If you are reading this, I will assume that English is your first language. In the linguistic world, you hit the jackpot. People who are born into an English-speaking family and country will have little necessity in their lives to truly learn a new language. This is exactly why it is absolutely crucial that you, as a driven and motivated man, put in the time and effort to do the one thing that most people in the world simply do not — learn a new language.
I won’t patronize you by telling you that it will be a hard task; that much is obvious. In fact, it’s probably harder than you think. There are no shortcuts, and it will take much longer than you would like to feel the progress you want. However, there is good news as well. There are tools and strategies that will help you along the way. There are even ways to get a native-speaking private tutor for very cheap. And the payoff you feel as you make progress and become stronger in the language and in your overall cognitive ability is like nothing else.
All of this doesn’t make a bit of difference though unless you have the proper motivation to begin learning a language and stick with it. While some may argue the benefits of language learning for game, which are undeniable, I think that the greater good comes in the form of self improvement. The first area of development and the first hurdle in learning a foreign language is…
Self Discipline
Learning a new language is simply the most consuming activity there is in terms of time input and mental work. With proper daily practice, a person could learn an instrument from scratch and be proficient within a year. A year of daily practice will barely have you conversational in a new language. With the goal of becoming functional in a language you will have to invest at least 30 minutes a day, though an hour is preferable, for at least a few years.
When I talk about functional, I don’t mean knowing how to order another beer at the bar. I define functional as being able to live and work in society using only the target language. Essentially, being able to read, write, listen, and speak about any topic up to about a high school level. While learning some of a language is better than not learning at all, the real benefits come from a high degree of proficiency.
The level of self discipline it requires to achieve this level of mastery is monumental. It will require a plan of action as well as the ability to follow through with that plan, even when it means eschewing other activities in favor of your language work. This is your brain workout, and just like you wouldn’t skip your gym routine to have a beer and burger with your friend, you can’t skip this either.
Figure out what kind of learner you are, and play to your strengths. Some people do well by memorizing vocabulary, especially using Memrise. Others may gain more from speaking practice with a native, which you can get on iTalki. One of my personal favorite methods is practicing through text messaging, where I have the benefit of being able to analyze and dissect the sentences or phrases that I read, and I’m able to pick up proper usage from that. But whatever you do, it has to be done daily, and with a way to check yourself as well. This leads to the next great benefit of language learning, which is…
Self Assessment
Language learning is different than many avenues of study or work because of its infinite nature. Language is a constantly expanding and evolving entity, a truly living being that can never be completely mastered. This nature lends itself to high degrees of subjective evaluation when trying to determine progress.
As you begin learning a new language and start to progress, you will have a huge burst of immediate ability as you learn the basics, things that can generally be considered objectively. Basic conversation elements, the ability to introduce yourself, numbers and colors, and creating basic sentences are among these objective markers at the beginning of your journey. Once you pass the basics though, the road to fluency becomes a lot murkier.
Depending on your specific goals and reasons for learning the language, you will likely study things differently than other people on a similar proficiency level as yourself. When I’m out with some of my friends who are learning the same language as me, it’s very common for me to ask my friend the meaning of something he says, and the other way around. We often learn different things from different settings and experiences, so we can share those with each other to continue improving while we still learn what’s most important to each of us.
This is why the personal skill of self assessment is absolutely imperative to your continued success. You have to constantly be testing yourself, whether with flash cards or against a natural language environment if possible, and determine where your progress is satisfactory or where it needs improvement. An easy first step for this assessment and growth is to learn a new phrase and resolve to use it three times in regular conversation during the coming week. By the end of that week it should be ingrained as a standard part of your vocabulary.
The most important and beneficial aspect of this is that it forces you to be completely honest with yourself. There’s nobody here to pat you on the back, and there’s nobody here to laugh at you for making a mistake. The only grade you get is how satisfied you are with your own performance. Sometimes you’ll feel great about it, maybe surprising yourself with how much you’ve progressed recently. Other times you might get the shit kicked out of you in a verbal discourse and realize you have to dust off some old study materials. Either way, the only judge and the only impetus for improvement is you.
This self reliance and self assessment translates into other parts of your life as well, such as being in the gym and watching your form in the mirror or making sure you do your reps until failure, then pushing yourself for one more. It’s a mindset that grows to accept nothing less than the absolute best you can give at any one time, because it’s the mindset necessary to properly develop language skills to the point of functional proficiency.
One of the side benefits of this demanding mentality is that it helps develop a tremendous amount of…
Self Confidence
When you first begin learning a language, your confidence will likely suffer. This is especially true if you find yourself immersed in a native language environment and you can’t understand anything going on around you. The first time I moved out of the US for an extended period of time, I went from understanding everything around me to suddenly not even knowing how to read a menu. You feel like a toddler again, but without family to guide and help you. It’s a swift kick in the balls, to say the least.
