Resources for Learning Foreign Languages?

Mudhiker asks: "I'm tired of being a stupid American and knowing only two spoken languages, I wanna learn some more of 'em. The options at my local bookstore are overwhelming, so I ask Slashdot: What are some good (never mind the cost) books, tapes, packages...whatever...for learning foreign languages? Short of enrolling in college again or moving myself to another country, what are my options?" We did a similar Ask Slashdot focusing on linguistic software for Linux back near the beginning of the year. What other resources would you suggest for someone looking to broaden their verbal skills beyond English?

Comments

Speak and listen to real people.

[Anonymous Coward]

Find an evening class, a native speaker, or a local conversation group for beginners. Foreign students often earn a bit of cash for conversation - just agree to no English whatsoever - draw pictures and mime rather than resort to English.

Do you know anyone, anywhere in the world, who speaks the language? Phone them.

Go on holiday there, and resist using any English. Go without rather than use English.

Immerse yourself, find radio stations on short wave radio or the net - especially news, which is usually very well spoken. Listen to talking books.

You could learn from courses in books and on tapes but it would probably end up costing more, with less useful results. Not much fun either. Only worth it if you are both incredibly shy and very self motivated.

Berlitz

[PD]

I'm going to do this to learn German. Apparently when you go to class (flexible negotiated schedule, one on one with the teacher) they never speak English to you. You learn because you MUST learn if you want to talk to your teacher. In 6 months, you're pretty good at the language.

http://www.berlitz.com/free_lesson/default.htm

They have a free lesson for newbies until June 30th.

Re:Berlitz

[PD]

I gotta mention this as well. I checked out their website, and English is a language that they teach. So the part where I said that they never speak English to you in class is not 100% accurate...

I had to point this out, or some ant-fucker would have called me on it.

People matter

[Ratface]

Having just learnt a new language (Swedish) from scratch (well, I'm still learning of course, but I speak Swedish more or less fluently now), I would say that it's not terribly effective to learn just from books / tapes / programs. You really need to take a course or something at the very least.

Why? Well, there are so many small things which a more static learning resource won't cover. There are thousands of exceptions to grammar rules, pronunciations etc which aren't covered in textbooks. On top of that, you need someone you can ask questions.

With that aside, it's pretty difficult to give any tips for software without knowing which language someone is interested in. For Swedish, there are several learning programs for instance, though they are all Windows based as far as I know. On top of that there's a whole bunch of websites, but they mostly handle specific parts of the language. (Like this course in Swedish cursing for instance:
http://www.santesson.com/curshome.htm

The final tip I would give is pick a language that you truly feel motivated to learn - like learning programming languages, it's difficult to learn something if you don't have particular goals for learning it. I mean I've never felt the need to learn OO languages so although I've looked into both Java and C++ I've never actually ended up making any progress with them. Similarly I was awful at French when I was in school, but picked up Swedish within a couple of years.

"Give the anarchist a cigarette"

Pronunciation is key.

[willis]

(note: my second language is Chinese, which is a bit "more foreign" to English speakers than French, etc.)

I've found that getting pronunciation right from the start is one of the most important things that you can do -- I know people who've been studying Chinese for over 8 years, and they sound awful (people cringe when they hear them) -- because they did not start with good pronunciation.
The problem is, it's a pain in the ass to get good pronunciation, and nearly impossible to get it from "static resources" like books or tapes. My advice :

1. listen to the language a lot. You want to study Japanese? listen to Japanese music or sitcoms -- just so that you can get used to hearing the sounds.
2. don't go it alone -- books and tapes can get you a hamburger and lots of cheap compliments, but probably not "fluency" or skillz. Take a class (a good one) or get a tutor.
3. travel. study abroad (they have these for people over college age).
4. Make friends who speak the langauge. Also, although I don't recommend doing it on purpose, if you happen to go out with somebody who speaks the language (and if that's the only language you use) you'll learn very quickly.
5. Don't forget culture -- langauge is a lot more than just words and patterns. If you don't understand the history, literature, art, etc. you can't really understand the langauge.

(then again, I've got high standards for fluency -- I've still got a long way myself)
Good luck!

Trade, and teach someone else English too

[Lish]

Now, I live in a university town, so this may not apply to you, but here goes. The international students support office here pairs up native English speakers with international students who need to work on their conversational English. What usually ends up happening is the pair (or 3 or 4 from the same country, whatever) get together each week and teach each other their native language. So the American gets a great cultural experience and exposure to a language from a native speaker, and the foreign student gets to practice their English skills in a low-pressure setting. I've heard it works reasonably well, though it might be better to start learning a language on your own a little bit first, and then get practice this way.

Like I said, this might not work for you depending on where you live, but if there's an international students group near you it might be worth trying.

---

Barron's Mastering Spanish: U.S. Diplomatic Course

[danpbrowning]

Barron's Mastering spanish set is great. 11 audio cd's and a book. I took two years in high school, with this, and talking a lot with my mexican in-laws. Combining book-learning with real-human-talking is the best way to go IMHO. As far as books, I'm on the 8th cd of barrens, and I think it is GREAT. Supposedly it's the same set used to train US diplomatic personnel.