The best way to learn a new language

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Well, I quit smoking some 20 years ago, pick up exercise last year and will complete a full marathon next year. My next goal is pick up a new language - either German or Spanish. </p>

<p>I always pride myself in picking up language from just speaking the words. In graduate school, I was one of the few that passed the French requirement in one summer while still learning English in the same class.</p>

<p>Done some googling on the subject and everyone is saying their system is the best. Like to get some tips here. Any one has done this in a local community college’s adult education class?</p>

2

<p>For either German or Spanish, a good start is the online program Duolingo. Fun and addictive!</p>

<p>Other than that, if you have the discipline to really drill and learn grammar, Audio-Forum is head and shoulders above the rest. It’s based on immersive methods used to teach languages to military personnel.</p>

3

<p>I’m a dunce a languages, but I think the most efficient would be to take a semester at a community college followed by an extended visit in the country where the language is spoken. (At one time I was close to fluent in both French and German, though I’m pretty rusty now.) I can highly recommend the instruction at Goethe Institutes if you are interested in learning German.</p>

4

<p>I am actively looking at the community college route. However, full time job gets in the way. Most of their evening classes start at 6:30 PM and I usually leave work around 6:00 PM in a carpool.</p>

5

<p>Look at duolingo, as noted above. The Spanish and German modules are free.</p>

6

<p>Some public library systems have Mango available online.</p>

7

<p>Good idea to learn Spanish. I hear many families live extremely well in Mexico or South America when they retire early and take their millions out of the US.</p>

8

<p>The best way, I think, would be a combination of a few things:

  • The community college class sounds good. Can you get out of work early for a semester? Or maybe you can do an online class, although, when learning a language, there is a real benefit to being in a classroom environment where you can converse with the instructor and other students.
    -If you decide to learn Spanish and have some Spanish TV channels, watch them with the closed caption option on.
    -Take a trip to a Spanish (or German) speaking of country and having a language immersion experience.
    -If you have any friends that speak the language, practice with them.
    -I hear Rosetta Stone is good, but I don’t have any first hand knowledge of it. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

9

<p>You might try Duolingo
[DuoLingo</a> Review: The Quick, Easy and Free Way to Learn A Language ? Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips](<a href=“http://www.fluentin3months.com/duolingo/]DuoLingo”>Duolingo Review: Can You Become Fluent with the Popular Language Learning App?)</p>

10

<p>The first step is to define the language that fits your interest and your natural abilities. Spanish and German are two very different and have different origins. The vocabulary structure could not be more different, and one should appeal to you more than the other. Where you plan to use German? Technical books? Travel? Your Mercedes or camera original manuals? Spanish? On travel or with contractors? Have you tried to speak either one? </p>

<p>The mechanics of learning are less important than ensuring your continuous interest will remain after the initial drive subsides. Learning additional languages is harder than most believe, and most people are horribly delusional about what constitutes fluency, and especially their own. Rattling a few words from Berlitz travel is hardly being fluent.</p>

<p>Fluent in three months is nothing but a joke. It takes a lot longer or absolute brilliance AND expertise in several languages.</p>

11

<p>Fwiw, the Duopoly Ipad version is beautiful. The preliminary testing is quite advanced and surpringly very accurate for a computer aided program. The French had only a small context error, and the Spanish missed a correct secondary meaning. </p>

<p>For instance, vino con vino can have a different meaning from wine with wine as the first vino could mean I came. The program rejected a correct translation.</p>

<p>All in all, it seems to be a remarkable program.</p>

12

<p>My D taught herself German because she wanted to listen to songs being sung in that language and read the message boards talking about that artist and others. She later took two 6-week summer courses in it and a semester to get her 3 semester requirement satisfied. She is NOT fluent, but is able to pick out words as needed and SLOWLY translate with appropriate apps. I suspect she’d have to live in Europe for a while to really get fluent.</p>

<p>Sounds like you have an “ear,” but have to figure out what you’ll do with the language. I took 4 years of HS Spanish and then 3-4 semesters more in college of conversational, but have never had much of an opportunity to use it and have never been very fluent.</p>

13

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<p>I hear that people can live pretty well anywhere with their millions.</p>

<p>I am broken record in favor of Pimsleur (all audio). You can plug in earphones and listen to it in your car pool.</p>