The good news is that this functions as a J curve. Although your confidence will go down at first, it will soon rise to new heights. With no crutch and the right attitude, it’s possible to quickly start picking up a language. You begin to recognize words here and there, and soon you are making complete sentences on your own. The thrill you get from the first time you say something that’s not memorized from a phrase book and people understand you is one of the most exhilarating moments in your life. It gives you an enormous boost to your self-confidence.
You’ll find your desire to study increased as well as your desire to speak the language and show off your new-found abilities. You’ll feel more comfortable speaking with others, in both your native and target languages. You’ll also grow much more comfortable speaking with new people you don’t know, because that’s much of what you have to do in order to practice a new language. This can be especially beneficial if you ever have approach anxiety, which everyone does to some degree. You’ll be able to do cold approaches on girls you don’t know, practicing a language and game at the same time.
You’ll also feel greater confidence in the other things you do. For any business, class, or hobbies you in which you participate, you will always remember that you have been able to conquer the mysteries of an entire new language, an ability is so complex and demanding that we are the only known species to be able to do it. On top of that, most people can’t or don’t do it. You are in the mental 1%. And that embedded knowledge will show in your every action.
Conclusion
In essence, learning a new language can be the most important thing you do in your life for yourself. The journey will help you grow and discover more about yourself. It will illuminate the ways you think, both good and bad. It will broaden your horizons and capacities in all aspects of life. It will try you and test you, it will knock you down and kick you. But most important of all, at the end of the day you will be that much stronger and more well-rounded for it. So stop reading this and go get started on your new language.
Read More: 15 Language Learning Tips For Self-Study
I do think about practicing my french again, but I just haven’t spent the time. I also agree that learning a new language is just about the best mental exercise you can take up, it’s a great way for old people to stay young.
Good Article.
But why French? I was about to learn Korean, I saw Korean influence is among the biggest in the world, but while the alphabet is easy, that language for some reason is classified as level 5 in difficulty, the same as Chinese and Japanese! I don’t know anymore what language is worth it, I also though in Hindi and Portuguese because their potential ,anyways in all the 3 cases Pop culture motivated me a lot too (Korean dramas, Brazilian Telenovelas, Indian films)
I was in junior college at the time, god knows the depths of my irrationality back then.
French is a gorgeous language and the only truly good thing to come from the corruption of Latin. Study it, German and Anglo-Saxon (*old* English from the year 800 AD, not the stuff Shakespeare wrote) and you’ll have a command on modern English that is unrivaled by your fellow countrymen.
I find that learning other languages is the absolute BEST way to fine-tune your own understanding of your native language. It creates contrast in meanings and ways of expression that you cannot get otherwise. Just learning your native language teaches you nothing about how other people express similar ideas. When you see how other people use their own languages, from the inside, you better understand how to communicate yourself.
Absolutely agree. I took French through high school as well as through college, to the point where I suspect I should have declared a minor in French. Studied anglo-saxon (mostly Wessex version, because King Aelfred The Great) and combining both I find I can navigate through English in ways that others cannot. It also helps with etymology (a hobby of mine) as well as providing a firm foundation upon which I can more-or-less noodle out many words from various other Indo-Europearn languages without “help” (or at least get the gist of some items).
What sucks is that without constant use, everything tends to fade. Guess that’s why abroad traveling is a good thing.
It’s also great to read the words of your particular favorite philosophers/writers in their native tongue. You’re correct that seeing their thoughts from the inside provides a lot of enlightenment.
Korean belongs to the same family as Chinese and has many similarities, much as German and English are both related and somewhat intelligible to each other (at least at a very basic level, like “come here”/”komm hier”, etc). It’s to be expected then to rate as difficult as Chinese I’d think.
You are absolutely incorrect. You need to use google before you speak non-sense.
Korean is a Language isolate.
You know what? You’re correct. WTF was I thinking of, now that you bring it up?
Thanks for the correction.
My understanding is that if Math had a native language, Korean would fit perfectly as Korean has the lowest number of grammatic/spelling rule-exceptions of any language on earth.
I currently live in Korea, and I’ve been learning it for a while now. While the alphabet is easy to learn (possible in as little as 3 hours of self-study), don’t let that fool you. The nuance in the Korean language is unlike any other that I’ve ever studied. Any given verb can have over 600 possible endings, which is one of the reasons it’s categorized as level 5 difficulty. Add to that the Chinese roots so that, like Japanese, many words have a pronunciation based on the Chinese root and a different one for the Korean version.
