OT: Learning a foreign language

[UCsports]

Good answers so far. Doulingo is a good base. Practice pronunciation before anything else. Watch a movie in English with foreign subtitles I think has helped me the most.

 

[Mokum]

What is the best way to learn conversational French or Spanish?

There is a free app called duolingo. It is great for learning a language at conversational level. I am learning Italian with it. Of course it helps to be where the language is spoken. I can now speak fluent Dutch just from living here, no lessons, just a Dutch speaking wife.

 

[uconndoit]

I have had experience learning Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Vietnamese and now Thai - with varying methods and degrees of success.

My wife recently signed on for another 4 years here in Bangkok so I've been taking lessons for the past 2 months - 3 hours each weekday - and I'll be doing 3 more months. Plus of course I get as much practice as I want for free - just by going about my business in daily life. I've already been here for 4 years and before taking lessons I knew almost nothing. Just didn't need it and didn't want to invest the time since I didn't ever know if I would be here much longer.

I assume you can't spend 3 hours a day in class for 5 months -- so short of that I would say take formal structured lessons (online or whatever) to get the fundamentals and a feel for the language. You really need that foundation to build from. Otherwise it becomes a matter of rote learning of phrases - that's a recipe for failure.

I go back to an example of when I was working in Portugal. I had a foundation of 6 years of studying French with advanced grammar (not the US public crap language schooling either - but rather at a private school in Italy with an older hardcore French woman teacher) plus an ear for romance languages gained from 3 years living in Italy as a kid. Even so, after 1.5 years in Lisbon I still spoke almost no Portuguese -- because I was never forced to. Then work sent me to Madrid where they spoke almost no English. I learned Spanish in a hurry -- because otherwise I couldn't do basic things. When I returned to Lisbon I decided to take lessons - after I got that foundation it got easier to learn since I could build from it. The confidence was a big factor too - that let me practice more and more and it just snowballs from there.

So, in my opinion, the best recipe for learning a new language is: a solid foundation + necessity

 

[Samoo]

Good answers so far. Doulingo is a good base. Practice pronunciation before anything else. Watch a movie in English with foreign subtitles I think has helped me the most.

Flipping it works even better. When you watch in English with French subtitles, you start watching the movie and don't concentrate on the language. When you have to read the English subtitles you have to pay attention to the actual words.

Also, don't sell the old PBS show French in action short, It's pretty good, and you get to learn from Mirielle:

 

[Robertelamin]

Muzzy is the way to go

 

[UCsports]

Flipping it works even better. When you watch in English with French subtitles, you start watching the movie and don't concentrate on the language. When you have to read the English subtitles you have to pay attention to the actual words.

Also, don't sell the old PBS show French in action short, It's pretty good, and you get to learn from Mirielle:

View attachment 31690

For a more advanced person that is good, but a beginner will have difficultly identiting which words the person is saying in the foreign language. Also grammatical structure can vary between languages. So reading the foreign language subtitles is better to teach a beginner about the grammatical structure and basic vocabulary of a language.

 

[ColchVEGAS]

I recommend Pimsleur. I have been using it to learn European Portuguese since my wife is a terrible teacher. All of her side of the family are very impressed with how it accurately teaches proper pronunciation. I am in the car all the time so the app makes it easy to listen to anywhere which is why Rosetta Stone was not an option, that and they did not have Portuguese, but I have heard good things about Rosetta Stone as well.

 

[PAHusky]

Flipping it works even better. When you watch in English with French subtitles, you start watching the movie and don't concentrate on the language. When you have to read the English subtitles you have to pay attention to the actual words.

Also, don't sell the old PBS show French in action short, It's pretty good, and you get to learn from Mirielle:

View attachment 31690

Well bonjour Mirielle

 

[temery]

Duolingo! I've got this.

 

[browndog319]

I've heard that Japanese is one of the most difficult languages for a native English speaker to learn. Much respect.

