How to Learn a Foreign Language Quickly

Language plays a significant role in meeting an individual’s social needs, but it is culture-specific. Thus, a ‘broader horizon’ in social dealings and perception essentially means knowing another language or two.

In this age of air travels and global communication, it’s hard to stick to one’s mother tongue alone. Doing so limits your world only to cultures similar to yours. You can’t fully appreciate humanity’s diversity if you don’t go beyond your linguistic comfort zone, so to speak.

There are more than 2,700 languages spoken in the world. It’s tempting to think that English is the most popular, owing to the fact that it’s the language of the world’s superpower and other economic giants, but it’s actually just the fourth most widely spoken language, next to Mandarin, Hindi and Spanish. And imagine what opportunities in business, tourism, intellectual discourse or just for good old chitchat await those who learn any or all of these three.

Language learning, however, can be tedious, especially if it’s done ‘old school,’ the way Latin and Greek were taught by stick-toting schoolmasters. And let’s face it: not many people have the linguistic smarts. People who have been interested in learning a foreign language quickly have also shown interest in foreign language learning. A good understanding of foreign language learning is usefull.

The usual plan is to build one’s vocabulary of the language being learned, with textbooks, dictionaries and some light reading materials as tool. Vocabulary building, no doubt, is the most important aspect of language learning. But doing it academically – studying the parts of speech and figures of speech, remembering words both fancy and conversational – tend to eat up a lot of time.

Reading also helps, but it somehow works only to reinforce what you’ve learned about grammar, usage and style, and that means you have to do considerable study time first. You can only start to appreciate foreign reading materials, especially those written in languages that use strange syllabaries (non-alphabet), after you have mastered the basics.

The best way to learn a new language would be to listen and speak (and sing a little too). You can easily learn a language if you know how it is spoken by a native speaker or, better yet, by a village of native speakers right in their own country.

However, if that sounds almost Quixotic, you can try a much faster, more convenient alternative: downloading a language learning audio book. For those with a desire to learn the English language visit english language learning and find out how to speak the the language in no time.

Listening to any of these instructional audio books is a more effective and time-efficient means of learning a language. These audio books lets you learn any language the way it should be learned: by listening to native speakers talk and by practicing the new words you’ve learned.

These audio books are compilations of language lessons in a downloadable format. So if you have a portable audio player – CD player, MP3 or iPod – you can listen to them anytime, anywhere.

Pimsleur is famed for its surefire audio programs that allow you to learn new languages fast. If it’s ‘broader horizon’ you want, check the languages Pimsleur covers at The Talking Book Store. Once you’ve gotten the learning aid, the rest is up to you.