Learn a foreign language on your commute.
When people learn I’ve been studying Spanish for four years, so many tell me they wish they could do the same. When I ask them why they don’t learn the language of their choice, I get one (or more) of the following excuses. Today I will help you by blowing up all these excuses so you can cross this off your bucket list. 
1. I don’t have the money for classes - If you are trying to learn a rare language that isn’t spoken near you, it’s true, you may be out of luck. Immersion in a program or a visit foreign country may be best, but it’s not cheap.
But for most of us, we are trying to learn a tongue that’s spoken by millions around the world. For a major language like German or Mandarin Chinese, check your local library for CDs, dictionaries, and even children’s books. Radio Lingua has free podcasts in over 20 languages. My favorite resource, iTunesU, has free online classes in everything from Armenian to Urdu.
Are you a TV watcher? If you want to learn a language popular in your area, there are probably whole cable channels dedicated to that language that you are already paying for. Skip the reality show tonight and watch something educational instead.
2. I don’t have the time - I have a friend with two small children and a full time job, who is also in school part time. If your schedule is similar, well, I guess you may be too busy.
For the rest of you, language learning doesn’t take 20 hours a week unless you want it to. I only average 3-4 hours of practice a week, and I’m nearly fluent now.
Do you have a long commute? Listen to podcasts or music on the road!
Standing in a long line? Instead of calling a friend, use a free app to practice vocabulary (thanks to Benny for this one).
Do you have a ton of house chores? Put on your mp3 player of choice and listen to a free class you’ve downloaded while you work.
3. I’m too old - This myth is really common among Americans. The theory is that there is a “critical period” for learning other languages, and if you miss it, you’re out of luck.
While it’s easier to learn many things when you are a child, I don’t see people saying they are too old at 20 to learn how to surf, or too old at 30 to learn how to play piano. The fear is unique to language acquisition. The reality is that adults pick up another language faster than little kids in the early stages, because of their motivation, knowledge of grammar and their superior vocabulary, which can help them learn words that are similar in their native tongue.
This idea is fortunately far from universal. I met a bunch of Europeans last month at Singularity University who speak 2 or 3 languages, and are picking up another in their forties because of business opportunities.
4. I’m bad at languages – Many people believe this, but I don’t think it’s true for the majority. After all, you mastered English which is quite complicated.
It’s more likely that you gave up quickly, or you had a bad teacher. Otherwise, we would have to believe that millions of Europeans who speak multiple languages are all super-geniuses.
Perhaps your expectations were too high as well. In learning Spanish, I found that I hit comprehension plateaus regularly, and had to figure out new strategies to get to the next level. On the other hand, sometimes things would just click effortlessly and I would suddenly be a lot more fluent.
I’ll end this section with an inspiring story. I had a job in a sheltered workshop supervising adults with learning disabilities. I had a client from the Azores who spoke barely any English. Even worse, our Portugese interpreter couldn’t understand much of her dialect so he couldn’t help her much. Despite these obstacles, G. learned English through brute force immersion, and after two years, she was able to follow conversations and make simple jokes. I know you could do just as well with much less effort.
5. People will laugh at my sad attempts to speak their language - I used to worry about this a lot. That’s why I was reading novels in French in college but was embarrassed to say anything in French.
The truth is that most people will be patient and impressed that you made the attempt. After all, you are patient with foreigners yourself, right?
As a child, you are used to not knowing everything and you expect it. As an adult, the feeling of being a novice can be uncomfortable and bruise your ego.
All I can say is the more you try, the less awkward you will feel and the better you will get at speaking. I make mistakes in English all the time and I’ve been speaking it since I could walk, so don’t beat yourself up so much.
Do you want to learn another language? What is getting in your way?
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I took two years of French in high school, but I never get to use it. I always dream I will go to France and bone up on the language before we get there. That way, at least I can order something to eat. I also understand a little bit of my wife’s language, but I can’t speak very much. Whenever I go to the Islands with my wife, I don’t have to say very much to get fed. “Come Eat” is the second thing they say after hello. Plus, everyone younger than 50 is fluent in English.
What is your opinion of interactive learning programs, such as Rosetta Stone? That has to be a whole lot better than taking classes with a book. Taking French in high school was a painful experience.
