Resources for self-study of languages?

Starfish

Starfish

Joined
Jun 14, 2001
Messages
1,256
Hi all,

I'd like to learn how to read and write in other languages besides English. Two languages of specific interest are German and Spanish. I plan to pick up a university-level text on both, and to practice my developing skills by reading newspapers or other forums that converse in the language of interest (e.g., messerforums).

Any recommendations out there for good texts for self-study? Online interactive resources? Audio is a plus, but I would prefer it not be a required part of the self-study curriculum. While I recognize that listening (and speaking) is a great way to learn, I am concerned about my hearing impairment getting in the way of progress.

Thanks,

Matthew
 
Language exists as a communication system transmitted from brain through sight and sound to brain. Spoken language IS language; reading and writing is an artificial offshoot that does not directly address the underlying reality.

It's perfectly possible to learn to read and write with no idea of the actual sounds involved. Deafmutes do it all the time. Ideographic systems like Chinese can do it between dialects. But some kind of simple conversational recordings will help you a lot. Repetitive drills of simple phrases with varying declensions/conjugations will fix these technical details in almost effortlessly.

If your brain were a computer with an easily and reliably retrieved memory medium, you could do it "by the book". I recommend at least some spoken practice.
 
K.V. Collucci said:
Try this.

http://www.rosettastone.com/ind/catalog?affiliate=google
Click to expand...

Thanks K.V. I think that is more than I was looking to spend to start out with, but I hadn't thought about computerized learning. Have you used these before?

Esav - good points. I think I know some German speakers in this area who might be willing to let me converse in German with them occasionally. I know that I can find some Spanish speakers in the area, although I would likely be limited to Latin American dialects.

Thanks again,

Matthew
 
Esav is (again) right, speak!, when I was at UCLA, there was another Mexican who majored in French, I was studying French at the time and we decided to speak French to each other, at lunch time people would come around and say "I thought you guys were Mexican".

For reading in Spanish I recommend this anthology of Latin American short stories, I first read it borrowed from an American who used it in a Spanish class at UCLA, well chosen interesting stories with good insight into the culture, not elementary but not that hard either:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...002-0109926-7964069?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Luis

--------------------------
Cuando el sabio señala la luna, el tonto mira el dedo.
 
I've picked up anthologies of prose and poetry in Latin, Spanish, German, and Russian that have the English translation in small type at the bottom of the page. Sometimes that's all the boost you need, once you get the basics of the language under control.

When I was studying Russian, we would go around the classroom, each of us reciting the next line (in Russian, of course! :D )

I work in the laboratory.
You work in the laboratory.
He works in the laboratory.
She works in the laboratory.
We work in the laboratory.
You (plural) work in the laboratory.
They work in the laboratory.

Then on to the next phrase, I eat in the restaurant, etc.

When it comes time to actually use the language, it turns out to be easy to insert a variant term, and the phrase pops out automatically: I work in the factory ...

Definitely pick up one of those shirt-pocket size phrase books. They are optimized to provide you the most useful terms for daily life. Please, can you help me, thank you.

If all you do is read, read out loud.
 
I like the format and pace of the Learn in your Car series. I learned a lot from the Spanish anyway.
How much Spanish and German do you know right now? Some courses are good for true beginners but don't go that far; other courses are good for people with some knowledge, who want to improve.
Once you have some basic Spanish down, there's a fun computer game called Learn Spanish or Die!
I eventually learned enough to live. :) It's a good learning tool actually.

BTW if you really want to make progress for some reason, nothing beats having a (good) tutor and doing regular homeworks.

(Thanks, Don Luis, for the tip about the book.)
 
As children pick up their language from their mother it is well proven that learning language from a woman is one of the better ways, now you just have to get two girl friends...

TLM
 
Children have a wonderfull ability to learn language which decreases when they become 10 or 12 .In this country now spanish is now easier to learn to speak since there are spanish newspapers and radio an tv stations everywhere.
 
Children have a wonderfull ability to learn language which decreases when they become 10 or 12
Click to expand...

True, both mine had a foreign language as school language and swedish, french, german seem to be very easy after that. We have both been quite satisfied with that early decision. The children don't seem to be any worse for the wear, quite to the contrary.

I have a friend who travelled a lot and worked in several countries and who picked up languages easily, he once said that horizontal dictionaries help a lot...

TLM
 
Satellite TV offers wide variety of channels - everyday lingo is easy to catch on and there's really no substitute for spoken language, like Esav said. Books will only get you so far.

For example: i'm not a native english speaker. My english gets worse and worse as i communicate with folks online (in forums and by e-mail - due to limited scope of discussions my vocabulary deteriorates constantly) but it improves when i watch movies (and correct subtitle errors on the fly :D ) or when i read the literature in english - it happens, albeit rarely :(

By all means don't just limit yourself to a book or a set of books, you'll get the basics this way but that's it. Perhaps you could find somebody to talk to in foreign language nearby (or online, nowadays there are many VoIP apps out there, Skype is one example).
 
BBC News Online http://news.bbc.co.uk/ offers the news in different languages. On the far left hand side of the page, click on an area, like Europe, then scan down below that and click on the language in which you want to read the news. Current events, current vocabulary.
 
I don't know if this reflects badly on my french teacher in high school, but I know more Spanish and Italian than I do french! I know how to pronounce a lot of french words, I work with a lot of people who do not speak english, being able to ask if they know how to speak english in their language really does help. I know how to string together a couple sentences in Spanish, but I would really like to learn more. I have heard that the best way to do it is to immerse yourself in the culture of whos language you are trying to understand. Unfortunately, society has its boundaries. I heard that after immersion, listening to tapes in your sleep will help, I don't know how that works. I would go to your local college and ask a professor, or even your local high school, and ask the language teachers for advice. If the professor only cares about making a dollar, he will tell you to take a class, if he actually cares about people learning another language, he might recommend a good book to you.
 
If you have your favorite movie on DVD you can put the subtitles feature
on and read and learn a new language just from the subtitles. If you
already know what they are saying in English it is rather easy to look
at the bottom of the screen and find out how to say it French or Spainish
while you watch your favorite movie over again. Just a thought.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. It looks like there are a boatload of resources out there for learning languages. I think I'll pick up some books (including a dictionary!), and start practicing (out loud)!

Thanks again,

Matthew
 
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