A New Language As An Adult

I can only speak for my own experience.

I took a couple of college courses in Spanish before I went to Guatemala, it certainly helped give a base for grammar and vocabulary, but a couple of years in a classroom didn't bring me to a point that I could have any meaningful conversation.

I am a self-directed learner. Once I decided I really wanted to master Spanish (a little before the time I decided to study in Guatemala) I started speaking the language every chance I got. I read books and newspapers with the dictionary always available. I watched TV. I wrote... and got all the feedback I could get.

I took every chance to talk to people in Spanish that I could find and I decided to not be timid or let anything hold me back.

I only speak for my own experience... but the people who I know who have picked up a language quickly (including some friends who have English as a second language) have had similar attitudes. In my experience, classroom has some value for learning grammar... but being self motivated to communicate and to understand is a very effective way to master a language quickly.

I'll add reading news in the language to that.

I live in Europe and if we talk about learning a new language the majority learn one new language at school and some more. This goes on until people are around 16 - 20. Many go abroutd to improve their language skills.
Then we have those who will learn a new language after they have left scholl.
At that time very few can take time or have money to spend abroad to study a new language just for the fun of it.
Eveningclasses once a week are not very expensive and can as a rule easily be taken even for a person working and having a family.
People come for vacation to Scandinavia for years and do not speak a word of any Scandinavian language. Some really learn the way you talk about but that is a minority.
People go to southern Europe in hotels with all inclusive and never get in contact with a world outside of the hotel.
Others travel to see, learn and and experience the land they are in. Unfortunately a minority.

Seven quartals? what are they?
And then, When you travel to a foreign country, is it always easy to use your foreign language?

How about your first language acquisition? When are you use it?
In your opinion, Is the classroom the best place to learn?Why?

No it is not alwazs easz to use your foreign language.
You order in a restaurant and the waiter can hear you have an accent and right away he switches to Englsih. That happens very often in southern Europe.
This happens to in hotels and stores.
I think it is rather impolite.
I try to speak someone´s language and then they switch over to a third language without even knowing if I can speak it.

Oh.. I see.
Thanks for your opinion 😊

Seven quarter classes, that is 1/4 a year each time. I made it to advanced classes while still being fairly poor at just talking. I managed in the later classes to write about italian literature and give my immediate take on it, being, of course rather ignorant at the same time I was learning a lot, but also not stupid and was fairly opinionated.. I'm an older woman, was back then too, and the teacher and I became pals outside of class. She still filled my papers with red marks marking me down. I miss her.

Those classes were for grownups in continuing education, so the people in the class, something like ten to twenty, were interesting in themselves, and she got us to speak in italian about some of our interests. She also taught us all how to make fresh pasta.

Later, after taking classes, communication got easier. I had learned to read some italian literature and had translated a lot of articles from Bell'italia magazine, so I could somewhat read things ok. I'm no one to converse well with italians, but they put up with me.

In my opinion the classroom is not the best place to learn a new language. The best place to learn a new language is to speak with people.

The classroom is a good place to learn grammar and vocabulary. This is good. But, grammar and vocabulary are not what language is for. Language is for communicating with other people.

So, the best way to learn is to communicate with other people.

I have friends now who speak Spanish with me. I am at the point that I can use Spanish easily and my Spanish speaking friends simply talk to me in Spanish without thinking about it.

When I was in Guatemala I went to places where no one spoke English. This was very convenient since they had to speak Spanish with me. When I was at the Bank, or in a bar or in the grocery store, people would all speak to me in Spanish. My Spanish improved very quickly during that time.

I think the internet is a very good place to communicate with people in English (or any other language). You will learn a lot by participating here. I know that there are several people here from China who have been improving their English (and I have seen it improve).

There are also websites that will connect you with people that you can talk to on Skype. This is very good to practice your spoken English. I have used Communication Exchange (you can look for it on Google) and it seems pretty good.

Good luck.

What country are you from Maliha?

Grammar is a main component of any language in the world. Without grammar, we can't understand,for example, the time of action whether it happened in the past or in the present. So, it has a fundamental role in the language, but I don't give grammar the whole time. I think we should concentrate on the four skills of the language. The English course we have in the school has many units, and each unit has four lessons. A lesson for vocabulary, a lesson for listening and speaking , a lesson for reading and a lesson for writing. Grammar is involved in each lesson we take.So, as I said before, grammar is an important factor in learning a language.

Of course grammar is important. Grammar is something that can be easily learned in a classroom. But, grammar can also be learned outside of a classroom in conversation.

Grammar is also funny.

When I was learning Spanish, there were many times that I realized that the people who speak Spanish didn't understand their own grammar. I would ask... why did you use the "subjunctive" clause there. They would say, what is the "subjunctive". I would have to point out to them how they changed the form of the word in their own language. I was learning it in the classroom. They just used the correct form without even realizing they had done this.

Of course, I do the same thing in English. Many times someone will ask me a question about why we use a certain word in English. And many times I don't know the answer. In my own language, I don't ever think about grammar. I just use the words that I know are correct without even needing to think about why.

I have also noticed that when I speak English with my friends who are native English speakers, we break many grammar rules. We just speak English in a natural relaxed way. I have noticed that some people who have learned English as a second language use perfect classroom grammar. This is not the way English is spoken in real life, and when English learners speak this way it sounds odd to us.

I suspect that this is the same in your language. What country are you from?

Yeah, we can conclude that grammmar is important,also the vocabulary.
I come from Indonesian.