Learning language

[BIXX]

I have been wanting to learn Russian and Greek for a long time, and assuming I learn those, French and German. I just wonder what the best ways to learn a language other than immersion is? Schooling isn't an option, either, as I will have to pay for classes if I go that route.

[Quail]

I think there are a few websites where you can get free resources for learning languages, which perhaps you'll find useful.

Not sure how good this strategy is, but I'm currently trying to learn Spanish and I just got a dictionary and grammar book, and I'm trying to pick various topics, write down vocabulary, look at how the grammar works, translate news articles, etc. Although I should point out that I already speak French and the two languages are fairly similar.

[Münchhausen]

A Friend of mine just went to the local university and joined a 'Russian for beginners' class. She works full-time and isn't a student. She just went there and asked the teacher if she could join the class as a guest and they said yes. She had to buy a book, but she's sharing it with a friend and so she has about 4-5 months of very decent russian-classes for more or less 20€.

Probably doesn't work everywhere, but if you're lucky and the teachers are easy-going it's probably a good method. In larger Universities you might just be able to join a class without asking, since the teachers don't know everyone either way.

[CriticalJames]

I'm learning German at the moment and I've found that looking at material for children has been a great help as the vocabulary is basic and usually pronounced slower for children to understand. I've learnt a great deal from just watching German kids TV on YouTube; its even better if you can find videos with subtitles.

Similar to Munchhausen's suggestion, you might want to look for community classes in your local area. I know that my library runs introductory classes every other week.

[Os Cangaceiros]

As a poster said above, you don't have to pay money to attend a language class. You can audit the course for free, and some teachers will even grade your papers. You just won't get any credit for the class, of course.

[Zaza]

I'm learning German at the moment and I've found that looking at material for children has been a great help as the vocabulary is basic and usually pronounced slower for children to understand. I've learnt a great deal from just watching German kids TV on YouTube; its even better if you can find videos with subtitles.

Would suggest this. ^^^^

If you think that you are ready, try to have some small conversations on german forums or something like that.

Worked for me, as I couldn't even write an introduction on the first English page I was on about a year ago. But look where I am now.


As a little tip from someone who speaks German, you should focus on the "Der, Die, Das". Probably the hardest thing in the german language according to alot people here.
The other stuff shouldn't be a problem.

[Sam_b]

If you look for resources on the internet you'll find a huge mix of teaching methods which will on the whole be unhelpful if used all together. What I would suggest internet wise is to look on some forums specific to language learning and find a partner for a swap - your English for their Russian, and so on- and do conversations etc via Skype. To be honest I think picking up a dictionary and writing words is a terrible way to learn a language and gives nothing to how language is really spoken, turns of phrase etc. But if it works it works I guess. Kids TV is also a good idea. I used to watch this stuff a lot:

vz9_NMkpu5U

[tuwix]

I have been wanting to learn Russian and Greek for a long time, and assuming I learn those, French and German. I just wonder what the best ways to learn a language other than immersion is? Schooling isn't an option, either, as I will have to pay for classes if I go that route.

Difficult task in form of you. The both languages have different alphabets.
But the cheapest way to to learn any language form my experience is to learn grammar and then translate. At least half na hour a day. Then you must have a movie with subtitles in the learned language. Thusly you'll learn a pronounciation.
And after a year you will start to talk and understand language in pretty good way.

[Rugged Collectivist]

Is language learning software largely a waste of time and money or is there any that works really well?

[tuwix]

It's definitely waste of money. But if toue get it free, then it depens on what it contains. I was using software that was quite useful but I really started to understand and talk after a year of translation.

[Sidagma]

Man, good luck learning Greek. There are almost no materials dedicated to learning the language (at least the modern, still existing form), there are only about 15 million speakers total, and very near all of them speak perfect English. The alphabet isn't difficult in the slightest, not much moreso than learning to read like turkish or italian really, the problem is the lack of materials and the fact that you never run into it anywhere.

There are a few good iOS apps. Those are probably the only things worth looking at.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

I agree with other posters in that you shouldn't waste your time on expensive programs like Rosetta as they don't get you very far into the language (especially if you're not actively trying to speak it). A good idea is to learn some vocabulary and get a little grammar under your belt, then start speaking with Greek speakers as soon as possible. Sure, you'll find it hard to express yourself at first with the vocab of a two year-old but that's how we all learned.

If you're living somewhere big like the US then there should be expat communities you could get in touch with nearby. If you're living somewhere more isolated, like Iceland or something, then something along the lines of a skype language exchange would be more conventional.

Also, if you go to another country to learn the language, NEVER. SPEAK. ENGLISH. You'll be swamped by hordes of people who want to learn English and will get nowhere with your target language.

[Sam_b]

There are almost no materials dedicated to learning the language (at least the modern, still existing form), there are only about 15k speakers total, and very near all of them speak perfect English. The alphabet isn't difficult in the slightest, not much moreso than learning to read like turkish or italian really, the problem is the lack of materials and the fact that you never run into it anywhere.

You mean 15 million speakers, right? Less people speak Czech and there are ample resources to learn that.

[Philosophos]

Try Livemocha. It's a site that helps you mostly with vocabulary but you can write small esays and talk on the mic and the people having the language you want as a native will grade you and tell you what you did wrong etc. At the same time there is always rosseta stone (that you can download via torrent) so you can learn all of the languages that you mentioned above.

There are a bunch of sites or programs you can download and learn greek (I suppose the same and even more goes for french, german and russian).

