How your brain is wired to learn a language in 10 days?

[David]

I found that after 3 weeks in Japan I hardly learned anything because I couldn't read anything, but after a few days in Montreal I could read most French signs since I could recognize them.

You would think living in Houston I'd be fluent in Spanish because of all the beer billboards

[930addict]

When I was young (and religious) I applied to go on a church mission. I was to be sent to Japan so they put me in a Japanese immersion program to learn the language. Everything was in Japanese. We were not allowed to speak English. After one week I was speaking complete sentences to my companions and even saying prayers in Japanese. I think the only way to learn a language is immersing yourself in it.

[Zeke]

Well, I couldn't learn enough Spanish in high school to get more than a C in 2 semesters. Musta been the wrong 2500 words.
If I didn't speak English, I'd hate to learn from anyone I know. We doan speaka da englise.

[M.D. Holloway]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Good! Then you can talk to my wife...

Deal but you have to learn 'crazy red head' so you can speak to mine!

[ckissick]

I'm currently learning Swedish using Rosetta Stone. It's a great system, and I think I could easily learn it well enough to have a boring conversation within 10 days. I just wonder why "de" is pronounced "dome". Livi?

[Rick Lee]

I'm on day 7 in China, my fourth time here and I hear nothing but Mandarin all day long at the dinner table, on the radio and tv, in the taxi, in the train station, nothing but Mandarin. I have a very keen ear for languages and I can pick up the subject matter of most conversations. But there is no way in the world anyone is picking up Mandarin just by being surrounded by it. It's a tough language and an even tougher alphabet, even when there's no dialect or cursive writing, respectively.

German, OTOH, can be learned that way, or at least after you have the fundamentals down. There are no silent letters, every word is pronounced the way it is spelled and even the biggest compound words can easily be figured out if you have a basic vocabulary of the root words. To this day I can instantly figure out words I've never heard or read before just because of the root words within it. Grammar is pretty tough, but not really necessary for just trying to function.

[livi]

Steve, that Dialectizer was funny!

[Bill Douglas]

I spent about three years part time learning Germin, I mean German, and I'm not very good at it. I had a German girl friend so I learnt one very well, but these days I can only string together very simple sentences and haven't got a clue what they are saying.

[PorscheGAL]

I spent most of high school and 2 semesters in college learning French. Went to Paris on my honeymoon, got in a cab and told the driver where to go. He turns completely around in his seat and says "Don't ever speak French again, your accent is terrible." Having grown up and lived in the South most of my life, I have a very strong accent. Now, if a program could make me lose the accent just while I am speaking a foreign language, that would be great.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by PorscheGAL

I spent most of high school and 2 semesters in college learning French. Went to Paris on my honeymoon, got in a cab and told the driver where to go. He turns completely around in his seat and says "Don't ever speak French again, your accent is terrible." Having grown up and lived in the South most of my life, I have a very strong accent. Now, if a program could make me lose the accent just while I am speaking a foreign language, that would be great.

Hahah, that's a funny story.

I'm sure it is possible. Hugh Laurie (House) is a Brit, but has no accent when he's on the tube. Movie stars fake accents or lose accents all of the time.

[ckissick]

Originally Posted by PorscheGAL

Now, if a program could make me lose the accent just while I am speaking a foreign language, that would be great.

Rosetta Stone requires you to speak into a microphone and say words until you get it right. No accent allowed. Of course, you may spend all night on one word until you go crazy. Like Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau trying to say "hamburger".

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by PorscheGAL

....Having grown up and lived in the South most of my life, I have a very strong accent. Now, if a program could make me lose the accent just while I am speaking a foreign language, that would be great.

Originally Posted by ckissick

Rosetta Stone requires you to speak into a microphone and say words until you get it right. No accent allowed. Of course, you may spend all night on one word until you go crazy.....

My Spanish IV professor in college was fresh from Madrid, and his "thing" was enunciation too. I swear he'd spend 15 minutes just trying to elicit a proper "Hola!" from folks "down east". The prof eventually realized "that just ain't gonna happen"...heck we can't even say "Hello" properly .