Learn Languages with Steve Kaufmann How U.S. diplomats learn languages | FSI language courses review
Feb 22, 2024
Exploring the FSI language difficulty ranking and achievable fluency levels within set timelines. Discussing challenges and surprises in learning languages like French, Danish, Romanian, and German. Shifting from traditional language courses to self-study balance. Factors like writing systems, phonetic scripts, and motivation influencing language learning difficulty and progression.
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FSI Categorizes Languages By Difficulty
- FSI groups languages by difficulty for English speakers and assigns study durations per category.
- These categories reflect average institutional experience, not guarantees for every learner.
Category I: 'Easy' Languages Aren't Uniform
- FSI lists Category I languages as easiest and allocates about 24 weeks of instruction.
- Kaufmann questions some placements, noting pronunciation and orthography make certain languages harder than listed.
Taxi Drivers Who Gave Up On Danish
- Kaufmann recounts taxi drivers in Copenhagen giving up on Danish despite being good language learners.
- They could read Danish but couldn't speak or understand it fluently.