If anyone has taught themselves a language, what would they recommend as being one of the best ways for it?

Good question, Timbo. While you wait for the perfect language-learning method, here's something to read.

Heinrich Schliemann explains how he learned a number of languages "on his own."

One of the best ways to learn a second language is to live in a place where people speak it and very little of your first language.

Oh, I sort of forgot to add "apart from immersion" sorry 'bout that

Timbo, your Public Profile in this community reveals that you have been a member here for three months. Apart from that -- and your name -- it reveals nothing.

You asked us to give you recommendations as to methods we have used in autodidactic foreign language acquisition, specifically Italian.

Is English your native language? You reject "immersion," but you don't tell us why. When you were learning English, did you use some method other than immersion? Can you tell us about that ?

Certain additional questions come to mind. Why are you interested in learning Italian? Are you a scholar in language-acquisition methodology ?
Where do you live? Do you have Italian-speaking neighbors? Do you have access to books ? Do you have access to sources of information other than this WordCraft Community ?

Does your mommy know you stay up late and play with your ..... computer ?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jerry thomas,

Timbo, you might read this Wikipedia article on second language acquisition and see what folks who study the situation have to say about it.

Timbo, please see your PMs.

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Originally posted by jerry thomas:
Timbo, your Public Profile in this community reveals that you have been a member here for three months. Apart from that -- and your name -- it reveals nothing.

You asked us to give you recommendations as to methods we have used in autodidactic foreign language acquisition, specifically Italian.

Is English your native language? You reject "immersion," but you don't tell us why. When you were learning English, did you use some method other than immersion? Can you tell us about that ?

Certain additional questions come to mind. Why are you interested in learning Italian? Are you a scholar in language-acquisition methodology ?
Where do you live? Do you have Italian-speaking neighbors? Do you have access to books ? Do you have access to sources of information other than this WordCraft Community ?

Does your mommy know you stay up late and play with your ..... computer ?

Evenin' Jer!

I am a man shrouded in an enigma wrapped in a miasmic mystery o,o I have derived endless enjoyment from being the man that everyone is curious about yet who's story remains but a tease . . . . . . . . . . .

English, yes! Immersion, no! Grad student, poor!

I hail from an Italian background, thus learning the language is something I've always wanted to do. It becomes unfortunate however insofar that the American Public School system is in egregious derelict of providing or even encouraging adequate language training at the ages most porous for sponging up syntax. I am a scholar in everything I do.

Arizona (oy!) No Italian speaking neighbors Only smokers. Books, yes! But which, you see, is the question I was hoping to have answered.

She does, and thinks I'm very special

Anyone seriously interested in language acquisition could profit from this .... Heinrich Schliemann

... and this

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jerry thomas,

Timbo, there are many resources on the Web (link), e.g., forums (link), radio stations (link), newspapers (link).

Dude, you're in Arizona. Just learn Spanish and say it with an Italian accent.

Neveu always makes me laugh.

I've only been to a few operas, but my friends who frequent the opera say it's the most beautiful of all the languages. I used to think French was, but perhaps it's too nasal.

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I've only been to a few operas, but my friends who frequent the opera say it's the most beautiful of all the languages.

I would agree with that. And the fact that so many Italian words end in vowels must help when it is used for singing, since words ending in vowels can be sustained on their final syllables for as long as required by the music. Words ending in consonants can only be sustained on their penultimate or ante-penultimate syllables.

Organizers of a beauty contest for languages should be reminded not to neglect Estonian.

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The idea for the contest arose out of an Estonian story that the country’s language was once crowned the second most beautiful language in the world after Italian

I suppose the $10 for second place in a beauty contest came in handy when Estonia was an impoverished country.

I've always found the linguolabial consonants of some Oceanic languages asthetically pleasing.

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Originally posted by Timbo:
If anyone has taught themselves a language, what would they recommend as being one of the best ways for it?

