Most language students spend year after year plugging away trying to learn a new language. No matter what the language, it’s expected to take some time to pick it up… and I know this from first-hand experience learning a language “the slow way.”
I sat in language classes and studied grammar books but still arrived in Spain barely speaking the language. I know there’s a faster way.
First, many languages teachers argue that adults should learn the same way as babies do… basically by immersion in the language. So they run language classes all in the target language. I found this approach frustrating and difficult.
Adults are not babies. We don’t need to learn what an apple looks like and the associate it with it’s name. We already have a name for it, all we have to do is associate the word in the target language with our word.
There’s no beating around the bush trying to figure out what the teacher is saying. You associate apple with manzana (Spanish) and move on. With repetition this word will stick in your mind.
I also disagree with the approach to vocabulary building that most classes take. You learn words that you barely use in daily conversation in your own language, let alone will use in the new language. Do I really need to learn how to say chick pea in Spanish? I didn’t even know what it was in English!
Useful words to be would be computer, internet, and website since these are critical for explaining my job. Maybe you’re interested in a sport or another hobby so go out and learn that vocab. The broad strokes of a classroom textbook try to appeal to all and end up teaching no-one.
So when you’re learning your language, thinking about what you currently say and translate it over. You’ll find you pick up your language a million times faster and achieve relatively fluency in a much shorter time.