|
I didn't attend DLI but I do have some experience with learning languages.
Immersion in language and culture is the operative statement here. I took Spanish for four years in high school and and 2 years of college. I had a great vocabulary and absolutely no understanding of syntax or local idiom. I worked in Mexico for 6 months and learned more than I did in 6 years of school. I am proud to say that I was questioned for 20 minutes by a Federale Lieutenant because she felt that someone born in the U.S. shouldn't speak Spanish colloquially. I was also asked by a lady from the Dominican Republic where I was from in Mexico.
I spent two years in Thailand where I was completely comfortable traveling without an interpreter after about a year, because I made myself listen to the locals.
|