It’s not an easy language to learn, and honestly doesn’t open up that many opportunities outside of Korea, but don’t let that dissuade you. If you have a genuine passion and interest in it, learning Korean will ultimately be easier for you than trying to learn a language you aren’t as interested in. I work on my Korean every day, and I love it. A good place to start is http://www.talktomeinkorean.com. If you have questions or want some more resources, let me know and I’ll get you set up.
Whatever proficiency you had, you can regain fairly easily. I took French in high school, stopped for a few years, and then picked it back up in college within 3 weeks. Those three weeks were hell, tho haha
I’m learning Klingon. Top that motherfuckers!
Elvish.
Stuff that in your pipe and smoke it!
Finnish. Read ’em an’ weep.
Elvish was based off of Finnish.
Put that in your little red wagon!
Italian. The original Divine Comedy sounds very Elvish. People always bring up Finnish, but it’s obvious that Tolkien’s Quenya was also influenced by Italian.
Actually I’m fairly certain that it was Tolkien himself (or his son) that mentions the connection to Finnish. Will need to go back to some of my old Tolkien writings (non-fiction) to see if I can locate that precisely. Would hate to have run on a mistaken concept for this long, heh.
I have no knowledge whatsoever of Elvish, but Finnish is definitely the hardest language I’ve ever studied. There are virtually no languages anywhere that scare or intimidate me anymore.
And this is the little red wagon that COULD, muthafukkAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!
[throwing of obscure gang signs]
I actually thought you were referencing Finnish due to my throwing out “Elvish”, heh.
Finnish is major cool and a very hard language. We had over the years 2 Finnish exchange students in my high school. One was a guy who became a very good friend, the other was a girl who was one of the most absolutely beautiful girls I had ever seen (up to that point in time). I was very motivated to learn a few words of it, and can today count to 10 AND curse out somebody in Finnish. Nothing more though, because as you mention, it’s major hard and I simply didn’t have the beans to go further with it in high school.
Because Qo’noS is crowded with hotties
Additionally, languages can be technical. For instance, learning a computer programming language is a wonderful pursuit, and constructive. It forces logical thinking and adherence to structure, and you can tinker and build things with it along the way. It sharpen a person’s problem-solving skills and provides him with a fun and marketable skill once all is said and done. To see a robot that you built do an astronomical amount of work in one second is thrilling! Delving into the rigorous language of mathematics is similar and also very satisfying. Though, admittedly, these languages do NOT impress the ladies. :
People really do need to try programming. It really does expand your mind and help you look at problems and solutions much differently. Sorting algorithms, data structures, object relationships, and discrete mathematics (logic) is very useful topics to study that can be used in any line of work.
Professional programmer here. I do it for a living and sometimes the analytic piece is hard to shut off
Nah, screw all that. The biggest benefit to learning amateur programming is problem solving, IE finding approachable solutions and methods to problems, how to go about solve said problems, and executing them.
You beat me to the punch on this one. I was going to say the same thing.
(Object Oriented) programmers break everything down into objects that perform actions. After thinking that way for many years, it starts to spill over into regular life and you view things differently.
Good point. The technical and professional languages of different skillets (computer, carpentry, HVAC repair etc.) also stretch your mind and perspectives.. even wrote a post about that very point once.
One thing you DO get out of different languages, rather than professional usages/programming is different grammar and thought structures, not just different concepts and skills.
to clarify your last paragraph, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that computer languages or “the language of classical music” (whatever that means) are similar to human languages in any way. definitely worthwhile to learn, but completely different. knowing how to code in java or play chopin won’t help you learn russian at all.
Ah yes, but they SHOULD.
I read and write in at least 7 languages – including English (my second),classical music, and PHP……. but the reason this doesn’t “impress the ladies” is because NOTHING “impresses” the ladies.
Women are so goddam toxic these days they will attack a internet comment for a single TYPO without it even crossing the tiny transom of her mind that English isn’t even his first language. If she actually KNEW that I am far superior in languages than she could even IMAGINE herself to be…. she would shut the fuck up and disappear out of sheer embarrassment.
I didn’t learn PHP and C++, the violin, how to be a virtuoso on the piano, or attend language school to “impress the ladies” I can tell you that. And I don’t give a fuck if it impresses them or not. Nor should you.
Most women can’t even CONCEPTUALIZE that a reader ever stepped out of “his mothers basement”….let alone read and play Rachmaninov on two instruments.
“Iimpressing the ladies” should be the LAST thing on every man’s fucking mind.
I’d like very much to read articles here from people who “read and write in at least 7 languages” about your learning experiences. Surely you could share some valuable advice.
