ugg i dont know why that last post didnt work

hey. i've been thinking about trying to teach myself German and French. I took a few years of French in high school but remember very little. I was pretty good at reading and writing it but had difficulty speaking and understanding spoken French. I dont know why it never quite happened. I just feel like i might be more able to learn languages now, for some reason. I was just wondering if anyone here had taught themselves any languages and if they had any pointers or books they found particularly helpful. I was going to buy one of those audio teach yourself things (the ones in the yellow boxes). Also, I know it varies depending on the individual, but how long do you thing it takes to master, or at least have a good grip, on a language. or at least how long did it take you? well thanks.

Good luck with it! I'm trying to teach myself Hebrew at the moment and I'd say for it to work you need lots of self-discipline (because it's SO easy for me to not work on it at all especially with subjects I have exams in to study for too)... and audio things sound good, they'll help your pronounciation!

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Not to suggest anything illegal or anything, but why don't you help yourself to a download copy of Rosetta Stone or something? There you can try out the languages- see them written and spoken, practise saying them and spelling them etc for free. Then if you feel you have made good early progress, then try buying books and stuff that are more specific.

most polyglots are self-learned.

teaching yourself is absolutely possible, but you have to want to do it. the teach yourself series is hit or miss, depending on the language. i own both the french and german and i think they're quite good. i would get something like that, a good dictionary, a grammar book, and other self learning books to supplement.

you need to take some time every day or every other day, and don't try to do too much at once. if you use the teach yourself books, use a few days to work on a chapter, listen to the dialogues over and over, do the exercises until you are confident. use the grammar book for extra practice.

if you want me to recommend specific german books, i can, but i'm not as familiar with french materials (as i don't know french, although i may be learning soon). i have a whole bookshelf of language materials and i will help you if you have questions.

also, when you get started with your learning, you might look on meetup.com and see if there's a practice group you can go to. i meet monthly with one.

and not to completely oppose insomnia's suggestion, but personally, i think rosetta stone is absolutely awful (same with pimsleur). i have tried both and they make me want to cut.

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my daughters taught themselves french 4 years ago, well one taught herself french and passed it on to the other. i had also taken several years of french in high school and after my daughter showed interest in learning a new language i got bought the living language learn french together and we listened to it every time we were in the car. (my youngest daughter ended up picking it up even though she had barely started talking.) anyway, we ended up just going to the library and getting tons of kids books and audiobooks and beginners books on french. they speak french really well now, way better than i do. i think i got bored with the adult curriculum. i guess it just became unfun to me.
anyway, they're learning italian now. we got the kids way to learn italian cd and now i'm all into it. so i've decided to try to learn italian but with kids curriculum only for a while and maybe i'll actually stick with it.

Once you have learnt the basic grammar rules and some vocabulary, start listening to music, reading books and chatting online to native speakers of the language you're studying. I suppose that is useful even if you're taking a course; most people forget that learning a language is really not just sitting in front of a book for 2 hours a day.

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I'll pull out my heart and I'll feed it to anyone.

I took French and Spanish at A Level. Learned Swedish through immersion.. Norwegian I taught myself using books and things but actually started learning that before Swedish..and since they're so similar and I was using different techniques, I could apply what I'd learned in one to the other. & I was in a relationship with a Finn so, I started learning Finnish but I'm not gonna stop just because we broke up.. new challenge and whatnot! Um anyway, rambling so, my advice..
Talk to yourself (seriously), it's good pronunciation practice If you're not in a class and don't get much chance to talk to native speakers or practice speaking in class. Also it helps you gain confidence etc. And as obscurearse said, absolutely start listening to the radio, tv shows etc as soon as possible. I'd say listen for about ten minutes intensively and then leave it on in the background whilst you do other things. Listening especially takes a lot of patience and concentration so, don't be too hard on yourself where things like the radio are concerned when you're starting out.. after all, they're made for those who live in that particular country so, where listening practice is concerned I would definately reccomend some sort of 'teach' yourself CD or something.
I think everyone else has covered most other things so.
Also with French and German, there is lots of help availiable, classes and online help too so, if you get stuck there is lots of support for you. Bonne chance!

I am trying to learn Norwegian.. slowly. When I was there I could understand quite a lot though I was a bit shy to speak it. In the Netherlands I was quite pleased with how much Dutch I still knew. That was self taught too. Using books.

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Juices like wine, like the blood in the sands.

I speak fluent greek,the classic forms of ancient greek/latin,italian and some spanish.
Now greek came natural to me having a greek parent and growing up in Greece but italian i picked up from living with some italian housemates for over a year.I was really amazed when i managed to watch a whole film in italian without subtitles!
I also took german at school and i still to this day do not understand a word of it!
The best thing to do is to get a book with accompanying audio tape but other than that surround yourself with people who speak the language well(or native speakers) as it is so much more helpful and different from all the things you will read or hear in a teaching package!

I keep meaning to teach myself Esperanto. Or maybe Afrikaans.

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actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

Dutch should help you though, right? When I flew with KLM to helsinki i could understand pretty much all of the Dutch announcements thanks to Swedish/Norwegian and perhaps a little high-school German in there?

I really believe in Rosetta Stone. I bought the Swedish one and I swear if I were a millionaire, I'd buy all the CDs & be fluent by now.
German is not easy, so make sure you're ready for a big commitment.

This is a good way to practice German, although her broadcasts can be quite boring at times:
Slow German with Annik Rubens

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I'd really reccomend doing a night class/weekend class. It's just so much easier to learn that way and a lot more fun because you can practise speaking with other people. Plus you have a native speaker right there to help you. I just finished Stage 1 Spanish and am about to start the revision classes before going on to Stage 2 after summer.
Also did a a bit of French in high school which I'd love to pick up again.

I just started to learn Scottish Gaelic. First I tried to see if Rosettastone had it and they didn't but they did just add Irish to their list. I emailed them to see if there were plans for Scottish and they said no. Then I looked on a BBC website and they had lessons which I'm using. Then I also have "Teach your self" cds that I will eventually start using.

Yeah it does a lot but it is hard when I keep confusing words and thinking in Dutch then German and not knowing which one is the right one cause they are so similar hehehe.

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Juices like wine, like the blood in the sands.

wow! thanks to everyone for the help. im going to start once im done with all my finals, so ill probably be back with more questions. also should i attempt learn both together or separately? i was imagining learning one then the other would be easier, but i just figured id ask. i hope my friends enjoy listening to my crappy french and german, beacause they are going to be getting an earful