The Student Room Group

Has anyone self taught german/french/spanish?

Which is easiest?
How long to be conversationally fluent?
Which methods are most effective or is taking a class obligatory?
Yes, French. I did French as an extra Gcse so I never had a teacher. I studied for like 10 months and got an A*.... After that I kept studying French (for 2 years) and even though I know my French isn't perfect, I know enough to say pretty much whatever I want... But... The fact that I also speak Spanish, Portuguese and Italian fluently really helped me.. So if you don't speak any of these languages I believe learning French with nobody's help will be a bit more challenging...
But it depends... If you speak any romance languages, then learning French or Spanish should be quite easy.. If you don't then If I were you I'd go for either German or Spanish, this is because I think that French is harder than Spanish and I am now in the process of learning German and find links between German and English all the time...
The time it takes to be conversationally fluent depends on different factors: Are you good with languages? Can you speak any other languages? How much effort are you going to put in?
In my opinion NOTHING is more effective than talking to native speakers, this is because you pick up loads of things without even realising and by having to talk you don't have much time to think so rather than thinking about how you can say something, you just have to train your brain to say it straightaway, if that makes sense... Not to mention that it's probably the most exciting way of learning a language because you get to know different people and their cultures...
Normally when I am learning a new language I like to read newspapers and watch films in that language because you are more likely to "get the accent right" and learn many sayings and all that..
So yeah... Good luck :smile:
I'm doing all three (although I've only just started German). I would say that, personally, I find German hardest, but that might just be because I've studied French and Spanish in school when I was younger. I would say that I found Spanish easier because it's quite 'relaxed' in terms of grammar, it's pronounced phonetically and, like French, it shares a lot of vocabulary with English. But it really depends on which one interests you the most/your personal views. My brother can't stand French but finds German pretty simple.
Again, it really depends on which language you learn and how you learn it when it comes to having conversations.
I would say to familiarise yourself with the language or languages you want to learn you should start with using apps such as Duolingo and Memrise, just to get to grips with the basic vocabulary and pronunciation. Then progress onto watching videos and reading books in your target language: don't be afraid to look up words. And, as kaylee said, the best thing you can really do is to speak with natives!
I'm doing all three (although I've only just started German). I would say that, personally, I find German hardest, but that might just be because I've studied French and Spanish in school when I was younger. I would say that I found Spanish easier because it's quite 'relaxed' in terms of grammar, it's pronounced phonetically and, like French, it shares a lot of vocabulary with English. But it really depends on which one interests you the most/your personal views. My brother can't stand French but finds German pretty simple.
Again, it really depends on which language you learn and how you learn it when it comes to having conversations.
I would say to familiarise yourself with the language or languages you want to learn you should start with using apps such as Duolingo and Memrise, just to get to grips with the basic vocabulary and pronunciation. Then progress onto watching videos and reading books in your target language: don't be afraid to look up words. And, as kaylee said, the best thing you can really do is to speak with natives!

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