Cheap ways to learn a new language

rainygreyhound

Doshwaster wrote: »

Even better get a foreign boyfriend/girlfriend

Oh what I'd do to meet a nice Italian girl! For a penpal type website where you can message or voice chat I'd recommend Shared Talk.

It's by Rosetta Stone but it's free to sign up and you can search for people by the language you're learning. I can't post links as a newbie but it's easy enough to search for.

tripod2000

I have been learning Gaelic with the BBC Radio Show Blas, the BBC/RTE TV show on youtube called Now You're Talking, Duolingo and supplementing with books and cds I've bought second hand but still expensive.

N!l m! l!ofa ach t! m! ag foghlaim. (Which hopefully says "I'm not fluent but I am learning."):rotfl:

seanshevety

If you have freesat you can change the language of Euronews.

On my Humax remote there is a button which has a speaker with a question mark; this allows you to scroll through the language options.

benjus

Have a look to see if there are any meetup groups for native speakers of 2 languages to meet and practise each others' languages. For example, here's an English/Spanish meetup in London: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/club_espeng/info

VandenPlas

I am learning Gaelg (Manx Gaelic) and have found a few things to be helpful with it and other languages. I cannot post links unfortunately, but searching these on Google, or using the Google Play Store whould bring them up:

Ynsee Gaelg have a free app for Android of the same name and a website that are fantastic. The app is great for beginners (as I was) and has exercises, quizzes, flash cards and a dictionary. The website has a massive amount of information such as lessons, videos, podcasts and a shop if you do wish to buy any materials.

Adrian Cain has many videos on You Tube all in Manx on different subjects.

Manx Radio lists news in Manx - it is listed on the left, just click Gaelic.

EuroTalk (also known as UTalk) is meant to be good, but I found that it was okay as a vocab builder, but not much use for anything else. I paid £7.99 for the app and thought that was a bit pricey for what it was, but Manx is a bit limited on materials, so I got it. The website however, charges £30 for software, so I count myself lucky.

This blog hasn't been updated in a while, but again I found the notes helpful. Search google for lughtynsagh

There is a free online English-Manx-English dictionary or an Android app version by vdru

Omniglot is useful and has links to other materials. This website also has other languages included.

A note for Irish, Scots and Manx Gaelic speakers/learners is that they are all called Gaelic in the native tongue. Most webistes are good and distinguish between them by adding Irish/Scots/Manx or differentiate with Gaidhlig/Gaeilge/Gaelg, but I have found a few that just say Gaelic. Normally a click or two tells you but some won't elaborate until you pay, so you won't know until you part money and it may then be useless for your needs.

A tip for any language learner - although you will need some knowledge of the langauge - is to go to Wikipedia and on the left hand side down the page is a list of languages. The popular ones are listed, but you can click on the complete list and it will bring up all 288 languages Wikipedia is in. You can then click on the one you want and look at articles in your chosen language. All six gaelic languages are included

isobel.rose

I’m fairly fluent in French after 4 years of learning.

Here are my tips;

