>>2876237
Retards, grifters, and larpers completely ruined the possibility of a legitimate conversation about this.

In my experience there are no "basics", there's an inflection point several hundred of hours in. Before you reach this level using the language is pointless, after you reach this level the language becomes very useful. But most retards just swipe away on duolingo and never even approach this point.
The inflection point is when you can understand so much that when a native says an arbitrary sentence, the chances of you understanding it are basically guaranteed. The retards, larpers, and grifters point and grunt out a few phrasebook words and insist they are "getting by" and that their way is the correct way and then they shill you some mass marketed product that in reality has no effect.

>>2876237
I have found success by intentionally studying the language. This doesn't mean passively listening or using a single app like duolingo. You set aside time to learn new words and grammar, read the language, and deliberately immerse yourself in media.
First you think you are doing great because you learn a handful of words, then you hit a point where you plateau really hard and become frustrated because you don't understand enough, and eventually you hit a point where you understand just enough and pick up new words through context. Fluency and mastery are also separate goals as well. To be able to read shit like academic papers in another language takes exponentially longer than to read shitposts on the internet or signs.
I would say ultimately learning a language is a long-term commitment and if you think it is something that can be done in a few months you are doomed to fail.
>>2876240
This is very good advice.

>>2876237
>how do you learn languages?
>Growing up only speaking English
just fyi
you're always gonna play on hard mode
you have 2 chances in life to make learning languages easier
>grow up (actually) bilingual from birth
meaning one parent speaks one language the other the other one
>start to learn second language between age 4-8
everything later and it's harder
>start to learn second language before ~16yo
after that your brain is significantly handicapped in that regard

>authentic conversations
you need to be fairly fluent to get this aka B2/C1 level

>How do you pick up the basics of a language quickly?
really depends on the language
for you, as english native speaker, language like Spanish, French, Italian or German are much simpler to pick up than Arabic or Japanese

>Common phrases etc. how long does it usually take you to get comfortable talking enough to "get by"?
for basic vacation level in the prior mentioned languages
maybe 6month@1h daily and you should know ~500-1000 words + be able to form and understand basic sentences
which is more than enough to e.g. order an beer, get direction etc.
but not enough to have simple conversations

after ~2y of consistent learning you can likely do conversations
3-4y @1h daily and you probably reach basic fluency

again, that's for easy languages from an English perspective and an average
you'll have a somewhat harder time

if you want a few tips
>start learning basic vocabulary from the beginning
>join a class for grammar, speaking and listening
>find a tandem partner as soon as you can (like A2 level)
>switch all your content consumption to target language, such as movies, songs etc.
apps like duolingo are good for motivation but the actual value is very low

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Download anki
https://apps.ankiweb.net/
Find a VOICED vocab deck of your target language
Get a basic grammar book and familiarize yourself with the basic structure of the language
Barrons makes good pocket books for this
Find content in your target language you'll enjoy watching
Rewatch your media of choice over and over puzzling out the grammar and different words

Keep doing this

>>2876256
>after that your brain is significantly handicapped in that regard
shitter cope
>>2876265
you dont need tranki, get a grammar book and skim it. come back to it later when you understand the words but you dont know what sentences mean. most important thing is having content for natives that has both audio and text, and having a quick way to look up words in the dictionary

>>2876237
By trying to listen, trying to read, and failing. It's very easy to just Google Lens your way through menus and signs, but try.

Obviously, some languages are harder than others for Anglophones, namely tonal Asian languages. Some languages have more oearning resources than others. The DLI ranking of difficulty is about right.

It's hard to learn other languages because English is really the only language that matters and the rest are thirdie languages thirdies speak among their relatives.

>>2876237
Just from a basic mechanical perspective, learning a language involves 2 inputs and 2 outputs. The 2 inputs are Listening and Reading. The 2 outputs are Talking and Writing.
Bonus points if the language has a different alphabet. I have learned 2 foreign alphabets and enjoyed it. It wasn't that hard, just memory cards and games until I had it.
Forming coherent, grammatically correct sentences and everything is not easy. Like trying to learn toddler skills that you never learned before as an adult will be awkward and like a humiliation ritual.
3rd world-maxxing is listening and talking to native speakers. Over and over. IRL with context present.
You're probably not gonna be in a situation to do that unless you get hired overseas in a kitchen or warehouse where you have to communicate to survive.
The most realistic answer is to take classes in it, eventually overseas if you can.
Outside of class start writing and reading in the language. Listening to music, watching TV shows in that language. ETC.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZgJjGkrf3co

But OP, you already speak two languages.

