Problem
How much time can one spend learning languages? How much progress can one make? Can you do it free or cheaply?
Living In Europe Makes Learning Easy
I remember hearing that my sister-in-law's father spoke eight languages. He died and now he's the legend and the first thing I think of him is that he spoke eight languages. He was born in a country surrounded by others who did not speak his language. Every year, even every weekend, he could take a trip to another country and practice a language.
French For All
The French word for thank you is merci, and that also works in Romania and Bulgaria.
Living In England - it's easy
Wait a minute - did he have an advantage which you and I don't have? If you live in England, you can drive or hitchhike up to Scotland and learn Gaelic and Scottish or west to Wales. Or cross the channel to Belgium where they speak French and Dutch. If you did that every year, you and your children or widowed grandparent could pick up a few words of another language easily.
But you don't have to travel. London is full of foreigners. You could teach English to somebody else in exchange for them learning your language.
Look on any bus, not just in summer. You are surrounded by people who speak other languages. Lots of them would love a free English lesson from you, in exchange for teaching you a few words. In London, you have cultural centres for the French, German and Polish speaking groups. Toastmasters International has clubs which are bilingual in French and English, or are for those who speak or want to learn Polish.
USA
If you live in the USA you could cross to Canada and pick up or brush up your French, or go to Mexico and learn Spanish, or just spend a weekend reading Spanish signs from bilingual notices and learning Spanish. The USA has an online Spanish-English club. Look at their website for bilingual announcments.
Religions - Spanish, Hebrew or Arabic
If you are a church-goer, you could attend services aimed at or attended by speakers of Spanish or Portuguese.
Are you Jewish or would you like to learn Hebrew? Pop along to a synagogue or if you think there might be a security problem, phone them up and ask if they run Hebrew classes. Look in a Jewish museum or Holocaust museum or online for books on learning Hebrew. Go to an Isreali restaurant. Look for a bagel shop. A kosher shop. Read the labels on the kosher goods in your local supermarket. You'll soon pick up the reversed c, the SH, and the reversed r for kosher. That's three letters of the Hebrew alphabet already, without any time or much effort.
Is Arabic something you would like to master? Try a local mosque, or the attached cultural centre or bookshop. Go to a halal restaurant.
Asia
It all looks a mystery doesn't it, Tamil, Korean, Vietnamese, hopeless! If you have nothing else to do, take a language class. Instead of doing flower arranging, or calligraphy, take a language class. Or if you would really prefer to do flower arranging and calligraphy, in the break ask the teacher or a fellow pupil to teach you a few words and write them down in a dedicated notebook so you can read them on the way home. Tell the family, or your colleagues, ostensibly only to enlighten them, but actually in addition to reinforce your own memory.
Singapore
In Singapore, at first, it seems hard. You have Chinese which is impossible to understand or read, the same goes for Tamil. If you learn Chinese, then you find yourself have lunch in little India where Chinese is of no use. Tamil is not used in most of Singapore amongst the Chinese speaking people.
But if you lived in civilised Singapore, you hear the Chinese, Malay and Tamil announcements on the train system (MRT) every day. Malay (which is the same as Indonesian) is the easiest.
Join Meetups (free for you, the organizers of meetings pay to be listed). In Singapore in July 2018 I was notified of Meetups for English, French, German and polyglot (multilingual) social gatherings in coffee shops, bars and hawker centres (food courts).
Toastmasters International has meetings in all-French or all-Mandarin or all-Tamil and a small numer of bilingual clubs. An Italian-Chinese club has been proposed by an Italian-Chinese couple.
Chinese and Community Clubs
You could join a Chinese class at a Community Club to meet local people. Alternatively, go to the YMCA, to meet more expats and those friendly to expats.
Mosques and Arabic
Again, there are the mosques for Arabic. Many halal restaurants and food packing.
Synagogues and Hebrew
Singapore has synagogues and the synagogue shop for Hebrew or kosher food. Security is tight in the beautiful Orthodox religious buildings, so check in advance, be prepared to send details of your identity, and be prepared to show your identity documents to security on arrival. All over Asia, you will find outreach orthodox groups who have Sabbath meals.
All over Asia and the world, you will find little groups of Liberal Jews, mainly Americans, sometimes with a visiting rabbi for festivals, meeting in homes.
Polyglots
If I were to spend just five minutes a day, I could pick one the three other working languages of Singapore, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil. Fifteen minutes a day, and I could pick up all three. Three hundred words a year would be a great start. After two, three, or four years, I could have a go at all the languages. by the end of ten years I would be fluent in all three. When I die, my family and friends will be in awe of me as a person who spoke four languages. (As I speak French already, that would be five.)
How To Make Time
So what can you do? Are you really so short of time? Do you have any other plans? Do you know anybody who is bored or depressed or could start on this programme, with you, or on their own?
