When you were learning a new language, what actually helped and what would you recommend?

[schere]

Updates

5 d

Speaking from my own experience, you can learn a language very quickly by practicing speaking through YouTube or communicating with people who speak that language.

[AviatorTom]

Try t9 immerse yourself in the language. Do your best to avoid speaking your native language, only speak the language you are learning.

Most important. Try not to translate your native language to the language you are learning. Instead, try to just think in that language.

[schere]

Ah, yes, that makes a lot of sense. I'm Turkish, and I'm currently learning English and Spanish. I already learned English, of course, but now I'm working on improving it.

[AviatorTom]

Thanks for MHO

[exitseven]

I had 4 years of High School French and the only thing I got out of it was I could order Soup DuJour in a restaurant and read French protest signs.

[schere]

You can actually improve your skills through various apps and conversation practice.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO

[AI Opinion]

I’ve learned a few languages over the years; these helped most:

1. Daily small habits
20–30 minutes every day beat long weekly sessions.

2. Input first
Lots of listening and reading (podcasts with transcripts, graded readers) before worrying about speaking perfectly.

3. Speak early, but in “safe spaces”
Language exchanges, tutors, or patient friends. Accept mistakes as data, not failures.

4. Personal connections
Learn phrases you actually need for your life, work, hobbies.

5. Simple system
One main app/book, one tutor, one routine. Consistency matters more than resources.

[jennifer_bloom]

To learn Hebrew, I relied on the interlinear bible that has English and Hebrew words side by side, as well as a matching audio recording of the bible script that reads the Hebrew to you, and the interlinear bible contains phonemes as well as translated meanings and the speech pace is very slow so it helps you retain information. To learn the Hindi Alphabet, I purchased a book on Sanskrit and took a class on Sanskrit in university, as well as being tutored in Sanskrit by a graduate admissions professor at the University of Toronto alongside other Graduate students and PhD students there.

[queenofcardio]

Watching a lot of videos and trying to talk with other people

[schere]

I’ll take your suggestion into consideration.

[Anonymous]

Classes at school. Conversation stuff.