How long does (should) it take an Anglophone to learn a foreign language?
The Foreign Service Institute in Arlington Virginia thinks it knows.
I dunno, German isn't that hard once you get the hang of how it flows. And while I haven't attempted written Arabic, the spoken isn't much of a hurdle.
I used to hang out at the Centre Pompidou in Paris largely because it had a monster language learning lab where you could pursue almost anything.
Finnish is intimidating. Fifteen different case endings -- but at least consistent in pronunciations.. Scottish Gaelic was the most challenging in terms of pronunciation, largely because spoken Gaelic is so far from its orthography.
Favourite line from the article:
Lucy Hamilton
Best truism:
>> According to a recent BBC article, native English speakers are the world's worst communicators. Being monolingual means they are less proficient in detecting the subtleties of language variation than non-native speakers of English. Those non-native speakers will be less proficient in slang, word-play and cultural-specific references, and will avoid them more than monolingual Anglophones. <<
Yep, best thing about language learning -- it teaches the student to try on another POV.
The Foreign Service Institute in Arlington Virginia thinks it knows.
>> For English-speakers, Romanian is easier to learn than German. And you’ll be speaking Russian sooner than Hungarian.
How is that? Because the Foreign Service Institute says so. Located in Arlington, Virginia, the FSI is the U.S. government’s main provider of foreign affairs training, including language courses.
As the chief learning organisation for the State Department, the FSI is where diplomats go to study the languages they will need on foreign postings. The Institute has a very practical approach to languages, dividing them into five categories, depending solely on how long it takes to learn them. <<
How is that? Because the Foreign Service Institute says so. Located in Arlington, Virginia, the FSI is the U.S. government’s main provider of foreign affairs training, including language courses.
As the chief learning organisation for the State Department, the FSI is where diplomats go to study the languages they will need on foreign postings. The Institute has a very practical approach to languages, dividing them into five categories, depending solely on how long it takes to learn them. <<
I dunno, German isn't that hard once you get the hang of how it flows. And while I haven't attempted written Arabic, the spoken isn't much of a hurdle.
I used to hang out at the Centre Pompidou in Paris largely because it had a monster language learning lab where you could pursue almost anything.
Finnish is intimidating. Fifteen different case endings -- but at least consistent in pronunciations.. Scottish Gaelic was the most challenging in terms of pronunciation, largely because spoken Gaelic is so far from its orthography.
Favourite line from the article:
>> "Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of his Atlantic with his verb in his mouth”;<< --- Mark Twain
Lucy Hamilton
Best truism:
>> According to a recent BBC article, native English speakers are the world's worst communicators. Being monolingual means they are less proficient in detecting the subtleties of language variation than non-native speakers of English. Those non-native speakers will be less proficient in slang, word-play and cultural-specific references, and will avoid them more than monolingual Anglophones. <<
Yep, best thing about language learning -- it teaches the student to try on another POV.