I wouldn’t say reading and writing in 7 languages is a reliable indicator of anyone who is qualified to dispense advice….. but I have some stories about my days as a part time bartender in my early 20s – which would turn your hair white.
You can go to University for 7 years and have a degree in psychology , – OR – be a bartender for a couple of years.
Guess who is more qualified to give advice on human nature.
It sounds impressive, but it really isn’t. If you’re fairly bright and you study a Romance language – even more so if you also add Latin – you will stand a good shot at being able to read every Romance language with the exception of Romanian. If you also study a Germanic language, especially if you already also speak English, you’ll stand a good chance of reading Dutch, Afrikaans, Old English, etc.
From that point, it doesn’t take much further study to get comfortable producing the forms and vocab yourself. Reading and writing languages is fairly easy for people with the knack; speaking is more of a challenge, usually. I can read and write in Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, Italian, Old English and German. I can read Gothic, Old High German, Dutch, Portuguese and Romansh. But if you asked me which languages I could speak? Spanish is my only other fluent language; I get by in Italian and French, as a tourist, and almost get by in German – I have to switch to another language, sometimes. I could hold a conversation, slowly, in Latin, if I had to.
The best advice is to be systematic: learn a language from each “family” that you want to know, and then learn a parent language. I.e., learn Spanish and Latin, and you’ll do fairly well with all the Romance languages. Learn Dutch and Old High German, and you’ll do fine with Modern German, Afrikaans, and probably even some of the Northern Germanic tongues. Look for patterns – understand how vowels tended to change, how prefixes, suffixes and other units are generally adapted over from one language to another, and then, even if you don’t already “know” certain words or conjugations, your guess will be almost as good as knowing.
Men’s brains work so much differently from those of women, and so many modern books and learning aids are aimed at women, that I think a lot of men feel like they’re stupid for not “getting” it. But women are decent at simply regurgitating information, and that’s how everything is presented now: pieces of info to remember. Women have to have it drilled in, over and over, and practice it a lot. But men are designed to see patterns, and to synthesize the information in it, and to extrapolate in abstract and independent ways. If you start looking for patterns in language – or anything (like Mathematics, Music, etc.) – and see how and why they work, rather than simply memorizing a process or individual factoids, you will find that your masculine mind will suddenly start synthesizing and employing information far better than it can when it uses the endless worksheets and repetition aimed at women.
It’s not that impressive, unless you can communicate at the native level, with all the awareness of context, nuance, and casualness normal people communicate with. Technically I can speak and write in 9 languages, but four of those are Romance languages (learn one “core” one like French or Spanish, the rest except Romanian can be picked up in a few consecutive summers of boredom), two I picked up in he military, the other three I learned in college/grad school.
It’s like learning a computer language, learn one and learning something else is always a helluva lot easier than doing it the first time.
No act of self-improvement should ever be undertaken by men to impress women. It’s not worth it. If you want to impress them, you get better results by getting tats, injecting roids, and putting a baseball cap backwards on your head. Signal a low IQ and they will come.
Exactly. I was talking with a female acquaintance and she asked if I had any single friends. I showed her a picture on my phone of me and a friend who happens to be REALLY worked out. I mean this guy is in the gym 6 days a week for 10 years at least- and it showed. His shirt was open, and she took one look and said “he looks like a total asshole”.
Can you imagine? What a fucking cunt. He’s worked SO HARD for SO LONG with a level of discipline rarely matched (or seen!), and the modern Ameriskank behaves like he treated her badly before the first meeting. This is the toxic hateful Americunt at her show-stopping BEST. I would never even INTRODUCE that guy to her after that display…. never mind aspire to “impressing” her.
Anyone who uses the term “Impress women” in a sentence….. and the women who think they should be “impressed” can all just fuck right off. Impressing women is the most worthwhile and stupid aspiration.
Indeed. We are impressed when our fellow men go through tremendous hardship and adversity in order to achieve a goal. It’s entirely different with women. They wouldn’t care about the act of putting a man on Mars and seeing him walking on the surface to explore an environment no human has endured before. But they will care when he returns to Earth (assuming he does haha), because that guy will now be a celebrity, someone they can prostitute themselves for.
There is actually a country-ish song by Shania Twain (I think) entitled “That don’t impress me much”. When I first heard it I couldn’t believe my ears…. like who brainwashed her into thinking men should “impress” her?
It’s like this song seeped into the consciousness of every female I ever met since then. Like the entire “hive” adopted this mentality. It’s remarkable.
But I don’t blame the song. I blame the countless thirsty simps who actually jump through hoops for female approval. They fucking make me sick. And then WE have to do all the dirty work of deprogramming those bitches from their dementia.
