Getting To Know Everyone

[DeerGlow]

Wow, missed this thread 'til @Shoetoyou pointed it out. I'll fill in my bio later.

I had almost given up on language learning a number of years ago because I couldn't really make much progress. It turns out I'd been doing it very ineffectively and was pretty much wasting a lot of time and energy for few results.

I've been spending a lot of time learning languages lately with a lot more success. 2 years of university German with As and not able to do much with it in a practical sense beyond ask where the bathroom was. I spent about 30 years banging my head against the wall not accomplishing much in NT Greek. Then I ran across some sites with successful self-taught polyglots and started adapting their methods instead of the traditional memorize grammar and vocab approach. 30 years of working on Greek and not able to do much more than look up words in lexicons and grammar tables. 5 years of better methodology and I'm now reading the NT and OT (Septuagint) in Greek for my devotional reading with occasional reference to English. I also learned about the Assimil language courses. I started with their English to Spanish course about 2 years ago. It started me on a path so I can now comfortably watch Spanish dubbed TV shows on Netflix (with Spanish subtitles). I'm also reading the NVI (almost done with Jeremiah) without referring to English. We got together with an old friend from Panama about a month ago. She seemed surprised (in a good way) with my pronunciation.

The key is not so much "language learning ability" as I had about given up on things, but actually practicing the skills you want to develop. It's much more about figuring out the best methods to use rather than just throwing time at it. I'm now using Assimil's Hebrew and Chinese courses to "prime to the pump" so to speak by just spending a few minutes a day getting used to the sounds and characters. In another year or two (once Greek and Spanish are to a solid level), I'll start hitting one of them harder. I started a thread on language learning in the Languages subforum awhile ago that shows a quick example of the approach I start with now.

Yeah, Rosetta Stone frustrated me greatly even though I have had off and on interests in language, duolingo is a lot more encouraging. The graphics are cute and it can give you challenges or easy days.... that's just more my style. I can use memrise but it's not as useful because it's harder to apply. Welcome to the thread btw!

 

[GandalfTheWise]

I had Rosetta Stone free through work. I did the entire 5 Vol set for Latin American Spanish over about 4 months and was putting in a couple hours per day at it. I felt like I was making a lot of progress, but I honestly couldn't do much with Spanish afterwards. At first I was excited that I could watch some nature shows in Spanish and catch some words. Then I realized that most words I was catching were cognates that I probably would have understood anyway. Elefante, gato, hiena, etc. There are much more effective materials to spend that amount of money on. My time would have been better spent doing something else.

A few years later when I used other materials, I found I made much better progress putting in much less time.

 

[DeerGlow]

I had Rosetta Stone free through work. I did the entire 5 Vol set for Latin American Spanish over about 4 months and was putting in a couple hours per day at it. I felt like I was making a lot of progress, but I honestly couldn't do much with Spanish afterwards. At first I was excited that I could watch some nature shows in Spanish and catch some words. Then I realized that most words I was catching were cognates that I probably would have understood anyway. Elefante, gato, hiena, etc. There are much more effective materials to spend that amount of money on. My time would have been better spent doing something else.

A few years later when I used other materials, I found I made much better progress putting in much less time.

I'm worried duolingo will have to start charging to keep running, their platform is free languages but of course that quality costs money. Rosetta Stone is sooo expensive but my parents bought Latin American Spanish and German.

 

[GandalfTheWise]

From what I could see, the online portions of RS (which I didn't really use to full advantage) have some potential. I might have gotten more out of it had I used those.

On a language forum site I follow, there are some people there who like duolingo.

 

[DeerGlow]

From what I could see, the online portions of RS (which I didn't really use to full advantage) have some potential. I might have gotten more out of it had I used those.

On a language forum site I follow, there are some people there who like duolingo.

We have the disks you buy for a computer. My computer doesn't have a disk slot though (can't use it anyway).

 

[Far Side Of the Moon]

Yo no hablo eso. Yeah some people don't like duolingo, maybe Rosetta Stone would be your thing, it just completely confuses me. Different types of people.

So which is better...duolingo or Rosetta Stone?

