and Basic Spanish only teach about 2500 words. That doesn't mean the ILR/FSI 3/3 (Speak/Read) graduate only knows 2500 words. Besides the cognate discount, students have access to a variety of supplemental material. Also, the 3/3 student is perhaps in the top portion of the class, at least in the 6 month courses like French and Spanish. That's the impression I got from Don Casteel, the FSI diplomat of Platiquemos fame. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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