Busy, working people, may have time at airports or on public transport. Students, the widowed, the divorced, the bored, the lonely, could find a new interest and join a club and feel proud and confident at learning a new skill.
Saving Money and Earning Money
In Europe you can take a one-week or one-month intensive course in learning a language or training to be a teacher of ESL (English as a second language).
If you don't want to spend the time and money, with a little determination, you could do the same at home. If you have a week to spare, or a year to spare, and you are a student, unemployed, or retired, you could spend a six-hour day starting a language.
You could spend 12 hours over a two-day weekend. You could spend 18 hours over a three day weekend of Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
You could spend 24 hours over a four-day long weekend. You could spend 30 hours allowing three hours in the morning and three in the afternoon, to teach yourself with a free online course.
Job-hunting
Maybe you need to get a job. You have studied long enough. If you are between jobs, job-hunting, allow one-hour first thing in the morning to send out applications. Or spend the morning on your job applications. Postpone until the afternoon or evening time for the languages. Then start learning.
Or run off a CV (resumé) to drop into local businesses. Use the fact that you are learning a language to get into conversation with the receptionist or shop or business owner. Then spend the rest of the day learning your language. If you get an interview you have a topic of conversation which makes you different from the rest and shows you are keen to learn new skills.
It takes your mind off worrying. You make use of your time. You have something to say at a job interview.
If you don't get a job that week, at least you have done something with your time. By the end of the year you will be able to look for jobs using somebody who speaks the language.
Parents and Grandparents
What if you are not working, stuck at home with children? As parents or grandparents, you could teach your children or grandchildren, or help them with their homework, listen to them reciting numbers, singing nursery rhymes, or watching language programmes.
House-sitters, Babysitters and Dog-walkers
As a babysitter, you can sing a lullaby to a baby in their own or a foreign language, entertain a toddler, keep them in one place out of trouble learning languages.
If you are walking a dog, the dog won't mind if you practise your languages. Or you can listen to a language tape, whilst still watching the dog whilst it runs around with other dogs in the devoted doggie corner of a park.
Esperanto and Hungary
If you are stuck at home, ill in bed, no good at languages, you could take up Esperanto and find a penpal. Esperanto is simple compared to other languages, only 16 rules. It's a language taught in schools in Hungary.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. If you want an entertaining and inspiring talk about learning languages, for a club or college, please contact me. If you want to learn a new language, I can give private lessons in person or on Skype. Make a note of my name in case you ever need it for yourself or a friend. Please share links to your favourite posts.
How much time can one spend learning languages? How much progress can one make? Can you do it free or cheaply?
Living In Europe Makes Learning Easy
I remember hearing that my sister-in-law's father spoke eight languages. He died and now he's the legend and the first thing I think of him is that he spoke eight languages. He was born in a country surrounded by others who did not speak his language. Every year, even every weekend, he could take a trip to another country and practice a language.
French For All
The French word for thank you is merci, and that also works in Romania and Bulgaria.
Living In England - it's easy
Wait a minute - did he have an advantage which you and I don't have? If you live in England, you can drive or hitchhike up to Scotland and learn Gaelic and Scottish or west to Wales. Or cross the channel to Belgium where they speak French and Dutch. If you did that every year, you and your children or widowed grandparent could pick up a few words of another language easily.
But you don't have to travel. London is full of foreigners. You could teach English to somebody else in exchange for them learning your language.
Look on any bus, not just in summer. You are surrounded by people who speak other languages. Lots of them would love a free English lesson from you, in exchange for teaching you a few words. In London, you have cultural centres for the French, German and Polish speaking groups. Toastmasters International has clubs which are bilingual in French and English, or are for those who speak or want to learn Polish.
USA
If you live in the USA you could cross to Canada and pick up or brush up your French, or go to Mexico and learn Spanish, or just spend a weekend reading Spanish signs from bilingual notices and learning Spanish. The USA has an online Spanish-English club. Look at their website for bilingual announcments.
Religions - Spanish, Hebrew or Arabic
If you are a church-goer, you could attend services aimed at or attended by speakers of Spanish or Portuguese.
Are you Jewish or would you like to learn Hebrew? Pop along to a synagogue or if you think there might be a security problem, phone them up and ask if they run Hebrew classes. Look in a Jewish museum or Holocaust museum or online for books on learning Hebrew. Go to an Isreali restaurant. Look for a bagel shop. A kosher shop. Read the labels on the kosher goods in your local supermarket. You'll soon pick up the reversed c, the SH, and the reversed r for kosher. That's three letters of the Hebrew alphabet already, without any time or much effort.
Is Arabic something you would like to master? Try a local mosque, or the attached cultural centre or bookshop. Go to a halal restaurant.
