How to Learn Foreign Languages by Association

Did you ever experience the frustration of visiting a foreign country and not understanding the language at all? Luckily, English is pretty much international these days. However, when I visited China I had the surprise that many people did not speak anything but Chinese, so my knowledge of three languages was rather useless, as long as I was not able to speak, read or even understand a single Chinese word.
No Language, No Fun

I felt so frustrated in the beginning, because I always like to talk to people in foreign countries I visit, I enjoy conversation, I want to feel the spirit of places, and for this, I need at least to understand the basics of the language spoken by those people. On my way from the airport to the hotel, I started to pay attention to pictures and signs, and as some of them were bilingual, Chinese-English, one hour later I was able to recognize the Chinese word Beijing, even when it was not accompanied by the English spelling.
No Language, Lots of Fun

That was the beginning of the most amusing game I played for three weeks, the duration of my Chinese experience. I looked at things, pointed at them and my host was telling me their Chinese names. Then I repeated until I managed to pronounce correctly. Every now and then, we reversed the roles: my Chinese friend pointed at things and I had to name them back in Chinese. I was astonished to discover that I could remember almost everything: it seems like association is the natural learning way of the brain (indeed, children learn their native tongue by making associations).
Why Learning a Foreign Language Naturally Works Best

Back home, I gave it a thought and this is my explanation of my unexpected evolution:

* all progress was made on the spot, with no translation or memorization required
* I had immediate feedback on all attempts: my friend rated my prononciation on the spot and made the eventual corrections, sol I always knew where I stood
* the learning process was continuous and gradual: we played the game all day round, I never know when she’s going to ask me something, and the topics were more and more difficult every day

It is also true that I’m clever ;) Now I’m going to learn Turkish, but this time I want to make it a little bit faster, so I’m going to open an online account with Rosetta Stone
, because they use the same natural way of learning that worked so well in my case.
Their free demo convinced me to give it a try, and the 6 months money back guarantee with no questions is the longest I’ve seen so far. (Special note: Europe residents interested in trying the free online demo of Rosetta Stone, please follow this link: Rosetta Stone Language Software