Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

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tgb
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Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by tgb »

As some of you know, I've been talking about retiring to Panama. Well, we now have a working schedule (we plan to be out of the States in the next 12-18 months) but won't be headed to Panama. Instead we'll be moving to Puerto Penasco, Mexico.

Without going into a lot of detail, a major factor in the decision is the ease of both moving there and how easy it is for friends and family to visit (it's only about 4 hours from Tucson or Phoenix).

Anyway, despite having an expat community of about 10,000 as well as being a major vacation destination, English still isn't widely spoken. Which means I have to brush up on my high school Spanish.

We did OK on our last visit down, but I don't feel proficient enough to day to day living. Can someone recommend some good software to teach Spanish?
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by Isgrimnur »

Duolingo has phone apps with gamification to get your feet wet.

Check your local library for audiobooks and other resources.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by wonderpug »

Is learning the written language properly a high priority for you? If you're mainly keen on getting going on spoken conversational aptitude, I highly highly recommend and prefer the Pimsleur method. I got through the first two units of Japanese (there are three total) in preparation for a 3 week trip to Japan, and with an electronic dictionary to flesh out my vocabulary I was able to navigate parts of the country where almost nobody speaks English. It's an audio-only method -- I think it's pretty common to find it available in libraries.

I like Duolingo a lot, too. I think it's slower to get you conversational compared to Pimsleur, but it lets you work on the written language and I think works harder at teaching formal grammar rules. Free is nice.

Don't go anywhere near Rosetta Stone. I think it's fine as a fun way to dabble in a language, but if you're serious about learning it's a very slow and inefficient method.
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by Jeff V »

I tried Pimsleur for Tagalog and it had me tongue-tied in the very first lesson. Didn't get very far at all before the disks simply vanished from my car.

Rosetta Stone is still what the diplomatic corps uses. There's a demo available, maybe even in Spanish, that should give you some idea if it'll work for you. My brain rejects foreign languages as if it were an AB- liver transplant...I've not yet been able to stomach the cost of the first Tagalog lesson, but might do so eventually if it looks like I'll need to be more native when there.
Spoiler:
Another reason for the reluctance is most people there are tri-lingual, working in a provincial language in addition to Tagalog and English. They could better understand me if I spoke Tagalog, I still wouldn't understand them...so RS would be expensive considering the usefulness of the outcome.
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by Carpet_pissr »

It's been a while since I have kept up with what's on the market, but I majored in Spanish in college, and have used it almost daily in my job for the past 15 years. At the time I was learning in earnest (early 90's?) Barron's was THE system for serious learners, i.e. diplomats, contractors working in Spanish speaking countries, etc.

No idea if that system is still around, but it is INTENSE (at the time it was a huge case with about 24? cassette tapes, and mind numbing (it's based on repetition and seems like nonsense if you have no idea about its method), but it really works. Edit: just checked, and I don't see that system on their site. Looks like they have moved to a more casual approach: http://barronseduc.com/foreign-languages-spanish.html

At the least, get a copy of this (not sure if they have an online version or not):

http://barronseduc.com/143800916.html
That book is invaluable for language learning (for whatever language). Honestly if someone pressed me to choose between a dictionary and that book for someone learning a language, I would go with 501 verbs, hands down.

Here's the cassette system for the hard core course referenced above (used, now) if interested: https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Spanis ... 0764175971
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by coopasonic »

Carpet_pissr wrote:It's been a while since I have kept up with what's on the market, but I majored in Spanish in college, and have used it almost daily in my job for the past 15 years.
I took 3 years of spanish in high school and can state with confidence mi lapiz es azul.
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tgb
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

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coopasonic wrote:
I took 3 years of spanish in high school and can state with confidence mi lapiz es azul.
Donde esta la biblioteca?

Seriously, thanks for the help guys. We don't expect to actually move until some time in Q4 of '18, but it's never too early to start.
I spent 90% of the money I made on women, booze, and drugs. The other 10% I just pissed away.
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by Jeff V »

tgb wrote:
coopasonic wrote:
I took 3 years of spanish in high school and can state with confidence mi lapiz es azul.
Donde esta la biblioteca?

Seriously, thanks for the help guys. We don't expect to actually move until some time in Q4 of '18, but it's never too early to start.
You could always go the American Way, speak English, slowly and loudly and, if necessary, menacingly. They'll understand.
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by LordMortis »

Kennst du Ingo?
Ja. Ingo ist my freunde.

What's odd is the only German I remember now is when I trying to learn/remember Spanish. Stupid brain.

Back in 2001, I picked up some CDs called "French with Michel Thomas" that I listened to when I was driving around instead of music and they were fantastic. In a matter of about a month or maybe two, I learned enough basic conversational French to speak French well enough to have the people of France be embarrassed for me and convert our conversations to English and it was only about $30 purchase. The premise was to take the swaths of similarities between languages and build on those similarities.

The only bad part is none of it stuck. So here I am 16 years after visiting France and I don't remember a lick of it.


Apparently you can get the first 20 minutes of Spanish for free

https://www.amazon.com/Michel-Thomas-Me ... spanish+cd

I have no idea how to tell the various courses apart.
Carpet_pissr wrote: I would go with 501 verbs, hands down.

