Speaking another language

[Azael]

The more structured you are in your learning process the better. I break it down into:

1.Pronunciation
2.Writing System (If differing alphabet et al is used)
3.Grammar (Parts of Speech)
4.Vocabulary
5.Reading Material

That's the approach I use and what has worked most for me. I am not a believer in learning hundreds of phrases; as you will not understand why you are saying them. they also do not prepare you for the wide variety of responses you will encounter. You need to know your grammar. Get a good grammar book and you can back your study very well with online material like newspapers, videos, movies, music, literature and forums for discussions with native speakers. The first language is the hardest, after that many commonalities will help you learn others more quickly as you become familiar with the structure of languages.

For instance here is a summary of parts of speech for various languages:

Afrikaans: Adjectives, Adverbs, Article, Conjunction, Interjection, Noun, Numeral, Preposition, Pronoun, Verb

Dutch: Adjective, Adverb, Article, Conjunction, Determiner, Interjection, Noun, Numeral, Particle, Postpositions, Preposition, Pronouns, Verb

German: Adjective, Adverb, Article, Conjunction, Interjection, Noun, Numeral, Particles, Preposition, Pronoun, Verb

They are very similar languages of the Germanic family. You can often branch out from certain languages very easily. Japanese-Korean, Afrikaans-Dutch-German (West Germanic Languages), Hebrew-Arabic, French-Italian-Spanish (Romance Languages)

I hope this was of some use and maybe even encouragement. Learning another language opens up an entire new culture and makes socialising more fun in my opinion. I feel more confident talking in Afrikaans or German than English. You might find it to have a similar effect!

 

[Fighter86]

English is my first language though I have been born and bred in Asia. Chinese/ mandrain is my second. I can't quite write or read it as its been awhile since I had to use it but I can speak it very fluently since its widely spoken where I live.

 

[DeadmanWalking]

I can speak Spanish, Japanese, French, and my mother tongue English. Whenever I speak another language, I try my best to speak it correctly, using the correct accents and pronounciations, but, sometimes, I fail::. It doesn't bother me that much; I believe that, if the person can understand what I'm saying, then it's all good.

 

[GhastlyCC]

Considering my father and his side of the family.
I should really probably know how to speak Spanish.
.....But nope.haha
Well.....A little perhaps.

 

[AGR]

The secret is become immersed in the language,english is one of the easiest to learn because of this,not that I am an expert at it.
Contrary to what people believe,Japan has a lot of immigrants,mostly concentrated in some cities and states,they will continue growing as the japanese population diminishes,so I had no strong incentive to REALLY learn japanese,I know a lot,I can get by,but I should have learned more,I also learned some spanish here,most of the people I mingle with here speak portuguese like me,then spanish speakers,its really hard to meet japanese people here if you are shy/introverted.

 

[sillyrabbit231]

Filipino is my native language.

 

[jonas89]

English is my first and i am fluent in German. Recently Ive picked up some language books on Norwegian, this shall be my next language, hopefully lol

If you understand one nordic language well it'll be easy for you to learn the rest like Swedish, danish and Icelandic

 

[gustavofring]

I love to converse in English. For some reason it's an escape from speaking Dutch (everyday life filled with social awkwardness) and I feel like I am able to express myself somewhat calmer and better in it.

I am also trying to learn French. But I really have to THINK about making gramatically correct sentences in French. It's just so vastly different from Germanic languages. I guess the best way would be to fully immerse myself in it. Now I learn like 1 hour a day and that's not really enough.

 

[Pacific_Loner]

English is my second language - I used to be ok speaking but since I no longer have to, I lost almost all of it

 

[Azael]

The secret is become immersed in the language,english is one of the easiest to learn because of this,not that I am an expert at it.
Contrary to what people believe,Japan has a lot of immigrants,mostly concentrated in some cities and states,they will continue growing as the japanese population diminishes,so I had no strong incentive to REALLY learn japanese,I know a lot,I can get by,but I should have learned more,I also learned some spanish here,most of the people I mingle with here speak portuguese like me,then spanish speakers,its really hard to meet japanese people here if you are shy/introverted.

