| magicalfreddiemercury 08.01.2007 17:17 |
Like too many people I know, I speak only one language - English. My 11-year-old daughter, who is homeschooled, wants to learn French and Spanish, and I'd love to learn them with her. I've heard Rosetta Stone Language Courses are great, but they don't come cheap. Can anyone share their experiences with other foreign language programs? Maybe one that's not $300. :-/ |
| thomasquinn 32989 08.01.2007 17:25 |
I know I learned English the easy way: I watched kids' tv on BBC, and then when I could grasp it a bit, I started reading little easy English texts, and went from there. I think that is still the best way, but it takes time. Lots of time. |
| FriedChicken 08.01.2007 17:28 |
I think it's sooooo sad that most Americans don't know another language. Did you know that only 60% of the American people have a passport? I think thats really sad. Another useless fact. The first female gouvernor of Texas didn't allow people by law, to learn a second language. She said: "If english was good enough for Jesus Christ, it should be good enough for us" No kidding'1 |
| Rick 08.01.2007 17:30 |
Order Muzzy. He is your friend. |
| thomasquinn 32989 08.01.2007 17:31 |
A candidate for the Texas elections was accused of violating the Cuba-embargo (which, IMHO, should be abolished anyway, because it hurts the PEOPLE of Cuba most) by smoking Havana-cigars. He replied: "I'm not smoking their tobacco; I'm burning down their plantations!" I think he should be governor. He may not have a brain, but neither do the other candidates. At least this one has wit. Having said that, I agree with FriedChicken. |
| magicalfreddiemercury 08.01.2007 17:43 |
FriedChicken<br><font size=1>The Almighty</font> wrote: Another useless fact. The first female gouvernor of Texas didn't allow people by law, to learn a second language. She said: "If english was good enough for Jesus Christ, it should be good enough for us"That's just disgusting. Over here, foreign language isn't taught until the upper grades - like 7th, or if you're lucky, 6th. I think it should be taught from when the kids enter kindergarten. I remember mentioning this to my daughter's elementary school principal. She dismissed the idea as if I were a fool she had no time for. There's so much about how kids here are taught that I disagree with - which is why I'm now a homeschooling parent. TQ - about learning from watching and reading - that probably is the best way, but as you said, it takes a lot of time. We're just getting into the homeschooling routine and hoped for something we could incorporate into our day - even CDs we can listen to on the way to a museum, you know? Something to get us going. Rick - Muzzy!! So funny. I'd forgotten all about that. I have the Spanish videos and booklet somewhere. My daughter used to watch them instead of Sesame Street. I hope I can find them. Thanks! |
| Raf 08.01.2007 18:05 |
<b><font color = "crimson"> ThomasQuinn wrote: I know I learned English the easy way: I watched kids' tv on BBC, and then when I could grasp it a bit, I started reading little easy English texts, and went from there. I think that is still the best way, but it takes time. Lots of time.I think it's the best way combined with lessons. I'm still studying English, but I do practise a lot. There are people who study with me and can't make a sentence to save their lives - and they refuse to practise. But I also have a couple of friends learning the same way you did, without teachers, and their grammar never seems to get better. |
| Ale Solan 08.01.2007 18:59 |
mee habla englis good pute |
| deleted user 08.01.2007 19:00 |
... I don't have any experience with books or tapes... But from my experiences so far in school, I have taken one year of French and and on my fourth year of Spanish (they "cut" the French programme, and the Japanese one was cut a year before I got there - and no other language classes are offered)... I liked the French teacher's teaching style better. We spent more time speaking French than doing "paper-work". Yes, learning the spelling is good - and I would always read ahead in the French book (which helped), but for me, the hearing it and talking about it is what really "taught" me. But, there were other people that learned in other ways, too. Actually, my brother and I "taught ourselves" some French for about a week in the summer. I think we just had a book - and what we remembered from television... I ended up learning in that time everything we did for the first quarter of French class. It wasn't a special book - just a dictionary, though not so great for grammar, we did learn out colours and numbers and animals and such. Listening to music in that language can be helpful - especially when I'm looking at a lyrics book that tells me what I'm hearing (though, not necessarily a translation - I mean, the lyrics in that language so that when I listen I can separate the words instead of mushing them all together). The best second-language experiences that I've had involve a lot more listening and speaking than paper-work (then again, I've never tried to learn Chinese or Japanese...). And I think it's great that you're interested in helping your daughter learn a second (or third !) language - not many "adults" around here think that has any value (thus the "cut" French programme - even when it was not that expensive to run compared to other things they have kept and added - such as a bathroom on the sports' field). I don't know if I helped at all... : O, also - learning the basics of a language like Spanish helped me GREATLY with learning French. The structures are similar - and there are not only English-to-French cognates, but Spanish-to-French cognates, too ! |
