WTF? Webster Tarpley says you have to go to college to learn new languages? Or words to that effect (at about the four minute mark). $#it, who woulda thunk it? I have a smattering knowledge of Portuguese (not nearly as much as I would like but still I didn't have to go to college to learn what I do know of it).
Webster Tarpley says you have to go to college to learn new languages?
No, you don't have to go to college to learn a new language. People have been learning each other's tongues for thousand of years before colleges were invented. You can learn to order a hamburger in Hamburg using a phrase book or by signing up at a language school. You can go the hard knocks way and just go live in a place and get it the natural way.
But if you're doing more than just traveling, if you're doing business or engineering or medicine, you gotta have your ducks in a row. You have to do some serious study in a structured environment. You want teachers that are steeped in German or Portuguese, or Arab culture. You might need specialized classes where you will learn how to write a report or negotiate some business.
Colleges and high schools screwed up language learning for years with bad methods just like they screwed up math instruction and a whole lot of other stuff. I can't say that I have much respect for the American system of education as it has developed over the last 60 years. However, if you really want to use a foreign language, like we're using it now for instance to discuss these kinds of issues, you won't get it off a CD or at Berlitz. You have to commit yourself to a well thought out program and do some serious study.
Yeah, there are a lot of great methods and program out there. They all have their place, and they sell because they do the job to a greater or lesser extent.