Author Topic: Good way to learn another language? (Read 9447 times)

Irongrip400 · « **on:** March 18, 2012, 02:55:12 PM »

I want to learn German and Italian. Is Rosetta stone a good choice? Are there online chat rooms for people to hone their craft? Thanks in advance.

Schmoff · « **Reply #1 on:** March 18, 2012, 02:56:12 PM »

date a german bitch who is also fluent in italian

A Professional · « **Reply #2 on:** March 18, 2012, 02:59:11 PM »

Quote from: irongrip400 on March 18, 2012, 02:55:12 PM

I want to learn German and Italian. Is Rosetta stone a good choice? Are there online chat rooms for people to hone their craft? Thanks in advance.

German is probably going to be easier because it has a lot of english cognates. English is a germanic language.
A good way is to watch soap operas in the language and write down phrases and exchanges after the soap opera and master them each day.
I wouldn't do the Rosetta stone; there are cheaper ways that are just as effective.
The istart language app series is good too if you have apple.

The best method is to not get used to one method. Immerse yourself in a variety of learning methods and hit it from all sides.

Stark · « **Reply #3 on:** March 18, 2012, 02:59:55 PM »

Thespritz0 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 18, 2012, 03:02:35 PM »

Join the Airborne, get deployed to various wars like I did PRESTO- now you know Serbo-Croatian!!!

NOW you can pick up Gypsy girls...

Inchdisciple · « **Reply #5 on:** March 18, 2012, 03:27:39 PM »

An English guy I know learned both of those languages late in life. He lived and worked in Italy, and now in his sixties he is living in Germany and married to a German. I am not aware of anyone learning a language from Rosetta Stone.

Stark · « **Reply #6 on:** March 18, 2012, 03:40:26 PM »

Quote from: Inchdisciple on March 18, 2012, 03:27:39 PM

An English guy I know learned both of those languages late in life. He lived and worked in Italy, and now in his sixties he is living in Germany and married to a German. I am not aware of anyone learning a language from Rosetta Stone.

You learn a language when you are pressed and forced into situations that you have to use and learn the language, relationship, living in an foreign country.

You would be amazed how fast you can learn a language if it depends on getting good pussy in an foreign country

Irongrip400 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 18, 2012, 04:08:09 PM »

Quote from: Stark on March 18, 2012, 03:40:26 PM

You learn a language when you are pressed and forced into situations that you have to use and learn the language, relationship, living in an foreign country.

You would be amazed how fast you can learn a language if it depends on getting good pussy in an foreign country

Yeah, children immersed in a language can learn it in a matter of months. Thing is, I don't plan on moving anytime soon, just vacationing, so that would be hard. I like the soap opera idea someone mentioned, are there any of those shows on in America?

WOOO · « **Reply #8 on:** March 18, 2012, 04:15:48 PM »

i used pimslers courses to learn spanish... i spent a lot of time in spanish speaking countries as well which made all the different for my accent/pronounciation

sync pulse · « **Reply #9 on:** March 18, 2012, 04:19:14 PM »

Quote from: irongrip400 on March 18, 2012, 02:55:12 PM

I want to learn German and Italian. Is Rosetta stone a good choice? Are there online chat rooms for people to hone their craft? Thanks in advance.

Start at your local community college...Were you good at science?...Many Italian and spanish words are very much like phrases used in science...Mozart opera is also good for both..."Der Schauspiel Direktor", "Aduction from the Seraglio" and "The Magic Flute" are good for German..."The Marriage of Figaro" is good for Italian.

Once you get your head around listening to something from the 18^TH century, you will be shocked at how musical Mozart will sound to you...and the German/Italian phrases in the booklet that comes with the CDs you will recognize more and more

A Professional · « **Reply #10 on:** March 18, 2012, 04:31:27 PM »

Quote from: sync pulse on March 18, 2012, 04:19:14 PM

Start at your local community college...Were you good at science?...Many Italian and spanish words are very much like phrases used in science...Mozart opera is also good for both..."Der Schauspiel Direktor", "Aduction from the Seraglio" and "The Magic Flute" are good for German..."The Marriage of Figaro" is good for Italian.

