How To Learn Any Language: Quickly, Easily, Inexpensively, Enjoyably and on Your Own

by Barry Farber

Paperback, 1991

Status

Available

Call number

418.007

Genres

General Nonfiction

All Topics

Nonfiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

Citadel (1991), Paperback, 192 pages

Description

Barry Farber has been a true adventurer in languages for forty-six years and can speak in 25 tongues. The techniques he presents here will have readers speaking, reading, and writing and enjoying any foreign language in a surprisingly short time.

Media reviews

Blog

No obstante a estos anacronismos, la mayoría de técnicas que expone en el libro no son solamente válidas en la actualidad para la mayoría de usuarios, sino que también se han visto incrementadas en cuanto a variedad y accesibilidad. Un ejemplo de ello es el procedimiento expuesto a raíz de la

lectura de revistas o periódicos en la lengua objetivo; en la época de Farber, si uno quería mejorar su capacidad lectora o incrementar su vocabulario leyendo un periódico, le valía bajar un día al año al kiosko y comprarse un periódico extranjero y trabajar con él hasta las campanadas de Navidad. Hoy en día, uno llega a casa, enciende el ordenador, se conecta a Internet, y dispone no solamente de miles de periódicos, revistas o artículos escritos en lengua objetivo, sino también páginas especializadas que recogen artículos interesantes, los convierten en ficheros de audio para que tú, desde casa, puedas leer a la vez que escuchas la noticia en la lengua extranjera y, además, te seleccionan aquellas palabras difíciles que pueden aparecerte en el artículo con su posterior definición.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member luvdancr

While the tips included in this book are invalueable, I sometimes felt like these were tips that any language learner would know. I didn't feel like he had an incredible breakthrough idea, but he did make presentable things that maybe people hadn't thought about before. He more or less attempts to

allieviate the stress of learning a language, by outlining the plan for you. I recommend this book to a complete beginner of languages, and if you are a language lover, i would actually say to stay away from it.

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5 more

LibraryThing member Magycmyste

I'm surprised I hadn't listed this book in my library, as I bought it a couple of months ago,I think.

Anyway, this review will be short and simple. I just finished reading the entire book in...... about 5-6 hours. And I took a few short breaks doing it.

If you like learning languages, this is a good

book to read. I got it on recommendation from a site as I was exploring ways to learn Japanese (already started that, really, but anyway).

This book is not going to give you instructions on learning any particular language. You're not going to be able to start learning any language just from this one book - you're going to need the tools for that language. The author has mastered many, and this book is a general guide, sort of an approach and attitude for learning a language on your own. (And motivations as well for doing so.) It's a good book to read at the beginning of your journey into any language, to help you get started and figure out how to approach it.

The book itself is pretty engaging. I learned a few words in various languages (very few of which I have actually spent time studying or will in the near future), and compared the methods in the book to what I'm already doing to study Japanese. Some of what I'm doing already follows this approach, and I'll be adding a few more tricks to my language learning skills. It's also filled with anecdotes that keep you entertained as you read, including a short autobiography of the author's language learning journey. I didn't even mind the "Back to Basics" chapter, basically reintroducing you to the English grammar you may not have paid attention to in school (For me, that was anything that ended in "ive"), and was a decent refresher of terms you might come across in foreign grammar.

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LibraryThing member dukefan86

This is an imformative book with what appear to be good ideas about teaching yourself a foreign language. I especially liked his "reviews" of languages in the back of the book, where he gives candid advice about difficulty, grammar, and language families.

LibraryThing member tjblue

Interesting and helpful.

LibraryThing member mykl-s

Kind of prescriptive, but useful to know some of Farber's methods.

LibraryThing member Leann

This was just the encouragement I needed to start really digging into a new language. If you have been frustrated by tradtional language courses please don't quit before you read this. It could use a more modern rewriting for our advanced technology but surely you would be smart enough to jump in

on your own to find internet resources after reading what he has to say about using multiple resources. This is a great quick encouraging read... just try it!

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