 

[DeerGlow]

So which is better...duolingo or Rosetta Stone?

Rosetta Stone is immersion, throws you in no English. Duolingo gives you words and has you translating back and forth, reading, writing, speaking, listening.

 

[Far Side Of the Moon]

Rosetta Stone is immersion, throws you in no English. Duolingo gives you words and has you translating back and forth, reading, writing, speaking, listening.

Duolingo seems better then. I had the app. Guess ill get again. if really love to be fluent in another language.

 

[GandalfTheWise]

@Far Side Of the Moon, what language(s) are you interested in?

 

[DeerGlow]

Duolingo seems better then. I had the app. Guess ill get again. if really love to be fluent in another language.

People say it doesn't get you fluent but I haven't gotten more than halfway in a tree. I am like 30% in French I have only learned it from duolingo and have gotten fairly good at French for only free software.

 

[Far Side Of the Moon]

@Far Side Of the Moon, what language(s) are you interested in?

Italian, Spanish ( Romance languages)
And dutch

 

[Far Side Of the Moon]

People say it doesn't get you fluent but I haven't gotten more than halfway in a tree. I am like 30% in French I have only learned it from duolingo and have gotten fairly good at French for only free software.

Do what do you think would help you become fluent ? Can you list some tips ...on and how are u doing today ?

 

[Wolfe]

I'm Wolfe, I do uh.... I'm Wolfe.

 

[Wolfe]

People say it doesn't get you fluent but I haven't gotten more than halfway in a tree. I am like 30% in French I have only learned it from duolingo and have gotten fairly good at French for only free software.

I used duolingo to learn Russian, I was fluent enough to speak and understand greatly, when speaking to a russian person.
However, I played video games with Native Russian speakers, so that's a huge advantage.

 

[DeerGlow]

Do what do you think would help you become fluent ? Can you list some tips ...on and how are u doing today ?

The reverse tree is a trick for one or a few languages, once you do English learning Spanish do the Spanish learning English tree.... also using dictionaries, and using platforms where you can interact with natives. Practice in conversation is very helpful for learning, and seeing how people talk.

 

[Wolfe]

Do what do you think would help you become fluent ? Can you list some tips ...on and how are u doing today ?

I can list some tips to become fluent in a language, everyday, even when you've learned enough to talk to people, do quizzes or whatever, to keep your language sharp.

Also, speaking to a native speaker of the language, in the language helps familiarize yourself.
Though the only tip worth it's salt is to just be persistent, don't give up, or get discouraged.
Learning a language is a long process, and very time consuming if you're serious about it.

 

[Far Side Of the Moon]

I can list some tips to become fluent in a language, everyday, even when you've learned enough to talk to people, do quizzes or whatever, to keep your language sharp.

Also, speaking to a native speaker of the language, in the language helps familiarize yourself.
Though the only tip worth it's salt is to just be persistent, don't give up, or get discouraged.
Learning a language is a long process, and very time consuming if you're serious about it.

Thanks for the tips friend

 

[Far Side Of the Moon]

The reverse tree is a trick for one or a few languages, once you do English learning Spanish do the Spanish learning English tree.... also using dictionaries, and using platforms where you can interact with natives. Practice in conversation is very helpful for learning, and seeing how people talk.

Nice. I like the reverse tree trick... I would love to learn Italian first ..but since Spanish Speakers are more prevalent where I'm at..I think it makes more sense to learn Spanish.

 

[Wolfe]

Nice. I like the reverse tree trick... I would love to learn Italian first ..but since Spanish Speakers are more prevalent where I'm at..I think it makes more sense to learn Spanish.

Learned spanish to speak to native speakers around here, all the people who speak spanish wanted to speak English to practice on me.
Kinda useless, in my experience. Because they're in america, and already trying to learn English, and they wanna practice on you, and it's just annoying.

 

[DeerGlow]

Nice. I like the reverse tree trick... I would love to learn Italian first ..but since Spanish Speakers are more prevalent where I'm at..I think it makes more sense to learn Spanish.

Yeah, similar languages with no breaks are hard. I don't usually practice them back to back. Like, Italian - German - Spanish, change language families when moving around.