Learning a foreign language

Mistral001

paddyrg wrote: »

Surprised I haven't seen the recommendation above - Michel Thomas series for French or Spanish are wonderful. Set of 8 CD's and by the time you're through (there is NO notetaking allowed, just listen, pause, try, carry on!) you'll be speaking sentences with remarkable confidence. From there, you expand your vocabulary either with more CD's or however you please. I did some of the Michel Thomas Method Arabic course, the method is still good, but I preferred the ones he did before he died (eg French and Spanish).

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Michel-Thomas-French-Foundation-Course-8-CD-Boxed-Set-/221036045869?pt=Non_Fiction&hash=item3376c6662d
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Michel-Thomas-Foundation-Review-Course/dp/0340929375/ref=tmm_abk_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1338735546&sr=8-4
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/French-Michel-Thomas-Michel-Thomas-CD-Audio-2000-/261035231008?pt=Non_Fiction&hash=item3cc6e98720

Just to give you an idea how quickly you can get 'good enough', a friend's company went bust when his partner ran off with the wages - he had to find £30k pronto so was open to IT contracts anywhere in the world. He got one somewhere in Spanish-speaking Latin America starting a few days later... but didn't speak any Spanish. He did the 8-disc course and got by well enough to be able to work within a week.

I borrowed the Michel Thomas German introductory CD course (8 CD's I thnk) from my local library. Good for intensive learning. He says he has his method patented. In my course I think he did not use one noun the whole time, but at the end of it you could string together some quite complex sentences on your own without much prompting from him.

abby1234519

I used Rosetta Stone to get a basic understanding. I then moved onto Michel Thomas. And then moved onto practicing with native speakers.

I am fluent in French, Spanish and soon to be Italian. I will keep going until I know as many languages as possible.

I say fluent, I can speak it, however the writing isn't as good

hartcjhart

a good resource here

http://www.byki.com/fls/FLS.html

Wyndham

paddyrg wrote: »

I did some of the Michel Thomas Method Arabic course, the method is still good, but I preferred the ones he did before he died (eg French and Spanish).

As opposed to the ones he did after he died? I assume the company continuted, rather than being taught by ghosts? :rotfl:

I'm learing Mandarin, and have done a couple of evening classes, but am currently using chinesepod.com and skritter.com. Both of them have a charge, but you can have a free trial, and there are others about as well. I think with Mandarin I've realised that to get the quality you do need to pay, but free stuff can be useful for basics.

I'm happy learning by myself, but realise it isn't for everyone. And I also realise that there aren't any shortcuts in language learning (unless you have some sort of natural aptitude, and I certainly don't). The only way to get good at it is hard slog....

wantsajob

Welsh is a potential one of interest. The Welsh Language Act means it can be useful in certain jobs in Wales. It is sometimes mentioned in civil service jobs, and nearly always in university-based jobs. Though to be fair, I moved to South Wales over two years ago and the only Welsh I have heard is on S4C, Radio Cymru, and the weather presenter on BBC 1 Wales saying "nos da" (good night).

For learning Welsh see http://www.saysomethinginwelsh.com and http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learning/learnwelsh/

WolfSong2000

I am absolutely hopeless at learning languages, but have bitten the bullet and am trying to teach myself Somli (have been offered a job lecturing in a University in Somaliland). Luckily most Somalilanders speak at least half-decent English (whereas for Somali's from Somalia their second language is Italian, which I don't speak at all, but as I have no intention of visiting Somalia for safety reasons, this is of little concern).

I've literally only taught myself a handful of words so far, but it's a start. I think if you're planning on visiting somewhere it's simply good manners to at least make an attempt at speaking the native language. Only exception I've personally found is Paris - they laugh at you if you attempt French and do the same if you speak English).

Arabic is a hugely useful language to learn, but as someone else pointed out, it's tricky to learn and there's numerous regional variations, so I am giving it a wide berth (before anyone asks, the Somali language was only officially "written down" in the 1970's and a decision was made to use the latin alphabet, which makes life much easier for westerners).

Mandarin is also useful to learn for business purposes, but again, very difficult!

Personally if I were to pick a foreign language to learn it would be French (I was taught it at school but have forgotten all of it). it's particularly useful if you want to deal with certain African countries, or for say the UN, etc. I've lost count of the number of jobs I've been inelligible for because I didn't speak French!

montymouse

I definitely agree with one of the earlier posters that doing a language exchange with a German speaker who wants to improve their English is a good idea. I recommend this for anyone wanting to learn any language.

Also useful is the bbc's website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

There are a lot of self-study courses too, and reading novels and newspaper sites in the target language is a good idea. Also listening to radio stations broadcasting in the target language - internet radio provides loads of options.

Classes can be a bit of a mixed bag: I've been to ones that were really good, and ones that weren't.

Good luck with it - I think you are right that it opens up new career possibilities!

paddyrg

Wyndham wrote: »

As opposed to the ones he did after he died? I assume the company continuted, rather than being taught by ghosts? :rotfl:

Heh heh - He came up with the method and did the Latin languages, but most of the languages released under his name are "Michel Thomas Method" with a mixture of tutors. I tried the Arabic ones, preferred the ones MT himself did - the sheer bonhomie in his voice made them more engaging for me at least. There is the classic tale of the time about Eddie Izard who wanted to do a gig in France, in French, but only spoke English before spending an intensive weekend with MT. I have heard the show, bit of a car crash, but for a weekend's worth of learning, most impressive. At least he could be understood and spoke with confidence - the humour didn't translate so well...!

falko89

The thing about learning a language I've noticed is you either use it or lose it, I could speak Welsh as a child due to parents, can't string two words together now, same with French and Spanish I learned at school, they also say its a lot easier to learn a language as a child, I bought one of them Linguaphone home study courses about 6 years ago in German, I really struggled with it and gave up in the end and German is one of the easiest languages.

Permanently_confused

I have posted about this offer somewhere else but I have just done this and saved a load of money. If you have any books you don't use/ want anymore then you can trade in at Amazon and get Amazon credit for it.

I just traded in £60 worth of books and my Amazon account was credited within 24 hours of the books I sent being received. I used the credit to get language materials that are mega-expensive.

Worth taking a look!