I have that book in clear sight from where I am sitting right now. I use it more than I use the Spanish to English dictionary though in all honesty I use google translate way more than either, hand down. Google translate has destroyed my on going learning on of the Spanish language. :oops:
Last edited by LordMortis on Wed Jul 26, 2017 2:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by coopasonic »

tgb wrote:
coopasonic wrote:
I took 3 years of spanish in high school and can state with confidence mi lapiz es azul.
Donde esta la biblioteca?

Seriously, thanks for the help guys. We don't expect to actually move until some time in Q4 of '18, but it's never too early to start.
A la derecha.

I finished the first three lessons in duolingo. I learned manzana and bebo, pero no bebo una manzana. I could definitely see doing 10 minutes a day over lunch and maybe eventually learning something.
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by LordMortis »

coopasonic wrote:
tgb wrote:
coopasonic wrote:
I took 3 years of spanish in high school and can state with confidence mi lapiz es azul.
Donde esta la biblioteca?

Seriously, thanks for the help guys. We don't expect to actually move until some time in Q4 of '18, but it's never too early to start.
A la derecha.

I finished the first three lessons in duolingo. I learned manzana and bebo, pero no bebo una manzana. I could definitely see doing 10 minutes a day over lunch and maybe eventually learning something.
Yeah, Don't go out this noche
It's bound to take your milk
There is a library on the right.

Edit:

Never mind. It's "Bano (with a tilde) on the right."
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by Jeff V »

By the way, I knew a girl in Houston who was somewhat of a savant when it came to learning new languages (I suggested she take those skills to an oil company and it seems she did). She learned Spanish over the course of a single summer -- became fluent in it. I asked her how she did it -- she said total immersion. Watch Spanish-language TV and movies. Read books and magazines written in Spanish. She went on vacation to Mexico City. It worked for her, that was language #6 or 7 in her repertoire and she was still a college kid when last we spoke.
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by Carpet_pissr »

Yeah, I've always said that when it comes to language learning, you've either got a knack for it or you don't. There seems to be a notion that ANYone can learn, and easily! But that just is not my experience. I've seen plenty of people take to a language with little apparent effort, while others study furiously for years with little improvement. My Dad, for instance, has always wanted to learn Spanish for some reason. He has studied via books, audio tapes, took courses at the local university in his city, and even been to a few Spanish speaking countries, but he will NEVER speak well, much less become fluent. He just lacks the...marker, or whatever, for language learning.

Put some numbers in front of him, and he's all over them, however (we are opposites in that regard).

We had a programmer from Taiwan who lived here in the US for 20 years, and I could hardly understand him, his English was so poor. And it wasn't just accent...the grammar, speech patterns and rhythm, everything was pretty bad.
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tgb
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by tgb »

To quote Bobby Slayton on learning Spanish - Puerto Ricans speak it, so how tough can it be?

I keed.
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by Z-Corn »

Awww, but I wanna retire to Panama and was hoping you would do the groundwork for me!
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tgb
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by tgb »

Z-Corn wrote:Awww, but I wanna retire to Panama and was hoping you would do the groundwork for me!
lo siento
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by Jeff V »

Carpet_pissr wrote:Yeah, I've always said that when it comes to language learning, you've either got a knack for it or you don't.
Those who do have always intrigued me, especially when they are fluently multilingual. I remember once a classmate in school asked a native Pole who was quite fluent in English, "when you think of things, do you think in Polish or English?" He said it depended what that something is...if it was related to Polish, then Polish. If not, then English. I found that rather interesting for some reason. Not that it helped my unilingual self one bit.
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by tgb »

Like our president, I'm fluid in Gibberish.
I spent 90% of the money I made on women, booze, and drugs. The other 10% I just pissed away.
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by Punisher »

tgb wrote:
coopasonic wrote:
I took 3 years of spanish in high school and can state with confidence mi lapiz es azul.
Donde esta la biblioteca?

Seriously, thanks for the help guys. We don't expect to actually move until some time in Q4 of '18, but it's never too early to start.
I failed 3 years of Spanish in High School, but I think I understood that one.. (Where is the Library?)

I did exceedingly well in English, but other languages, not so much...
I can understand other languages more than I can speak them, mostly by context and body language... Always wanted to be able to fluently understand and speak other languages.
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Re: Best Software To Learn A Foreign Language

Post by Moliere »

Duolingo can now teach you how to speak Klingon
The popular language-learning app Duolingo is adding courses for one of the most famous made-up languages of all time: Star Trek’s Klingon, via Engadget. The new course has been in progress on Duolingo’s “Incubator” site for the last couple of years, and it has now finally launched on the web version of Duolingo (with iOS and Android availability coming later).

The language was first invented by Marc Okrand for use in the Star Trek films and TV shows, although Okrand would later go on to develop it into a full, working language. The Duolingo course was created by a team of volunteers fluent in the constructed language, although it is officially licensed by CBS.

There were apparently a few oddities of the Klingon language that needed to be figured out before it could come to Duolingo, though. As Michaela Kron, Duolingo’s senior PR manager, notes in an interview with Engadget, “Klingon uses apostrophes in the middle of words, which is not something our system was able to handle at first, since no other language does it.” The company also had to compensate for the fact that capitalization is important in written Klingon, where meanings of words can shift depending on which letters are capitalized.
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