1. English
2. English, but louder and slower

You can comfortably travel the world with just these two languages.

How to learn a language: A daily routine which is reasonable where you won't burn out. Not burning out is key. At the beginning you will be excited, 90 days in you will not be. And daily! Never "I'll just skip today", but literally each day, even a minimum amount of review is better than nothing at all. If you do stuff daily, you will learn it eventually. This is the "secret" of language learning. By the way, book language and actual in-person conversation are completely different. Learn some basics, and quickly ingratiate yourself in a community which speaks the language you want to learn. That reminds me: After you get a basic skeleton down of A1, and even during: Focus on things which you enjoy and words you would actually use. Why would you learn gardening vocabulary when you'll be talking about video games? For example, sometimes people go try to practice a language by reading or talking about the news because that is the lowest hanging fruit, but in normal life they don't give a damn about the news, so they lose interest and stop. Well, I read a book I already knew very well, and watched anime I already knew, and talked about those things with fans in that language. Much more motivating.

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Pirate the Michel Thomas method for your target language. When you've finished that, continue with level 3 or 2 of Pimsleur. Meanwhile get balls-deep in comprehensible input videos on youtube. If you want to get serious and have a little money, you can exploit thirdies on Preply for $3 per lesson (this is the best way) We live in such a glorious era for language learning.

>>2876265
Fuck anki, its halfassed UI, and all its knuckle-dragging shills. i heard the guy who invented it was an asshole. In fact, they say he was a real douche.

I'm 35 and I learned Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Hindi/Urdu as an adult, all while living abroad (although I learned Hindi while living in Kerala, where it is not the local language). My Vietnamese is around B2 while my Mandarin is around B1. I used to be quite good at Hindi but I haven't really used it in almost a decade, and I would still struggle reading Urdu. My partner is Vietnamese/Singaporean and speaks four languages herself (Vietnamese, Mandarin and Cantonese).

It's important to remember that most "language learners" are completely full of shit. They lie about everything. They lie about their language level (intermediate Korean in just six months!); they lie about how they learned the language (Europeans learning English through watching Marvel movies and video games); they lie about anecdotes (eavesdropping on native speakers after just a few months of studying). They also don't compare like to like. A Spanish speaker learning English is not even remotely analogous to an English speaker learning Arabic. Europeans pretty much never have any idea what the fuck they're talking about in this regard, so feel free to ignore almost all of them.

Anyways, there is only really one way to learn a language as a working adult; you need a teacher, preferably a private tutor if you can afford it. For each language I found a local language school and paid a private tutor to come to my house for two hours, five days a week. Vietnamese cost me about $12 an hour. Mandarin was around $17 I think because my teacher was more experienced. The most important thing is building a routine and maintaining consistent study every day. I'm fucking lazy so I had to make it as convenient as possible to study or else I knew I would just jerk off. For about two years I just studied in class, did my homework, practiced conversation with my girlfriend, and tried to learn new vocabulary, phrases, and slang whenever I was out and about.

Here's my limiting factor in learning another language: I don't even want to read this thread. A sentence or two into any of these post, I start to get bored, because I know what they're going to say.

>>2877809
If you're learning a language sufficiently different from English, you need to spend your first few months (or more) focusing on pronunciation. Pronunciation is the most single most important skill. 99% of the time, when there is a complete communication breakdown, it is because of poor pronunciation. Get it right at the beginning and you won't have fossilized errors dogging you for the rest of your life.

Listening is typically the hardest skill in any language, but it's also the quickest to develop. I would invest a large portion of your study time into listening. This is part of why having a teacher is so helpful; once you're around A2, the vast majority of your lesson should be in the target language, so you're getting a lot of extra listening practice "for free", even when studying other skills.

Reading is the best way to develop vocabulary and learn high-frequency words.

Languages that are not commonly learned as additional languages will be especially challenging, as native speakers are not used to hearing errors or foreign accents. Furthermore, not everyone you interact with will be kind, patient, and helpful. Lots of people are cunts and will look for an excuse to mock your language skills. Even after FOUR YEARS of learning and practicing Vietnamese I will still occasionally have people respond to me by saying "I don't speak English". I used to beat myself up and give them the benefit of the doubt, but as my confidence increased, I basically just tell people to fuck off when they start pulling that shit.