1. It will take a long time. Like, a really, really long time. unless you live in a country that speaks the language it will take years before you are fluent. If you just what to say hello and ask directions then a few months of learning will get you by, but to become fluent takes serious dedication
2. I think classes are essential. Yes, they cost £200-£300 a year, but they will teach you the language properly and, more importantly for most people, they make you turn up every week and learn. The vast majority of people give up learning after a couple of months. I would have given up if it wasn’t for classes. Discounts are available for those on low incomes etc., but consider it seriously before enrolling as if you give up halfway through the year it is a waste. Check for free taster courses, or “introduction” courses which only last for a term or a half-year for approx. £100. Full year courses usually start in September, and single term/half year courses in January or April. As someone who has learnt pretty much from scratch, I would really recommend investing in classes. That said, there are a host of free resources or cheap to help you.
3. Collins has beginner programs in many languages available on eBay for about £20.
4. Duolingo app is by far the best free tool I’ve found, but only if you have some basic knowledge of the language already. Other apps such as Memrise and Google Translate are also useful.
5. YouTube – find some funny videos, or a foreign film. Fort Boyard is great if you can find it in your language. It’s easy to understand what’s going on, and there are lots of simple, easy to understand phrases which are spoken clearly – “yes”, “no”, “stop”, “hurry”, “over there”, “that one”.
6. Radio. Find a news radio station in your language. The presenters speak much more clearly than they do on TV. Lots of stations offer podcasts and ‘listen again’ on their websites, so you can listen in the car on the way to work. For French I use RFI (Radio France Internationale), which broadcasts “Le journal en francais facile” (the news in easy French).
7. DVDs. Dig out old DVDs and check out what languages you can change them to. I watch SATC in French regularly, and since I know the storylines by heart, it’s easy to follow. Use subtitles if you need them (in English or your new language).
8. Meetup. This is a great website that has language groups. There is one near me and we go to the pub once a month and speak French! It’s a mixture of native speakers and learners. It was a bit intimidating at first, but no one minds if you’re a bit slow or need something repeated.

Ultimately, if you are serious and dedicated, enrolling in a class is worth it, but you should fully utilise the free resources available to you as well. If you do enough home study, you could learn enough to skip a year (eg, take the 1st year beginners class, and then go straight to the 3rd year class), and progress to the higher level classes more quickly, which saves you a year of tuition fees

PBurton

I have been learning Spanish for a couple of years now, and here's what I recommend.

1. Podcasts. Free and there are many of them. I recommend Coffee Break Spanish for the first couple of seasons (done by two Scottish people), and then go on to Pimsleur Spanish 2-5. However, there are many more.

2. Audible is a great way of getting things for free or cheaply. For example, you can get Pimsleur Spanish 1 Unit 1 for free (a 30 minute lesson), or 20 minutes of Michel Thomas Spanish for free. Once you have found a method that works for you, stick with it, and practice it if you can. Pimsleur is expensive - about £110 from Amazon for a series. However, you can get a 6-item subscription from Audible for about £36, and that will get you an entire series.

Enjoy learning, and buena suerte.

Doshwaster

isobel.rose wrote: »

I’m fairly fluent in French after 4 years of learning.

Here are my tips;

1. It will take a long time. Like, a really, really long time. unless you live in a country that speaks the language it will take years before you are fluent. If you just what to say hello and ask directions then a few months of learning will get you by, but to become fluent takes serious dedication
2. I think classes are essential. Yes, they cost £200-£300 a year, but they will teach you the language properly and, more importantly for most people, they make you turn up every week and learn. The vast majority of people give up learning after a couple of months. I would have given up if it wasn’t for classes. Discounts are available for those on low incomes etc., but consider it seriously before enrolling as if you give up halfway through the year it is a waste. Check for free taster courses, or “introduction” courses which only last for a term or a half-year for approx. £100. Full year courses usually start in September, and single term/half year courses in January or April. As someone who has learnt pretty much from scratch, I would really recommend investing in classes. That said, there are a host of free resources or cheap to help you.

Classes can be very good and they are also a great way of meeting new people but a lot will depend on if you click with the teacher and what your expectations are.

I did a short introduction to Spanish course a few years ago at the local college. 10 weeks for about £50 I think it was. It was great fun, the teacher was excellent and it gave me enough confidence to try a few things on holiday. I was quite proud that I was able to go into a "local" restaurant and not use a single word of English.

However, I went back the next term to do their "GCSE in a year" course and I gave up after a few weeks. I didn't like the instructor at all and I had underestimated how much homework there would be to get through a whole GCSE course in a year with only two hours of lessons a week. It just wasn't fun any more. Going though vocab lists and verb tables is what put me off languages at school.

Tino_2

I recently discovered you can use Spotify for learning languages - not a cheap method in itself, but if you're already using Spotify Premium it's free.

You just need to add the Listen Language app to Spotify on your PC

vintner55

Open University free courses in some languages. Probably a bit basic but could be a good starter to see if you want to take it further.


http://www.open.edu/openlearn/free-courses