Despite extensive personal observations, travel, and experience, and this coming as no news to me at all, I am still in awe as to how the Anglosphere manages to produce these creatures. In almost all other civilized nations on earth such vapid, supremely idiotic remarks would be seen as bringing shame not only to her, but also to her family and entourage as well, and would be conscientiously avoided by all but the lowest strata of society. Men have really screwed up big time in this part of the world – not only for raising such disgraces but also for apparently seeing nothing wrong in this in the first place.
That’s very true. No amount of learning impresses women. Its the products of the products of learning that impress the women.
Learning produces a higher salary, which produces a better standard of living and luxuries. And this is what gets the bitch’s attentions.
Where I live in Asia, the hottest girls are either with the rich guys, or the rebels (NOT hipsters).
Rich guys shopping in the most expensive supermarket in the city, always have hot, slim, sexy women with them. Very few have pigs by their side (except the few white guys who haven’t caught the fever yet, and are still sticking foolishly to their white pigs that came with them).
And the rebels with their spiky haircuts, tatts, studded jackets, Doc Martins, piercings, scowls on their faces.
These guys usually score decent babes all around the world.
SIMPS !!.. Good word.
If a girl is 20 mins later for a date, and doesn’t let you know she is going to be late. Just walk away, and SMS her that you are going home.
And if she sends you a dozen messages asking you to come back. Ignore them.
If every guy called out these bitches on their ridiculous behavior, and all the simps just stood on the sidelines, we could have women acting like humans again.
But, they have slowly, but surely, gained the upper hand. And now men are paying the price.
Agreed. So little empathy, sweetness, or nurturing in these gals. Just cold, mean-spirited, and ignorant human beings by and large.
“Impressing the ladies” should be the LAST thing on every man’s fucking mind. Any investment a man makes in himself will PAY. Giving two shits about what impresses the ladies only COSTS and shouldn’t even be worth an iota of consideration.”
You sir, won the internet with this. +10000!
Not surprising that they don’t give a shit. Never has a generation of women been more arrogant over their ignorance than this one.
Their idea of knowledge equates to feminist catch phrases: women make less than men, sexism, misogyny, etc. These phrases substitute for arguments or democratic debate. The phrase “a little knowledge can be dangerous” is the proper description of these faux intellectuals.
yeah, but it has nothing to do with learning a communication language.
I recommend every one to take a look at this revolutionary and unique language exchagne app HelloTalk http://www.HelloTalk.com
Excellent advice. Immersion is the best way. Makes me want to head up to Quebec for a few weeks (anywhere but Montreal) and polish up my French. 10 years ago, I was quasi-fluent. Have rarely used it since about 2005, but my mind is always sharper (in every way) when I do.
I have a reteorcial question: Is discipline worthwhile
EVEN if you DON’T get a sexual payoff?
Let’s say you KNEW that you would never have sex
again. Is the advice on R.O.K. STILL worth following?
Or must you have the hope of sex to compell you?
Let’s say I’m fat and sloppy. If I knew it would make
no difference in getting sex, should I STILL try to be
trim and fit, on general principle?
If I am a sexless drug addict, should I kick the habit
EVEN if it makes no difference in getting sex?
Would you just waste away or even kill yourself
if you couldn’t get sex?
Nicolai Tesla might be able to give you some insights into your questions. He was celibate, you know, and basically celebrated it as a cornerstone of his creativity. Even if he was biochemically wrong (dunno, I’m no biochemist) he surely was able to be celibate, happy and very, very inventive and productive.
That’s cause he probably had all manner of mechanical devices to use on himself in some back closet. Celibacy =/= no personal release of endorphins. In fact, it’s probably provable biochemically that anyone who ignores themselves for too long hastens death.
Stefan recently brought up some research about the orphans of Poland back when the USSR was in full swing, and how children given food, water, and all the basic necessities of life, still died because they were receiving NO interaction with other people.
Perhaps, like i said I’m no bio-chemist and am unqualified to make those determinations. What I do know is that he got by just peachy without sex, at least according to what he wrote AND what others wrote about him.
Smiling releases endorphins.
Since your question is rhetorical I guess you don’t really want an answer?
You are your mission.
You are better off being a drug addict than fat/sloppy for sex.
Nope. My first language is german. Nice article. I do agree. 🙂
I was talking to a Hispanic nurse that said Americans should learn other languages. I said I agree when I went to Germany I brought a pocket translator with and never needed it, and that Americans should learn German, Chinese, Japanese & Russian the big languages of business. The nurse said Spanish would be better. I replied “its only good if you want to give hand outs to those that won’t assimilate”
Spanish can come in handy if you have to communicate with border-jumpers who don’t know a lick of English.