Hi Bret, as I recall your kids are older so I encourage you to go to France soon! You can use some of my suggestions above as ways to practice.
What language does your wife speak? If the second thing they say is “come eat” I will have to visit.
I will be writing more blog posts about what’s worked for me, but I am not a fan of Rosetta Stone. It’s true that it’s a lot more fun than a boring workbook, but I didn’t find it taught me many useful phrases, like “Where is the bathroom?”
You do need some basic grammar and vocab in the beginning, and there are some ways to make that less painful, such as translating songs. However, I believe you want to speak early and often, even if you aren’t very good. Native speakers who are willing to correct you often are the best. Software cannot substitute for this process.
Jennifer,
Yes, my daughter just turned 18 and will graduate from high school next month. So, Maria and I will be doing our own thing in a couple of years. As much as I love my kids, I’m looking forward to it. France is high on the list.
My wife is from the isle of Pohonpei in Micronesia. You see these islands on the TV show Survivor a lot. It’s a beautiful place. Her language is probably derived from a Polynesian dialect. But, each island has a different laguage. Since there are four islands in the Federation, they chose English as their official language.
Two things I know about Islanders: 1) They love to eat and have parties. 2) They love to feed people. It’s a great place to visit, especially when you have family.
Bret
Hi Bret, this sounds like a great time for you to plan some traveling.
How neat! I would like to visit that part of the world some day.
This describes me–and I took four years of Spanish in school! I’m always promising myself that I’m going to “do something” with Spanish, but never do.
I’m sorry I haven’t already because the Spanish speaking population in my area is growing rapidly and I have friends for whom Spanish is the native tongue.
Maybe the real obstacle for most of us is that we get by in our lives without it and for that reason we never get up quite the motivation to act.
With the world going global, having a second language may be a critical skill in the future. I’m trying to impress this on my teenage kids, but just like me, they’re finding ways around it.
Hi Kevin, I think it’s easy to put things off as an adult because we’re busy. I have hobbies that I’ve meant to get back to for years. As Americans, we can get by just fine most of the time without knowing another language, which is not true for people in many other parts of the world.
I would expect that learning another language because it probably will help in the future would be a hard sell to teenagers. I know my niece is not that motivated in her Spanish classes.
Every time I come here, I read something that makes me question what I’m doing with my life, but in a good way
I used to study Chinese and I loved it but I got very busy with other things. It was a conscious decision to drop Chinese and some other studies in order to focus on things that would hopefully have a greater impact on my life. Although I miss studying thing that I really love, I can’t say I regret it. Rather, I regret that there aren’t 50 hours in a day.
Hi Ash, I agree that we all have a limited amount of time and we have to set priorities. However, I’m sure you have a long life ahead of you so you could always go back to it in the future.
Chinese may have an impact on your life yet!
Thank you, and I hope it does have an impact on my life! I’m looking forward to getting back to the things I love doing, but right now I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep
Hi Ash, sometimes you do have to put your head down and focus hard. Good luck on getting back to Chinese.
Learning a foreign language is one skill that can be developed at any age. I agree that it’s easier when young. My sister and I went from zero to complete fluency in English while in our early teens, but only by total immersion.
Our stepfather, on the other hand, started learning Spanish after the age of 18. After that, he picked up Italian, Swedish, Arabic, all with passable degrees of proficiency. His latest language is Portuguese, in which he’s rapidly becoming fluent.
Hi Andrew, thanks for backing me up on the ability to learn another language at any age.
If you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have known you weren’t born in the US. That’s an impressive story about your stepfather!
I had taken 2 years of Spanish in highschool and I don’t remember most of it. I have been thinking about finding a way to relearn and extend my learning further. I love the idea of checking out Itunes U for classes and listening to them as I clean the house and commute.
Hi Jackson, and welcome to Live Richly! That happens to a lot of people. If you don’t practice regularly you will forget. Fortunately, a lot of it will come back with review.
It’s a great way to carve time to learn languages out of your busy day.
[...] is a skill that will enrich your life and/or your wallet. Jennifer Barry @ Live Richly says to stop making excuses and get on with [...]
I can fluently speak 6 languages and I am also learning Spanish to add to the arsenal.
The way I am learning Spanish may be quite unique to my situation. I am not taking classes but I do take notes when I mingle and converse with Hispanic crowd here in Grand Prairie, especially with all the customers that come to my work (O:
I did study French and Japanese in school but never really was good at them. I remember Japanese being a painful experience!
