Learning a foreign language online?
 

I've been searching and found a company/software called Rosetta Stone. I used the free demo and it really seemed pretty cool how the teaching method works. It basically uses pictures, audio, and repetition to beat terms and phrases into your head. Thinking about buying it.

Anyone have experience with learning a foreign language online or this particular software?

Let me know how it works. :)

dvds are better,but still not the ultimate solution

online? that sucks, no fun in it, no people interaction

Online I can study and learn everyday. A class I would learn 2-3 days a week, I'll pass.

dvds i meant multimedia ones

i'll try find time get russian courses this year. Sailing ones have priority.

I am interested in learning spanish. I took beginners spanish a few months back but since I never practiced I don't remember a thing now...

that is the key in learning a new language, you have to have somebody to practice with

Pimsleur is the best imho. its expensive like 600-800 used for a full course but you can get the first 4 cd's to try for 19.95. you can find used sets on ebay. its the same course they use to teach fbi and cia agents foreign languages

I'll check it out. The one I was looking at was $400 for Level 1 and 2, they claimed its used to teach NASA and the military.

I've tried rosetta stone and i think it's working good. A good method of learning if you have the time. You learn to write and read pretty fast and correct however it's not ideal for speaking the language.. you need to take classes for that.

I learned functional Japanese from books with the accompanying CD. Just writing and rewriting words and phrases seems to work well as long as you hear the correct pronounciation along with it.

That software seems kind of expensive...

yeah, i would recommend this one aswell. very easy to follow and quick to learn but is quite pricey.
http://www.pimsleurapproach.com/

I vote for Pimsleur CD's as well as I'm learning to speak Mandarin with Pimsleur and I have learnt more useful conversation so far than I did in a whole semester of college Mandarin two days a week. Of course in the college class they teach you to understand, speak, read and write all at once so it was a bit overwhelming at times but the interaction was valuable.

My plan is to finish the 90 lesson course with Pimsleur which will give me quite good understanding and speaking skills and then to work on the reading and finally writing part. I personally think that nowdays it's not that important to be able to write Mandarin as with the language plugin you can type what you want to say in English letters (Pinyin) and the Chinese character choices will pop up to be selected.

There is a huge difference. Do you currently speak a second language?

You will realize that you can do everything the lesson says. Get everything correct and then not be able to speak it worth a rat's ass. Contsant use of it and interaction between other speakers is the only way to learn.

You will understand this once you learn your second language.

This is very true. The best way to learn to speak another language is to interect between others that speak that language.

You want to speak Spanish ... move to Mexico or Spain or another Spanish speaking country. In 6 months, you'll be speaking like a native.

i need to move to italy

OR SWEDEN omfg those girls are hot...e very one of them

Or california for that matter.

I learned Spanish in school and daily use of it with the spanish speaking people here made me a pro. :thumbsup

I've got an easier solution that doesn't involve moving to a Foreign country or getting your butt to college classes...

Date a girl who speaks your desired language. She should at least be able to teach you the cuss words and basic grammar like "wow, you have a large penis!" which will get you enthused to learn more. :winkwink:

southern califonia will do just fine . . same with korean, arminian, or rusian

I was learning German on About.com when it came on the news that the first plane had hit the world trade center. It was a really good way of making sure I never forgot how to ask 'Could you please help me?' in German.

how about sign language *middle finger*

and bin laden lol

You may feel like you don't remember a thing, but if you start learning Spanish again or spend time in Mexico, you will find that you "relearn" the same material very quickly.

RosettaStone has pretty good methods for learning...

Rosetta stone is good software but takes along time to learn with it because it teaches a lot of nouns and verbs first - that dont have a lot of application in "active vocabulary"

its working very well for my daughters hindi lessons (as she is only 3)

for our learning spanish i tried so many programs and CD's- including pimsleur but they all bored me to tears until i got hold of
MICHEL THOMAS's CDs : http://www.michelthomas.com/

after doing just the first 6 lessons (just a couple of hours) i could converese wth friends in south america on IM quite easily. This is because he teaches you in a way that you do not force yourself to "remember" anything - and also he explains the language - its not like a parrot school just repeating - you actually learn to THINK about how you will translate your sentance.

Very practical and i think its the best

i learned portuguese with pimsleurs. i am gonna pick up their spanish one so when i go back to CR i am not as clumsy with their language.

doesn't matter, online or offline, as long as you spend time on it, any method is good enough

I've used pimsleur for both japanese and mandarin. I can't really speak much conversationally in either language, but I can order my food and am not too terribly lost when I go to japan or something.

however, after doing pimsleur, I went to basic japanese class. 4 hours a week, very basic. Turns out that I thought I recalled a lot but really didn't. I did pick it up quickly, but I didn't really know it well. I think pimsleur is a good add on to actual usage, but I dont think a program like that can make you a confident speaker, personally.

I'm not trying to learn the language solely by myself, that is stupid and probably not possible. I live in San Diego, there are plenty of people to talk Spanish with. One of my friends speaks Spanish fluently, I'll have her speak Spanish only with me, hehe.

I learned english from gfy.

That's how I learned French in college, sly -- not by taking it -- :1orglaugh -- I just dated exclusively French girls for liek 6 months, and hung out at outdoor cafe's with an espresso and an open copy of Le Fig -- :1orglaugh





2hp

I'm still on my CDs trying to learn some french. I am barely making any improvement. I guess I'll give on line a try

Be sure to check out eBay before you invest. I just bought the whole Spanish CD series last night on eBay....brand new set and paid much less then what they are asking for them on their website (Pimsleurs). :thumbsup

That shit was still expensive though so get ready to dish out some bucks for it. Living in San Diego and about to move to LA - being able to speak some spanish would be nice for me :winkwink:

i've learn allot from porn movies