Has anyone been successful learning another language fluently without living in a country where it is the native/common language? If so how did you do it and were there aspects to your learning you would do differently looking back?

4 comments

  1. It’s a bit old school at this point, but when my wife did Rosetta Stone, she got great results.

    Big emphasis on the “actually doing it” bit, of course.

    It’s pretty tough to properly learn a language without (a) native speakers to practice with and more so (b) a REAL reason you want to learn (i.e. you use it at work, have a bf/gf who speaks that language, etc.)

  3. Language learning basically takes time and effort.

    We live in the age of the internet, which means that it’s not necessary to to live in a country in order to interact with people from that country in their language. After achieving a reasonable base in the language, I would suggest apps like ITalki, Tandem, and HelloTalk to have access to native speakers. There are also extensive language communities here on Reddit, and I ended up meeting someone who is now a really close friend through a language exchange that started on this site.

    I’m fluent in Spanish on a good day, and I started learning Chinese but fell off the wagon. In both cases, the only aspect I would change is the amount of time and effort I put in in order to learn and gain proficiency with the languages.

  4. I’ve been taking German classes through Babbel Live. https://www.babbel.com/live

    They’re instructor led classes and I’ve been _very_ happy with them.

    I like that you pay for the period vs per class. I blasted through the A1 level and am about to take my language exam, then on to A2.

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