Any polyglots?

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I know that apparently many here know English as a second language but I'm curious, is anyone working on one or a few others right now or have learned possibly three or four languages? Have you found a technique that gets you to fluency quickly?

Right now I'm doing two things - 1) I've been listening to Spanish radio for about two years, I can understand it now decently but my diction is awful and 2) trying Rosetta Stone for Brazillian Portuguese to see what I think of it, so far so good. I'm an accountant by trade and hoping to use this for international business. If these two go well I might add Mandarin, although yes, I've heard that's the hardest, part of why I'm trying my hand at the larger/imperial romance languages first.

I'm wondering what the best way to go about it is if two-way immersion (ie. listening, reading, writing *and* speaking at the same time) isn't available.

Any takers?

I have to switch between 4-5 languages on an almost daily basis.

Rosetta Stone is good. What helped me the most with diction and accent with the languages I don't often have the occasion to speak was the Pimsleur Language Course (I see they have an official website, I can't remember where I bought mine)

Not having the opportunity to talk to others on a regular basis is your greatest impediment. Listening is very important - anything would help: radio, TV, music, movies. It works "through accumulation", even if you don't pay close attention.

Once you're reasonably familiar with grammar and syntax just read as much as you can. Find something enthralling for you - SF, thrillers whatever you like. This part hugely helps with extending your vocabulary and becoming more familiar with specific language mechanism and mannerism.

Thank you, great input. I'm actually rethinking my stance on the Spanish - I was originally dead set against getting something like Rosetta, I wanted to learn it the old-fashion way, but, because of my inability to get practice in speaking it I've been stuck at a certain point where listening just isn't improving things as much as it should. Getting Rosetta for Portuguese has opened my eyes to just how fast this process can go. I'll have to check out Pimsleur. I agree on the movies as well, City of God would work well for the Brazilian, that and there've been a lot of good thrillers in Spanish lately.

To practice your spanish listening skills I'd suggest you shy away from movies. Its not the common, everyday use of the language.

Soap operas and miniseries tend to be more connected with modern day use of the language.

One movie I'd recommend though is 'La Estrategia del Caracol' as it is filmed purposely to depict the life of a common people in a common day to day situation which are confronted with losing their homes.

For me its been internet talk radio while I'm working. I think what gets me, per my earlier posts, I have days where I feel like I'm picking up a lot of it and days where I'm horrified of how little I've progressed for two years of often eight work hours, I've been quite persistent.

I think the challenge is finding someone who speaks it who's up for skyping. What Rosetta offers is the full battery - ie. seeing, reading, pronouncing, speaking sentences, that's quite helpful. The talk radio has been absolutely awesome just because you can't get much more every day than that and you're feeding your mind at the same time just by the content (there's the Spanish channel on TV but I can't bear even 5 minutes of most of the soap operas on there).

I guess its just weird how you can feel like your understanding fluxuates, up some days, down others. Perhaps that's just part of being 1/2 way through, who knows.

Just in my experience, the radio and books start to make a real difference in expanding your vocabulary and understanding only if you already have some basic knowledge of grammar, syntax etc. For Spanish I think you'll have to deal first with sentence structure, irregular verbs, noun-gender, use of prepositions etc.

We have someone here who took Romanian classes with a professor through Skype - you could also explore this option.

And I think that's just it, I probably need to see more sentences in writing and try reading them, likely not from a book for similar reasons to what Dantac is offering regarding movies. I might want to try and read, say, Colombian or Uruguayan newspapers online to get a better feel. Vocabulary's at least good, quick and intuitive processing of sentence structure though not so much.

techstepgenr8tion, would you consider a short but intense language immersion class, like spending 2 weeks with a family in Mexico?

Unfortunately for Mexico now isn't the right time, unless perhaps my host family doesn't mind me carrying a 9mm and a couple karambits. AFAIK the best places to go from either the US or Europe are either Buenos Aires or Montevideo. I had thought about hitting Buenos Aires in year or so for vacation and to check out Universidad Austrel's IAE, if I'm still curious about getting an MBA from there and talk to a guidance counselor, just to see if I want to go that route. The biggest obstacle though, IMO, is timing it with work, and I've still got a lot spinning around my head regarding whether I ultimately want to go in that direction. Technically Costa Rica would be fine as well but still, I'd rather hit two birds with one stone.

What's so special about that business school?

True about timing it with work. Man, this work stuff really gets in the way of fun. That's why I suggested just two weeks of intense instruction because that's as much time off as you will probably be allowed by a US employer.

One problem with going to a big city to learn the language is that you will most likely come across a lot more people wanting to practice their English with you! I can see it now...

"'No, no. Hablame en Espanol por favor."

"Pero, no. I want to practice my English!"

"Si, pero estoy aqui a practicar Espanol."

"Speak to me in English or you get nothing but refried beans, gringo!"

Yeah, in BA it seems like the dominants are English, Spanish, and Italian, so I probably shouldn't get pushed.

As for IAE I remembered seeing it in a report as highly ranked worldwide, it at least has the highest GMAT requirement in South America and supposedly $24,000 US for a masters? If I want to do international business as well, living abroad for a year - especially somewhere like BA, would be ideal.

I speak Italian (mother tongue) and English, I am studying Japanese by myself as an hobby and I can read French even though I cannot speak it due to lack of practice.