But I met a lot of Thai learners (and have some Asian-only learners commenting) who dismiss European languages as easy, and almost none of them had ever studied one apart from their native language of English. People always seem to think that their task is the hardest, so while prefacing your comments here or elsewhere, make sure to keep in mind that a few similar words (which is way less common outside of Latin languages) and the same alphabet does not mean European language learners are in for an easy ride compared to their Asian-learner counterparts

This is ignoring a vast amount of other tasks that simply don't exist in Asian languages. In my opinion, any “list” of difficulties would be about the same size in any language, especially when it's not in the same direct language family as your native language. I'm still convinced that not that much time is needed for ANY language once you stop putting it on a pedestal of being really hard, and of course apply the right learning and practice method. You can bet that I'll have a Mandarin fluent-in-3-month mission some day

Sorry, but speaking from the front of your mouth and stressing the last syllable is a ridiculous simplification of sounding French. That will get you nowhere beyond canned laughter on American sitcom TV…

No problems with your comments here on my site – keep 'em coming. As long as they don't replicate the tone they have elsewhere, they are more than welcome. I hope my advice helps your sons!

I do suffer somewhat from having never studied a European language to any real extent though, now I always try to make that clear when commenting on language study posts.
It has to influence my opinions to a large extent.

I feel I have done enough over the last few years to qualify as a “serious language learner”. Anyway looking forward to your next German post, I started late in life learning languages, and have not had the chance to travel as part of the experience yet, my teenage sons however may well be traveling soon so I am sure they can pick up some helpful tips from your experiences. Forgive my exuberance in commenting, I am reading a huge amount of language learning material on line in support of a project and my doddery old brain might occasionally wander off topic when commenting on this and other sites

I had bought a phrase book for German, Irish and Thai, which are not Latin languages. My purpose in this blog is not to impress people but to share my thoughts and advice for others learning languages.

Obviously audio will hugely augment what you can learn, and I highly recommend it (listening to audio on the flight has helped my current German comprehension a lot for example) but that wasn't the purpose of this post. I'll likely discuss podcasts and their usefulness in a separate post.

I prefer sound, the principle is the same, the internet is full of podcasts, youtube videos etc. of both professionals and regular guys providing phrases in their own language. You can easily take the sound from these and load up even an cheap mp3 player (many podcasts etc. you can just download directly). That way I know the sounds of the phrases I can play the mp3's any time (shopping, travelling etc.) I don't need to learn many of the words and phrases they just stick after exposure.

If you have an Ipod Touch or Iphone you can spend a bit of money and have a talking phrase book (best of both worlds I guess).

If you don't know how to get sound from youtube videos etc. ask a teenager they usually know .

Also while your language learning is impressive, spanish, italian, portuguese (and maybe esperanto?) are all not only latin-based languages but are phonetically similar etc. So let's not pretend to be king of language learning…try learning Chinese, Arabic and Russian and I'll be impressed

Is there anyway you could write about some of the specific methods you use for learning a language? I don't quite know where to start, and am rather hesitant about moving forward at times because there is such an emphasis on learning languages the “right” or “efficient” way.

Thanks,
Kaitlyn