Learning Another Language?

[Redwyrm]

I've always wanted to learn a second language. Unfortunately, time, budget and language software flim flammery have always kept me from taking that next step. I took a couple years of German in high school, but beyond remembering a couple of words here and there, most of that has flown out the window.

I was thinking of learning Spanish but need some help figuring out which software (at home learning) works best. You always here about Rosetta Stone, but can never tell if they just teach you how to say apple and chair. I'm looking for conversational and reading comprehension level of learning.

Any suggestions (beyond suggesting to do classes). Is Rosetta Stone worth it from anyone's personal experience?

[-aiko-]

Rosetta Stone is not worth it.

I'm not sure if every language is like this but when I wanted to learn Spanish I found a lot of great videos on Youtube for free. It depends on how you learn though. You have videos, text material, and audio.

[Kujako]

Babbel isn't bad. http://www.babbel.com/learn-spanish-online

I find Rosetta Stone to be better for more complex languages, but in either case unless you immerse yourself in it you may have a hard time retaining the language if you're an adult.

[Deleted]

Learn Russian or Zulu. If you learn russian you can get away with telling people you're a spy and that's cool as fuuuuuuck, if you learn zulu you can tell people you work as a mercenary / soldier of fortune. What are you going to do with spanish, other than have normal conversations with people who speak spanish

[Teroseth]

I've been using rosetta stone for the past month or so and I'd recommend it. I was a bit sceptical going in (I feared the whole "The cat sat on the mat" thing as well) but it is a quality piece of software though I can't compare it to other programs as I've not used them. I'd say the best thing about it is that it doesn't feed you answers/expect you to repeat a litany of foreign words, it shows you the basics and then reinforces through exercises, then a little bit more, more reinforcement, more exercises and so on before an end of module session where it throws you into a "conversation" with no aid but is centered around what you've learnt so far.

[May90]

Well, I studied English and Spanish (my native language is Russian). I completely failed at learning Spanish, but I think my English is cool, for someone who is only starting to live in an English-speaking country that is.

What I did (and what I failed to do with Spanish) was immersing myself into the language. Completely. I installed English version of Windows, started watching movies, reading books and playing games ONLY in English (was very hard at first when I didn't understand most of what I encountered, but I got through that eventually). Whenever I was alone in some public transport or just walking on a street, I would consciously make myself think in English. This way, in about 2 years (remember, I didn't interact with native English speakers in that time at all!) I started catching myself thinking in English most of the time, reading an writing with no problem. Speaking was hard though, I had to make trips to Australia, Canada and the USA to practice it.

I guess you are not going to immerse this way into Spanish, it only makes sense if you are going to live in a Spanish-speaking environment. Otherwise, do all this mildly, like start with switching your Windows language to Spanish, in all games you play turn on Spanish subtitles while leaving English audio. Try to read Spanish books from time to time. Of course you need to start with some kind of a handbook, otherwise you won't understand anything. Any handbook will do, provided you actually do all the exercises and work on it regularly. After that, it is pretty much just a matter of reading, writing and speaking Spanish as much as you can, only such practice will get you to the level when you can already have some kind of conversation with native speakers. Rosetta Stone is as good a way to study language as any. I think what is really important is not with what to study, but rather how to study, how serious you are about learning the language and how much time you are willing to spend on it.

Ah, and also you need a strong motivation, not just "I'd like to speak Spanish one day". Why do you need Spanish? What do you want to accomplish by using it in the real world? If it is a must for you, if you know that you HAVE to learn Spanish, you will learn it eventually. But if it is just "It wouldn't be bad to learn it, just in case" - I don't think it will work. At least, and particularly with Spanish, it didn't work for me.

[Reeve]

I've always wanted to learn a second language. Unfortunately, time, budget and language software flim flammery have always kept me from taking that next step. I took a couple years of German in high school, but beyond remembering a couple of words here and there, most of that has flown out the window.

I was thinking of learning Spanish but need some help figuring out which software (at home learning) works best. You always here about Rosetta Stone, but can never tell if they just teach you how to say apple and chair. I'm looking for conversational and reading comprehension level of learning.

Any suggestions (beyond suggesting to do classes). Is Rosetta Stone worth it from anyone's personal experience?

Rosetta Stone was very helpful to me. Of course I was also using it while fully immersed at the same time.

