Steps of learning a new language?

I want to learn a new language.

When I first started learning English i simply used tons of movies and listened to tons of songs day and night for a few months before i started picking up the language; however, that was years ago where i also used to study English during school so the language itself was part of my daily life.

However, learning another language seems like a difficult process at the moment. I had in my intention to learn French. I downloaded a couple of French TV series and started listening to French songs for about three weeks now, but I haven't learned a single word - figured, I might be doing something wrong. Maybe this whole "listening only" to learn a new language is a faulty plan to learn a new language.

Anyone around has experienced this before? I could use some good piece of advise on what my next step should be :D

Oh shet, I have a lot to say to this lol, well too lazy now to say anything so yeah, I will share my advice tomorrow lol

I know the feeling, I am trying to learn Japanese myself.

You're experiencing that because, well.. Learning a language is actually a fairly difficult process, particularly if the language is constructed differently then your native tongue. I would say your plan of learning a language by hearing it flawed. I mean listening only does so much for you..

As for better ways to learn? Well, the best way to learn another language is to vary up your mediums, basically mix up how you get your information. Start reading, or studying how the language is written. If you know people who know the language then try to have an oral lesson with general conversations and such, and of course practice as much as you can!

How do I know this? I know a fair few multilingual folks and they've all basically said the same thing..haha!

Well picking up new languages is easier at an early age (that is why they teach you one foreign language at school),but have no fear, with a little effort everything will be fine. First you need a reason to learn the language - let's say you wanna study french cuz you are interested in french women or croissants. Imagine what you would like to say about that certain topic in your own language and start researching how they say it in theirs. To pick up a new language you should always start from the basics and if you are reading from a book make sure you use some tool to hear the actual pronunciation of the words and repeat as if you are trying to copy the sound. When you make the connection between the sound and the written letters you are ready to go further into the language. To speed up this process you should learn the alphabet,greetings, all the obvious stuff that are easy to understand(swearing lol). When you are ready with the recognition of how sound and letters relate you should start learning about the grammar and simple sentences. I usually tend to write down stuff because I remember them easier that way but you can discover your own strategy - it can be saying them out loud, practice with a friend etc. When you learn basic grammar you are ready to have a primitive conversation so use the internet to communicate in that language- people correcting you will help a lot. The last part that takes the most time is to enrich your vocabulary and memorize all the grammar rules of the language. 

Good luck ,hope that works for you 
                                          Sincerely, a multilingual fellow.

Just marry someone who knows the language you're learning.

Well I learnt at school so I followed the basic steps lol


You start with pronomes and Auxiliary verbs who are the common start from every language except Japan <.< speechless books.

@DDS I found a website that teaches French and read some of the language basic grammar and such. But I got bored so quickly after a while i had to start listening to the language itself rather than reading it. Yea i know it is flawed but it's not boring, slow, but not boring :D

@WondeRy That actually make sense. I haven't read the French alphabet yet lol. But I know some of its grammar and pronunciations. I read about singular and plural, masculine and feminine, pronouns and conjunctions. It's messy in my mind, but it's there.

@Centrik French women are demanding, no.

@Jv I also learned English during school pretty much, but we took no lessons in other foreign languages.

@Anzo I am kinda good with French, I studied it at school since the age of 10 so if you have any question feel free to ask

That would be great lol

Do you have Skype/Facebook? Since you're like rarely online here

I PMed you my FB

I kinda like centrik's idea. Japanese or mandarin. Is really the next way to go. Unless ur fluent in English Spanish is gonna be a tad bit difficult. If u don't have someone teaching u the language. And you are not under 8 years old. (The age at which new languages can be learnt in the blink of an eye) online sessions are boring. Songs. Movies. E.t.c is the best I could say

Japanese and Mandarin? Why I need to learn the languages that I know already?   God, those two are easy compare to Cantonese....


Anyways, the BEST way the learn a language right? Beside the point that it is "younger the easier to learn a language", I will shorten my essay into 4 points:
1) Get interested in it, this is for motivation. It's really hard to force yourself be interested in something I know I know. But it's way easier to learn with interest.
2) Know the language's rules and root. In order to fully understand a language, you will need to know its sentences structure, no? Also, you can see if you know any languages that are close to it that you know already, and think with the logic of that very language you known already. This applied to me when "learning" Japanese, (didn't really learn, just know it by time in my case) I know 50% of Japanese are based off of Chinese, so it was waaaaaaaay easier for me to learn it.
3) Communication. Yes, don't be shy or afraid and communicate with it to people that knows the language. Why watching movies and shows in the language you want to learn helps you a lot? It is because in most works they intend to have conversation between the characters, they will also need slangs that are NOT in the dictionary in order to follow the crowd. This is also a type of communication. (watching Movie) This is also practicing.
4) Make connections and master the big four of the language. First of all, let me ask you how did you know English and your native language. It was through communications I believe? Well anyways, when you learn English, you have surely made connections with it and your native language, yes? Well, do the same for others as well. In this case it's French, Latin connects most European languages as their root. Well if you know Latin it should be easier for you. A language's "Big Four" are: Read, Write, Listen, and Speak. If you want to truly master a language, you will need to master all these 4 parts. I consider "Speaking" is the easiest since you simply needs to know the simple words. All you will need is "confidence" for speak. Start off with "Listen and Read" first, obviously, you must do them first before "Speak and Write".

Well, these advice only apply when you want to MASTER a language. If you simply wish to KNOW the language, I will make another simpler version of "how to" again...

Dem that's long to read, though I was going to die lel

Thx for the piece of advise pumpkin

he copied it from his english teacher. so should be fine.

Really? Does that post look like it was written by an English teacher to you? lmfao

Nop those are the steps an english teacher always say, he just recreated them. @parabox you can't lie.

I can see that @Jv never took English classes, they don't give you steps to learn English lol.

You can do a class on it to learn it or try rosetta stones. Or see if anyone in the academy knows french.