Can I learn a new language in 6 months? My experience from studying my 3rd language

Dear reader,

Today, I read a wonderful article on the Duolingo app, but I couldn’t share a link with you. So, I will tell you what it said.

The article, written by a senior learning scientist and language learning expert, Dr. Cindy Blanco explains why we can’t become fluent in a new language in 6 months.

Why we can’t learn a language in 6 months by Dr. Cindy Blanco

In the Duolingo article, the learning scientist says the first thing is that fluent means different things to different people. Obviously, what’s fluent to the people who claim they learned a language in 3 months (I have seen ads) is different from me.

When I was learning English, my second language, I told people who I could understand in perfect English that I only spoke a little bit of English. I had an American boyfriend and was communicating with him only in English (he taught me), but I was extremely careful not to claim I knew more than I actually knew!

Maybe after a year of living with my boyfriend, now my partner and father of my children, I said I spoke English. It took me years total to feel fluent. Some people can make such a claim a lot faster than I did. This is because fluent means different things to different people.

Then Cindy explained how much there is to learn, such as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and more. There’s no way to learn so much well in 6 months. There’s not even enough time for enough repetition.

“Repetitio est mater studiorum”

“Repetition is the mother of learning.”

This is a popular Roman saying in Latin attributed to someone named Varro. I read he was an educator.

Back to the article, Cindy Blanco then explained that what people refer to by saying “fluent” is confident and conversational.

Just like me, having an English conversation to explain in perfect English sentences:

“I don’t speak English ”

                 “But you’re speaking English”

“But I only speak a little ”

                  “Can you understand me?”

“Yes, but I have to think and translate in my mind”

Ok, that last sentence is not something I said 17 years ago. I understand this now.

Language skills we can learn in 6 months

Cindy Blanco, Duolingo’s learning scientist, says: “Yes, we can become comfortable and conversational in a new language within 6 months”

Why some learn languages so fast

I want to be one of these magical unicorns and now, learning a 3rd language (of course, I’m studying 3 languages at once, 2 of them I’m doing good in), it’s much easier and faster.

Per Cindy, people who learn a language very fast have these things in common:

• Previous language learning experience. Like me, learning a third language feels great, so much easier than learning a second language. We already know how to learn a second language and feel super confident in our ability to learn a third one.
• They are committed. There’s no excuses. I will learn this language no matter what! The language better watch it because I’m coming to acquire it! I dropped even blogging and poetry writing (my favorite things to do) to learn Latin full time. I also got off social media, but it was easy to do, and i was the happiest I’ve been in recent years studying Latin.
• They start practicing the new language right away, on day one. Shameless practice is what I call this. I’m not at all fluent in Latin, but I wrote a poem in Latin! I talk to my daughter in Latin. I teach Latin words to my partner. I’m making the Latin connection into English and Spanish. Oh, I’m also attempting to sing in Italian. A month ago, I only knew 3 words in Ialian…
• They excel at making mistakes. I understand this because mistakes are so embarrassing. English, my second language, such an embarrassing experience to me… but I have been making videos of my Latin learning experience in Duolingo and showing off my progress on YouTube. I mess up for all to see, then laugh at it. On a poem I wrote in my first week of Latin, a poem in which I spoke of Latin learning and said 2 words in Latin. I said Vos (you in plural) was tu (you but in the singular). The shame was not present. Instead, I’ll never forget these 2 words. Mistakes are teachers, too.
• They immerse themselves.  Immersion is a word you hear a lot if learning about language learning. This is how I’m getting immersed in Italian: I started listening to Italian music, followed Italian artists on Twitter, and I am listening to an Italian podcast. This is the third week, maybe, but I plan on learning exclusively by interacting with the language, and I’m doing really well. Getting immersed to Latin was harder but for a while I’ve been reading in Latin, studying Roman history, reading Latin poetry, investigating how much Latin is Greek, listening to podcasts in Latin, watching videos in Latin. There’s not a lot of options since it’s an ancient language, but this makes learning it fun. I’m also reading about mythology because it’s fun.
• Finally, people who learn a language fast put in the time. They’re not lazy about it. They do not dread studying the new language. They love it! It’s mind play with art which is language.

My conclusion

Once you enjoy your language learning, you learn incredibly fast.

Immersion can also be obsession of a positive kind. I can’t stop thinking of Latin!

Next step: think in Latin

What language are you studying?

I study Spanish, English, Latin, Ancient Greek, and Italian.

Thanks for visiting,

Eve