14

<p>I’m sure you already know this, but Spanish should be extremely easy for you if you already know some French. </p>

<p>Maybe you could try a little of the free Duolingo program in both Spanish and German and see which has more appeal, if you are still on the fence.</p>

<p>German is harder to learn than Spanish because it is inflected (many words change their spelling and pronunciation according to how they are used in a sentence)…but it is also more similar to English in certain ways.</p>

<p>Let us know what method you use, and how it goes!</p>

15

<p>Why not wait until you retire…then join the Peace Corps (if you can make it through the application process). You will be sent to some country where English will NOT likely be the language spoken. The PC does an incredible job with language training prior to sending you to your site. Then you would be immersed in the language for two years…and fluency would come. No guarantee that it will be German orSpanish (actually there are so many PC applicants who are fluent in Spanish that those who are not are NOT usually assigned to Spanish speaking countries). Of course, you might have to live in dirt poor conditions for those two years!</p>

16

<p>If you want to connect with native speakers, try lang-8.com</p>

<p>You help English learners with their English, and they’ll help you learn their native language. The site has native speakers in tons of different languages (German, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Spanish, French, etc).</p>

17

<p>Thank you all for your inputs. On those days that we are not carpooling, I do listen to the Spanish radio in my car. Will find out if there is a Spanish TV channel. </p>

<p>Don’t need to be “fluent” per se, as long as I am capable of carrying a simple conversation. During my limited international travels, I got a feeling if local people appreciate if you try to speak their language, even just a couple of words.</p>

18

<p>Dad II, D has had good success with duo lingo for German. I would NOT spend the $$ on Rosetta Stone although there are libraries that offer it. I second the Pimsleur recommendation.</p>

19

<p>I’m learning Spanish as an adult presently (after significant study of French in HS, college, and beyond). I’m using a combination of:</p>

<ul>
<li>online self-paced college course</li>
<li>Duolingo app</li>
<li>watching episodes of Gran Hotel (considered the “Spanish Downton Abbey”) first without, then with subtitles (Hulu Plus has this, plus a wide variety of other Latino programming including kid’s shows. Not all are subtitled, but many are. Well worth the $8/month)</li>
<li>attempting to slowly read El Leon, La Bruja, y El ropero (The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe) on my Kindle (with free Spanish-Spanish and paid Spanish-English dictionaries installed)</li>
<li>attempting to converse with my Mexican-American coworker at lunch</li>
</ul>

<p>This is working well for me, even though the latter three options are pushing me to perform at a level beyond the first-semester level I am at in my online course and Duolingo.</p>

<p>Ultimately, I think the success of any language acquisition strategy rests mainly on this: There must be regular practice in the four pillars of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Since my online course puts the main emphasis on reading and writing, I chose to self-medicate by including the other items to balance out my efforts.</p>

<p>Finally, although I am not using it, I was given a copy of the Fluenz program for Spanish by a friend. I have also tried Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone language programs before for other languages. For an adult learner, the Fluenz approach feels the most natural to me, if you are going to use one of these learn-at-home packages. It presents a good balance of the four pillars, and most importantly it explains rules and customs of the language that other programs require you to infer. </p>

<p>Still, with any one of these courses-in-a-box, the biggest limitation is not the style of teaching but the lack of a live conversational partner. That is an essential component to secure confidence in spontaneous composition and correct pronunciation.</p>

20

<p>As long as we share programs that have been applauded, here is one brought to you by the same people who helped you get you Starbucks fix in the morning:</p>

<p>[url=&lt;a href=“Official Rosetta Stone® - Language Learning - Learn a Language”&gt;http://livemocha.com/]Livemocha[/url</a>]</p>

<p>This might help anyone interested in making connections with native speakers. </p>

<p>For the DadII, here is something that might help you as well. If there are magazines you currently read (for your interests) try to find an equivalent Spanish version. For instance, you can read the Harvard Business Review in both languages. Some magazines also have dual languages. It helps to first read the story in English, and then attack the foreign one. After a while, one starts to pick up many words. </p>

<p>Also, in addition to radio and TV (where you can play with the SAP to switch languages) you might suscribe to stories from newspapers. For instance, El Pais has various versions ranging from national to international and in English:</p>

<p>[url=&lt;a href=“http://economia.elpais.com/]Econom”&gt;http://economia.elpais.com/]Econom</a></p>