Learning a language

barginunter

www.radiolingua.com gives free access to French Spanish and German podcasts and many other languages. I do the Coffee Break Spanish one - it's excellent. They will give you an idea if you will want to take the learning further.

jamescredmond

most look at a euro- langua (french, german, spanish, etc.), given that these languages are international.

the 'true international' though, is english, and - I suspect - remain so for yrs to come.

I started dutch, as a gateway lingo, last yr. but my efforts have all but failed.

bijna elke nederlander spraykt engels!!

(nearly all dutch speak english!!)

and they want to prove it to me !

china won't have the same cultural impact as colonial UK or USA.

relax. doesn't hurt to learn another lingo, but english still rules!

Zziggi

jamescredmond wrote: »

most look at a euro- langua (french, german, spanish, etc.), given that these languages are international.

the 'true international' though, is english, and - I suspect - remain so for yrs to come.

I started dutch, as a gateway lingo, last yr. but my efforts have all but failed.

bijna elke nederlander spraykt engels!!

(nearly all dutch speak english!!)

and they want to prove it to me !

Ik weet!! ( i know)

However, if you go out of the tourist places and you do speak dutch then i find you do get further - even if the conversation eventually slips into an english conversation. The bottom line is that their english is almost always better than your dutch. Because so many people speak english, very few people learn dutch unless they live there. Therefore if you do speak a little dutch and you are a tourist it tends to go down well.

My vote would be on getting a saterlite dish and letting the children watch TV in the language of your choice. Also, if you are able to give them regular holidays to that country, then you will be letting them see the practical side of learning the language. I want my children to learn arabic but they don;t want to at the minute. However I got a saterlite decoder and moved our dish to astra 26.[somethiing] and can pick up german/french/spanish/dutch/ some arabic channels. Both kids and adult programmes. I am letting them watch dutch cartoons & kids programmes. We regularly go on day-trips to Netherlands/dutch speaking Belgium so that helps.

jud!th

We've got Muzzy and Muzzy 2, and both our kids (5 and 2) love it. I've learnt loads from watching it with them. The animation is clunky, but the way they've used the stories and characters to teach all the aspects of the language is very clever and not forced.

We also spend a lot of time watching disney dvds in French (cendrillon, blanche-neige, les aristochats, dumbo etc), and have maisy mouse (mimi la souris) in French too, along with French kids' dvds Franklin, Trotro and Tchoupi that we bought in France.

Basically if I'm going to stick them in front of the tv so I can get on with stuff I stick them in front of French stuff!

We talk french to them sometimes, and try to involve them in little french conversations for a laugh - but only if they're having fun with it, we don't ever push it.

And we're narrowing down our knowledge of France and even individual resorts and campsites so we can go to the ones where other english-speakers don't go. So our kids get to run around the campsite and go on the climbing frame with french kids.

My husband speaks fluent french with an english accent, and I speak a-level french and have a good accent. So we have got a head-start.

hth

J
x

Zziggi

jud!th wrote: »

Basically if I'm going to stick them in front of the tv so I can get on with stuff I stick them in front of French stuff!

We talk french to them sometimes, and try to involve them in little french conversations for a laugh - but only if they're having fun with it, we don't ever push it.

And we're narrowing down our knowledge of France and even individual resorts and campsites so we can go to the ones where other english-speakers don't go. So our kids get to run around the campsite and go on the climbing frame with french kids.

I think these are great ideas and not disimilar to what we do (so of course i think they are great ideas!) Our european language of choice is Dutch simply because it is where we go mostly given our location and we tend to choose places in the Netherlands/Belgium where the English don't go. Not purely to avoid the stereotypical english, but so the kids mix with non-english kids. Annoyingly though, some of the other kids in a play parks often speak basic English even at primary age!

elegant_elephant

Where can you buy French language Disney dvds in from?

I can't see any on Amazon and unfortunately I won't be going to France for a while.

Voyager2002

jamescredmond wrote: »

china won't have the same cultural impact as colonial UK

How can you possibly know that?

Incidentally, the global use of English is because of the USA, not the British Empire. Within living memory (well after the end of our empire) the most useful language for travel was French, rather than English.

To appreciate the strength of China, and its probable global impact, take a flight going West out of Hong Kong (I was flying to Vietnam). My flight path went right over the Pearl River delta, which is probably the greatest concentration of manufacturing industry to be found anywhere in the world. To give you some idea of the scale of the development here, the movement of workers to its factories is the largest migration in the whole of human history.

carol22_2

I have just begun a degree in French and German, and from what universities kept spouting at me at open days last year, people with language skills are VERY high on the employability list.
French is an international language, and gives a 'foot in the door' to all romantic languages, for example I can read very basic spanish. I guess this would be true the other way aroun (eg spanish for french)
German is a business language, and very highly sought after at the moment, as French and Spanish are most popular in schools.
If there is a university close to where you live, enquire about any language centre courses they run, as this is often a good way to get in contact with native speakers, which is the best way to become good at conversational language. Also once you and your children have a basic profiency, look at eTandem websites, to find native foreign speakers to email and write to.
Rosetta Stone is meant to be one of the best language learning programmes, however it is quite expensive. I would try your local library to see if they have anything to 'try before you buy'.
Hope this helps
Carol

Zziggi

carol22 wrote: »

I have just begun a degree in French and German, and from what universities kept spouting at me at open days last year, people with language skills are VERY high on the employability list.

Are they still spouting that rubbish? Of course they are going to tell you that - what do you expect them to say when they are trying to attract 'bums on seats'? Language departments in universities across the country are SHRINKING not growing. Of all the people I know who were on my (languages) degree course 15 years ago (joys of facebook), not one got a job that was directly using languages. Many hardly ever use their language skills and i know of two people who have never even spoken the language since. Another poster once said how on the continent they train lawyers/engineers/doctors who all speak a foreign language whereas in the UK we just train people who can speak a foreign language but have no other indepth skills. I agree with this.

carol22 wrote: »

French is an international language, and gives a 'foot in the door' to all romantic languages, for example I can read very basic spanish. I guess this would be true the other way aroun (eg spanish for french)
German is a business language, and very highly sought after at the moment, as French and Spanish are most popular in schools.Carol

German is rapidly going out of fashion and I am sure it is NOT in demand. Numbers of GCSE and A-level german candidates are rapidly decreasing. Universities are amalagamating german departments in with other languages because of the decline in demand. Spanish is rapidly becoming the foreign language of choice rather than french and there's an increase in interest in Arabic and Mandarin. I think learning a foreing language IS important but i have serious doubts about this "modern languages graduates are in demand and are highly employable" - see if you still think that in 4 years time when you are looking for a job. How many jobs do you see advertised that just want language graduates compared to how many jobs advertise for an engineer/lawyer/doctor with foreign language abilities.

kb36

elegant_elephant wrote: »

Where can you buy French language Disney dvds in from?

I can't see any on Amazon and unfortunately I won't be going to France for a while.

Many Disney DVDs come with foreign languages already - check on the back to see what is available. It's then just a question of selecting a different set up for play in another language.