Thanks for the post Jen. Glad to see you are still rocking it (O:
Talk soon!
Wow Adam, what six languages are those? (I’m guessing English and Nepali are 2). That’s really inspiring.
That is great that you are taking notes at work! Could you also listen to one of the Spanish radio stations there?
I bet Japanese is an extra challenge because of the totally different writing system.
Hi Jen; Japanese was a pain in my rear..honestly (O:
These are the other languages I speak;
Newari: which is a ethnic language spoken by Newari caste in Nepal. Even though, I am not from this caste, I have family members and friends who belong to this caste.
Sanskrit: considered as one of the oldest languages in the world, I had to study this in my school in order to graduate. This language is also the roots of Nepali and Hindi language.
Hindi: Spoken all over North India, it is about 30% similar to Nepali – plus it is also derived from Sanskrit, which made it so much easier to learn this language.
Urdu: This is a border language between India and Pakistan and is not that hard to learn if you know Hindi. But I don’t know how to write it (O:
Hi Adam, after all those other languages, I’m surprised Japanese was hard for you! Thanks for the update about your other languages. My husband had someone offer to teach him Hindi once.
It is like you have raided my list of excuses. I am pretty certain I have used each and every one of these for why I do not learn another language. Let’s just say when it comes to this I am a complete excuse giving failure. Given the traveling I love to do, I know really should learn another language rather than knowing how to say, “wheres the bathroom” and “can I have a beer please” in 7-8 languages.
It is on my “list of things to do” but sometimes I feel like it will sit there foreever langiushing. Thank for giving me some impetuous to maybe “do” something about it.
On a completely different note I noticed you casually mentioned, “last month at Singularity University” whoah! Cool. I didn’t know you went. YOu should write a couple articles about your experinces there. very cool!
Hi Steve, these are the excuses that I hear all the time so I know they’re common.
Well, I hope that I gave you some resources to learn something if you decide to do so.
Oh yeah, I did go. I’ve meant to write a couple posts on it but one hasn’t quite come together yet. I’ve been taking a bit of a technology holiday so I should get my butt back in gear this week!
What a great post! I took french all the way through college and could speak it fluently years ago. I think about why I haven’t kept it up and time really comes into play. This year we took our family to France and exposed our kids to another culture. There was nothing like it. I am inspired again. It is so unfortunate that the US educational system doesn’t give learning another language the priority it so deserves.
Hi Lori, glad you enjoyed it! With languages, you definitely need to use it regularly or you forget a lot. That’s so cool that you took the kids to France.
It’s a great way for them to learn about how other people live.
I agree, despite all the studies that indicate kids should learn languages early, most US schools do little until high school. In contrast, most European students can speak 3 languages well when they graduate.
Hi Jennifer, this is great and I really needed it! I took six years of Spanish in high school/college and don’t feel like I know a lick of it (though I swear I sometimes have dreams in Spanish and I am speaking fluently). One of my goals during our trip around the world is to really learn Spanish. I always used the excuse that I was bad at learning languages but I realize now that I didn’t put much effort into learning the language. What has changed for me is that now I really WANT to know and I’m starting to believe that I really will be able to pick it up.
Hi Kim, it’s sad how common it is to take years of a foreign language but not get very far. I think you are having these dreams of fluency because you really want it.
Since you plan to go on a RTW trip, you can practice a lot in Latin America. I’ve heard you can take some cheap but awesome classes as well!
I’ve often wondered about that software Rosetta Stone, does anyone have any feedback on it?
Hi Todd, I tried Rosetta Stone a few years ago and I wasn’t fond of it. As I mentioned to Bret, it’s a lot more fun than a boring workbook, but I didn’t find it taught me many useful phrases, like “Where is the bathroom?”
For a really comprehensive look at the latest version, see Benny’s post here: http://www.fluentin3months.com/rosetta-stone-review/
There are some free resources online for foreign language learning, too. Some with audio so you can hear the way content is supposed to be spoken, too. You search Google or Bing and find them. Some are better than others, of course.
Hi Jason, I definitely agree with searching online for resources. I think audio is very important even at the early stages. If you visit a country where that language is spoken you want to understand what is said to you!