Not sure if this is right place but here goes. I have been wanting to learn a new language, but have found it very dificult to focus and concentrate. Any tips would be helpfull. This is not for a class but more for me. I suppose because no one is there to help keep me on track is part of it, but still having trouble. So some help would be great. Thanks

[H3rmit]

Hi. I'm currently learning a new language, too. In the past 4 months, I helped my husband learn a new language (one that I know and he didn't at all). I also used to be an immersion language teacher myself. So, tell me more about your learning approach. What resources do you have or plan to get?

In general the best thing would be to work consistently for short periods each day, say half an hour a day. When you can concentrate more, you can go longer, say up to 2 hours. Another good tip is integrate it into your life - post words and phrases around your home, for visual learning and repetition. You can also make little matching and memory games with cards. That can be for pronunciation, meaning, making a sentence - you can build up more complex tasks with the same little card set. (I use small bits of cardboard, making a set of 20 pairs by cutting up just a couple of small filing cards.)

What are your goals? Reading? Listening? Speaking? Think about how you are going to use this language, because that shapes how you should learn. A natural way to start is with greetings and then common functions such as counting, shopping, getting and giving directions, finding your way around town and on transit, all the kind of stuff you'd find in the back of a travel guidebook. But if you want to learn Roman and classical Greek, I'd take a different approach. Certainly it always helps to have audio recordings to train your ear. My public library has joined the Mango service (which is why I started studying just now) and it is great for getting you started. Perhaps you have access to something similar in your community.

Tell me more.

[(JD)]

I really enjoy learning new languages! Currently (for 22 months) I have been working on Modern Hebrew. In fact, this weekend I had set aside to review ALL the lessons (they're on CD) up to where I stopped (when my service dog Caleb was diagnosed with lymphoma 5 weeks ago.)

I've studied many languages, of course having learned my native English very well helped me understand how other languages are differently structured. Once you have your native language well in hand, it's easier to add a language and then each language after that it's even easier to learn a new one! So with that said, make sure you are proficient in (I am assuming) English first. Review grammar and spelling or any area where you are weak--it will help honest.

I've used different methods to learn and have also learned what works best for me. You'll need to figure this out for yourself as well. If you are a visual person, then adding pictures will be good. A person learns best by immersion--so if you can do audible and visual and repetition verbally it will give strength to what you do learn. (So you might want to put the words to common things around your home written on stickeys etc. )

I learned International Morse Code the easiest by first memorizing the alphabet and then focussing on favorite sentences (such as "I love you" was my first!)

For Cherokee, since it's syllabary, visual study was first, then learning the combinations of sounds etc.

For Spanish, well, I learned that by rote in school, pure reading and repetition UGH for me... and while I was fluent after it finally "clicked" one day, I lost fluency due to the brain trauma. (This is why I keep studying language, hoping that a new language will help the brain reconnect to the Spanish?)

Hebrew is totally different for me than Spanish and French.. I love it and through studying it (CDs and just now beginning to write and read it) I AM beginning to remember Spanish words as well...so cool!

I think I rambled. Sorry.

What I would suggest is that if you find the language you picked is too hard, try a different one --- and make it fun! Use it too--- as you drive / ride think about something in that language as you see it---or in your mind describe someone in the elevator using words you've just learned.

Good wishes! Go for it! Research has shown that just JUST STUDYING a new language develops areas of the brain and keeps it healthy (you don't have to ever learn it!)

[theapologist]

Hi, I've been using Duolingo to learn some German and just by doing a few exercises everyday for about six months, I find myself on German messageboards accidentally but able to understand things that are being said! Not all of it, as my progress is quite slow but Duolingo itself (free service website that has an iOS app too) has helped greatly - it provides articles that you can translate or review other people's translations and offers use of the language and words in may contexts, each sentence to be translated has a little messageboard where people discuss its validity etc. I even picked up French and Portuguese!

H3rmit. Thank you for the sugestion. I am trying to learn Russian. Both speaking and reading and writing. I hope to be fluent. As for resorces I have a few books, the internet, and an app I found for nook. Unfourtunatly there is not a person that I can practice with. As far as concentration, I ususally don't have a problem but for some reason I just can't get into it. I have only been at it for a week or two, but still having trouble with the alphebet.

(JD). Thank you for the sugestions. In high school, I barely passed English. Wish now I had paided more attention. So i definately will be revisiting that. What made you decide to learn Cherokee and Hebrew?

[H3rmit]

Okay, so you want to learn Russian. And you know English and no other language, right? So it's fairly difficult to learn, but not in the most difficult group or even the more difficult * ones within its group:

Language Difficulty Ranking | Effective Language Learning

I wanted to learn the Arabic script. I found youtube videos were helpful! There's an Arabic alphabet song that makes it easy. Probably some similar things for Russian. Check out youtube for fun resources on basic things like the Cyrillic alphabet.

Here's one, and there are probably better ones:

Here's the awesome Arabic one, in case anyone wants their mind blown. The way they do it also helps explain the basic diacritic marks in the script:

Then start building, using the letters you do know, posting things up around your place, words for common things like table, window, book, fork, whatever, and write English transliterations and translations if you like, in smaller text on the same paper, or on the back. Make a game of it at each stage, and you will move on faster. If you are at a loss for ideas, imagine you were trying to teach it to a kid.

For conversation partner, you can likely find someone on the net who would like to exchange practice with you over skype. Skype is free. Do some googling, and you should be able to find someone if you want to.

After seeing that difficulty chart, I think it might be a good idea to start learning something a little easier. Thanks for the help.

I have learned a few languages using Rosetta Stone software. It makes it incredibly easy for me because it combines visualpictures, writing, spoken word, new vocabulary, games, and lots more.

[H3rmit]

Starry Night is right - you don't need to give up on Russian, but just use multiple approaches. And you can do that yourself creatively and ad-hoc as I described, or more efficiently and for a price use an computer-based system that lays it all out for you.

[(JD)]

Originally Posted by overthis

(JD). Thank you for the sugestions. In high school, I barely passed English. Wish now I had paided more attention. So i definately will be revisiting that. What made you decide to learn Cherokee and Hebrew?

There's an oral history of my paternal great grandfather coming from Scotland and marrying a Cherokee woman right at the time of or just before the Trail of Tears time... 1835 or so...

I am a student of the Bible and learned some Greek in Bible School but also wanted to be able to ferret out the roots of the Old Testament...and the more I learned about the Hebrew language, the more I desired to learn it.

One of the best books if it is still around, for learning English grammar is English 3200. It is a workbook in a different style and easy to go through. It reinforces what you just learned as you go farther, giving you the answer on the back of the next page even. There is one for high school level and one for college level, or there was.

I also know American Sign Language. Again, a visual language. The Cherokee syllabary and the Hebrew alphabet are quite similar (and indeed the Hebrew symbols were the basis for Cherokee symbols.) But I "see" Cherokee and Hebrew as much as hear it... I am a visual person. I think I was just "cut out" for language and wish I had begun much earlier to study them intensely.

Update: I see the English 3200 is updated and around (mine is from 1972 and does not have "writing applications".) This one is by the same guy, so I'm sure it will suit your needs, if you wish to try it. (See if you can get the library to track one down for you first?)

[vans1974]

Originally Posted by overthis

Not sure if this is right place but here goes. I have been wanting to learn a new language, but have found it very dificult to focus and concentrate. Any tips would be helpfull. This is not for a class but more for me. I suppose because no one is there to help keep me on track is part of it, but still having trouble. So some help would be great. Thanks

Sorry to hear...for concentration and focus I find a psycho stimulant like Concerta helps! Best of luck!!