Hi, Timbo. Even immersion (via foreign travel, I mean) is recommended by language acquisition experts only after a beginner's course in the language. Looks like foreign travel is going to stay expensive for a while... meanwhile, here's an excerpt of an email I just received from a forum of FL teachers which may be helpful:

ALL(the Association for Language Learning)has focus groups for various languages including Italian. Go to this link: http://www.all-languages.org.uk/committee_italian.asp and at the bottom of the page you can click on a link to open a PDF file which,
on page 29, has a long list of Italian websites, many of which are useful
for Primary, and some other links.

I would also suggest, as you peruse local papers for cheap courses (e.g. adult-ed at local h.s. and/or community college), to keep an eye out for anyone who uses "TPR" or "TPRS" or "FluencyFast" trademark methods. They are derived from Asher and Krashen's language acquisition research, and are geared to speedy acquisition for use abroad.

My Spanish course was immersion in nature in that it focused on conversational Spanish, not the grammar, and we couldn't say or write a word of English ever. learned an awful lot from my 2 years in HS Spanish.

Go buy something that's sold internationally, and read the Italian version of the instructions, then the English one. It may sound silly, but I've learned a bit about several languages this way. Idioms, however, will hang one up a good bit.

You might also advertise on Craig's List for Italian speakers.

Buona fortuna!

And be sure to read the book, "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert!

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
My Spanish course was immersion in nature in that it focused on conversational Spanish, not the grammar, and we couldn't say or write a word of English ever. learned an awful lot from my 2 years in HS Spanish.

Sorry so slow on the uptake, Kalleh! I've been completely "immersed" in end-of-school-year running around like a chicken with-- well, you know! Just wanted to say, wow! I didn't know one could get a conversational FL class in high school before quite recently! You were very fortunate. Did you attend hs in Chicago? Was this an enlightened public school district or a private school?

My youngest son just finished his first year of a conversational Spanish class at the h.s. here. They call it "Exploratory Spanish" & it was only "invented" 4 yrs ago to accommodate all the classified kids who were arriving in 9th grade without ever having had FL before. In their great wisdom, our school district eschews middle-school FL in favor of resource room. It makes sense in context-- FL here is taught via the ancient grammar-text method, which means it is memorization-, written-work- and homework-heavy. For a kid classified w/LD, that's one too many academic courses. (If they taught it properly, FL would be more like a music course & would give the kids' brains a respite!)

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My Spanish course was immersion in nature in that it focused on conversational Spanish, not the grammar, and we couldn't say or write a word of English ever. learned an awful lot from my 2 years in HS Spanish.

Of course, this is the way that we all learned to speak our native tongue (or tongues - babies of multi-lingual parents learn all their parents' languages quite effortlessly). Speaking is a natural skill - writing and reading has to be learned.

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Originally posted by Richard English:
Of course, this is the way that we all learned to speak our native tongue (or tongues - babies of multi-lingual parents learn all their parents' languages quite effortlessly). Speaking is a natural skill - writing and reading has to be learned.

Right on (raised fist)! You wouldn't think such an idea would be controversial, would you? Sad to say, the emperor still goes naked in curmudgeonly public school FL depts all across the US (having been sold a 100-yr old syllabus & told it would make a nice outfit...) Times they are a changin'. Very slowly.

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Did you attend hs in Chicago? Was this an enlightened public school district or a private school?

This was in a public school in Wisconsin. I even remember the nuances of pronunciation, such as not using the hard "d" with your tongue.

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Originally posted by bethree5:

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Originally posted by Richard English:
Of course, this is the way that we all learned to speak our native tongue (or tongues - babies of multi-lingual parents learn all their parents' languages quite effortlessly). Speaking is a natural skill - writing and reading has to be learned.

Right on (raised fist)! You wouldn't think such an idea would be controversial, would you? Sad to say, the emperor still goes naked in curmudgeonly public school FL depts all across the US (having been sold a 100-yr old syllabus & told it would make a nice outfit...) Times they are a changin'. Very slowly.

Adults don't learn language the same way children do. If they did, we wouldn't need language teachers. There are huge motivational and physiological differences. Some educators like Stephen Krashen argue that all adults need for language learning is lots of comprehensible input. Krashen is a big fan of immersion programs, but it is not all evident that immersion programs, like French immersion in Canada, work. Many researchers agree that input is not enough, adults need explicit instruction in grammar as well.