I've actually never met anybody who has been able to achieve an advanced level in a language just by self-studying. =S Nor in forums, nor IRL... Well, maybe there are some but... they seem to be quite rare. And as for those who had reached an advanced level, there always was some formal instruction and some time living in the country where the language was spoken involved. So I'm really tending to believe one may need either formal instruction or living in the environment of language immersion to learn it...

EDIT: And by "advanced" I mean somewhere in the middle of B2 and C1 here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Eur ... _Languages

I imagine that people often fail to learn a language through a self taught environment because they don't truly have the desire to go all the way. I think the number one most important factor is the will and desire to learn. I think if someone really wants to learn a language, and they have the resources to do so, they'll go for it.

I don't know for sure but I think that linguoboy has reached near fluency in a number of languages through self study. I could be wrong; if he sees this, he can correct me.

Maybe it's more or less tied to this? So if you really want to learn a language, then you end up seeking to receive formal education and to stay for some time in the country where it's spoken. Kind of makes sense...

But anyway, it would be nice to see some people who've made it just with self-study and without living in the country. Has anybody here have met somebody who was able to?

Here are several things to do to create an immersion environment:
1.) Music: target language only
Get rid of all your non-target language music. You may even want to go so far as to sell or give away your cds & delete all your mp3s if you know they will be a distraction. You can only listen to target language music now.

2.) Movies: target language only
You can only watch films in your target language. But here's the thing: absolutely no subtitles allowed. If you watch with subtitles you won't learn anything because you'll just be reading the translation. You can, however, have target language captions or subtitles when you watch.

3.) TV: target language only
You can only watch TV in your target language. Again, no subtitles allowed.

4.) Radio: target language only
You can only listen to radio in your target language.

5.) Books/Magazines: target language only
Put away all your non-target language books, magazines, & other print media. From now on, you can only use target language print media.

6.) Computer/Internet: target language only
Try to put all your PC programs in your target language. Try to surf target language websites only.

7.) Friends: target language only
Not exactly. Just try to befriend as many people that speak your target language as possible & hang out with them.

8.) Food: target culture style
Try to eat foods of your target language's culture as often as possible.

9.) Thoughts: target language only
This is probably the most difficult one. Try to think in your target language as much as possible, especially as you start to get advanced & near fluent.


I consider myself to be a "disciple" of a guy who calls himself "Khatzumoto". He's an American (apparently from Utah) who taught himself to fluency in Japanese within a year & a half. He had learned enough to read technical material, conduct business correspondence and job interviews in Japanese. And that was before he had even been to Japan.
There's also a guy named Moses McCormick who learned several languages to varying degrees of fluency while living in Ohio. He's a "language exhibitionist" on YouTube; calls himself "LaoShu" followed by some sequence of numbers.

Hey folks, I really stumbled upon a diamond here, eh? I'm so glad I found Omniglot and a community that shares my interest for languages. Currently in HS I plan to study Indo-European evolution and perhaps French or Russian.. or both language is certainly a great tool and it's good to find a community that thinks the same and doesn't just accept constant jabbering about linguistics, but actually supports it! In anycase, Merci, Spasiba, Aşcaw, Grazi, Gracias, Danke and Thanks. I have finally found a real home on the Interwebs.

P.S. anyone know of a program that can create customized characters in unicode or what have you?