It's all Greek to me: How to learn a foreign language

Q. What is the best way to learn a language

A. For those of you who had to learn and be able to recite Latin or Greek irregular verbs by rote - while knowing that there would probably never be a time in your life when you'd actually have to speak either language - you will no doubt have thought that there must me better ways of getting to grips with a new tongue.

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Q. Are there

A. Indeed there are. Ranging from playing tapes to yourself while you sleep to the use of hypnotism, many methods, of varying degrees of credibility, have been put forward. Three methods seem to suit the majority of people best.

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Q. And they are

A. In no particular order:

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Language Courses

Taking a language course appears to be the most popular way to tackle a new tongue. However, the results of such courses vary greatly, as many people find that, while formal language education increases their knowledge of the written language - yes, there's a certain amount of 'what's the first person plural, present, indicative, passive of the verb "to emote" ' to be dealt with - the spoken element of courses often tends to be less successful. Rather like school, really.

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Full or Partial Immersion

Immersion is the equivalent of teaching someone to swim by dropping them into a swimming pool. The method is simple. You visit the country or place where the language you wish to learn is spoken, and interact with people until you reach the desired degree of fluency.

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A variation on this theme - and one that allows for those who cannot reasonably immerse themselves in another place and culture for extended periods of time - is partial immersion. You might find that by frequenting a bar or restaurant catering to speakers of the language in question will allow you a certain amount of immersion in the language and culture of your choice. You may also meet native speakers who will be happy to help you to learn more. It's a bit hit or miss, though, and your chances of getting beyond being able to order drinks in varying degrees of inebriation may be challenged. Good for picking up enough to 'get by', though.

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Self-teaching

Far and away the cheapest method, self-teaching has been around for some time, with the Teach Yourself series and its imitators proving perennially popular. Often accompanied by recorded material or a TV programme, this method can give you a good grounding in a language which you can then back up by an element of immersion or, if you wish, approach in a more formal manner.

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Q. What about self-teaching though literature

A. Self-teaching though literature is a method championed by the late linguist Mario Lucidi. This can be used by anyone who has a basic understanding of a language's grammar and knows a few hundred words - a level attainable through any elementary course, or even by self-teaching - but wonders how to really get to grips with the more formal elements of a language.

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Q. How do you go about this

1. Pick a book in your chosen language. It must be interesting to you for some reason; perhaps it may be by a writer you particularly admire or you may need to read it for work.

2. Decide how long you want to study every day. If you need an hour to read a page to begin with, then make it an hour.

3. On the first day read page 1, looking up in your dictionary every word you do not know, until you understand each sentence's meaning perfectly. Underline these.

4. On the second day, copy every word you underlined on page 1 into a vocabulary book. While you are writing them, look up every word whose meaning you have forgotten. Then, read page 2 and repeat the process, and again the following day.

5. On the fourth day go back over all the words you've noted down. By this time even the most difficult should be going in. And so on . . .

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This may sound laborious, but as you proceed you should find that you can go up to 2 then 3 pages a day.

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Try it. It's a very effective method.

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Amo, amas ,amat, amamus, amatis, amant: learning by rote does help it go in though.

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For more on Phrases & Sayings click here

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By Simon Smith