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Learning a new language

ISU22CY

ISU22CY

Well-Known Member
Dec 15, 2012
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Iowa
My wife works in HR in the ag industry and a good number of the employees she gets to work with speak both English and Spanish. She knows the basics and enough to know some of the not so work friendly words.

I got to thinking that it really would be good for her to become as fluent as possible. She has expressed this before as well. I also would love to be able to have basic conversations with neighbors in their native language for fun.

So how difficult is it to learn a new language when you’re in your 30’s?
 
Easier than when you’re older. Several years ago I took two different introductory Spanish offerings at ISU for faculty and staff, taught by different people, plus a similar offering for the public in Humboldt where we lived. Each time I had high hopes and intentions, but it was difficult for me to retain much. I’m fact, a time or two during in-class practice, I inadvertently answered in German. I had two semesters of German over 8-9 grade and remember much more of that language.
I think I would have done better with Spanish if there was someone(s) I knew and trusted enough to actually practice with.
 
In before cave but I agree that it's good to learn different things and apply them.

I'd recommend having it be something you learn while you do other things, i.e. audio teachings and such.
 
ISU22CY said:
My wife works in HR in the ag industry and a good number of the employees she gets to work with speak both English and Spanish. She knows the basics and enough to know some of the not so work friendly words.

I got to thinking that it really would be good for her to become as fluent as possible. She has expressed this before as well. I also would love to be able to have basic conversations with neighbors in their native language for fun.

So how difficult is it to learn a new language when you’re in your 30’s?
Click to expand...

I was taught russian in the air force (DLI). Basic language school was 50 weeks, 8 hours day with class size of 4-6. Add 2+ hours/night of homework. At graduation we were "fluent" at roughly a 6th grade level. Fluency only comes when you think in the language and that only comes from near total immersion.
 
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madguy30 said:
In before cave but I agree that it's good to learn different things and apply them.

I'd recommend having it be something you learn while you do other things, i.e. audio teachings and such.
Click to expand...
Don’t know why this would even remotely end up in the cave.

Her translator at work said he would love to help. Our neighbors both are immigrants from Mexico that are great people and we have over during the summer when we are grilling...it’s just difficult as they struggle with English in the same way I struggle with Spanish so we have to rely on their kids. They are learning English and that’s awesome. There are also a half dozen fluent English speakers in the community that would probably help “immerse” us in Spanish if we asked.
 
SpokaneCY said:
I was taught russian in the air force (DLI). Basic language school was 50 weeks, 8 hours day with class size of 4-6. Add 2+ hours/night of homework. At graduation we were "fluent" at roughly a 6th grade level. Fluency only comes when you think in the language and that only comes from near total immersion.
Click to expand...
What was your role in the AF?
 
SpokaneCY said:
I was taught russian in the air force (DLI). Basic language school was 50 weeks, 8 hours day with class size of 4-6. Add 2+ hours/night of homework. At graduation we were "fluent" at roughly a 6th grade level. Fluency only comes when you think in the language and that only comes from near total immersion.
Click to expand...
Right and I shouldn’t have used fluent for my case. Enough where a conversation could be had that is respectful to them.

In my wife’s cause I mentioned as fluent as possible as she would be around Spanish on a daily basis. Not necessarily become fluent fluent but much more conversational.
 
It just so happens that I work in this area and have taught Spanish at a college level so I can maybe add a little bit of insight. It takes hundreds of hours to gain some decent fluency and there are a ton of variables. But you're not going to learn anything beyond some words and phrases by just leaning on co-workers, neighbors and friends. You really need to understand the structure of the language and the approach can be a traditional, academic one or a more communicative approach that "teaches" you typical grammatical structures through more conversational means. There are more and more on-line tools that can help in this area as well; Youtube has quite a bit on Spanish, including how different verb tenses work.

It really helps to have a good memory and to understand how your own language works. I find that people that have given language use in their own language some thought have a better sense of what there is to learn in the "new" language.

Immersion is indeed the best way to make a big leap forward and you can do courses for as little as 1 week at private language schools (Antigua, Guatemala has a lot of very reasonably priced ones). Sometimes businesses support these courses with time and budget if an employee's performance can be improved with the new skill.

But if she wants to learn it, the main thing is whether she can consistently spend a good chunk of hours every week in class or with on-line programs. For many people, that's unrealistic. The approach has to be systematic and has to get you to understand how sentences are formed and verbs function all while building some basic vocabulary (the latter is much more simple than learning correct expression).
 
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