Language

I am a beginner at the Japanese language. I’ve tried several online websites to help me learn, and have bought a book or two, but so far I have gotten nowhere. Is there an understandable method to learning the language at a reasonable speed? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

You start in a classroom.
You cannot learn any other way, as is clearly evident.
If there are no classes near you then just wait until the chance arises. Trying to learn by yourself does not work. You need a teacher. You can’t study by yourself because you have no way of knowing if you’re doing something right or wrong.

Well with Hispanics becoming a majority in this country, I don’t see why we can’t have two recognized languages.

Switzerland, which happens to be one of the most educated countries in the world and a true democracy, has 3 official languages. German, French and Italian, the reason is they share borders with those countries and recognize them as majorities in their country.

It would do all of us some good, to know two languages.

I really want to become a lawyer. I have the grades, the LSAT score, but I am extremely afraid of speaking in public. I get too caught up in the moment and so nervous that I can’t think on my feet and argue effectively. I really want to become a lawyer, and there was a point in my life where I was actually good in public speaking. But years of emotional and verbal abuse resulted in me loosing confidence in myself, developing a stuttering problem, and just disliking the sound of my voice. Should I go to threapy? What steps can I take personally to realize my dream of being a great public speaker/lawyer?

Well, the only way I know of conquering your fear of public speaking would be to face it head on. Speak in public as often as you can, verbal skills are essential to litigators. Which coincidentally I want to be as well. Maybe joining some reader’s theatre groups, local theatre shows, or just trying to be more assertive around your friends could give you that confidence you need to achieve your goal. Best of luck, i’m pulling for you!

I had a distal jet appliance installed and need to wear for 6-9 months. I’m finding it extremely difficult to speak. The orthodontist said it only takes a few days to get used to it but that seems overly optimistic. I need to be able to communicate very clearly in my job so I’m wondering how long this will realistically take.

I haven’t heard that particular term but I’m assuming you’re referring to headgear. My daughter would have had to wear this device during her orthodontic treatment for an open bite but she avoided it by choosing to have two of her upper teeth extracted instead. That’s because some of her friends had to wear headgear and she thought it looked dorky. She also said that all of them had problems with speaking clearly and she didn’t want that to happen with her. I really can’t say if you’ll be able to adjust or you’ll continue to have problems. I guess it depends on the individual person.

I learned basic phrases, words and simple sentences when I studied it in school a few years ago, which I still remember, but I want to learn on my own at home to speak it FLUENTLY. I want to find the best and easiest to learn software (except for really expensive software like Rosetta Stone), something like up to 50.00, or around that, please tell me the best software that I can buy to learn Spanish in the most easy and effective way. I would really appreciate your help.

I was going to say rosetta stone. That’s what I used to learn english. You should check your local library for it, they usually have it.

I honestly believe the best way to learn another language is by starting from scratch as if you were a toddler again. I want something that starts out slow, with a computer program, usually with games, and whatnot, but for learning french. Rosetta stone is too expensive. I need something below $100.

http://4ee86kkn6kg2ny9hhppdl1ck3j.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=KJMRRXQQ

Try this.It will teach you to speak french with a good accent. Also includes dialogs, quizes ect. to practise. its really good and easy to learn:D and I recommend it to some other people too and they can fluently speak french. It has a cheap price too!!!!

Well I’m know I’m taking a language next year, but I’m still trying to figure out which one. Theres Spanish, German, and French. And I sort of want to learn french more so. But in the beginning is French hard to understand. Or I think German would be interesting to learn, but I really don’t know. Any ideas or experiences?

Here’s an experience for you:
I dropped out of high school in the middle of my Junior year.
At the time, I was in my second year of French.
I felt I was doing poorly in my studies, and was impatient to go to work.
Years later, as I was going through some old paperwork in my parent’s house, I came across my old report cards. I had actually been doing poorly (mainly due to boredom and inattention)……but I was surprised to find out that I had been carrying a "B" average in French the whole time. It is not a very hard language to learn. A good many words used in English derive from French.
The hardest part is the sentence structure. As an American speaking English, it took a bit to grasp. Male and female gender for the same word? Yep. A litttle bit before and after a verb to transform it to a negative? Yep. That’s actually the hardest part. I often wish I had continued my studies, at least that one. Now, Je ne parle pas Francaise beaucoup.
German wasn’t available, I think I would still have selected French.
Even though I have a Germanic background.
Good luck in your choice.

I gather that some instruments are easy to learn than others.Yet for people who can play several well, would possibly have noted the difference when learning. Of course everyone is different and yet for example the difference between string (guitar) and brass (tenor horn), which is easier to learn.
How much practice time ought one give to learning a musical instrument to see and hear that the chosen instrument is a good (right) choice and worth continuing with. I really like (love) the idea of playing a musical instrument well.

If you HIRE A TEACHER you should be playing simple songs in a month. To get really good at any instrument takes about 10,000 HOURS of practice and performance

Getting a tutor or going to french sessions is out of the question because there arn’t any affordable ones in my area.
I would like to self teach myself french. I already do it at school but we don’t learn it fluently- we only learn the stuff that we need to know for our exam.

Any people who have learnt to speak another language fluently, how did you learn?
Like are the tapes good? should I watch a lot of french films? how can I practise talking french to other people?

I learned by immersion.

By you got it right. A combination of movies, language exchange partners, software and reading will do.

For the sound of the language: watch movies, watch French TV (all TV channels have websites, go to French versions of major search engines (yahoo.fr …) … Notable: tf1.fr, france2.fr
Or listen to the radio online.

A good software is a great way to get affordable (depending on the program) self-teaching courses. You need to learn the fundamentals, otherwise, your knowledge will never be solid enough (sorry for the cliché!). You will need discipline. I recommend Rocket French, which is fun. Having fun is one key while learning a language, trust me. Second key is devoting to learning a few minutes each day (as opposed to 4 hours once a week for example). Thus the need for a good (and fun!) software, with which you can learn at will, from home. That’s http://www.rocketfrenchlanguage.com

Reading. You never read enough. (I learned a foreign language by starting to read it). Good for pretty much everything (except the accent!): vocabulary, grammar, even culture! …

Practice … Language exchange partner. Or find someone on MSN or Skype.

Voila! I hope it helps.

Bonne chance!

I am 15 years old and I speak english. I lived in USA all my life. I want to learn german but what ways are there and what is the average length of time to learn it? What if I go on a game that only has german words will I adapt to it?

Depending on exposure, effort/motivation, and aptitude, most people can learn to speak German within 6 to 9 months, but we are talking relatively basic here. German grammar and syntax are quite hard for some people to get their mind around, and differ quite considerably between spoken and written German. In my experience only a prolonged stay in an environment of native speakers and extensive reading makes you really proficient.

Every language learner needs to develop two different aspects:
1. receptive, i.e understanding in speech and writing, and
2. productive, i.e. writing and speaking in the foreign language.

Both of them are only learned by doing, the second being the more difficult and more important one. Contrary to common belief, translating from your native language into the second one is not really needed. It is helpful for some people, though. Likewise, a game might help you to get into it, but there really is no other way than to write in German yourself. Speaking comes later – in a conversation the topic might have changed, or a painfullly long silence developed, by the time you find the words to answer.

Here’s a free site to meet loads of Germans improving their English, who will help with your German in return: http://www.livemocha.com/
Careful with their German course though – it’s not very good, but people will set you right about mistakes. One of the best courses is the BBC one: http://freelanguage.org/learn-german/bbc-languages-german
Here’s a site for the grammar:http://class.georgiasouthern.edu/german/grammar/grammar.htm

There are many more sites about, just google "learning German"