Learn a Foreign Language: How to Speak Fluently in 60 Days

You've seen the ads: "Speak Spanish in 60 Days", "Learn a Foreign Language while sleeping", "Learn to speak Chinese in just 10 minutes per day". Too good to be true? Yes and No, first of all, realize that ads and courses and even our fine educational institutions are organized around making money. Usually they make their money by convincing you to part with your money, in exchange for some skills or knowledge that they promise to somehow implant in you cranium. Language learning is one of the hottest commodities going, foreign language skills do very much to increase your employability, job qualifications, and earnings capacity.

Now for the bad news; learning to speak a foreign language fluently will take time. How long did it take you to speak your first language fluently? Could you hold an interesting conversation when you where 2 years old? 5 years old? How about when you were 12? The truth is that the brain is wired for language learning, and it is at its "best" in our formative years. There are a variety of theories, none proven, about the best age for learning a foreign language. I think the best time for learning is now, regardless of age, children learn like children, fearless, inquisitive, and full of mistakes. Cautious adults will learn with far greater accuracy and develop a much more diverse vocabulary, but will be so self conscious in execution that progress will seem elusive.

As an English teacher with several years of experience in the Caribbean and South America, I've seen my students progress from the rudiments to mastery, however they always possess that nagging suspicion that they're not quite good enough. I have also been struggling with my own sense of mastery, as I never considered myself to be much of a foreign language student. I've been living in Spanish speaking countries going on 4 years now and I have learned from experience and copious amounts of research what it takes to speak a foreign language.

I've taken Spanish Classes in High School and College back in the States, never got very far, learned some simple expressions, but usually gave up after a month or two. Listened to Pimsleur tapes, clicked through the Rosetta Stone computer learning course, read grammar books, text books, dual language readers, novels, listened to music while reading the lyrics. I recently took a month long immersion course costing over $1000US, ouch!

Truthfully everything works to some degree, and nothing works completely. In order to have something to say you need to learn more than the text books can teach you. You'll need to know more than the tapes will teach you. "What time does this train get to Madrid?" "Can I pay with my credit card?" "When I was young my favorite game was Monopoly." Reading and listening: newspapers, websites, television, podcasts, people on the street. The only way to have something interesting to say is by hearing it somewhere first. Eventually you may start to have your own interesting ideas but expressing them without the distractions of poor grammar and wrong words will take time.

The easiest way to begin is by listening to music, maybe you already enjoy a singer who has some songs in another language. I've always liked classic rock, and to my delight, I've found a lot of bands from Spain and South America that are pumping out great rock today, they still think rock is cool! Once you find some music that you like, Google the songs title with the word lyrics and you'll be singing along learning the words. Use an online translator or a good dictionary and start paying attention to expressions and grammar form. It will come together and you'll start learning some interesting phrases, more than the phrase books will tell you about. Without advocating anything illegal I would suggest P2P as an incredible resource for content, music, podcasts, textbooks and lessons. Gutenburg has a great deal of content in foreign languages as well.

Set realistic goals for yourself, I've told myself that I have 10 years to speak Spanish fluently. I was a shy child and as I recall wasn't saying too much at age 10. I only now at age 49 am starting to feel that I may have something interesting to say. My hope is that by age 60 I will perhaps be able to say something interesting in Spanish.