OT: - Learning a foreign language | Page 2 | The Boneyard

OT: Learning a foreign language

Samoo said:
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:

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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.
 
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.
 
Samoo said:
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
Expand ...

Well bonjour Mirielle
 
Duolingo! I've got this.

AF956C25-04CE-436F-8F3D-A65A570FB65D.png
 
MadDogRevival said:
I've heard that Japanese is one of the most difficult languages for a native English speaker to learn. Much respect.
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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.
 
Samoo said:
It's pretty good, and you get to learn from Mirielle:
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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.
 
.-.
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.
 
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.
 
Da_Aisijimo_Gou said:
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.
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What do you do to prepare for travel to a country with a language you aren't familiar with?
 
Samoo said:
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
Expand ...

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
 
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MadDogRevival said:
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.
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They were actually developed by Yale and are thought of pretty highly. Mireille can be distracting; watch her lips, not her n***s
 
.-.
Travelman32 said:
I agree, as I love to travel (obviously) but not everyone can afford that.
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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.
 
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