pne: A picture of a plush toy, halfway between a duck and a platypus, with a green body and a yellow bill and feet. (Default)
Philip Newton ([personal profile] pne) wrote2011-08-08 09:02 pm

Learn any language in six months?

I read a blog entry entitled Learn Any Language in 6 Months.

One of the key components is immersing yourself in the language: listening to the language on YouTube, reading newspapers, etc.

So I guess he's not really saying "Learn any language in six months", but "Learn any major language in six months - one which has enough material available easily that you can consume lots of it".

For example, I think I'd have a tough time finding significant content in Inuktitut: audio is the most problematical, but even written is probably tough if I don't want to read the minutes of parliamentary meetings or government brochures on avoiding AIDS. And even Romansh would be tricky: quite a few books, but I'm not sure whether I could get audio (RTR is mostly music, for example).

So, yeah. Good for you if the language you want to learn is Japanese. But something like Walloon? Is tougher.

steorra: Illumination of the Latin words In Principio erat verbum (echternach)

[personal profile] steorra 2011-08-16 12:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I bought it in person in Iqaluit when I was there in 2000 with the fiddling group I belonged to. I believe it was published by the Canadian Bible Society, and their online store has a New Testament and Psalms available that looks like mine, though if mine has Psalms I've forgotten it. (I can't check because it's at my parents' house.)