| AspiringPhilosophe 08.01.2007 19:09 |
Great idea to learn a second language!!! French and Spanish are a good choice...but you may not want to do them both. They are closely related enough that it may confuse the kids if you try to do them both. However, since they are both latin based languages, once you get one down, it's very easy to learn the other one (without much other work). The earlier you start with the foreign languages, the easier they are, and I think that everyone should learn one. Now, I personally speak French (probably badly, but it's been a while). In order to brush up, I bought a Computer CD rom 5 disc set from the campus bookstore called "Instant Immersion French" which I've found is very good, and would be easy for the kids to play. It's very visual, and the first disc is really good about vocabulary you will need later. However, you should get a good 101 type of book (you can get them at any university bookstore) to help with the written parts of the language. Bon Chance! |
| Sweetie 08.01.2007 19:13 |
I'm Learning Spanish from Dora The Explora |
| deleted user 08.01.2007 19:48 |
I was lucky because my mom could speak both French and Latin fluently, so that is what I took in school. I also took American Sign Language in college and would love to take more classes... I don't have any suggestions, although I think it's a great idea that you and your daughter take the class together! Hope you can find somewhere cheap that gives good classes. :-) |
| magicalfreddiemercury 08.01.2007 20:58 |
<font color=red>The Audacity of Charles wrote: ... I don't know if I helped at all... : O, also - learning the basics of a language like Spanish helped me GREATLY with learning French. The structures are similar - and there are not only English-to-French cognates, but Spanish-to-French cognates, too !You did help, thank you. I wondered if learning one language would help or hurt our ability to learn another, but this clarified that. Very cool. CMU HistoryGirl wrote: Great idea to learn a second language!!! French and Spanish are a good choice...but you may not want to do them both. They are closely related enough that it may confuse the kids if you try to do them both. However, since they are both latin based languages, once you get one down, it's very easy to learn the other one (without much other work).I hadn't thought about that. So, I’m guessing Spanish first, and then French. Sometimes it seems Spanish is spoken here more than English, so learning it first makes sense... especially if knowing it will help us learn French. CMU HistoryGirl wrote: Now, I personally speak French (probably badly, but it's been a while). In order to brush up, I bought a Computer CD rom 5 disc set from the campus bookstore called "Instant Immersion French" which I've found is very good, and would be easy for the kids to play. It's very visual, and the first disc is really good about vocabulary you will need later. However, you should get a good 101 type of book (you can get them at any university bookstore) to help with the written parts of the language. Bon Chance!Excellent! Thank you so much, I’ll look into this. <font color=purple>Miss James wrote: I was lucky because my mom could speak both French and Latin fluently, so that is what I took in school. I also took American Sign Language in college and would love to take more classes... I don't have any suggestions, although I think it's a great idea that you and your daughter take the class together! Hope you can find somewhere cheap that gives good classes. :-)American Sign Language. You know, I met someone years ago who was a teacher for deaf children. I told her I’d always wanted to learn to sign, and she became hostile. She grilled me on who I knew that was deaf and if I’d ever encountered a situation where sign language was necessary. It was a bizarre reaction. Actually, it was more of an attack than anything else. I wondered if I’d somehow insulted her, but I can’t imagine how. Well... all that to ask how you learned. I have books but feedback from someone who knows is priceless. |
| deleted user 08.01.2007 21:55 |
MERDE! :) |
| deleted user 08.01.2007 22:08 |
