Learning a second language

So I don't even want to get started on how frustrated I am (i.e. burning with the passion of a thousand suns) about how poor the language education is in this country, and how I wish I had been taught from a young age so I wouldn't be eighteen and sat here barely able to speak another language...

But I was wondering if anyone on here who does have a second language that they've learned (not necessarily from parents/family etc) could give me advice!
How have you learned? What techniques/apps/teachers etc worked well? What language would you say is best to learn? (I'm attempting German since I did it for two years at a poor school and still enjoyed it.)

I was also thinking about hiring someone to have one-on-one lessons, and would love to know a native speaker just to teach me how to *speak* the language, not have a formal regurgitated convo.

Basically, I'd like advice from native speakers and those who have learned later in their lives! Thanks

DO NOT start trying to read books or listen to radio at this point, you wont take anything from it and itl just put you off - good luck!

I can speak 4 languages on top of my native English, those languages being French, German, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese. I use a variety of methods to become proficient in a language-grammar books and vocab are always the best starting point as you can't speak a language properly without them. Routledge have a good range of books for grammar and Memrise is good for vocab.

Learning vocab for things you're interested in, such as food, sports or music, can help keep your interest in a language.



As a language graduate I have to disagree with you on the not listening to radio as a beginner point. Listening to how the language is spoken in a native context is essential, even as a beginner learner, to understand the flow and rhythm of how the language is spoken. Not exposing yourself to how a language is actually spoken from early on will only serve to stunt acquisition.

different strokes for different folks but as someone whos become fluent, i dont feel it helps in the slightest, anyones vocabulary for the first month or two after beginning and the lack of grammatical knowledge will make it impossible to understand what is being said, radio hosts dont speak slowly or even enunciate well, they talk quickly to entertain and any beginner wont get anything out of it, if a beginner were to insist on listening theyd only benefit from listening to some beginner german youtube videos otherwise they simply wont understand, the rhythm and flow of a language only comes around by the intermediate stage

I think you should listen to radio and music. I started off learning German (after school) by listening to a lot of music and that way I got used to pronunciation and never had to really learn how to pronounce words [though there are some things that are difficult - namely the R, CH and Z/S distinction]. For me I've found that:

- Listening a lot helps.