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I took 2 years of language course in Spanish and French. After that I am improving watching youtube videos in those languages with English subtitles to associate what I listen to what I read. I try to study at least 5 hours a week on each language. Grammar points and verb tenses (really hard tenses in romantic languages). But language acquisition is really different depending on what language you want to learn. Arab, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, etc. Are languages that don't use our western writing system, so, the learning process is harder.

English. I took 6 years of language course to get to upper intermediate. After I finished the course, it has been 10 years I use English as my main language on internet when I am online. Around 90% of my browsing is in English. And I read books in English without any problem (maybe really old English I have no idea, but IXX and XX century books are ok to me).

Speaking is the hardest part. There are few places in my city to speak those languages, most of them are paid conversation classes. I am fluent in English, and I try some Spanish. French I do understand videos and movies but I don't have the proper sounds in my tongue now. I need to find a French partner here in my city to improve this aspect. I get simple sentences and daily chat, but at an academic level I am way behind the schedule.

There is a sub called /languagelearning that can help you out in your questions. Again, learning languages is really hard, and you will want to quit many times. But it is rewarding when you talk to a foreign guy in their language and they tell your skills are great.

I have studied Japanese for 3 years in the past, but I am focusing in languages close to my native Portuguese. After an advanced level in those languages I return to japanese. Writing system there is insane, but I like the difficulty.

/r/simpleliving Thread Parent