So I am a genZ-er (20y) which is why this might sound like an odd question! But having grown up in the information age I sometimes get curious in regards to how people used to do things, especially learn, before the internet.
I learned English as a second language by myself to the point at 12 I could hold conversations quite well with other English-speaking folks and I attribute that largely to how often I was in contact with the language purely by being online all the time. I did try to learn it conciously though, so it wasn't all just passive input, I made the decision to get better at it.
In the end, though, I relied heavily on immersion... and with other languages I've tried to learn this was the strategy too, since it's worked before. Which got me to the question: how did people do this before the level of immersion available today was possible?
I thought this was the perfect question to ask Reddit since there are older folks here so here I am!
I imagine language schools were a lot more popular but then what if you couldn't afford them, what if they just weren't available? Would you go to a library and pick up an introductory guide? Was it possible to learn this way? (I assume training listening/pronunciation aspects was difficult without a tutor or someone else who did not speak the language!)
Were there language learning magazines? 🤔 I remember my mom said whenever she wanted to know the translated lyrics to a rock song, she'd have to look for a magazine which had a translation. (This is so strange to me. I've had lyric translations at my fingertips since I learned how to read??)
Were there different popular methods like we have today?
So many questions. I'm so curious to know peoples experiences
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via Learn Online English Speaking
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