Agree with the much respect comment. I work for a Japanese company and many of our partners DON’T learn English, even if they come to the US to live, because it’s so difficult. We just give them translators. Meetings with translators are really grueling.

 

[MadDogRevival]

It's pretty good, and you get to learn from Mirielle:

Wow. You just dragged me back to being about 12 years old and watching this and noticing very particularly that that young lady was not a fan of bras.
Honestly though, I didn't learn a word of french watching it.

 

[temery]

Yep. This is my speed.

 

[tjhusky]

All of the above plus, watch Univision shows particularly news and sports.

Not really a learning tool but Google Translate is decent for words and phrases but some translations can be awkward. Best feature is you can point your camera at a sign and it will display in another language.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Duolingo's OK for what you pay (free). No interactive engagement, but it covers the basics.
Movies with accurate subtitles can help, but online communication or better on-site interaction with native speakers or patient, well-spoken, educated parents, friends, partners, etc. are necessary complements to free Duolingo or any language education. Good coffee shops, pubs, cafes, etc. offer many linguistic opportunities and potential for other benefits.

In at least a few languages and dialects of languages, overrated Rosetta Stone teaches a lot of less than practical, not entirely useful stuff. For ColchVEGAS' focus on European Portuguese, Rosetta Stone's Brazilian Portuguese is even less practical. On the other hand, Rosetta Stone apparently opt for Brazil's 2oo m more people than Portugal, growth potential, and perceived financial opportunities versus Portugal or Cape Verde, Angola, etc.

Babbel reportedly offers good potential, but I haven't explored it too much to date.

 

[temery]

Duolingo's OK for what you pay (free). No interactive engagement, but it covers the basics.
Movies with accurate subtitles can help, but online communication or better on-site interaction with native speakers or patient, well-spoken, educated parents, friends, partners, etc. are necessary complements to free Duolingo or any language education. Good coffee shops, pubs, cafes, etc. offer many linguistic opportunities and potential for other benefits.

In at least a few languages and dialects of languages, overrated Rosetta Stone teaches a lot of less than practical, not entirely useful stuff. For ColchVEGAS' focus on European Portuguese, Rosetta Stone's Brazilian Portuguese is even less practical. On the other hand, Rosetta Stone apparently opt for Brazil's 2oo m more people than Portugal, growth potential, and perceived financial opportunities versus Portugal or Cape Verde, Angola, etc.

Babbel reportedly offers good potential, but I haven't explored it too much to date.

What do you do to prepare for travel to a country with a language you aren't familiar with?

 

[temery]

Flipping it works even better. When you watch in English with French subtitles, you start watching the movie and don't concentrate on the language. When you have to read the English subtitles you have to pay attention to the actual words.

Also, don't sell the old PBS show French in action short, It's pretty good, and you get to learn from Mirielle:

View attachment 31690

I hadn't thought of English movies with French subtitles. I'm going to give that a shot. I've noticed many movies and tv shows have French as an option for subtitles.

Can't find that pbs show, unfortunately.


Thanks

 

[Samoo]

Wow. You just dragged me back to being about 12 years old and watching this and noticing very particularly that that young lady was not a fan of bras.
Honestly though, I didn't learn a word of french watching it.

They were actually developed by Yale and are thought of pretty highly. Mireille can be distracting; watch her lips, not her n***s

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

What do you do to prepare for travel to a country with a language you aren't familiar with?

Get on the plane

 

[Travelman6]

Get on the plane

I agree, as I love to travel (obviously) but not everyone can afford that.

 

[UConnSwag11]

ili - The world's fastest offline translator for travelers

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

I agree, as I love to travel (obviously) but not everyone can afford that.

Perhaps the latter applies for some people not traveling on business nor able to afford even basic backpacking travel for fun. Alas, Tom specifically asked me what I "... do to prepare for travel to a country with a language (I'm) familiar with?" No immediate plans exist to walk, hitchhike, or drive to Brazil or to swim or cargo ship transport elsewhere with less familiar languages.