Learning a Language

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:15 am

Anyone have recommendations for self-paced language methods? Online or CD/DVD based would be fine. Portable is best, since I have lots of airtime to fill in the process. My brother used Rosetta Stone for Hindi when he lived in Jaipor, but found it was a very technical, academic method, not really useful for learning survival phrases for real life, immediate use.

I used to speak and read German pretty much fluently, then worked really hard over 25 years to lose it all. Now I'll be working in Mexico and need to pick up Spanish. Pronto.

Pronto...hey, that's Spanish. I can do this!

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:57 am

I've found the Pimsleur audio CDs to be pretty good, although it misses the visual aspect, which is important for my learning. That combined with classes is a potent combination, but I guess you don't have time for classes.
I did have a language CDRom ... what was it... Ah, "Learn (language) Now!" was the one. I liked it.
Here's a link on Amazon: Learn Spanish Now!
I didn't try the Spanish one... that was Russian, and German I think? Maybe I should get Italian sometime.
Hmm, many of the reviews aren't all that positive.
-bill

Eric Y. · Post by **Eric Y.** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 12:04 pm

i have a book that describes suggestions for learning languages. i forget where it is, or i'd glance through it to try to offer you some help... but as i recall, it pointed out the most useful method is combining as many sources as you can, including audio CDs, reading (i.e. magazines or newspapers), stuff like that -- and the most helpful would be if you could have access to someone who is already fluent to practice with.

i think the most highly recommended "brand name" of learning tools is the "instant immersion" series, because it is pretty much designed to help you learn in a similar way to how you would learn a first language as a small child...

Niveous · Post by **Niveous** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 12:24 pm

I heard that pig latin is pretty easy.

OK after that moment of stupidity, I'll go ask Aurora. She's a linguist she should be able to give some good advice. C'mon, she can speak swahili.

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 4:07 pm

Years ago, before heading off to spend a month in Indonesia, I wrote a very simple BASIC program that flashed random words and phrases onto my PC screen, prompting me to type the translation (both English-Bahasa and Bahasa-English). I found it enormously helpful - sort of cementing the very basic stuff in my brain that I could then build on

Niveous · Post by **Niveous** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 8:11 pm

Aurora concurs with TVIYH. Get a textbook and at the same time, do some immersion. A great help is listening to music in that language.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 8:50 am

Thanks, guys. I will go the multi-faceted approah. Buy a CD program and also a printed textbook. The immersion part is easy and unavoidable.

Bjam · Post by **Bjam** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 10:12 am

(Kinda OT, but on the language note...) I'm babysitting a 20 month old boy from Russia called Anton. The only English word he knows is Elmo. This makes for very interesting conversations when I'm trying to get him into his stroller or to eat his snack. So far I've learnt the Russian word for, "trashcan", "no", "pretzel", "woof", "Dirty thing on the ground". It's a weird language thing we've got going on, but it's fun.

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 12:18 pm

Just don't imprint the Mexican radio deejays' vocalization styles on yourself *too* much. You wind up sounding rather silly in conversations.

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 3:36 pm

Bjam wrote:(Kinda OT, but on the language note...) I'm babysitting a 20 month old boy from Russia called Anton. The only English word he knows is Elmo. This makes for very interesting conversations when I'm trying to get him into his stroller or to eat his snack. So far I've learnt the Russian word for, "trashcan", "no", "pretzel", "woof", "Dirty thing on the ground". It's a weird language thing we've got going on, but it's fun.

I once had a dog that only spoke Estonian.

It was given to me by an Estonian family - but they didn't tell me this. I thought is was just a really badly trained dog - until somebody else tried the Estonian word for 'sit' - and the dog sat! (phonetically - it was 'ishtu' - dont know how to really spell it)

So - perhaps Roymond should get a chiuaua?

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 9:05 pm

Caravan Ray wrote:So - perhaps Roymond should get a chiuaua?

Chiuaua = Dirty Thing On The Ground

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:19 am

With 12 hours+ of driving one way to points south (Fresno, LA, Santa Cruz) on my near horizon, I picked up the Drive Time [LANGUAGE NAME] audio cd sets for Italian and Japanese from my local Costco. I'll report on them when I return from SFL High & Dry, heh.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 11:29 am

I bought the "Teach Yourself" series Spanish edition, book and CD. It seems pretty good at getting to real world conversation for the traveler. However, I have to look through to find numbers, money, etc. in various stages. I would think that stuff would be front and center. But the audio examples and dialog is pretty good. So far.

JonPorobil · Post by **JonPorobil** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 1:21 pm

I have a friend who used Pimsleur and became fluent in Spanish in just under seven months without immersion.

I think you'll find, however, that the best way to pick up a lot of Spanish is to spend time in Mexico. I took a year and a half of classroom Spanish, and then became fluent when I spent six months in Honduras recently, but I maintain that I would be just as good at Spanish now regardless of how much I'd taken before going to Central America.

Bjam · Post by **Bjam** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 2:09 pm

My friend has been taking French in school(so 4 years by now) and went to Costa Rica for a month or so this summer for a community building charity thing. She's not fluent, but considering she's only taken French she's pretty darn good at Spanish now.