Has anyone out there learned a foreign language through a girlfriend/boyfriend?

1. 75

   PaulStaley1posted 14 years ago

   Has anyone out there learned a foreign language through a girlfriend/boyfriend?
   
   I hear the advice, "just get a Mexican girlfriend"  that will teach you Spanish! Has anyone out there been successful doing this? Sounds like good advice to me!

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2. 85

   the50marathons17posted 14 years ago

   I have never had this experience, but it can only help when learning a new language. The key to learning a new language is constant socialization with that language, which you will get in that situation.

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3. 73

   Zazuzuposted 14 years ago

   I've been on the other end, teaching how to speak Spanish. I find it helps if they have at least some background to work with (say a year or two of Spanish from college).
   
   It's much easier to build on top of previously laid foundations. If you have to start too basic, learning a language can feel like a chore (both for the student and teacher).

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4. 68

   Hezekiahposted 14 years ago

   Sure, I learned to speak Japanese, thru an ex-girlfriend. My current wife is Japanese and we speak Japanese all the time now.
   The main problem is that your spouse will get fed up with correcting grammar mistakes, so you will improve fluency but bad habbits with remain.

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5. 64

   Eloy Pinedoposted 14 years ago

   Funny you should ask this. My girlfriend is Korean and I have been learning Korean ever since. I gotta say it makes the learning process a lot more interesting and efficient. Since Spanish is a lot easier than Korean, you should make progress really fast. Give it a go, if you wanna learn Spanish a Latin girlfriend will definitely help you out.

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6. 83

   Paul Kuehnposted 14 years ago

   When I was younger I learned Taiwanese from my ex-wife.  We were living in Taiwan at the time and I had already studied the basics of Chinese Mandarin.  Before learning from my ex-wife I had completed a two month introduction to Taiwanese tutorial at a university in the States.  My ex-wife was not a teacher and her ability to speak both English and Mandarin was very limited.  This really helped because we lived in a Taiwanese neighborhood away from other English speakers.  I was forced to learn the language just to satisfy basic survival needs.  I learned the language much like a child learns his native language and it was an effective way of learning.  In Thailand we call learning a foreign language through a girlfriend, "getting a long-haired dictionary."  Try it and you'll most probably like it.

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