[guy123]

i use busuu.com (and free, at least for limited edition, which is fine for me). its a good website for beginners. they have the top 20 languages or so.
i am learning spanish there. here are tips so far:
1. the most frequent 500-1000 words in any language account for ~ 80% of any text in that language. that is the most efficient words to learn first to get you started.
2. speak, speak ,speak. try to be active rather than passive. try to think in your head in your target language instead of english, and for as many things as possible, use the spanish word and not the english word. if you can find somebody to swap-they want to learn english and you want to learn their language, it would be great. there are lots of people on livemocha, too. you can use skype.
3. try to listen to audio recording when you drive, go to work, on a bus, doing chores, etc. if you read the new york times newspaper for breakfast, try reading the spanish edition, or a spanish newspaper.
4. know your motivation to learn the language. if you don't have a very good reason and motivation, and you don't live next to a lot of native speakers and don't practice it often(which is probably a result of the first two causes), you will forget it very soon.
for example-for me, the reason is because i want to take a trip across latin america, so i will have to learn the language

[L1NKS]

I have been wanting to learn Russian and Greek for a long time, and assuming I learn those, French and German. I just wonder what the best ways to learn a language other than immersion is? Schooling isn't an option, either, as I will have to pay for classes if I go that route.
If you already have attained basic knowlegde in one language, you maybe just want to start watching subititled TV series. Over and over again. That is how I became proficient in English. By the way, if you want to get into German, I think I can help you out there, Genosse.

[Akshay!]

Try Duolingo

[Djoko]

You can find on internet DLI and FSI courses (US defence and foreign affairs courses) for free. Some people like it, some don't. I've tried DLI Albanian and I'm sattisfied, but in order to learn language, you got to have a lot of free time...

[Lobotomy]

Where I live, they offer language classes at retirement homes, but the classes are open to anyone who wants to take them and they are about $40.

[Partigano]

I practice my Italian by singing Partisan songs from World War 2. The only downside to this is when I'm talking to my family it's always a struggle not to burst out singing. While it helps with learning sentence structure and vocabulary acquisition, it's not the best method for learning practical phrases.

Unless of course you're in a position to declare that, "harsh revenge will come from the partisan" or "our shoes are broken but we must march on, to conquer the red spring" in that case it's probably the best way.

[Nakidana]

Try Livemocha. It's a site that helps you mostly with vocabulary but you can write small esays and talk on the mic and the people having the language you want as a native will grade you and tell you what you did wrong etc. At the same time there is always rosseta stone (that you can download via torrent) so you can learn all of the languages that you mentioned above.

There are a bunch of sites or programs you can download and learn greek (I suppose the same and even more goes for french, german and russian).

For the love of God and everything holy don't use Rosetta Stone. The software is shit, they introduce vocab extremely slow, and the repetitiveness will grind you down. It will kill any desire you had to learn the language, trust me, I've used it.

Here is a list of things you can do, in no particular order (first three are important though)



Join a local class if available.
Get a proper textbook with lessons and vocab.
Get a proper dictionary, preferably a digital one so that you can search with ease.
Use Anki (http://ankisrs.net/)to make all kindz of vocab gains
Download shitload of movies/TV series in your language of choice, watch them with subtitles.
Download shitload of songs in your language of choice, listen to 'em whenever possible.
Read news in your language.
Read books in your language (start with children's books)
Do as much language exchange as possible. You can find partners locally or do it online via Skype (you can find some here: http://www.conversationexchange.com/ and http://www.sharedtalk.com/)

[#FF0000]

I've heard mixed things about Rosetta stone. The way they make you associate words with pictures is a solid technique, fwiw.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

The problem with products like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur is that you objectively cannot learn a language from using such software. To do that you actually have to use and speak the language with other people. There has never been someone who has learnt a language solely through this kind of software.

They're intended to be kickstarters for vocabulary and a supplement to education, but nothing more. Speaking your current understanding of German (albeit broken) with German speakers is far more efficient in terms of language acquisition than going through rote repetition of phrases in a textbook and needless ventures into grammatical studies.

Also, I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet but the Foreign Services Institute (http://www.fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php) contains brilliant headstart pdfs complete with audio to give you the vocabulary of your target language while avoiding delving too much into the grammar. It's the same shiz US ambassadors use, and is insanely helpful if you don't know where to start.

[Nakidana]

Here's the thing, they make you sit in front of the PC for hours on end drilling those pictures over and over again. First of all, it gets boring really fast. Second, they don't teach you any grammar, and third they want you to figure everything out on your own. They just say some words, show some pictures and then you have to make the connection yourself. To me that is inefficient. If I have a textbook it will straight out tell me that a cat is called this and a house is called that, plus if it's a decent textbook it will introduce basic phrases in the first or second lesson. It doesn't really take many hours to get the basic stuff down so that you can use it and have fun with your language partner. With Rosetta it can take days of grinding.

A textbook also has the added benefit of actually teaching you basic grammar so you have some idea of how the language works. Rosetta Stone has none of that.

Sure it can be used to assist you in learning, if you want some variation. But I would never recommend it as a main resource.

[3OPNCA]

For German, download the free Babbel app. It's how I learnt. As for Russian and Greek, I think Babbel has those languages also. I also suggest getting a dictionary and learning the words, pronunciation, etc. If you need help with Russian, just message me and I'll see if I can help. I speak Serbian and some Russian, and what I don't know I can ask my family.

[Re Alexis]

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum. I just wanted to say that if anyone needs help with Greek, just message me and I 'm more than happy to help.Greek is my mother language.:)