Learning A New Language?

[cosmicbike]

Thinking I'd like to improve my rather basic French language, beyond being able to introduce myself and ask if somewhere has a camping pitch for the night
Has anyone on here used any online methods, for French or otherwise? Quite fancy Italian too..

 

[DaveReading]

Find an evening class, you will learn much quicker with a good teacher.

 

[MarkF]

Learn Spanish, it's way easier for a Brit.

 

[User169]

Move there and/or get a native-speaking partner.

 

[User169]

[QUOTE 4248019, member: 259"]Move to the Netherlands, learn Dutch to near native standard, and then watch and wonder as everyone replies to you in perfect English every time you try and buy a newspaper or a sandwich.[/QUOTE]

My comment about moving there excludes NL!

I did figure I'd turned a bit of a corner when people automatically stopped responding in Dutch.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Thinking I'd like to improve my rather basic French language, beyond being able to introduce myself and ask if somewhere has a camping pitch for the night
Has anyone on here used any online methods, for French or otherwise? Quite fancy Italian too..

There's no single best method, different people respond to different approaches. I used CDs and books to teach myself to a level where I got into a class doing Higher Italian, passed that then did the Advanced Higher the following year.

I started with Michel Thomas CDs which are fine until you notice his rattly dentures then that's all you can hear. I moved on to Pimsleur after that and that is an excellent course, although a bit more expensive. I've heard good things about Rosetta Stone but never tried it myself.

I can recommend other stuff if you're really interested, particularly for Italian.

Have you tried Duolingo? It's good as a supplement to other learning.

GC

 

[marinyork]

On-line:

There are all sorts of sites that set you up with partners for pen pal/voice exchange/video exchange. The dominant languages people are wanting swaps for are Spanish and Mandarin, a lot of french also. You can find German, Italian, other languages on these too. They require extreme patience finding someone who'll carry on after a few language swaps/lessons but it can be worth it. A large chunk of these people are school/college/uni students wanting it for obvious reasons. Another large group are the professionals abroad they may be teachers, doctors who want better English. I found that particularly in Italian it's hard to catch people as they often want evening chats after the superduperlate italian tea time. The psychology of it is interesting, many people are too shy or other reasons to really jump headfirst into this learning method. It tends to work best when people are at a similar level in both languages so people don't feel too guilty. One party often ends up why the other one wants help/wants to learn the language if level is too different.

Duolingo is of some use.

One of my partners for Italian used to use an on-line class to learn English. He decided talking to me was better and cheaper.

If you're interested in Italian I'd actually recommend youtube and OneWorldItaliano. It's done by a woman called Veronica who started doing them about 2-3 years ago, it's snowballed and she now has thousands of people that watch them and dozens of small lessons. The lessons are somewhat smarter laid out than the critic thinks they are. She's had the sheer damn determination to write and act out with these things and stay with them and I think they are great. They are numbered from 1 onwards.

Not on-line:
I just learnt on my own and learnt how I needed to learn. Started with a collins grammar book for a few quid, then CDs such as Paul Noble and Michel Thomas, parallel texts (my god they were so boring), harry potter in italian, trying to find shows then trying to find people to practice with!!!!!

One of the issues I had in learning Italian was I came from the creative writing generation at school and so was never taught any grammar, so in learning Italian I've learnt huge amounts of stuff I didn't know about English but already known my whole life. I learn quite well reading/writing too, that's one of my preferences.

 

[marinyork]

P.S. forgot. Skype through translate has a translator that can be of some use in attempting to learn languages by video exchange.

 

[marinyork]

The Italian Michel Thomas got particularly lambasted for being funny, whether it was worse than other languages I don't know. I just thought Paul Noble was better value for money. Interesting thread as until this I'd never heard of Pimsleur or Synergy Spanish.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

If French is the language then when I had to/wanted to learn French beyond school level one of the things I found really helpful was to watch every French TV programme and film that I could. I even ended up watching and rewatching French films during a French season on the BBC with a strip of gaffer tape over the subtitled part of the screen (the temptation to read instead of listen is natural at first but, when you start getting a feel of it, or when you're rewatching, it's better to rely on the ear). Apart from the possibility of streaming French live stations off the net, there have also been some French TV series on Channel 4's ''Walter Presents'' series. Mafiosa, one of them, uses pretty clear French (note: occasional short passing phrases of Italian) ; 10, while being a Swiss made series is pretty good and there's also a football one whose name escapes me for the moment. Maybe it was called Lens, because that's where I seem to remember it being set.

While for me the most effective way of learning was through immersion and une dictionnaire, absorbing yourself in a good film or an entertaining enough TV series, is a good way to start - and enjoy - learning that impossible language.

(For the record, I ended up with a postgrad diploma in translation [Fr to En] from a 40 year old's restart after failing to get an O level pass at A level 20 years earlier.)

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

[QUOTE 4250426, member: 259"]Well done! Where did you do the diploma?[/QUOTE]
Institute of Linguists, I think it was. Though I only ever went there once to sort out some paperwork, their head office was on the road between London Bridge and Battersea Bridge.

 

[nickyboy]

The method I used to learn Mandarin:

1) Pimsleur CDs to get a basic vocabulary and some phrases for common situations. Used to play them in the car on my commute
2) Signed up for a podcast that had a lot of English language discussion of certain aspects of Mandarin. This was really useful
3) Contacted some folk via intermediary website who were native Mandarin speakers who wanted to improve their English via Skype chat. If you can get a good partner this is really good. But getting a partner with similar ability is not easy

Then of course there is no substitute for being in the country and having a chat with the taxi driver about the weather, football, food whatever

I went to a couple of evening classes but, frankly, they were a waste of time. They focussed on writing and reading with very little conversation

 

[marinyork]

Talking about content available, I always found it frustrating finding higher quality soundtracks for Italian.

Since netflix launched in 130 countries and launched slowly on its worldwide licencing strategy there's a fair bit of stuff in French/German/Italian. A while back there was virtually nothing in some languages.

 

[Oldbloke]

[QUOTE 4248019, member: 259"]Move to the Netherlands, learn Dutch to near native standard, and then watch and wonder as everyone replies to you in perfect English every time you try and buy a newspaper or a sandwich.[/QUOTE]

Works a treat in Germany too, I found!

 

[gavroche]

I think User76 is right about the wiring in the brain, hence we all have different abilities regarding different subjects, being languages, maths, chemistry etc..... I speak fluent French and English but may struggle to learn a third language.
Nickyboy, I do night classes in French and I can assure you that mine are all about conversation because that's what people want. You are welcome to join my classes.