Learning a new language doesn't have to be hard or tedious. It can be fun, if you have the right tools. No doubt, you've visited a book store or searched online only to find a ton of language learning kits and books. It can make finding which one is the right one very hard. In most cases, you can learn a new language with an hour. Yes, that's right.



Before you go out and spend your hard earned money on a language program, you first should understand what will be involved in learning the new language. First, take the language apart and understand how it is put together. This is one of the fastest ways to learn a new language.

You can deconstruct any language whether it is Spanish, German, Italian, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, English, Norwegian, Irish Gaelic, etc. Once you deconstruct the language of your choice, you'll be in a better position to learn it quickly and easily, and be able to converse with no problems.

How is it possible to learn a language in one hour? That starts by taking them apart and then choosing wisely which ones you are going to be able to pick up easily and which ones are going to be difficult for you. Learning a new language is a lot like learning to play a new sport.

When you learn to play a new sport there are certain physical requirements you've got to have. For example, body building, you've got to have the ability to lift weights and build muscle. In basketball, height is a big plus. So for example, if you were shorter than average, never played basketball before, and you wanted to play basketball, you'd have to take into account that factor and the time it will take you to become proficient in that sport.

When it comes to learning a language the same principles apply. Think about the tools you already have now and how they will fit in with your new goal. If, for example, your native language is Japanese, then you may find yourself handicapped with more than 20 phonemes that are particular to your native language. Because of this, it may be that some language will be very difficult for you to learn. By picking a language that is similar in sound and in word construction (like Spanish for example), you could realize the difference between being able to converse freely in that new language in 2 to 3 months instead of 3 to 4 years!

You should ask yourself the following questions when beginning to deconstruct your new language;

1. Are there new sounds that will increase my time to fluency?

2. Are there any grammar structures that will take longer to learn?

3. How is this language similar to any languages that I already know?

4. What can help me learn this language faster?

5. What will interfere with my learning this language fast?

6. Will my learning this language erase any previous language that I've learned or cause fatal interference? (Ex. Some have thought that learning Portuguese after learning Spanish has caused them problems)

7. How difficult is it going to be to learn this language?

8. How long would it take me to become functionally fluent in this language?

It won't take much to answer the questions above. You simply need just a few sentences translated from your native language into your target language to give you a clear idea of what will be involved.

Here are some to start:

The banana is yellow.

It is Sam's banana.

I give Sam the banana.

We give him the banana.

We gave her the banana.

He gives it to Sam.

She gives it to him.

These sentences by themselves will expose much of your target language. From these, you'll be able to decide just how easy or difficult learning your new language will be. They can help you to see if and how verbs are conjugated. This is based both on the person that is speaking and according to numbers and gender identification. You'll also be able to see placement of direct objects (the banana), indirect objects (Sam), and respective pronouns (it, him).

You can even follow these sentences with some negations such as ?She doesn't give??, ?He didn't give??, ?I didn't give?, ?I don't give??, and different tenses, so you can see if they are going to be expressed as separate words (such as ?bu? in Chinese) or verb changes (such as ?-nai? or ?-masen? in Japanese), making Japanese a much harder language to learn.

Next, you want to look at the basic sentence structure. Is it anything like English where you have subject-verb-object? (Example; I eat the banana) Or is it subject-object-verb like Japanese (Example; I the banana eat), or is it something else altogether? If you're a native English speaker, then subject-object-verb is going to be much harder for you than the other way around. If you've already picked up such a language, then it will not be as difficult for you. Your brain will have already been formatted for these kinds of languages.

Finally, go through the language alphabet and character system. See if your language has at least one phonetic writing system of less than 50 sounds, such as Russian, Japanese, and Spanish. Chinese would not be included here since Chinese tones create many variations of otherwise very simple sounds. Again, treat your new language as a sport. Learn the rules first, and then determine if it is worth your time and energy to learn the language. Once you've made the decision to either stick with it or quit it, you'll be able to move forward knowing that you can learn any language in 1 hour.