Some stuff that helped me (I speak decent Chinese, some German, and basic Japanese and Esperanto):
Immersion, of course, especially if you can insinuate you can’t speak English (I’m French, we don’t have a reputation for being great at English—so I can just say the equivalent of “me from the France” in the target language and I’m less likely to be answered in English)
A high tolerance for embarrassment (not having much of a peer group around probably helps, e.g. shopping alone or talking on the internet)
Instant Messaging with young girls of the target language—a good way of getting your brain to notice how valuable stringing basic sentences together is. Video chat would probably be even better, in my days we had to stick to ICQ (you may want to follow a different strategy if, for example, you are more interested in boys than in girls)
Anki, or other Spaced Repetition software. Enter everything you learn in it (rather than using pre-constructed decks), and review it daily.
Reading comic strips or other light reading in the target language (Ideally: those that talk about daily things (not space dragons—I liked “Detective Conan”, because of the frequent and repetitive reference to household items), and that you’ve already read in your language (in my case, Tintin and Dragon Ball)) (mildly useful, I found it easier to stick to than reading actual books)
Listening to songs in the target language (I like some Disney songs—I already know the meaning in English—or other musicals) (I don’t know how useful this has actually been, but it has drilled some basic vocabulary in me, and has been enjoyable. Probably not as effective as the other options above)
If you can’t get any total immersion, organize lunches with people in the same area who either speak that language or want to learn it, with learning as an explicit goal.
From back when I learned Esperanto, I remember talk of a study that showed that learning Esperanto for 1 month and then learning French for (say) 11 months results in better French than just spending the whole 12 months learning French. No link, might be apocryphal.
On further investigation, it turns out that there’s an entire Wikipedia article on this effect, listing 14 different experiments. Many of them seem old, small, and non-rigorous, though.
The early research that does exist (e.g. Fisher, 1921; Halloran, 1952, Williams, 1965a, 1965b) is reported in brief terms and thus does not pass today’s quality standards
Because it’s interesting and easy, and the idea of “let’s all speak a common neutral language” is one I can get behind.
Has it been useful to you?
Not very useful, no, but I enjoy learning languages. It made me more confident towards learning other languages (specifically, it’s simple grammar rules made me re-evaluate my rejection of memorizing German grammar), was an interesting social activity, and I got to travel with the Pasporta Servo program (free housing for other Esperantists), got to chat with weird people, etc. A bit like LessWrong :D
Some stuff that helped me (I speak decent Chinese, some German, and basic Japanese and Esperanto):
Immersion, of course, especially if you can insinuate you can’t speak English (I’m French, we don’t have a reputation for being great at English—so I can just say the equivalent of “me from the France” in the target language and I’m less likely to be answered in English)
A high tolerance for embarrassment (not having much of a peer group around probably helps, e.g. shopping alone or talking on the internet)
Instant Messaging with young girls of the target language—a good way of getting your brain to notice how valuable stringing basic sentences together is. Video chat would probably be even better, in my days we had to stick to ICQ (you may want to follow a different strategy if, for example, you are more interested in boys than in girls)
Anki, or other Spaced Repetition software. Enter everything you learn in it (rather than using pre-constructed decks), and review it daily.
Reading comic strips or other light reading in the target language (Ideally: those that talk about daily things (not space dragons—I liked “Detective Conan”, because of the frequent and repetitive reference to household items), and that you’ve already read in your language (in my case, Tintin and Dragon Ball)) (mildly useful, I found it easier to stick to than reading actual books)
Listening to songs in the target language (I like some Disney songs—I already know the meaning in English—or other musicals) (I don’t know how useful this has actually been, but it has drilled some basic vocabulary in me, and has been enjoyable. Probably not as effective as the other options above)
If you can’t get any total immersion, organize lunches with people in the same area who either speak that language or want to learn it, with learning as an explicit goal.
Why did you learn Esperanto? Has it been useful to you?
From back when I learned Esperanto, I remember talk of a study that showed that learning Esperanto for 1 month and then learning French for (say) 11 months results in better French than just spending the whole 12 months learning French. No link, might be apocryphal.
On further investigation, it turns out that there’s an entire Wikipedia article on this effect, listing 14 different experiments. Many of them seem old, small, and non-rigorous, though.
I defy the data. I wouldn’t care if you did have a citation, but I doubt it’s a real study, too.
Williams, N. (1965) ‘A language teaching experiment’, Canadian Modern Language Review 22.1: 26-28
http://www.essex.ac.uk/langling/documents/elct/2013/esperanto_tool.pdf
Also explains why there’s no copy online.
Because it’s interesting and easy, and the idea of “let’s all speak a common neutral language” is one I can get behind.
Not very useful, no, but I enjoy learning languages. It made me more confident towards learning other languages (specifically, it’s simple grammar rules made me re-evaluate my rejection of memorizing German grammar), was an interesting social activity, and I got to travel with the Pasporta Servo program (free housing for other Esperantists), got to chat with weird people, etc. A bit like LessWrong :D