[Deleted]

I'm learning Korean. I use a flashcard program called Anki, which is really good, you can make your own cards or download decks made by others. You can also adds pictures or sounds to the cards. I also use memrise, it's a site for memorizing words. In the bigger languages there are usually lots of resources on the internet (I've even found two free textbooks as PDF-files). I've heard duolingo should be really good. Also try searching youtube and language learning communities. There is also lang-8, a site where you can get texts in your targeted language corrected by native speakers, moreover you can also find people there to practice speaking with over skype. I also suggest to try immersing yourself in the language, listen to music, watch movies or TV programs and try to read.

Motivation is really important, sometimes it can feel slow like you're not making progress, but it's just to push through and one day you'll realize that you can understand the language.

[MerinPally]

There's no point picking a language you don't have a strong interest in, it won't go in at all. I tried studying a few to help out an ex so that I could at least read things to her and ask basic questions and it was horrible. However, I've been interested in spanish for a long time and used to study it for a few years, so I began doing it again and it's going very well. My sister is getting rather annoyed at me because she's doing a university degree in it and she's convinced I'll be better at spanish than her by the end of the year - and it only works because I find it so interesting.

You'd be very surprised how much comes back, you won't be able to recall it just out of the blue but once you find a trigger it'll reappear. There are 7 "simple" tenses in spanish and I used to know 5 of them, however a quick skim over a book I bought and I could recall 3 of them very quickly. It does return in parts but not all of it obviously.

I'd recommend a variety of sources, an internet based method, some books (actual physical copies) and be then make sure you listen to the language as well. Your online resources will give you some listening, put on the radio in said language and try to pick out words so you can get the idea even though you don't know what they're actually saying. Music sometimes helps there. I used duolingo.com and it was great, if not a little basic at the start and feeling tedious it does cover things in a reasonably good order, giving a nice amount of vocabulary. Be prepared to take notes as if you were in school as well by the way, help commit it to memory.

Recommendations:

duolingo.com (comes with a phone app too, completely free, both online and app)

If you want to learn spanish particularly, I recommend this book it's the one I used: http://www.collins.co.uk/product/978...(3+books+in+1)

Then there are all manners of dictionaries, pronounciation guides, and other important ones you can get from Collins, they seem pretty good. Best advice I can give you is immerse yourself - set your phone to the language, facebook, any games you play. Don't overwhelm yourself too much but you'll learn new vocab much faster. Good luck, if you choose spanish specifically then PM me as I have a plethora of books I can recommend. That goes for anyone of course.

Edit: Also, make sure you speak it! It'll make you think, no matter how silly you feel you sound. When I'm home alone, I talk to the cats in spanish. What they gona do, just demand to be fed and ignore me? Gives me more opportunities to add in negatives and comparisons, ultimatums, conditionals and imperatives. Purrrr-fect.

[williamarsh]

use duolingo its a free app that helps you to learn and reminds you to stay on track. It won't completely teach you the language but it will help you enough that you can hold a conversation. If I were you I'd do a local emersion camp I spent five weeks in Quebec at Mcgill in French emersion. Only cost me 200 dollars and now I'm Bilingual

[Lagiacrus]

use duolingo its a free app that helps you to learn and reminds you to stay on track. It won't completely teach you the language but it will help you enough that you can hold a conversation. If I were you I'd do a local emersion camp I spent five weeks in Quebec at Mcgill in French emersion. Only cost me 200 dollars and now I'm Bilingual

Damnit, somebody beat me to it! Definitely try out something like Duolingo at the start, and not go in for Rosetta Stone straight away. Therefore, you don't regret wasting all that money once you hit a block in a language that you absolutely cannot stand, like the subjunctive generally gets people in Spanish. Duolingo will get you into a high beginner/lower intermediate level, all for free. After that, I cannot quite help you as Spanish is not a language I have dabbled in myself, but try to milk as many free resources as you can. Look around for textbook reviews and suggestions. If there are 10000 people who all suggest a particular textbook (like Genki generally is for Japanese), then go and try it.

Goodluck! Remember to enjoy yourself. Learning languages is not about studying non stop and tiring yourself out. I'm 17, grew up speaking English and small bits of Dutch, did Italian in school for 10 years, and now doing Korean and Japanese at university and German and Dutch on my own. It should be an amazing experience, and it definitely opens your eyes to the world. You'll learn a lot about Spanish and South American culture. Have fun!

[Deleted]

If you've got a smartphone, look up Duolingo. It's free and easy to use. Combine it with youtube lessons and maybe a textbook or two. Rosetta stone is a lot of money (or a lot of time to "acquire" the right language pack) to just grab straight off the bat when you might not even stick to it.