mp3 player and learning a language?

[Fnaar]

The French Podclass is really good, imo;

http://frenchpodclass.com/

If anyone knows of one for Dutch, please post it

http://www.lauraspeaksdutch.info/

 

[bonj2]

dont' get an ipod, they're a con - apple make their best efforts to lock you into their own encrypted file storage and their own proprietary software.
they also contain hard disks, rather than solid-state storage, and the hard disks do wear out, meaning the death of the ipod.

 

[Abitrary]

He wants to out music on it but is also interested in learning a language. Is it possible to get language courses on mp3 players?

.

I had to learn french in a hurry for a contract in france, and a walkman and linguaphone cassettes on the underground every morning for 3 months before moving there was the most pleasurable part of learning a new language, with hindsight.

I worked through about 3 different courses, and the linguaphone one had the most subtle sense of humour.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

dont' get an ipod, they're a con - apple make their best efforts to lock you into their own encrypted file storage and their own proprietary software.
they also contain hard disks, rather than solid-state storage, and the hard disks do wear out, meaning the death of the ipod.

you can use an ipod without ever making a purchase from the itunes store.

some ipods have hard disks, as you say. the smaller ones such as the nano and shuffle use solid state flash memory.

in bonj-land ipods belong under the "crapola" heading, along with fixie bikes, mudguards and zonkies…

 

[bonj2]

tell me, if the fashion aspect of ipods was removed, and they looked like any bog-standard, buttons based mp3 player, how much do you think their dominant market share would be diminished by?
(And don't say 'not much' or 'none', because neither of those are the correct answer.)

 

[Bodhbh]

Think www.audible.co.uk do the Michael Thomas language courses. It's been a while but I really recommend them, starts you building up and making up sentences from the gitgo rather than a lot of rote learning (which might has it's place, guess use both approaches to maintain interest).

 

[alecstilleyedye]

tell me, if the fashion aspect of ipods was removed, and they looked like any bog-standard, buttons based mp3 player, how much do you think their dominant market share would be diminished by?
(And don't say 'not much' or 'none', because neither of those are the correct answer.)

who cares? not all consumer technology needs to look like it's been put together in someone's shed using components out of the maplin catalogue. and why does the fact that apple have found a great marketing ploy (which started with the imac) annoy you so bonj?

 

[John the Monkey]

...and why does the fact that apple have found a great marketing ploy (which started with the imac) annoy you so bonj?

I have to hold my hand up and say that Apple irritate me a bit too, to the extent that I'd sooner buy a device without their branding[1].

It baffles me that they're so "hip" given their attitude to retailers that dare to discount their product, and to DRM (for example).

[1] As it goes, I find the Nokia N82 does enough of the podcasting/music playing stuff for me to not want a separate MP3 device for the time being.

 

[John the Monkey]

http://www.lauraspeaksdutch.info/

Cheers Fnaar, seems to be defunct though (at least, I can never access it).

 

[Fnaar]

Cheers Fnaar, seems to be defunct though (at least, I can never access it).

that's odd... i just tried it, and got the page, and the mp3 for the latest lesson (I'm not trying to learn dutch though, just found it in an idle moment when you asked about such podcasts...)

 

[ajevans]

I've used the Rocket language courses before and find them really good and fun to use. You download the lessons as mp3s along with supplementary grammar lesson pdfs and a PC/MAC game.

They're very highly rated in reviews.

Google 'Rocket French', 'Rocket German', 'Rocket Spanish' etc etc.

 

[Fnaar]

I've used the Rocket language courses before and find them really good and fun to use. You download the lessons as mp3s along with supplementary grammar lesson pdfs and a PC/MAC game.

They're very highly rated in reviews.

Google 'Rocket French', 'Rocket German', 'Rocket Spanish' etc etc.

Is there a Rocket Science, too?

 

[John the Monkey]

that's odd... i just tried it, and got the page, and the mp3 for the latest lesson (I'm not trying to learn dutch though, just found it in an idle moment when you asked about such podcasts...)

Very odd - working for me too now, although throughout last week it was timing out.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

ipod dan_bo. don't believe the style-over-substance rubbish. ipods are form and function in perfect harmony.

I agree. I'm well chuffed with my recent purchase (160Gb ipod classic).

 

[bonj2]

who cares? not all consumer technology needs to look like it's been put together in someone's shed using components out of the maplin catalogue. and why does the fact that apple have found a great marketing ploy (which started with the imac) annoy you so bonj?

because it's no better than any other mp3 player, but it's about 4 times the price for the same gigabytes. Who needs 160GB of storage on an mp3 player? Do you honestly manage to listen to all that much before you get back to your computer?