magicalfreddiemercury wrote:The woman wasn't actually deaf, was she? I do know that sometimes deaf people can become very defensive, but as for a hearing woman that teaches I have no idea why she would react like that. Maybe it was self-righteousness on her part that she could speak the language? I dunno...<font color=red>The Audacity of Charles wrote: ... I don't know if I helped at all... : O, also - learning the basics of a language like Spanish helped me GREATLY with learning French. The structures are similar - and there are not only English-to-French cognates, but Spanish-to-French cognates, too !You did help, thank you. I wondered if learning one language would help or hurt our ability to learn another, but this clarified that. Very cool.CMU HistoryGirl wrote: Great idea to learn a second language!!! French and Spanish are a good choice...but you may not want to do them both. They are closely related enough that it may confuse the kids if you try to do them both. However, since they are both latin based languages, once you get one down, it's very easy to learn the other one (without much other work).I hadn't thought about that. So, I’m guessing Spanish first, and then French. Sometimes it seems Spanish is spoken here more than English, so learning it first makes sense... especially if knowing it will help us learn French.CMU HistoryGirl wrote: Now, I personally speak French (probably badly, but it's been a while). In order to brush up, I bought a Computer CD rom 5 disc set from the campus bookstore called "Instant Immersion French" which I've found is very good, and would be easy for the kids to play. It's very visual, and the first disc is really good about vocabulary you will need later. However, you should get a good 101 type of book (you can get them at any university bookstore) to help with the written parts of the language. Bon Chance!Excellent! Thank you so much, I’ll look into this.<font color=purple>Miss James wrote: I was lucky because my mom could speak both French and Latin fluently, so that is what I took in school. I also took American Sign Language in college and would love to take more classes... I don't have any suggestions, although I think it's a great idea that you and your daughter take the class together! Hope you can find somewhere cheap that gives good classes. :-)American Sign Language. You know, I met someone years ago who was a teacher for deaf children. I told her I’d always wanted to learn to sign, and she became hostile. She grilled me on who I knew that was deaf and if I’d ever encountered a situation where sign language was necessary. It was a bizarre reaction. Actually, it was more of an attack than anything else. I wondered if I’d somehow insulted her, but I can’t imagine how. Well... all that to ask how you learned. I have books but feedback from someone who knows is priceless. Personally, I love Sign Language and would like to become fluent enough that I could use it when I teach in public schools if need be. Right now I teach some basics (colors and letters mostly) to the three year olds in my class and I love when they can show me certain signs. |
| user name 08.01.2007 23:24 |
FriedChicken<br><font size=1>The Almighty</font> wrote: I think it's sooooo sad that most Americans don't know another language. Did you know that only 60% of the American people have a passport? I think thats really sad. Another useless fact. The first female gouvernor of Texas didn't allow people by law, to learn a second language. She said: "If english was good enough for Jesus Christ, it should be good enough for us" No kidding'1It's not necessarily sad if they don't use it. In fact, English is becoming a universal language of sorts. It would be wonderful if the entire world could conform to one language, regardless of what it is. It would promote unity and internationalism in the world. In fact, should this occur, it's likely that the figure as to how many people own passports would greatly increase - not only for the US, but for every other country in the world as well. You know, I've even heard that it's more like 20% of Americans who own a passport. But you have to consider that travel is very expensive. A passport is not required for travel to Canada or Mexico, I don't believe. Therefore, any international travel an American would make would be far overseas. Very, very expensive, especially for a one or two week vacation. As far as your last fact, I don't believe it to be accurate. A state governor cannot make that decision. I believe the argument was whether or not Spanish should be used to educate Mexican immigrants, or if English should be the standard. Also, the statement was not a reference to Jesus speaking English, but rather the English used in the King James Bible. While it is granted that this is a stupid reason, there is certainly much room for reasonable discussion on the debate. Also, the odds of such a quote simply being made up out of dead air are quite high. |
| AspiringPhilosophe 09.01.2007 00:43 |
Actually, a passport is now required to get into Canada now. Congress passed that law last year. You can still drive across without one until 2008, but anyone who flies in needs one. And after 2008, you'll need one no matter which way you go into the Great White North. I can't speak for Mexico though |
| user name 09.01.2007 01:00 |
