Learning a language on your own - could you do it?
By maezee
@maezee (41988)
United States
December 30, 2009 4:49pm CST
Or HAVE you done it in the past? Were you successful? I find that learning in a classroom is so much easier. Because getting a good grade is equivalent to acquiring a good grasp of the language. It's homework, essentially, so there's a lot of pressure on you and it makes you motivated. When there IS no homework, no professor or TA asking you questions and making you do presentations.. It just feels a little.. chaotic. And self-driven, of course.
I want to learn Swedish while my sister is away in Sweden. We like having a *secret* language that we can communicate to each other in; like when we go shopping or work out so as to keep the privacy of what we're saying to ourselves. Ha, yeah, we're mean! We used to talk in pig latin (remember that?! lmao) until we turned about 10 and it wasn't cool anymore. LOL.
Anyway, I'm taking the plunge and trying to learn Swedish without the help of Rosetta Stone or going to school for it. I just got some self-instructional materials from the library that I hope will help. (Today I learned how to say "Excuse me", "How are you?", "I am American", and variations of "Do you understand English/Swedish?". Quite an interesting day.
Have you ever learned, or tried to learn, a language on your own? How did it go?
1 person likes this
27 responses
@karthi_88 (299)
• India
31 Dec 09
ya friend if learn in class room we can learn the language soon and easily.if we learn a language by ourself it will take time for us to learn the language and if we have any doubt we should refer books search for the word and know the meaning and pronunciation of the word,as we learn it by ourself we will never forget what we learnt but if we learn a language in classroom sometimes we wont listen properly and will forget what they teached and have to do homework.
wish you a happy new year:)
@bhav27 (442)
• India
1 Jan 10
hi maezee i personally think that it is possible to learn any other language on your will without any ones help ,but for that you even have to change some routine habits , like you have to be very punctual towards your language guide and have to use in day to day life and have to practise in front of the mirror and repeat the sentences , learning the meaning and putting words into the language and all , it is toufh though but not impossible and if one really wants to learn it then he can.
@raghul77ster (2132)
• India
31 Dec 09
Hopefully, we can..
But it depends upon the easiness and Hardness of the language.
In my schooling, I tried to learn Hindi. But unsuccessful.
Sametime, i never learned Malayalam language but i could understand many of the words due to the reason, my neighbors belong to that language.
Recently, my friend Sridhar bought a book (just 90 pages) to learn malayalam language as many of his customers have language problem during purchase. i just smiled when he told me he trying to learn malayalam through that book. to my surprise, he learned much and now he is 75% ready with that language. these all happened just in 2 weeks of time. I believe that it was easy for him because many word are common between our mother tongue (Tamil language) and malayalam. Thats the reason he learned very quick.
and Now I remember, The same sridhar could never learn Hindi language even by going to class for 3 months. Finally he gave up the plan of learning Hindi language. All what he knew is to tell numbers 1 to 20 in hindi and few other questions.
I think the reason he could not learn is, due to hard teaching.
Personally, I believe that learning any language is possible. But time factor differs.
@alalocorre (12)
• Argentina
31 Dec 09
HI, I'm Alvaro from Argentina and I can say that you realy can learn a lenguage by your own... if you don't believe me look at me! I've learn English!!! I will tell you how it works for me, firs of all you have to learn the basics gramatical things, the verbal conjugations and all that stuf, and then you have to reed a lot of books in the lenguage you are interest in, whith a dictionary close to you. I'm doing it now, I'm reading harry potter in english, I've learn a lot. And then when you are shure you know to read start listening to songs in sweden, start listening videos in youtube in sweden to learn the listening.
@crazybubu (230)
• India
31 Dec 09
Hey hi,I know of a networking site which gives free online language learning tutorials.You can learn any language through this site.Its called livemocha.com.I am leraning french with it.Its totally free and you dont have to pay a single penny.The tutorials start from the most basic level and slowly move to the advanced ones.
MOreover,since its a networking site you can communicate from people of different parts of the world with the same interest like yours.It sreally a good site and will definitly help you learn swedish.Its not a money making site but language learning site.
mukul
@indocorner (546)
• Indonesia
31 Dec 09
Yep, I've ever tried to learn Korean on my own but get nothing except just a bit. I can learn the chunks of speech only. I think I cant acquire this language if i learn it only on my own way without any course n teacher.
@jenfer (166)
• United States
31 Dec 09
back in my college days, we do have a french language subject. And yes, learning different language is really interesting and since this is part of our academic thing the only driving force for me to learn is to have good grades. But I just realized now, even though I understand a 'lil bit of french it so freakin hard for me to learn it after school and most especially if you don't have the passion nor liking the language itself. Well, base on my experience learning different language will be very easy w/ the help of all the books on your own.. If, and only if, you have the passion of doing it or you really want to use the language in the near future.
@carmelbg (519)
•
31 Dec 09
I have learnt spanish using Rosetta stone. Its a software package and I found it to be amazing. It makes you think in the language rather than thinking of the word in english then putting it into the language. It has different pictures where you listen to the phrases and select the correct one. It also has a dictation function and records and scores your pronounciation. I am now trying to learn bulgarian and unfortunately its not available on Rosetta stone. I am having to use books and cds and try and learn from my neighbours, its a very difficult language and its slow progress but I love learning something new! I know Rosetta stone is expensive but its the fastest and easiest way that I have found to learn a language.
