[HN Gopher] What's the best way to learn a new language?
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What's the best way to learn a new language?
Author : 1659447091
Score : 44 points
Date : 2026-02-22 07:14 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
| shminge wrote:
| I thought this was about programming languages before I saw it
| was from BBC, making me ask - what is the best way to learn a new
| programming language?
|
| I'm guessing the answer is making small things, but what exactly?
| I've made so many to do list apps I don't know what to do with
| them
| dabinat wrote:
| Create something you actually need, or port something you
| already created in another language.
|
| I needed a tool to get the contents of a remote zip file
| without downloading the whole file. I wanted to learn Go, so I
| created the tool with Go, then I ported it to Rust when I
| wanted to learn Rust.
| tmtvl wrote:
| Make things that require you to use the parts of the language
| you don't have a strong grasp on yet, so as to get to know
| those better. Sorting algos, data structures, a kanren, and a
| library website would be a good variety pack. And aside from
| that, reading codebases is also important. Read the code of
| your CPAN equivalent, your Alexandria equivalent, your Spring
| equivalent, and your SDL equivalent.
| xandrius wrote:
| As any language, the core is "why" do you want to learn it. Is
| it to add it to a list and that's it? Then you might struggle
| by creating todo lists or play pretend on Duolingo.
|
| On the other hand, if you do have a goal in mind try to do tiny
| bits of that.
|
| My goal for natural languages is always connecting with another
| culture at a deeper level than just using English. If that's
| the case, you get someone to talk/write to and slowly do it. It
| won't be instantaneous or dopamine fueled but after a few years
| you might realise that you've been chatting with someone
| completely in their language without major hiccups.
|
| For programming languages, I understand that filling a CV is
| tantalising and useful, so you've got to come up with projects
| and things you'd actually like to be doing with such a
| language.
|
| You could say you want to pick up COBOL for a future job, well
| figure out what would make sense to use it for and go with
| that.
|
| And if you really cannot think of anything, then you can fall
| back to make something up: make a game with such a language
| (even better if it is not meant for games), automate something,
| recreate a small tool which you find frustrating. And even if
| after you have read this and still cannot find a thing which
| gets you, maybe learning this language is not within your
| current interests and you might start considering to move on.
| ivanjermakov wrote:
| Writing one from scratch gives a lot of understanding to how it
| works under the hood and in the process you learn right
| phraseology and treat all languages as computational fronteds.
| embedding-shape wrote:
| > I'm guessing the answer is making small things, but what
| exactly? I've made so many to do list apps I don't know what to
| do with them
|
| My favorite way has always been to not just build small things,
| but build small useful things. There is always something that
| could be better, and there is always a subset of languages best
| for the task at hand. If it's a CLI, then a language that can
| compile to binary tends to be best (for me at least), so that
| already limits the languages somewhat. Then depending on what
| the task is, it might make sense to learn a new language for
| it.
|
| Then naturally over the years I've picked up 10-15 languages
| this way, by just following what each language seems best at,
| and not being afraid of spending 2-3 weeks writing something
| basic.
|
| Then for each language you learn, next one gets a lot easier,
| especially when most mainstream languages today are Algol-like
| languages and more similar to each other than different.
| strogonoff wrote:
| When learning, motivation is first, everything else follows.
|
| At some point I felt the drive to move on from Python as my
| main language. There was no question of "how": when I needed or
| wanted to build _anything_ , I would simply go with Go (later
| TypeScript) and plow on. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what
| motivated that drive, but I think it was probably curiosity
| after seeing examples in other languages, wanting to be more
| competitive, and--let's be honest--the basic desire to feel a
| little cooler in the eyes of peers.
|
| Be mindful of second-order volition here. Like when someone
| says "I want to quit %BAD_HABIT%", what they really say is "I
| want to want to quit %BAD_HABIT"--if they really wanted to
| quit, they would have already done it. Similarly, if you want
| to learn a programming language, you are all set (unless it is
| so esoteric that there are no suitable resources or references,
| which never happens), but if you want to want to learn a
| programming language then what you need is some lateral move
| (tricking yourself, putting yourself in some situation, etc.)
| that makes you actually want to learn it.