Once you get your head around listening to something from the 18^TH century, you will be shocked at how musical Mozart will sound to you...and the German/Italian phrases in the booklet that comes with the CDs you will recognize more and more

Community college is one of the worst ways to learn another language.

Eastern Euros and other people do it through the soap opera method. And they learn very fast.

James28 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 18, 2012, 04:40:57 PM »

I can offer advice since I've learned Norwegian and conversational German.

The ONLY way to learn and for it to stick is total and absolute immersion. Rosetta Stone is shit. IF you want to try it, just grab it from a torrent site and give it a whirl. I tried learning German with it and it blew. I got a German girlfriend who made me watch German programs with English subtitles and spoke German to me 90% of the time. It was a constant struggle/head ache/cluster fuck to learn and understand ... until one day it just started making sense.

Taking classes twice a week or self-studying a couple of times a week will allow you to memorize phrases and words, not teach you the language.

So what I wrote above is really the second best way and most realistic way for anyone to do it. THE best way is to move to that country and immerse.

I know a Lebanese refugee that learned English watching CNN the whole day. Within a year he was fluent. Within two he spoke and sounded like a native. That was from a cold start and a burning willingness to learn.

Irongrip400 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 18, 2012, 04:46:37 PM »

Should I watch with subtitles if I decide to go the soap opera route to help?

A Professional · « **Reply #13 on:** March 18, 2012, 04:52:29 PM »

Quote from: irongrip400 on March 18, 2012, 04:46:37 PM

Should I watch with subtitles if I decide to go the soap opera route to help?

Yes.

But diversify your learning techniques or you'll get burnt out.
Practice a couple paragraphs of conversation on the shows each day.

Languages have a certain rhythms, and once you get the rhythm down, it becomes exponentially easier.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/istart-german!-absolute-beginner/id408239272?mt=8]http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/istart-german!-absolute-beginner/id408239272?mt=8]http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/istart-german!-absolute-beginner/id408239272?mt=8

^excellent beginner series to supplement it.

Irongrip400 · « **Reply #14 on:** March 18, 2012, 04:58:23 PM »

Quote from: A Professional on March 18, 2012, 04:52:29 PM

Yes.

But diversify your learning techniques or you'll get burnt out.
Practice a couple paragraphs of conversation on the shows each day.

Languages have a certain rhythms, and once you get the rhythm down, it becomes exponentially easier.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/istart-german!-absolute-beginner/id408239272?mt=8]http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/istart-german!-absolute-beginner/id408239272?mt=8]http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/istart-german!-absolute-beginner/id408239272?mt=8

What can't an iPhone do?
^excellent beginner series to supplement it.

bber · « **Reply #15 on:** March 18, 2012, 05:41:23 PM »

http://duolingo.com/

This looked like a good idea to me when I saw it a few months back.. still in the BETA phase though

Primemuscle · « **Reply #16 on:** March 18, 2012, 10:46:19 PM »

Quote from: irongrip400 on March 18, 2012, 02:55:12 PM

I want to learn German and Italian. Is Rosetta stone a good choice? Are there online chat rooms for people to hone their craft? Thanks in advance.

Move to a country that speaks the language you want to learn. Trust me, this is the best way to do it. When I was a little kid, I lived in Germany for about a year. I quickly became fluent in German. I was also exposed to French because my aunt was French and I went to a French speaking school in the afternoons.

On a side note, I hardly speak either German or French these days. Likely this is because I was the exposure ended when I moved back to the States. I suppose if I were to spend some time in either France or Germany in a situation where I had to speak the language, I would quickly pick it up again.

galain · « **Reply #17 on:** March 18, 2012, 11:35:23 PM »

Short of relocating, watch as much as you can with subtitles and do it both ways - German/Italian audio with English subtitles and then English audio with the foreign language subtitles. I am the 4 year mark here in Germany and short of just being patient, it was the thing that helped the most.

You have to give your neurons time to make the new connections, but you can push the process by hard work and exposure.

Oh - it helps if you're young! I started at 38 and it's been a struggle.

