Ask HN: How would you rapidly learn a foreign language?

5 points·elamje··4 comments

I have recently rekindled a desire to learn a language. So far the most effective thing I have found is using Anki(spaced repetition app) and watching foreign movies on Netflix.

I am curious how you would go about learning a foreign language when in-person immersion isn’t an option.

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Listening to songs, while reading the lyrics and looking up unknown vocabulary. Collecting and revising those words with a tool like anki. Watching movies with, - or if you already know the movies without subtitles (like Disney movies you watched regularly as a child). Listening to local radio stations. It doesn't matter if you don't understand anything in the beginning, it's for getting used to the overall melody and flow of the language, which compensates for the lack of in-person immersion. Side by side textbooks, or buying your favourite books in the language and reading them side by side, should be good to improve your reading skills.

You could try listening to internet radio in the language you want to learn: https://radiowebsites.org/ Personally, I dug the streaming links out of the source of that website and made a VLC playlist. Now I just cycle through different stations on the playlist throughout the day.

The Netflix may help (but I'm not sure how effective it is as the only method). We used the DVD version with our daughter. She was very young, so she enjoyed watching the same movie again and again and again ...

Watch a movie in the other language with subtitles in your languages, then watch the movie in the other language with subtitles in the other language, and then watch the movie in the other language without subtitles.

As you get more use to the language, you can try to skip the first (and second) version.

Maybe Duolingo?

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