How to Learn Languages and What Languages to Learn

Introduction vii
PART I— HOW TO LEARN LANGUAGES
1. Can Anybody Learn a Foreign Language? 3
2. What Is Your Purpose? Your Available Time? Your Convenience? 13
3. How Many Different Ways of Learning a Language Are There? 21
4. The Old or the New Method? 31
5. How Did YOU Learn Languages? 40
6. Is There an Ideal Grammar Book? 52
7. Special Learning Aids: Phrase Books and Dictionaries 62
8. What Should Our Schools Do About Language? 68
9. How Good Are Our Recordings? 76
10. Can You Learn a Language by Living in the Country That Speaks It? 85
11. Can You Learn a Language All by Your self? 91
12. Some Specific Learning Hints 97
13. How Do You Learn to Speak and Understand? 103
14. How Do You Learn Read and Write? 111

Part II— WHAT LANGUAGES TO LEARN
15. Which Language Shall I Study? 121
16. Which Languages Are Being Studied? Why? 127
17. What Languages Go Together? In What Ways? 140
18. How Should One Handle the Romance Languages? 148
19. What Are the Problems in Learning French? 159
20. How Do You Learn Italian? 167
21. Can You Learn Spanish and Portuguese at Once? 176
22. How Can You Learn German? 186
23. Can You Really Learn Russian? 195
24. How Do You Learn a Classical Language? 207
25. What Other Languages Are Important? 215
26. The Problems of Learning English 223
Appendix I. What to Do and What Not to Do in a Foreign Country 231
Appendix II. A Few Useful Addresses for Language
Learners 235
Index 237