@OYGAK2005 (371)
• Saudi Arabia
31 Dec 09
hi...maezee...it is really a meaningful discussion!...yes i have experience learning language.some times i think since my was high school my much more time spended to learing language .my first language was chinese . i think learned chinese was pretty long and boring process.i also i have a habit that is if i want ot learn one foreign learn om my own....i have to say in spite of leaned english ,chinese.also other uzback..and some arabic...i almost relyed on my own....it is really good method.......good luck...
@adamc151 (476)
•
31 Dec 09
Learning a new language is something i have always wanted to do. I did french and german at school but during lessons i couldn't have been more bored. In my opinion, i think it takes real life situations in order to learn a language. and that is what a lot of instructional videos and audio tapes try to do now. They try matching words with pictures and everyday situations. I think that with the help of these instructional videos i could learn a new language :)
@heamavit (7)
• Iraq
31 Dec 09
learning foriegn language on your own is'nt an easy thing but if made commitment and kept studying putting it in mind and insisting on keeping learning with a systematic schedule no doubt you will make a get on and with the time the process will be easer.You may have a friend or someone who can help you listening to you and memorizing the meanings and grammers with you will add a good way of better mastering the language..never leave anything that may improve your language..chatting..making friends learning the same language and of course having chatting with citizins of the langauge informing them that you are trying to learn thier language and need help whenever needed.
@Rock_Me_In (400)
• India
31 Dec 09
Hi Maezee.
Learning in a classroom is always equal to getting the data free of cost and easy and no need to work. But learning something by ourselves is truely hard work. The things that come of hard work always stays in our heart rather than the other my friend. But when learnt in a class reduces a lot of time but many important aspects gets lost.
Thus I consider both learning in a class with individual work in getting deeper in the subject is the best way to know a language or anything else my friend.
@javoblrbaba (189)
• India
31 Dec 09
Dear Maezee,
learning of language depends on how often you speak in that language, knowing the sentences and grammer is very easy but you completely learn the language when you try to speak, there is no much difference between learning from academy and learning by your own, it depends only on our interest and on our performance.
@zhaobener (2)
• China
31 Dec 09
In my opinion, learning a foreign language by watching soap opera is a good way. That because learning a foreign language needs doing more practices. It is an avilable way to keep oneself in a different culture atomsphere, but you could not expect that some one can be a partner for you to practice all the time.
@drakesuyat (1063)
• Philippines
31 Dec 09
when it comes to learning languages, i always believe that whether you go to school or have it self study, for as long as you keep on practicing, you'll master it eventually. i started learning english language in grade school but i must admit that i never become a master of it coz its not our native language although i can understand it whenever i converse with english people and can express myself somehow. here in the philippines we have a loooottt of dialects. i have learned 3 and even wanted to learn more. i want to study more on english as well as chinese spanish and japanese. happy new year maezee!
@snam23 (3157)
• United States
31 Dec 09
Interesting you should ask because I learned English on my own. Well not really on my own, but moving to America when I was 6 years old forced me to learn it to get through school. Now I speak English better than my first language! 
What I found helpful was to be surrounded by the language, either go to the country (like your sister) or get as close as possible by reading a book in that language or find a TV program. The more experience you get with the language the easier it will be to learn. Learning a language on your own can be difficult if you do not have someone next to you teaching you the pronunciations, which can make speaking very difficult when you meet a native. You can look online for audio tools. I don't know if there are any free ones for Swedish, but there are tons for Spanish and French.
What I found helpful was to be surrounded by the language, either go to the country (like your sister) or get as close as possible by reading a book in that language or find a TV program. The more experience you get with the language the easier it will be to learn. Learning a language on your own can be difficult if you do not have someone next to you teaching you the pronunciations, which can make speaking very difficult when you meet a native. You can look online for audio tools. I don't know if there are any free ones for Swedish, but there are tons for Spanish and French. @ronnyb (6113)
• Jamaica
31 Dec 09
I keep hearing about rosetta stone and its ability to aid in the speed at which a language is learned .I doubt this though because each language has it peculiarities .I mean take english language for example I mean you will have to know that you cant say " you is" even thouh both you and is are a singular verb agreement that would normally hold for any other singular noun.Granted there are certain rules that will enable you to learn the language faster but at the same time I dont think that it was difficult to learn the language on your own
@kathy714 (128)
• China
31 Dec 09
I learned three foreign languages: English, Russian and Japan. The best languages I speak is English and Russian which I learned in Class. Speaking from my experience, the best way to learn a language is with a group in which you could share and communicate your ideas with others which makes the learning more intersting. This is particularly essecial for children.
And the advantage of group learning is that you can correct your mistakes timely. When I started to learn Japan a few years ago. I bought some books and taught myself. But it was very difficult to learn the pronunciation. Nobody will tell me whether I pronunced correctly or not. It is quite likely that you keep speaking the wrong words for years before someone point the mistake to you.
@yanit08 (5)
• Philippines
31 Dec 09
I tried to learn the Spanish language when I was small, coz my sister have a spanish-english dictionary before. Well, i find it easier because our dialect here in Phil. is very similar to the Espanyol language. Although I find it hard to construct the sentence perfectly.
When I went to Arab country, I find it easier to learn the language when I am talking to kids..:)
@blizzard918 (15)
• China
31 Dec 09
Hello,maezee. I learn English myself now. Though I have learned English in school from middle school to university,but my English always poor to communicate with English speaker. I will learn English longtime for communication, for working, for making friend, and so on.
