<p>The language program at my high school is pretty dismal, which is unfortunate for me, because i am really interested in learning languages. I have managed to become proficient in Spanish by taking classes at my high school and supplementing that with a class at my local UC and self study, but now I want to learn French and Italian. Has anyone here successfully taught him/herself a language from scratch? I have no idea where to start. Please help!</p>
<p>BYU online has great classes in languages.</p>
<p>But, not in Italian. They rock because all of those Mormon missionaries have to learn languages and to go to BYU you have to know two whole languages. </p>
<p>But, if you take a class online through BYU, they remain totally neutral with the Mormon faith. They only ever bring up anything about the Mormon faith if you are taking a Religous Course, so they are nice and modern minded that way. </p>
<p>If you know Spanish, then I would not fret over Italian. You would have to get a really good text for Italian for starters. And, then you would have to figure out something to make sure you are learning to speak it well, but I do not know what that is. You could try to see if there is any sort of Italian American club in your city and maybe you could find someone nice to practice with.</p>
<p>I'm currently trying to learn French by reading lyrics/listening to french songs. I should say, it really helps and I'm sensing myself more and more comfortable with reading articles in French like those in Wikipedia.
However, I already know three languages and French has a lot of words from all three.</p>
<p>I want to be somewhat proficient in Japanese by the time I'm done high school. Hopefully I can pass the JLPT3. JLPT2 ideally, but that's unrealistic.</p>
<p>Your really limited when learning a language without being in the atmosphere. I spent 11 months over in Chile and learned it by myself. Of course I was NATURALLY thrown into a Spanish speaking atmosphere, I still arrived without knowing a word and speak it VERY well now. </p>
<p>My advice is to watch as much TV in the language that you want to learn if you understand a little bit. Put subtitles on your TV. And add speakers of that language on SKYPE and find penpals. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! Anyone else?</p>
<p>Just buy some CD's and books and see if that works for you. I'm trying to self study Modern Greek and some French and Spanish and it's working pretty well for me. I got a book and a small Pimsleur course at the library. (Pimsleur is supposed to be really good for foreign languages) I haven't tried it yet, but I'll try to remember to post here and tell you if I like it. :)</p>
<p>I want to do the JLPT4 or 3 in a couple of years.</p>
<p>What is the JLPT?</p>
<p>Japanese Language Proficiency Test; it is the equivalent of our TOEFL, except it gets very nasty at the top (ikkyuu). Levels 4 and 3 are the easiest.
I am trying to self-study Chinese but have been only mildly successful at doing so.</p>
<p>^How have you been doing that?</p>