Asia
It all looks a mystery doesn't it, Tamil, Korean, Vietnamese, hopeless! If you have nothing else to do, take a language class. Instead of doing flower arranging, or calligraphy, take a language class. Or if you would really prefer to do flower arranging and calligraphy, in the break ask the teacher or a fellow pupil to teach you a few words and write them down in a dedicated notebook so you can read them on the way home. Tell the family, or your colleagues, ostensibly only to enlighten them, but actually in addition to reinforce your own memory.
Singapore
In Singapore, at first, it seems hard. You have Chinese which is impossible to understand or read, the same goes for Tamil. If you learn Chinese, then you find yourself have lunch in little India where Chinese is of no use. Tamil is not used in most of Singapore amongst the Chinese speaking people.
But if you lived in civilised Singapore, you hear the Chinese, Malay and Tamil announcements on the train system (MRT) every day. Malay (which is the same as Indonesian) is the easiest.
Join Meetups (free for you, the organizers of meetings pay to be listed). In Singapore in July 2018 I was notified of Meetups for English, French, German and polyglot (multilingual) social gatherings in coffee shops, bars and hawker centres (food courts).
Toastmasters International has meetings in all-French or all-Mandarin or all-Tamil and a small numer of bilingual clubs. An Italian-Chinese club has been proposed by an Italian-Chinese couple.
Chinese and Community Clubs
You could join a Chinese class at a Community Club to meet local people. Alternatively, go to the YMCA, to meet more expats and those friendly to expats.
Mosques and Arabic
Again, there are the mosques for Arabic. Many halal restaurants and food packing.
Synagogues and Hebrew
Singapore has synagogues and the synagogue shop for Hebrew or kosher food. Security is tight in the beautiful Orthodox religious buildings, so check in advance, be prepared to send details of your identity, and be prepared to show your identity documents to security on arrival. All over Asia, you will find outreach orthodox groups who have Sabbath meals.
All over Asia and the world, you will find little groups of Liberal Jews, mainly Americans, sometimes with a visiting rabbi for festivals, meeting in homes.
Polyglots
If I were to spend just five minutes a day, I could pick one the three other working languages of Singapore, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil. Fifteen minutes a day, and I could pick up all three. Three hundred words a year would be a great start. After two, three, or four years, I could have a go at all the languages. by the end of ten years I would be fluent in all three. When I die, my family and friends will be in awe of me as a person who spoke four languages. (As I speak French already, that would be five.)
How To Make Time
So what can you do? Are you really so short of time? Do you have any other plans? Do you know anybody who is bored or depressed or could start on this programme, with you, or on their own?
Busy, working people, may have time at airports or on public transport. Students, the widowed, the divorced, the bored, the lonely, could find a new interest and join a club and feel proud and confident at learning a new skill.
Saving Money and Earning Money
In Europe you can take a one-week or one-month intensive course in learning a language or training to be a teacher of ESL (English as a second language).
If you don't want to spend the time and money, with a little determination, you could do the same at home. If you have a week to spare, or a year to spare, and you are a student, unemployed, or retired, you could spend a six-hour day starting a language.
You could spend 12 hours over a two-day weekend. You could spend 18 hours over a three day weekend of Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
You could spend 24 hours over a four-day long weekend. You could spend 30 hours allowing three hours in the morning and three in the afternoon, to teach yourself with a free online course.
Job-hunting
Maybe you need to get a job. You have studied long enough. If you are between jobs, job-hunting, allow one-hour first thing in the morning to send out applications. Or spend the morning on your job applications. Postpone until the afternoon or evening time for the languages. Then start learning.
Or run off a CV (resumé) to drop into local businesses. Use the fact that you are learning a language to get into conversation with the receptionist or shop or business owner. Then spend the rest of the day learning your language. If you get an interview you have a topic of conversation which makes you different from the rest and shows you are keen to learn new skills.
It takes your mind off worrying. You make use of your time. You have something to say at a job interview.
If you don't get a job that week, at least you have done something with your time. By the end of the year you will be able to look for jobs using somebody who speaks the language.
Parents and Grandparents
What if you are not working, stuck at home with children? As parents or grandparents, you could teach your children or grandchildren, or help them with their homework, listen to them reciting numbers, singing nursery rhymes, or watching language programmes.
House-sitters, Babysitters and Dog-walkers
As a babysitter, you can sing a lullaby to a baby in their own or a foreign language, entertain a toddler, keep them in one place out of trouble learning languages.
If you are walking a dog, the dog won't mind if you practise your languages. Or you can listen to a language tape, whilst still watching the dog whilst it runs around with other dogs in the devoted doggie corner of a park.
Esperanto and Hungary
If you are stuck at home, ill in bed, no good at languages, you could take up Esperanto and find a penpal. Esperanto is simple compared to other languages, only 16 rules. It's a language taught in schools in Hungary.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. If you want an entertaining and inspiring talk about learning languages, for a club or college, please contact me. If you want to learn a new language, I can give private lessons in person or on Skype. Make a note of my name in case you ever need it for yourself or a friend. Please share links to your favourite posts.
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