Learning Languages Like the Experts

Written by Joshua K. Hartshorne

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With six languages under his belt, Joshua Hartshorne has picked up a few tricks for speaking in foreign tongues. Find out what he wishes he'd know before he got started.

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Learning a foreign language is not something that comes naturally to anyone. I struggled through my required Spanish and French classes in middle school. Latin, which came later, benefited from that experience. My four years of college Russian went more smoothly and by the time I took up Japanese and Chinese, it was old hat.

Now, like an old-timer bemoaning his wasted youth, I think of the linguistic mountains I could have moved had I known in middle school what I know now. Like that old-timer, I—in consultation with a wide range of language experts—will tell you not only what worked, but, perhaps more tellingly, what we wish we had done differently.

1. Immersion is key

One point upon which everyone agrees is that immersion is essential. Eric Bell, a recent college graduate, told me that he noticed that his German improved more during the one summer he spent in Berlin than in the two years of study before or after.

Living abroad does not itself guarantee "immersion." For instance, there are people in the Hong Kong expat community who have spent decades in the city but still can't order fried rice in Cantonese. In contrast, Gretta, a beginning Russian student studying in Siberia, peppered her English-language conversation with every Russian word she knew, and progressed rapidly.

 



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