What's the Best Way to Learn a New Language?

[Kura Ookami]

I'm specifically interested in Japanese, which is very different to English, but what is the best way to learn a new langauge?

I think there's three things you need to learn for any language.

1 - The writing system
2 - Grammar
3 - Vocabulary

My current method is to learn all three at once a bit at a time. A few hiragana characters with a few new words and contructing basic sentences using a few grammar points. Is this the best way?

What 20% of Japanese will give me 80% of the return?

[Zenduba]

I'm not too sure of the specific actions that you can take but what worked for me was immersing myself in the culture and language, 24/7. If you do a bit here and there, sure, you'll learn something over time but I personally think immesring yourself is a faster and more effective way (albeit more challenging).

[jtracy]

I have only learned French (because it was required from 8th Grade on up in Canada) but I think that the most important thing that helps people in learning a foreign language is to be good at grammar (that is at noticing the patterns in the language). Evidently grammar is the most important thing to understand first. I also think that it's much easier to learn a new language when you are younger. And I agree with Zenduba that the best way to learn a new language is to immerse yourself in it all the time. Probably having a native speaker who is bilingual and who you could have long social conversations with about a wide variety of subjects would be the ideal situation for most people, since immersing yourself all the time may be too challenging all at once.

[Taikin]

All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency. » About

[ArthurHung]

Since there are Chinese words in Japanese I'll throw an "educated" guess in there...

1) Vocabulary first/focus (In Chinese, when you can get the basic core 3000 words, you can basically read a newspaper)

No one can blindly memorize single words though, so preferably get a book with pictures to the word(s) in the form of basic dialogue and in that book have a "new words" section where you can then write out these words 10 times each. Do this daily, and also read your book daily too for a couple hours, out loud (that which you know, of course, and preferably with a friend/tutor).

Immersing is important, what could work is find a dedicated tutor (could find a free one in the form of a language exchange via craigslist) and other forms of human immersion; I wouldn't be watching Japanese news, listening to Japanese music or doing anything else other than what that tutor recommends (hopefully you get a good one). The reason being is that it's better for these kinds of languages to at least understand basic grammar first so you don't get mixed up with slang, different area tonations, words spoken improperly etc.

[Eisho]

For any language focus on keyword communication.

For Japanese specifically, focus on verb conjugation.

Cheers,

Eisho

[Poiesis Hagakure]

I know everyone has different styles in which they learn best; I think with language there are a few similarities between people, though. I studied spanish for many years yet when Costa Rican students would visit my school for three weeks every year, there was no period of time parallel to the solid learning that would take place then. The same was true in college with Turkish! I would learn words and phrases in class and such knowledge was only solidified in my mind through hearing my turkish friends pronounce the words and use them in conversation with them.

I find knowing the exact spelling and pronunciation invaluable. After that, engaging native or more knowledgeable speakers of the language is the crazy glue of remembering it, in my experience.

buena suerte, bol cans, bonne chance and happy journeys.

[Kura Ookami]

I've always understood that immersion is the best way to learn a language, but I never realised it. I never actually tried it. Now I've just begun changing my environment to all Japanese so I haven't got many results, but it makes sense. As I'm writing this post I'm practising my English so naturally my English gets better.
I may need to find a personal development site like this one in Japanese.

[Taikin]

I may need to find a personal development site like this one in Japanese.

Funnily enough a while back someone asked Khatzu of All Japanese All The Time.com if there were any good personal development sites in Japanese. I don't know if a specific comparison was drawn with stevepavlina.com, but Khatzu replied that he hadn't found any.

[Kura Ookami]

So going to a deaf party would be the best way to learn sign language? The problem there is you wouldn't know what any of the signs meant and you couldn't sign back.
Immersion is part of learning another language, but i don't think it's a complete answer. Here's what i think:

First learn pronounciation and the alphabet(s)
Then learn the vocabulary and more complex letters/characters
Then learn the grammar and sentences
Finally immersion

I'm not sure if this is the best method, but i do think it's a better method than simply going straight into immersion.

[Kindred]

The main point of Khatz's immersion ideology is to get natural input (lots of it, not just 40 or so hours a week), in order to get a solid and natural understanding of Japanese. You gradually pick up when and how to use what words, colloquialisms, structures, etc. The whole shebang. Even if you don't understand something, once you do you'll have an epiphany and go, "Hey! I hear that all the time!"

I admit that I'm quite a bit biased toward his method. Okay a lot, but I have my reasons. I found Khatz website a couple months ago and have progressively immersed myself into Japanese software, music, video games, shows, novels, and slowly websites (it's hard to break the addiction to my favourite websites, especially to these forums). I was sceptical at first too, but I started to see results personally and cranked it right up.

