Best way to learn new languages?

[Γαλάνης]

Well? Anyone have any advice?

I know people recommend Rosetta Stone.. I have used it before, and it seems pretty good.. but I also have to wonder how practical it is considering you're talking to a computer and not a human being

What's the best way to go about learning a language? Taking in person classes? If so, where the fuck do you even do that if you are not in school?

I'd like to be fluent in Italian and Spanish before I turn 35 (so 9 years away). I know "fluent" is a lot to ask for but I want to at least get by. They are both pretty similar, too, so they will cross over a bit.

My Greek is good, but not fluent. However, I come from a Greek family, and my girlfriend/future wife's family is from Italy, straight off da boat. So, I will be able to actually use the languages on a regular basis in conversation, which I believe is the most important aspect.. If I go a long time without interacting with Greeks, it hurts my ability for sure.

Anyway.. if anyone can give me advice, point me in the right direction, it's appreciated... Programs, websites, whatever it may be! Thanks

 

[Γαλάνης]

Also just to add, and expand on a bit

I live in an area with a massive Spanish speaking population and tons of Spanish speaking friends. The same with my family being Greek, and my girl's family being Italian

Obviously I'm not gonna sit there and learn multiple languages at one time.. But, the point is, I do have many many chances on a daily basis to actually speak in them out loud.. So if it's use it or lose it, I will definitely be using it

I plan to start with Italian, then go to Spanish.. My girl's mother watches Spanish soap operas all day because she doesn't get Italian TV, and the languages are similar enough for her to get it.

So I figure my plan will be like this

1) continue to hone Greek on a daily basis.. this one I am not worried about as much

2) learn Italian in the most "professional" or proficient way.. whether Rosetta Stone, classes, etc

3) start Spanish about 2, 3 years into studying Italian.


I feel like if I go about things in that way, they will cross over pretty well.

Hey, guys like Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko can speak 5 languages.. I can get away with 3 or 4 if I really try, for a decade or so, right?

Anyway FRAT over, I'm sure there are people on here interested in this, and if you have experience pleaseeee help out to point me in the right direction. Thanks!

K peace

 

[Jesus X]

Spanish/french are tough languages to learn the accents are what is tough,I've been learning it for 20 years still only have it 75% .

I learned english in 2 years as a 7 year old which was my second language.

Italian is crazy easy to learn and read if you speak spanish.

Portuguese is easy to read if you speak Spanish, but the pronunciation is tough.

 

[Γαλάνης]

Was most of it taught through school/family and stuff?

 

[Robbie Hart]

I took about 5 years in Spanish and can read it but can't converse....might be down to my laziness in class but the one thing I learned is all teachers in Russian, German and French and Spanish said that you just need to go there to speak it fluently unless you are a genius and can do it through books/tapes

 

[Ted Williams' head]

Good question. I just started learning French a few days ago. I'm using Rosetta Stone and Duolingo. They do make the learning fun.

From what I've heard from others, they're great for getting the foundation but you won't truly learn until you completely immerse yourself in it by actually listening and speaking in that language with native speakers. So in that way you're lucky, you live in an area with a lot of Spanish speakers. I'd say sign up for Duolingo (it's free), download some of the Spanish speaking lesson podcasts on iTunes, keep building, get to where you can read Spanish articles online and understand Spanish-language videos on Youtube, and then force yourself out there to try to communicate with native speakers.

 

[IschKabibble]

I'm using Rosetta Stone and Duolingo.

+1 for Duolingo. It's pretty much a free version of Rosetta Stone, and is every bit as good. I can't say how fluent it will make you in conversation, since I haven't quite taken it that far, but it's a great learning tool.

 

[check it]

tell your italian family to only speak italian while you're around..you will have no choice but to learn. if you do that while doing rosetta stone...you'll be fluent before you know. buona fortuna.

 

[ThatOneDude]

I don't worry about it and make everyone else learn engrish. Here is a great site for learning engrish Engrish.comEngrish.com | Documenting the Engrish phenomenon from East Asia and around the world!

 

[lookoutawhale]

I think immersion is the best way of learning a language but then book a trip there and living there for a bit would probably be costly.

ive heard good things about rosetta stone which is probably the best cheap alternative.

 

[BJTT-Rizzo]

Took Spanish in highschool a couple of years. Learned numbers,letters,days,months, basic phrases. I forgot a bunch then a couple years later talked to some mexicans. I learned a lot from those guys. All of a sudden it was gun talking Spanish. So yeah class for the basics and practice with people who are fluent. Conversation helps a lot.

Ojibwe language is incorporates 38th English here on the rez. I know enough Ojibwe to shoot the shit with anybody. That was learned from just being native.

 

[BJTT-Rizzo]

I hate this new phone^^I always have to fix my posts

 

[SongExotic2]

I want to learn esperanto like arnold rimmer

 

[Γαλάνης]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I do know that the absolute best way to hone your language skills is to talk with native speakers. What I'm asking is more along the lines of... whats the best way to get introduced to the absolute basics of the language so that you can go forward and have those conversations with people on a basic level, to learn from listening and talking to them.. I wanna be able to say the basic hi how are you type shit before trying to start an admittedly broken sounding conversation

Like for example my entire girls family is from Italy and if I knew basic broken Italian I could speak to them in it and go from there. But these same people aren't really gonna sit me down and give me one in one lessons either ya know?

I'm just curious about the best way to start out in a lower level for basic shit..programs online or whatever. With Greek, I learned because I was surrounded by it since a young age but what also REALLY helped was listening to Greek music and watching Greek movies with English subtitles. But I was able to do that because I already had a decent grasp of the language... Whereas I'd have to start from nothing with Italian or Spanish.