Or your roofers/lawn care guys.
or reading cervantes or gabriel garcia marquez in the original.
Yea when an illegal alien tried raping a 13yo girl a month before the illegal alien was killed in what was documented in the “Documentary” Shenandoah the liberals not only didn’t cover it in the “documentary” but when brought up at a screening of the movie pretended it wouldn’t have any connection. I said “I am worldly enough to know that the age of consent in Mexico is 12 but don’t blame a 13yo girl for not knowing how to say no in Mexican.”
thats fucked up if u actually said that to her. seriously, a hot latina has no equal anywhere in the world, and you can take that to the bank.
She was being pretentious, and talking down about Americans. Also already hit the wall.
I’m only 19 yet without a doubt the best decision I’ve ever made so far has been to learn a foreign language along with English I’m fluent in German and somewhat proficient in French.Not only does learning a foreign language instill in you a sense of discipline but what it can do for your career and social life is invaluable (pretty much what the author has said anyway). Visiting Germany for the first time I made numerous friends and was able to get with girls much easier than usual. Being able to visit a foreign country and speak to the locals in their language is a huge bonus and it goes without saying the people that you will talk to will really appreciate the fact you’ve made an effort to learn their language, and will not mock you for getting one or two words wrong rather they’ll politely correct you or just let it go altogether, I experienced this first hand.
I remember talking to a smoking hot blonde in Munich I tried to do my best Austro – Bavarian accent and she kept laughing after asking her what was up she said my accent was weird, I asked her to explain she thought for a while and eventually said think of it like if a Jamaican person is trying to speak English in a Scottish accent, I just about pissed myself laughing (Im still working on perfecting the accent). Needless to say it was the easiest lay I’ve ever had in my life no bull shit like it is back home in the U.K. I suppose what I’m trying to say is learning a new language can open up a whole new life for you, give it some serious thought lads.
I used to think I’d like to learn Spanish or Thai to communicate with indigenous sluts, but I’ve changed my tune. I’m happy to meet foreign women, but since I believe the less communication between a man and a woman the better, I’d rather they know only basic english and I none of their language. It’s bad enough to be nagged the fuck to death in one language, but two or more?! Fuck that.
She really only needs to ask me, “Hungreeee?” or “Horneeee?”
I learned Spanish and live with my little gal in Latin America. I don’t want her to learn English. What for? So we can move to the States and have her adapt to the toxic culture? Fat chance. I won’t have it.
Been there, done that, lesson learned. The foreign female must be appreciated in her native habitat; they die in captivity.
Ditto. I speak from experience as well. Won’t make that mistake a second time.
I’ve been learning Spanish and Jesus, it’s hard. It is cool though as you start to understand it and talk with spanish women and you don’t need as much help as you use to. Is a cool ass feeling though
With Spanish, you need to master phonetics early on and decide what country dialect you prefer. Otherwise listening practice is too frustrating. Also, use the DRAE all the time.
I’ve picked Ecuador. I’ve been watching some ecuadortv.ecu. good stuff
I’ve been learning Spanish and Jesus, it’s hard.
I wasn’t aware that Jesus was a language. You learn something new every day, heh.
Is Spanish the first foreign language you’ve learned/are learning?
I learned some German. I was there for 5 years while in the Army but I want to be in Latin America
I’ve studied Linguistic science for many years. About 5 or so years ago, I pieced through a wide variety of reference materials and adjusted for overlap to compile a list of what I call the 14 International Communication languages.
The criteria for my list was as follows:
* have a functional comprehension of frequently-used verb structure. In most languages, this usually means Present Simple and Past Simple (as, in most languages, it’s possible to use the present tense to indicate the future tense)
* have a basic functioning knowledge of the grammar. In a case-declined language, know how to use the cases. In a non-case-declined language, know the syntax.
* know the 3,500 most frequently used vocabulary terms in the language. An international linguistic study some number of years ago found (among other things) that of all the interactions we have with other human beings over the course of our entire lives, approximately 80% of those interactions take place via a cor vocabulary that consists of (and the number they came up with was) 3,100 – 3,400 frequently-used words, and this is in your own native language. Learn the core 3,500 in a foreign language, and you’re set.