|
| These days learning a new programming language is a more
| sketchy question, because LLMs drain a few major sources of
| motivation: you can hardly feel cool for knowing how to program
| in a new language, because anyone would rightfully assume it
| was written with an LLM; you increasingly do not actually need
| to know a language, because a model writes everything for you;
| the competitive advantage is decreasing. Unlike speaking some
| human language, there is no society of native speakers that
| would accept you more or treat you better thanks to you
| speaking their language.
| srameshc wrote:
| I love brazilian Portugese becuase I love Brazil and it's people
| and culture. So I listen to a lot of brazilian music and I am
| always curious about lyrics. I try to sing along, but it's hard
| sometimes to read it in english and pronouncate, sometimes 't' is
| 'chi' ... I might be wrong , I am new to the language and I am
| learning. I have picked up a lot of words in my subconscious and
| I know what they mean and this is probably a good way learn in my
| opinion.
| ipnon wrote:
| It's true that 70% of a language is about ~100-300 words. In
| linguistics this is called the "core sight set". If you're in a
| pinch traveling I recommend asking an AI for the 300 most
| frequent word core sight set and cramming these with Anki. You
| can get gist with about 10 hours of study and be much more useful
| than 100 hours of Duolingo. With the core sight set and a
| generous amount of loan words and gesticulation you can
| communicate practically any necessity to anyone. It will by no
| means be elegant or poetic but it gets the job done reliably.
| It's the 10,000 word long tail of vocabulary where a language
| shines but it's the first 300 where it lives and breathes.
| bondarchuk wrote:
| I cannot find anything on google nor on google scholar under
| "core sight set" that has anything to do with language.
|
| In fact the term does not appear to exist at all.
| postsantum wrote:
| I tried this is it didn't work. The most common words are the
| most versatile too and need context
|
| You can learn word "investigation" without context, but not get
| or set
| kjellsbells wrote:
| Frequency lists are very useful but learners need context in
| order to use them, because little word atoms like prepositions,
| pronouns etc are heavily over represented in the core set. So
| make sure to study how to use those, and master the core to
| be/to have verbs too. Some languages have two verbs that
| roughly translate as to be so you need to crack that too.
|
| Beware free lists on Ankiweb. They are very variable in
| quality. Frankly better to build your own.
| ThinkingGuy wrote:
| The focus on a small set of core vocabulary is one of the main
| principles of the Pimsleur method, along with a strict spaced
| repetition format. When I travel to a new country I always
| spend about 15-20 hours beforehand doing the 30-minute Pimsleur
| lessons, just to pick up basic survival vocabulary. I've always
| been satisfied with the results.
| Aldipower wrote:
| 1) Use Anki with pictures and pronunciation to get necessary
| vocabulary. But it needs audio to learn pronunciation. Very
| important. 2) Speak, listen, speak, listen with native speakers
| in person. _Nothing_ beats this! 3) Evening school is a bonus
| fatihpense wrote:
| I like Anki because it is a calm piece of tech. It has been
| there for a long time with the same behavior. There is a merit
| to its boringness. You can also activate FSRS algorithm for
| supposedly better spaced repetition in profile/deck settings.
| This was an interesting read: https://github.com/open-spaced-
| repetition/fsrs4anki/wiki/Spa...
| amai wrote:
| See also
| https://louisrli.github.io/blog/2023/06/13/effectively-using...
| amai wrote:
| Does the article actually answer the question of the headline?
| watwut wrote:
| No.
| duncan_britt wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input_hypothesis
| AreShoesFeet000 wrote:
| This has worked for me. Just try to enjoy a self bombardment of
| the foreign language and hope you will catch on eventually.
| duncan_britt wrote:
| I'm in progress learning Vietnamese this way. To me, whether
| it works or not is no longer a question :)
|
| Were you trying to learn a language or did it just happen to
| you?
| realPtolemy wrote:
| I recall that my old German teacher taught us that listening to
| Music in a particular language, and watching TV where they speak
| a language, were the two best ways to learn a languages.
|
| Her reason for why: Context and various slang words are grasped
| much quicker compared to the cumbersome process of repeating of
| words and phrases (She did not omit the need of the latter
| though).
|
| She was great, 60 years old at the time and had us repeat the
| lyrics of Rammstein songs in class, her favorite band.
| kkkqkqkqkqlqlql wrote:
| I don't know if music in a new language works so well. Lots of
| songs have, like, "forced" slang or even changes in
| pronunciation or syllable stress to meet the constraints of the
| lyrics. In my country I see lots of people that only listen to
| music in English but don't have any grasp of it.