There's a lot more I could say. But the gist is: spend some money and get a fucking teacher. Self-study is a meme and 99.99999% of people will not actually follow through with it. Also for Asian languages, most teachers are young women and/or lonely milfs which I assume is appealing to all the coombrained losers on here.

>>2877811
For me it's the opposite. Reading comprehension is A+, and I quickly learn to recognize certain printed words, but I can't be bothered to care about what people are saying. Nor can I think of anything I'd like to say in a foreign language. Conversations are dull and taxing to my brain.

>>2877816
Your reading comprehension isn't that good. Or, take your trolling back to /b/.

>>2877812
>Even after FOUR YEARS of learning and practicing Vietnamese I will still occasionally have people respond to me by saying "I don't speak English".
Tutortards are paypigs who never sound good. Pronunciation comes from the ear, not from paying some wagey. You need to spend time with the language legitimately, engaged in content for natives. Every tutortard I know took like 10 years to be conversational and they still sound like shit. Immersionchads won.

>>2877832
Kind of hard to do in countries where they don't care to speak to foreigners.

>>2877837
You don't get good by talking, you get good by listening and reading to native content and looking up words if you need to. You talk when you're ready. Talking is you harvesting the fruits, natural input is you planting the seeds and tending the field

>>2877838
Consooming slop is for toddlers. Get a job.

>>2877841
Get a life, employim.

>>2877832
>muh input
wikipedia ready "hobbyist". 100% chance you have never learned another language. let the adults talk please and go post on reddit about your favorite phoneme

>>2877851
go back to your benny lewis scam course buttmad casual

>>2877812
Pronunciation is always skipped over because
1) "The alphabet looks the same! I'll just skip it." (or worse, they rely on a romanised version)
2) The teachers don't have time and are in a hurry to get to the "real" studying.
I have a lifelong background in linguistics, so apparently my passion for fundamental phonetics is an exception to the rule. Ironing out the new sound system has always been relatively easy for me, and natives are always excited when I pronounce their language so well. The only drawback is then they jump ahead to a higher level too quickly and I have to say "I am actually dumb pls slow down."

Teachers are cool, but are for rich people. The point of self-study is purely money, and is absolutely doable, particularly A1A2. After that though, you will plateau and you require a native speaker(s) of any kind - free is just playing games online etc.

>>2877809
>Europeans pretty much never have any idea what the fuck they're talking about in this regard, so feel free to ignore almost all of them.
Euros have it easy learning English, it's downhill for them and uphill for us to learn theirs.

>>2877854
>I have a lifelong background in linguistics
academics are the biggest retards in language learning discourse

>>2877854
For most languages, I don't think teachers are very expensive. If you're learning a language spoken in a lower-income country you really shouldn't have to spend more than a few hundred dollars a month. Not a trivial expense, but given how quickly it accelerates your learning, it's well worth it. Group classes are much cheaper but mostly a waste of time unless you're looking to socialize. They're also hard to find for lesser-studied languages beyond the beginner level.

It's also really difficult to self-study certain subskills, like pronunciation. Obviously everyone thinks their pronunciation is correct, but without a native speaker to actually confirm that they can understand you, you can't really claim any degree of proficiency. There is software for checking pronunciation of course but I don't think it's any substitute to having a genuine conversation.

One more thing for the coomers, learning a language in SEA (and China as well) is a literal cheat code for getting laid and punching way, way above your weight class. Even with A2 Vietnamese I was pulling nonstop, especially having learned the Southern accent which is apparently "cute". If you actually studied hard for like, 9 months or so (sufficient for A2 if you're not retarded), you would be the king of the passport bros.

>>2877860
Cooming is the best way to learn a language. A pick up artist who games in his target language will be 100x more capable in his target language than some bookcel who pays retards to sing him nursery rhymes

>>2876240
After learning the basic 300-400 words just get childrens audiobooks like harry potter in the language and watch tv in the language for 3-4 hours a day and you'll begin to understand most of what people say. You can practice speaking with people in vr chat.

>>2876349
how are you comfortable speaking english to strangers that clearly don't speak it and you're in their country? i would feel rude

>>2878573
It's easy I just walk up in my cowboy boots and start talking loudly at them. If they don't know english I just ask where the nearest non retard is who speaks english.