Deconstructing Languages and Minimizing Learning Time

One of the challenges for the would-be polyglot is figuring out how to use your time well. This is already an issue for a person who is only learning one language and for the very practical purpose of preparing to live in another country, carry on a relationship with someone from another country or work with people from another country. But if you're just learning languages because it's neat to know them or to get along a little more easily in places where you could survive with just your native tongue, that takes a mixture of extra internal motivation and a good enough system to get the results to keep that motivation going.

I have the good fortune to work in a language school. This means that I can swap pleasantries with French, Spanish, German, Italian and Mandarin teachers, occasionally clarify something for a confused student and, to put it honestly, show off what I've learned before beating a hasty retreat if the conversation goes over my head. (Fortunately, the phones ring all the time.) But lots of people have to take more trouble than I do to get a chance to converse with people who speak a variety of languages. And then come the questions: How many should I learn? Which ones? How well? How hard will I have to study?

There are sites like How to Learn Any Language that provide some good advice for the would-be polyglot. But if you're looking for a quick and dirty approach, you know the Four-Hour Workweek guy is going to have one. And so, here's Tim Ferris' Guide to Learn (But Not Master) Any Language in Hour, Part 1. Says Tim, just 6 sentences, translated, plus one or two more, can show you what you're in for. And the sentences he's picked, properly translated, really can tell you an awful lot about an awful lot of languages: Are there declensions (like Russian and German)? Is negation done with a freestanding word or is it built into the verb (like Turkish and Japanese)? Are verb conjugations minor affairs (like English), or are they complicated by person and number (most European languages) or even gender (like Arabic and Hebrew)? Are modals (can, would, will) freestanding (Germanic languages, usually), sometimes built into the verb (Romance languages have subjunctive and conditional built into the verb, but can, must and should aren't) or pretty much part of what you have to learn in the verb tables (Turkic languages)? With Tim's sentences, you can learn a lot about how the language works, and help you make a more educated guess about whether you're really looking at a language you want to add to your collection.

One thing Tim's post didn't cover, alas, is how to learn, as opposed to evaluating, a new language. Hopefully, that will be coming up soon. Still, have a look. If you're thinking about learning a new language, there's good advice. And if you're struggling, you might just have an a-ha moment about why you can't get the knack for a certain structure or type of sentence and how to rethink it.