Learning lingos.

TV Executive studies foreign languages for fun

Parla italiano? ??Usted habla espanol? Parlez-vous francais? Well, Susan Fales-Hill speaks these languages plus her native tongue, English. Learning languages has become a hobby for the TV writer and producer. Fales-Hill, who is co-creater and executive producer of the cable TV series Linc's, can converse in Italian, Spanish, and French.

Fales-Hill has been multilingual since childhood. The daughter of the renowned black actress Josephine Premice, Fales-Hill was born in Rome in 1962 and raised in New York City. She attended Lycee Francais de New York, a French educational institute, from nursery school through high school. "I spoke English with my mother, French with my father, and Italian with my nanny," she recalls. She also learned some Creole from her mother, who is of Haitian descent. And as a teenager, she learned Spanish.

"Being able to speak and read other languages gives me a passport into different cultures. When I go to Europe, I can read their papers and find out about the political climate or what's happening locally," explains Fales-Hill. "I'm not treated like an American tourist."

And how does Fales-Hill practice her language skills? "Instead of reading the paper in English, I'll pick up a Spanish newspaper or get a French gossip magazine," says Fales-Hill, a Harvard graduate. "At a museum, I'll get the audio tour in a different language. I speak as much as possible [in the various languages] and I always carry around a notebook to jot down vocabulary words. On the subway, I'll read a book in another language, or if I'm in the car, I'll listen to books on tape in Spanish, French, or Italian."

Fales-Hill, who was also co-executive producer and head writer on A Different World and consulting producer for Suddenly Susan, plans to add a few other languages to her repertoire. "I want to brush up on Creole, learn Portuguese and German," she raves. "You can learn so much more when you communicate with someone in their native language."

Getting Started

* TAKE A COURSE Ideally, sign up for a course in the country that speaks the language that you want to study, For example, sharpen your Spanish speaking skills by taking a course in Spain--even if you're only staying for a week.

* GET TAPES AND INSTRUCTIONAL CD-ROMS, Spoken Language Services Inc. (607-256-0500; www.spokenlanguage.com) in Ithaca, New York, sells a series of instructional audiotapes on more than 40 languages. They start at $60. The Learning Co. (www.learningco.com) has QuickStudy CD-ROM titles in various languages. The CD-ROMs are $29.95 and offer an onscreen tutor, interactive conversation, and online grammar guidebooks. Also, consider Berlitz (800-526-8047; www.berlitz.com). The company offers live instructional programs as well as CD-ROMs, tapes, and books in several languages.

* PRACTICE FOR PERFECTION. Watch TV or listen to a radio program in another language. Immerse yourself in the language that you're studying.