Would Rosetta stone be the best way to begin? One problem with Italian is there are so many diff dialects.. for example my girls dad is from Sicily and her mom is from a completely different part. they obviously understand each other fine but thY could both say the same sentence and it'd sound completely different phonetically.

I may invest in Rosetta stone courses to get my foot in the door if anyone on here has experience and thinks it's worth it!

This is a long term thing for me anyway and something I plan on doing for years to come. so not in any rush. I just wanna understand the smallest amount before trying to create dialogue in Italian with my girls family, who needless to say, are pretty quiet and stoic people.not the most welcoming bunch, on the male side anyway. her mom is great and said shed help me any time though, so there is that. I just dont wanna walk in and make a fool of myself to them more than I probably do already... lol.

 

[Γαλάνης]

Sorry for the typos. That long ass post was almost impossible on this piece of shit phone, and I just don't care to go back and fix everything one mistake at a time. hope it's at least kinda readable

 

[Ryann Von Doom]

Download rosetta stone Torrents - Kickass Torrents

 

[Γαλάνης]

Download rosetta stone Torrents - Kickass Torrents

Thanks man.. is the KAT site safe? I used to use it all the time before I found private trackers.. but when it comes to programs and shit, I dunno where else to look.

I had just read all this shit in the news about them being down or virus infected or something (KAT).. but I just went on and it seems fine to me.

I would much much much rather get the program through there instead of paying god knows how much it costs,

 

[Γαλάνης]

Took Spanish in highschool a couple of years. Learned numbers,letters,days,months, basic phrases. I forgot a bunch then a couple years later talked to some mexicans. I learned a lot from those guys. All of a sudden it was gun talking Spanish. So yeah class for the basics and practice with people who are fluent. Conversation helps a lot.

Ojibwe language is incorporates 38th English here on the rez. I know enough Ojibwe to shoot the shit with anybody. That was learned from just being native.

Random question.. you mentioned you live on a res. Are you in Canada? I dated a girl whose family lived in Canada, in Sask, when I was like 16. One summer we went to visit her family up there for about 6 weeks. We stayed on the res at her grandma's place. Needless to say, it was a fucking crazy experience being out there. Unlike anything I had seen at the time. her grandma had a beautiful home, but it was the only one for miles that was not completely run down and sad.

There were great people out there but some scary fuckers too. People that, if you pissed them off, you wondered if you'd ever leave that big ol patch of land alive. Really interesting for me to look back on that time now.. was about 9 years ago. Like I said, I was barely 16, and had never really left my area except a few trips to Florida as a kid.

Anyway, being a city kid and all, that res in particular was a total cultural 180 to me and made me realize even though I grew up poor, I had it good. I met a ton of people out there who truly seemed to be down on their luck, fucked by the govt, and put into situations since birth that were really hard to get out of. I had a lot of respect for those people man. God damn they could drink though lol. Drank my young dumb ass under the table many a time, and it ruled.

But going to stuff like pow wows, eating bannack bread all the time, man that was fun as fuck! I miss those days.

 

[BJTT-Rizzo]

Random question.. you mentioned you live on a res. Are you in Canada? I dated a girl whose family lived in Canada, in Sask, when I was like 16. One summer we went to visit her family up there for about 6 weeks. We stayed on the res at her grandma's place. Needless to say, it was a fucking crazy experience being out there. Unlike anything I had seen at the time. her grandma had a beautiful home, but it was the only one for miles that was not completely run down and sad.

There were great people out there but some scary fuckers too. People that, if you pissed them off, you wondered if you'd ever leave that big ol patch of land alive. Really interesting for me to look back on that time now.. was about 9 years ago. Like I said, I was barely 16, and had never really left my area except a few trips to Florida as a kid.

Anyway, being a city kid and all, that res in particular was a total cultural 180 to me and made me realize even though I grew up poor, I had it good. I met a ton of people out there who truly seemed to be down on their luck, fucked by the govt, and put into situations since birth that were really hard to get out of. I had a lot of respect for those people man. God damn they could drink though lol. Drank my young dumb ass under the table many a time, and it ruled.

But going to stuff like pow wows, eating bannack bread all the time, man that was fun as fuck! I miss those days.

In Minnesota. But Ojibwe are spread from Michigan to North Dakota and up through Canada. Our rez was a dirt hole when I grew up. Casino revenue helped tons to make the villages better. Funny thing about language here. There about 5 villages and you can tell which one a person is from by their speech. Each one has it's own dialect.

You are right. Some scary motherfuckers in the projects here too. I had to watch out where I partied because there was some real danger. I look totally white too so that didn't help.lol Life flight choppers are always picking someone up to fly to the hospital. I live in a very safe place now bit still on the Rez.

 

[BJTT-Rizzo]

@Galanis I took a snap of one of the projects today driving through today. Not a great vantage point but here's Some of "the old proj" from where I came up.

 

[1031]

The key is to communicate with someone in said language. Even if it's just basic stuff, repeating some things will allow you to verbally put together a base for more complex things. But I reiterate, speaking with a living breathing human, face to face or via video is a must.

 

[Ted Williams' head]

Save your money, skip Rosetta Stone and sign up at Duolingo. I've used both and it's just as good.

 

[Splinty]

Fuck Rosetta Stone.

Check out Michel Thomas. Combine with Duolingo.

Buy a native speaker a beer. The beer will relax you to practice and not worry about mistakes as well.

 

[Papi Chingon]

Pimsluer might be worth a try as well. Some say it is much easier to learn through it, but I have no personal experience with it myself. If you get the free trial of lesson one they will send you emails with their sales (so don't purchase immediately if you like it).

 

[627]

Get drunk and hang with the native speakers.