Now, with the 14-language list I came up with, if you can achieve the above abilities in all 14 of those languages, you become communicatively comprehensible and interactional with approximately 90% of the entire human population on planet Earth. The top six of those languages are actually the official languages of the United Nations. They are:
UN:
* English
* French
* Spanish
* Russian
* Mandarin
* Arabic
The rest:
* Hindi-Urdu
* Portuguese
* Japanese
* Indonesian
* German
* Turkish
* Persian
* Swahili
I put Hindi and Urdu together because in common speech and at the basic frequency levels of the vocabulary, they’re the same language. At the upper levels, Hindi is derived from Sanskrit (and uses the Devnagri alphabet) and Urdu derives from Persian (and uses a somewhat-altered version of the Arabic alphabet).
Hope this helps you all, my beloved brothers.
I can speak Spanish, but I generally refuse to speak Spanish to Mexicans in the United States. When I visit their country, I make the effort to speak only their language. If they’re in my country, legally or illegally, they damn well better learn my language.
It is more of a defense mechanism, if your level of Spanish was sufficient enough you would not go through this problem.
Best language you can learn in music. It works as therapy and it works on girls. Guys give you props and it’s low cost after initial equipment purchase.
Learn music before you learn a 2nd language, unless that 2nd language is English.
Hell, if you’re a writer you want to master English before learning a 2nd one anyway.
Having English as a first language is not really a linguistic jackpot – far from it. English is an extremely easy language to learn as a second language. I personally think French is the best first language. It gives easy access to other romance languages and also helps learning English a lot due to a great deal of shared vocabulary.
I agree that learning a new language is about the most useful thing one can do. A new language often opens up totally different ways of thinking and makes ones understanding of the world much deeper. Becoming (at least) bilingual is also good for the brain in general, it e.g. slows down development of the symptoms of the alzheimer’s disease.
Note also that in many primitive societies people are ordinarily conversant with multiple languages. For example children whose mother and father come from different tribes might learn two languages at home, a handful more from their playmates during childhood, and still some more when dealing with neighboring tribes when adults.
I definitely would not say English is easy.
English is my first language, so I am hardly objective. However, years of teaching English to Japanese speakers (two languages that have virtually nothing in common) made me realize how difficult English spelling and grammar can be to the language learner.
I am someone who learned and became fluent in another language in my late teens and early twenties , and I have to disagree: the ultimate is conquering your own fears.
I can speak English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French, I can also do accents spot on. Believe me guys the next time you open a set have some fun play a persona, it really gets you to self-amuse and not be focused around the girl, I just enjoy the time I spend talking to her, she’s completely in my reality of being British, Australian, French, Italian, whatever it is. You can see it immediately in a woman’s eyes when she hears a distinct accent, in a male dense environment, she’ll almost instantly want to talk to you and fuck you just for the stories she’ll be able to tell about your cool accent.
From a purely utilitarian perspective and also ease of learning you basically have three options:
1) Español (Spanish)- far and away the easiest for native English speakers. There as so many words in Spanish that are easily inferred to their meaning by native English speakers you will have a pretty easy climb. You can also communicate with the hordes of illegal invaders if you are in States in their native tongue. Lastly, if you descend upon South America searching for amazing ass this will pay dividends you cannot imagine in all places except Brazil. (But you will get enough of the conversation in Portuguese to power through for the close)
2) Pусский (Russian)- Cyrillic alphabet is a bitch at first and this is definitely something you -must- be disciplined and dedicated to, much more so than Spanish. But if you want to score some of the last completely untainted white women on planet earth, you have no choice really. And at the end of the day, let’s be honest… ALL Men of all races desire exactly that. Command of Russian is what separates you from being some British cunt at a stag party prowling for EEs in Prague, or a goofy ass sex tourist in Kiev, to a westerner with a genuine angle and knowledge of places east of Germany.
Not every EE chick is going to feel happy about you speaking Russian based on the history there, but is ALWAYS better than speaking English. Period. Your accent plus Russian will easily identify you as a foreigner, and hence, a curiousity. You won’t receive the animosity a native Russian would get for doing the same thing. You don’t have the time or inclination to learn the various Slavic off-shoot languages and since most of the FSU countries have Russian as a 2nd language it is the most “bang for your buck” figuratively, -and-, literally.
3) Southeast Asian language- take your pick. Unfortunately, there is little overlap here. Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese are distinctly different. Again from a purely utilitarian point of view. China is on the ascendancy globally, so your mastery of Mandarin Chinese has personal benefit beyond just the aspect of landing women. Chinese women, however, are among the least desirable of SE Asians so this is a big trade-off. For my money, if I had to choose, I’d master Japanese as they are the most desirable of the SE Asians for a variety of reasons.
I agree about Spanish and Russian. In addition, learning Spanish helps you learn Portuguese and Italian later, and Russian helps immensely with other Slavic languages such as Polish, Czech, and Serbo-Croatian, so you get more bang for your buck with those two. Except possibly for Chinese, which at least helps you read Japanese kanji, East Asian languages are pretty much useless outside of their respective countries, so I wouldn’t recommend them. In the Philippines they all learn English in school anyway.