English is not a very structured or logical language. It makes it quite challenging to learn. You cite Japanese as an example, and a very good contrast to English as it is a very logical and grammatically clean language. Once you grasp the concepts it's easy.

 

[pop-princess]

My mother tongue is Swedish. I can speak a little Finnish & English and a tiny bit of French and Spanish which I have studied.

When it comes to English I feel like i'm quite good with the grammar and the rules but my vocabulary could be much better. When I write in English I often feel like I would like to explain more but since my English is somewhat limited I can't. It's a bit frustrating. I feel like I sound kinda anti-intellectual in English

 

[Nala]

I speak Finnish and Swedish fluently, so English isn't my first language.

When I speak English, I somehow feel less shy/nervous than if I were to speak Finnish or Swedish. It might have something to do with playing a different "role" than myself. I don't know.

 

[Azael]

I speak Finnish and Swedish fluently, so English isn't my first language.

When I speak English, I somehow feel less shy/nervous than if I were to speak Finnish or Swedish. It might have something to do with playing a different "role" than myself. I don't know.

I find that as well! speaking another language is something I can do more confidently. I read a discussion on this many years ago, not on a social anxiety forum though. I still can't put my finger on why either. Maybe what you say combined with the excitement of learning a new language? Rekindling the magic of communicating with others. Just a thought.

 

[I'm Not There]

I'm Belgian; which means I live in a bilingual country. My mother tongue is Dutch and when I was 9 I got my first French classes in school. I master the latter pretty well I must say, as well as English and German (both of which I got in high school).

 

[TheWickedOne]

I have always read that English is a very difficult language to learn, and yet, almost everyone that I have ever conversed with who is NOT a native English speaker seems to speak English perfectly. Varying accents, true, but the grammar is flawless.

And since I started studying German in high school, all those many years ago, through college and living there for a while, has forever messed up my English spelling. I can never get the i before e thing anymore.

 

[WeirdyMcGee]

My first language has always been English- though as a child, I spoke fluent French (Canadian) and Michif.

I recognize many languages by ear but cannot speak anything fluently, now.
not even English, really... haha

 

[HumanZ]

I can speak Finnish (my native language), English and German (only basics). Though swedish is the second national language of Finland, I'm really not able to speak it, though we have five compulsory courses of Swedish in high school.

German is cool language, I really like it. And English, yeah. Almost everything I do with computer I do it in English. It feels just so familiar to me. I watch movies without subtitles or with english subtitles.

I can understand pretty well conversations and texts in English. But talking in English... Geez, I suck at pronouncing.

I hope I get a chance to travel to a country where I could improve my English speaking skills.

 

[HumanZ]

I have always read that English is a very difficult language to learn, and yet, almost everyone that I have ever conversed with who is NOT a native English speaker seems to speak English perfectly. Varying accents, true, but the grammar is flawless.

It depends how long you have studied the language. I have studied English, Swedish, German and Russian and I can tell that English is easily the easiest language to learn of those in my opinion, maybe because I've studied English since I was 9 years old.

German and Swedish are quite similar languages, but Russian, jesus it's a hard language to learn.

And I can speak German more fluent than Swedish though I've studied German only a few courses unlike Swedish I've been forced to study over 5 years.

 

[Azael]

I have always read that English is a very difficult language to learn, and yet, almost everyone that I have ever conversed with who is NOT a native English speaker seems to speak English perfectly. Varying accents, true, but the grammar is flawless.

And since I started studying German in high school, all those many years ago, through college and living there for a while, has forever messed up my English spelling. I can never get the i before e thing anymore.

You are right, it is. Like I said, it is a very messy language grammatically speaking. It takes a lot more work to master. The grammar is something that even native speakers mess up regularly. I can't say it's common for non-native English speakers to speak it that well. It's very often easy to spot them, on grammar errors alone. Each country has it's little querks that help you to spot more or less where they are from by these.

 

[Steppen-Wolf]

Spanish is my first language, but I do feel English is rather easy to learn in comparison to some of the alternatives.

I don't know, maybe it's always being exposed to it in one way or the other, but with time I've even started thinking in English... In a way I feel it's more melodic than Spanish.