Learning a foreign language

Mistral001

I suppose this comes under training. Anyway, I could not find any more appropriate place for it. If MSE members or staff know of a better place, then I would be grateful if they let me know where it is.

I have this notion that knowing a foreign language is quite a handy skill to have when seeking a job.

I attended German evening classes about four years ago which were fairly good, but that was when I could afford them as quite apart from the class fees, the nearest classes are about an hours drive away. Travelling to Germany is also out for financial reasons - at the minute anyway.

About a couple of weeks ago, I started back into learning German. It is tough going, but I see it as a challenge and I have made a lot of headway. However, I am learning it completely by self-study from text books and dictionaries I bought during the evening classes. Also audio courses I have borrowed from the library. I use youtube and Google translate as well.

Just wondering has anybody else learned a foreign language by self-study. I know there are no short-cuts but I was wondering if there are any other good resources out there that would be helpful.

princessdon

keep an eye out on Groupon - There was a few really good offers a while ago for language courses with over 80% off RRp.

InsideInsurance

Have you looked on Gumtree or equiv for a german person who is wanting to learn english? Know a fair number of people who have made "language buddies" where they meet up once a week and alternate which language they speak in each time.

The challenge can be if one party is keener than the other that it ends up that most meetings tend to be in one language and so only one side really benefits.

Mistral001

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Have you looked on Gumtree or equiv for a german person who is wanting to learn english? Know a fair number of people who have made "language buddies" where they meet up once a week and alternate which language they speak in each time.

The challenge can be if one party is keener than the other that it ends up that most meetings tend to be in one language and so only one side really benefits.

The problem with getting German-speaking people to link up with, is that most of them can speak very good English so it would be very one-sided. However, worth a try.

I am hoping to get to an intermediate level by self-study and then maybe after that practice conversational German - people would then take you more seriously I think.

I think there are penpal sites for people who want to learn a language, that might be worth a try

InsideInsurance

Possibly with German it may be a little more difficult given the few countries it is spoken in. I know a lot of people from latin america and so certainly for Spanish and Portuguese there are all sorts of levels of ability out there wanting to improve their English

Mistral001

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Possibly with German it may be a little more difficult given the few countries it is spoken in. I know a lot of people from latin america and so certainly for Spanish and Portuguese there are all sorts of levels of ability out there wanting to improve their English

I worked for a short time in Germany years ago, so that is why I have chosen to learn it. I suppose if I went for Spanish I would get more people to link up with.

BTW German is the most spoken first language in Europe (more than English). Not a lot of people know that.

I suppose Chinese would be the wise choice for improving job prospects but we are where we are.

InsideInsurance

It is the most spoken mother tongue/ first language. English is the overall most spoken language.

Any of the BRIC countries languages would be good, the advantage of Spanish or Portuguese is the fact it makes the other and Italian very easy to learn and French not too hard other than the pronunciation

Elvisia

Having worked in the middle of Europe with a massive amount of nationalities I have to say German is the language I would be least likely to learn. Most Germans speak beautiful English, so it's unlikely you'd be in a position where it was super useful, unless you wanted to go and work there of course. I would recommend French or Italian, both are useful.

Actually bizarrely one of the most useful languages I learnt was Latin - even though it's supposedly a 'dead' language it's the basis of Italian and many of the words are similar in other languages.

I would recommend checking out local colleges, or LearnDirect who have good language courses which are often reduced on Groupon.

jason1231972

As already stated, I think it can be somewhat redundant to learn the language of highly developed European nations purely for career purposes (especially if you don't actually intend to live and work in one of those countries). I've travelled Europe extensively, and English fluency in places like Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, etc. is very high indeed, where kids learn English from day dot, and university classes are often delivered in English.

Plus, there's the thing of some of those languages are only spoken in either one or just a couple of countries.

What about looking at 'emerging' market languages, from countries where English fluency can't be taken for granted? I'm thinking Arabic (spoken as a first or dual language in about 20 nations, amongst 300m+ people), "Hindustani" (Hindi-Urdu) (300m+ speakers across India and Pakistan), Chinese languages (1bn+ speakers), Japanese (100m+ speakers).

For an 'easier' ride (in that the above alphabets, pronunciations, etc. can be difficult to master), French is widely used across Europe and parts of Africa, Spanish obviously dominates South America, whereas Brazil (Portugese) is 'one to watch' on the business front.

zfrl

Have you looked to see if where you live is twinned with any German places. Our town has a Twinning Association - they have links with people in the German town. It is a good way to find information.

Mistral001

zfrl wrote: »

Have you looked to see if where you live is twinned with any German places. Our town has a Twinning Association - they have links with people in the German town. It is a good way to find information.

I had a look there and where I live is not twinned with a German town, but a good suggestion.