The best way to learn languages.

What is the best way to learn languages? What is going to lead to success in the shortest possible time? There are so many people offering advice on the Internet on this subject, myself included, it is hard to know what works the best. If you check out the list on this website you will find the names of many of these people, and you can read about them in the book by Claude Cartaginese called, what else , The Polyglot Project.

You can learn from all of them. But my conclusion is that the best way to learn languages is by doing what you enjoy doing in the language, and what best suits your circumstances, interests, tastes, and needs. It you do that, you will end up spending enough time to achieve your language goals. If you do not like reading and listening, don’t. If you like to speak when you have little knowledge of the language, do so. If you like SRS review, do it, if you don’t like SRS review, don’t bother, it won’t work for you. If you like grammar, go for it. If you dislike doing grammar exercises, don’t do them. In the end it won’t matter. What matters is that you spend enough time to achieve success in a way that is pleasant for you.

Not everyone can spend 5 or more hours a day, as I once did for Chinese. But do try to get in at least one hour a day. With MP3 players, the Internet, books, what have you, this is not hard to do, if you really want to. And of course the more time you spend, the better. But make sure you enjoy what you are doing or you will probably give up.