I also speak a little Italian and I can tell you, from the amount I learned, it is finger painting compared to German. German is where English came from originally, but it's so much more grammatically and syntactically complex it can be a real pain. I've even had my German teacher tell me that it will be impossible for any non German to learn the language to complete fluency (very inspirational that was).

Italian is grammatically much easier, and it's a much nicer language to speak than German. I'd start with that, and keep the old adage in mind...

"Speak Spanish to God, Italian to women and German to dogs".

NeilGM · « **Reply #18 on:** March 18, 2012, 11:40:26 PM »

Move to a rural part of the country where you want to learn a language where no one speaks English. You will learn very quickly

DK II · « **Reply #19 on:** March 19, 2012, 04:34:35 AM »

Quote from: irongrip400 on March 18, 2012, 02:55:12 PM

I want to learn German and Italian. Is Rosetta stone a good choice? Are there online chat rooms for people to hone their craft? Thanks in advance.

Here's some listening understanding material for you:

Red Hook · « **Reply #20 on:** March 19, 2012, 04:42:51 AM »

pimsleur is good, so is Michel Thomas..but the key is practice, practice and more practice..stay immersed.

get a girlfriend that speaks that language and ask her to speak to you in that language as much as possible

DK II · « **Reply #21 on:** March 19, 2012, 04:45:12 AM »

Quote from: galain on March 18, 2012, 11:35:23 PM

Short of relocating, watch as much as you can with subtitles and do it both ways - German/Italian audio with English subtitles and then English audio with the foreign language subtitles. I am the 4 year mark here in Germany and short of just being patient, it was the thing that helped the most.

You have to give your neurons time to make the new connections, but you can push the process by hard work and exposure.

Oh - it helps if you're young! I started at 38 and it's been a struggle.

I also speak a little Italian and I can tell you, from the amount I learned, it is finger painting compared to German. German is where English came from originally, but it's so much more grammatically and syntactically complex it can be a real pain. I've even had my German teacher tell me that it will be impossible for any non German to learn the language to complete fluency (very inspirational that was).

Italian is grammatically much easier, and it's a much nicer language to speak than German. I'd start with that, and keep the old adage in mind...

"Speak Spanish to God, Italian to women and German to dogs".

Not true.

I know a few people who actually speak German like it's their first language. But I agree that is VERY rare and very hard.

Italian is a piece of cake to learn, beautiful language though.

MikMaq · « **Reply #22 on:** March 19, 2012, 04:50:34 AM »

Get pimsleur, its pretty dam good, and use rosetta. This will get you into the language but you gotta finish it within 3 months of starting if your serious about it.

Pimsleur with get you confortable with german/italian speech, and rosetta will get you familiar with alot of content that is too boring to learn on your own.

Once you do this go straight into online immersion. Go on youtube in your target, find skype partners online who want to do language exchange, go on message boards(an easy way to learn, you'd be surprised how many get biggers are learning english on here), and avoid english while online.

If you can't do online immersion your wasting your time. going over for a year will teach you the language but whats the point your just gonna forget it as soon as you get home if you can't immerse yourself at online.

Figo · « **Reply #23 on:** March 19, 2012, 04:55:51 AM »

Smuggle drugs into switzerland

In swiss prison you'll quickly pick up german, italian and brush up on your french

Plus with the swiss humanitarian rights and laws, its virtually a resort

DK II · « **Reply #24 on:** March 19, 2012, 04:57:13 AM »

Quote from: MikMaq on March 19, 2012, 04:50:34 AM

Get pimsleur, its pretty dam good, and use rosetta. This will get you into the language but you gotta finish it within 3 months of starting if your serious about it.

Pimsleur with get you confortable with german/italian speech, and rosetta will get you familiar with alot of content that is too boring to learn on your own.

Once you do this go straight into online immersion. Go on youtube in your target, find skype partners online who want to do language exchange, go on message boards(an easy way to learn, you'd be surprised how many get biggers are learning english on here), and avoid english while online.

If you can't do online immersion your wasting your time. going over for a year will teach you the language but whats the point your just gonna forget it as soon as you get home if you can't immerse yourself at online.

How many languages do you speak, killer?