Do I understand a heck of a lot yet? Not really, language is gargantuan. Do I understand a heck of a lot more than I did two months ago? Sure do. For instance, a month ago I was unable to look up words I heard, and now I have a lot less trouble doing that. It's also easier to recognize and understand words I've learned, which was hard to do in the beginning.

Immersion isn't for everyone. It's an all or nothing sort of thing. If you only get a little input and don't make all the fuzzy connections, you'll likely use that input to create incorrect output. But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that incorrect output is wrong, because it's great when corrected by a native speaker; however, when it's left uncorrected it's detrimental to understanding. Most people won't know a native speaker that can correct them.

It also takes quite a bit of willpower to dump all your favourite things for Japanese ones instead. (Can someone point me to the Personal Development for Japanese People forums please?)

But if someone has the motivation to do all that, it's not like there's a big deal going into immersion. If they really want to learn the language and get into the culture, they're going to be doing--or want to be doing--all the fun things anyway.

So, why not?

[Stephen]

#1 Total Immersion in Language preferably in social & cultural setting.

#2 If 1 not possible. Total Immersion through listening to audio and visual material daily as well as language course and grammar books - all of which must be consumed daily.

[MasterD]

Originally Posted by Stephen

#1 Total Immersion in Language preferably in social & cultural setting.

#2 If 1 not possible. Total Immersion through listening to audio and visual material daily as well as language course and grammar books - all of which must be consumed daily.

That's it yes, though if #1 is applicable, #2 is still very helpful.

Take Pimsleur courses or something like that, this will help you to speak quite some words without being tied up in grammar and without trying to pronunciate words in your own accent.

After that, you can refine your skills by learning the grammar consciously and learning more words. Daily practise is essential and you will pick up quite a few things along the way. I am in the middle of learning French right now and daily immersion is essential to get your mind focused on it. You will also notice that your accent is a lot better when you keep immersing yourself and that the words will pop out much more fluently.

Also cards from Visual Education -- Welcome are helpful.

[Dagan]

try Livemocha: Learn Languages Online - English, Spanish, French, Italian, Mandarin, å*¦ä¼šè‹±è¯* it us a free language networking service and offers couarse on quite a number of different languages which start right from the begining... it also allows you to network with other people who are learning or fluent with your chosen language...

[Kura Ookami]

Hiragana and katakana are relatively easy, each having 112 sounds each and fewer characters. Kanji I've found is a different story. Hiragana and katakana only have a single reading per character. Kanji can have several readings per character and they have a meaning all by themselves. What's the best way to learn the kanji?

[Scipio]

For learning the writing systems and the vocabulary, and retaining it in your long term memory, use a spaced repetition program like Mnemosyne. Mnemosyne is a free and open source version of Supermemo. Supermemo is better but it costs money. There are also free spaced repetition flashcards available for learning Japanese that are already made for you, on the Mnemosyne site.

Be sure to Wikipedia "spaced repetition" first, so you can understand the value and efficiency of spaced repetition software.

[Scipio]

I suggest you go to How-to-learn-any-language.com and visit their forums. This question has been answered many times by experienced polyglots with several languages under their belts, rather than people with little experience.

Immersion is effective, but when I say that I am including active input in my definition of immersion. I am saying that you cannot passively learn anything. In my view, there really is no such thing as passive input--not sublingual language tapes, no "just being around speakers" without mental effort engaged in trying to understand them, will put vocabulary and grammar into your head. Being around people, watching tv, etc, all have to be used actively.

So you don't need to go to your target country. When you visit that site, you will see there was an experienced polyglot who never left Italy but learned something like 20 languages. All you have to do is give yourself as many high quality active input hours as possible.

The rest is moot, really. There could be a lot of time spent worrying over which method is best, but in the end it's probably best to "Ready, Fire, Aim" and just spend all that time studying.

The most important thing is that you have a good textbook with good grammar that will take you a while to work through--you can find vocabulary lists online for free. I recommend you do everything for free and do not enroll in a class unless you have motivation problems. Self-studying is more effective because classes will go too slow for the energetic goal-aspiring learner, and they will not be molded to your individual goals.

When you need pronunciation help, you can do language exchanges over Skype and other online methods, post on Craiglist (like someone else said) for language exchanges, or go to your local university campus and meet Japanese students. At that time, you should up your listening skills with all the free audio and video content that is available in your target language on the web.

[dbstraight]

Originally Posted by Taikin

All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency. » About

Seconded.

... or thirded or fourthed, whatever we're on.

Khatzumoto is the Steve Pavlina of language learning.