Problem with Spanish is all the Spanish speaking countries and poor and are not on the way up. Whereas Russia is poor and is on the way up. Although personally I’d prefer to learn Italian as that to me sounds the best. No other reason than that.
to learn a language once you are 20+ – either start fucking a girl that speaks only that language… or go to the country and live and work in their language… you will learn very fast…. you have to have a real and practical reason to learn a language…
think about it… kids learn over 4-5 years, by daily exposure…. anything else is just academic BS.
Best language to learn is American Sign Language. Then you can find a hot deaf woman, date her, and not have to deal with the loud, shrill nagging.
You then have to deal with her shrill guttural grunting, though…
That I can put up with. I like women that are loud in bed. Another thing about learning ASL is it really impresses women because they’ll think you’re a compassionate person who likes helping the disabled.
If you are acoustic type and like to hear them moan and scream you ´ll be dissapointed though.
Tagalog’s a good language to learn. I live in Southern California where there’s a lot of submissive and feminine Philipino women.
seeing that english is taught as a second language all over europe, would the logical consequence for the western european man be learning a third one?
i’m german, had ten years of english in school, lived a year in australia, though this is rarely uncommon nowadays.
there is a decline in english proficiency in europe which decreases on its way south, scandinavia (norway/sweden/denmark)-finland/netherlands/northern belgium-germany/poland-france-spain-italy/portugal , italians and portugese have the worst english, spaniards are usually only a notch above.
i speak from experience i work in a hostel in berlin, lots of international backpackers, and this is a general assessment, of course there are exeptions.
so what do you think? is spanish the logical next choice (millions of speakers in dozens of countries)? should you make the decision carrer oriented? l have some experience in french and spanish on a “get by” level, meaning i could communicate all my basic needs in said languages, but in no way hold a conversation, my french is better than my spanish.
Since English is a Germanic language, it’s easiest for other Germanic-speakers to learn it than other people. It’s true that we have lots of Romance words, but because the basic vocabulary and sentence structure is Germanic, it’ll be as unfamiliar for Romance-speakers as, say, basic Slavic vocabulary would be for us.
I imagine that French (and even Italian) is more important in Europe, and Spanish in the Americas. In Africa, French is very important, but Spanish is pretty much useless.
I must recommend Pimsleur. They have cheezy infomercial marketing, but it works. I can understand Spanish. There are various used course providers, but I did the 30 minutes each day and had enough command for travel, and it was accent free.
Why is it that some people languish in personal development purgatory for years or decades while other people read a book, take a course, listen to a podcast, apply the knowledge and get meaningful (or profitable!) results fast? The most practical, measurable and none woo woo answer to this conundrum is that the person who gets more results, faster has a mind with healthier Neuroplasticity mechanisms. Neuroplasticity, is a chemical process that occurs on the molecular and cellular levels of our brain’s gray matter, it results in new brain cells being manufactured and synaptic connections forming in the mind… http://www.mindmeister.com/355648950/nueroplasticity
Wanderlust talks about an hour a day for a number of years. For me this is the most awful way to learn a language. I have tried to learn languages in this manner before using all sorts of methods (recordings, books, grammar tables, apps etc).
The only way I can maintain my focus is through immersion. It’s a painfully steep learning curve but for me it is the only method I would use as it’s the only method that gets me to a functional level quickly.
For example when I decided to learn German I moved to Germany for 6 months and took a job in a car factory assembling doors. Every night I would go home and study new vocab, look up things I’d heard over the day and come up with sentences I wanted to be able to say. After 2 months or so I could interact, with horrific grammar, with my workmates. After 3-4 months I could carry out all my daily tasks easily, could interact with people in bars, and was starting to have a reasonable level of fluency albeit still riddled with errors. At 6 months I was still improving with the focus now on continuing to learn new words and polish up the grammar. I know from experience of studying languages from books etc for school exams that after 2 months of immersion I was already ahead of where I would have been after a year with traditional methods of learning. The only problem I found with this is I’m told I have the strangest accent, I guess that is bound to happen when you learn a language from a factory load of Turks, Armenians and Polish!
Thankfully I have long had a love of language and took French in high school. Thus, the language I want to learn now: Spanish, should be very easy to pick up. I also have a working knowledge of a few other languages that are a bit unusual, which all helps stretch the mind. One of the three wishes Id love to have is native or near-native fluency in a dozen languages, if not all of them.
Immersion is definitely the key to fluency.