|
| Instead, I would go with cartoons or children/preteen's shows
| first. In adult shows, even when not R-rated, characters
| usually speak way too fast, or, what is most common, the voices
| are not mixed very clearly, unlike cartoons.
|
| What worked for me best (for English) was watching Disney
| movies, the same ones I watched in Spanish.
|
| > She was great, 60 years old at the time and had us repeat the
| lyrics of Rammstein songs in class, her favorite band
|
| This is hilarious, like "Now, kids, repeat after me, 'te quiero
| puta'"
| asdxrfx wrote:
| Regarding the Cartoons totally, way easier to understand them
| because they speaking slow. I'm learning German right now the
| same way
| Ylpertnodi wrote:
| Learn your own languages' grammar.
|
| Then learn (in all tenses) the below verbs that are (usually)
| followed by infinitives
|
| Can / am able Must/ to have to To want to
|
| Then, 'to be' and 'to have' (to go with the above).
|
| Vocabulary...including a boatload of infinitives.
| linhns wrote:
| Live with it, think in it.
| human4567 wrote:
| Just read the language's wikipedia word by word, each time trying
| to predict the next word. After several repetitions you'll be an
| expert in that language, easy peasy.
| shartshooter wrote:
| I spent my childhood in a rural town but learning Spanish from
| various teachers from 4th grade through high school. I always did
| well but focused too much on the process of Spanish such as
| getting very good at conjugating verbs without knowing what the
| meant
|
| After several years away from Spanish I picked it back up in
| college and began traveling and living off and on in Latin
| America
|
| I remember the first times I started dreaming in Spanish, or the
| first time I had a screaming match with someone trying to steal
| money from me. I would unconsciously think of a phrase in English
| and constantly be trying to convert it to Spanish all day long.
| It was the most fluent I've ever felt
|
| A few months ago I went on a trip to Central America and was
| worried my Spanish would have been lost after over a decade away.
| Turns out that quite a bit is still there
|
| Folks regularly compliment me on my pronunciation(which is hugely
| important and shows that you're trying, folks give you so much
| grace if you don't know the words but are trying)
|
| I also find that I can speak far better than I can listen. I
| regularly have to ask people to repeat themselves or slow down,
| which is frustrating to me but what can you expect after not
| staying sharp?
|
| Last thing: I'll echo another commenter who said to listen to
| music. My high school Spanish teacher had us listening and
| singing shakira. She'd print off the lyrics and we'd sing along.
| This was hugely valuable for pronunciation and flow. Also, old
| Shakira stuff is great
|
| Nothing beats the pressure of using a language all day in a place
| where they don't speak your language.
|
| I remember meeting a backpacker from another country who spoke
| English but would only speak Spanish to when we traveled and
| would pull out her dictionary regularly and make notes in her
| notebook. I learned that Germans are crazy disciplined and that
| that discipline pays off. Her Spanish was amazing after only a
| few months in the country
| jonplackett wrote:
| Michel Thomas is the answer (or it was for me anyway as someone
| previously TERRIBLE at languages)
|
| BBC made a documentary about him where he teaches a French gcse
| to the 6 worst kids in the school, in I think 2 weeks.
| https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL94A517B00A16C187&si=4eAv...
|
| He was also in the French resistance, survived concentration
| camps and is generally a very interesting person.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Thomas
| treetalker wrote:
| For me, the sentence method works well.
|
| 1. I get new sentences from Glossika (they've thought through
| which sentences to present, and in what order -- i.e., the
| curriculum). I get a few at a time -- between 5 and 50, depending
| on how difficult the target language is / how close it is to one
| I already know.
|
| 2. I put those sentences into Mochi, with a template that
| automatically creates and embeds audio files of the target
| language.
|
| 3. I do the learning, memorizing, and reviewing of the sentences
| in Mochi using FSRS. I practice writing and pronunciation as I go
| along with the cards. (Using Mochi also helps me maintain
| languages I've learned in the same place.)
|
| 4. I return to Glossika and occasionally cram pronunciation
| practice from the human-generated audio there (Mochi is TTS,
| after all).
|
| 5. I supplement with TV and radio for immersion. When I reach a
| higher level, I start reading books.
|
| 6. Travel or living abroad, when I can.
|
| The real trick is getting a couple new sentences and using SRS
| every day. Consistency moves mountains!
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