CMU HistoryGirl wrote: Actually, a passport is now required to get into Canada now. Congress passed that law last year. You can still drive across without one until 2008, but anyone who flies in needs one. And after 2008, you'll need one no matter which way you go into the Great White North. I can't speak for Mexico thoughAh, I see. I wonder what effect that may have on how many passports are issued. Of course, it doesn't do much in the way of learning another language, since half the country speaks English anyway (I think). |
| sparrow 21754 09.01.2007 01:18 |
as a major, im going to be a translator/interpetator as of now i know italian spanish and french. i will be learning arabic starting this semester. what i can tell you is have her learn them completely separately. my mistake was to learn italian and spanish at the same time. i guess its good practice so you really get the feel between the languages. luckily spanish and french are quite different, but what i find is sometimes if i spend too much time in one language, i forget the other, THEN it gets confusing. i also reccomend if its possible to get her to watch her favorite films in her desired languages, preferably overdubbed. also to expand her culturally, have her point out some differences (examples: being celebrations in that country or traditions) and i know theres some people here that can recommend good movies about those, whether comedy, drama, action, or just fiction. this way she will also hold an interest. i would hate to watch a film thats not my style, i would lose interest in both the story line and learning the words. Same with books. so i highly recoomend that. programs are always nice to learn bit by bit. if you ever get her the chance when shes more fluent, get her to talk to an actual native speaker, that is non judgmental (which means wont laugh or put her down if she makes a mistake). as long as you give her permission to talk to them (making sure they aren't predators and such, since she is young) then its ok. theres plenty of place to do that, and who knows maybe theres a fan on here her age she can talk to. i love languages, theyre so much fun. and thers plenty of easy way to learn. if shed like help with begginners stuff id be more than happy to help you how to teach it to her :-) more spanish as of now since its been a while with french haha. |
| iGSM 09.01.2007 01:55 |
I know.. Indonesian. The most terrible fucking language in the entire world. Damned Australia...or specifically my school. |
| Sweetie 09.01.2007 03:09 |
iGSM wrote: I know.. Indonesian. The most terrible fucking language in the entire world. Damned Australia...or specifically my school.You learned Indonesian? I've been learning Japanese and French at my school |
| iGSM 09.01.2007 03:18 |
I did, I did. I'd like to learn Spanish just...so I can be posh. |
| YourValentine 09.01.2007 03:41 |
I agree with what has been said about starting to learn two foreign languages simultaneously. It's not helpful at all. Language courses can be expensive and still really bad. I am not familiar with courses you can buy in the USA but my experience is that such courses can lead you into a dead end street. If possible you should take at least some conversation classes in a school or from a private teacher. The teacher gives you the feedback you need to work on your personal mistakes and difficulties. You learn so much faster and more efficient if you have a teacher who corrects your mistakes at an early stage. |
| eenaweena 09.01.2007 05:06 |
i know two languages: english and filipino/tagalog. so, i'm bilingual. and, filipino is really close to some spanish words.. just sharing. :) |
| Mr. Scully 09.01.2007 05:54 |
If you're American, you don't really NEED to learn other languages because you hardly ever travel to Europe, of course. But learning other languages helps understanding other cultures and that's something Americans would IMO really need. Here in CR everybody can speak second and third language - although usually not really well. We're FAR behind Holland or Scandinavia. Funny how the knowledge depends on geography. People in northern Europe can usually speak English perfectly, people in central and western Europe can speak quite well (except for French, they are too proud :-) and people in southern Europe usually can't speak foreign languages at all. |
| Raf 09.01.2007 06:20 |
YourValentine wrote: I agree with what has been said about starting to learn two foreign languages simultaneously. It's not helpful at all. Language courses can be expensive and still really bad. I am not familiar with courses you can buy in the USA but my experience is that such courses can lead you into a dead end street. If possible you should take at least some conversation classes in a school or from a private teacher. The teacher gives you the feedback you need to work on your personal mistakes and difficulties. You learn so much faster and more efficient if you have a teacher who corrects your mistakes at an early stage.My course is exactly like that. Once the students are already able to understand some stuff, teaches start explaining only in English, then they stimulate you to speak English instead of your native language (Portuguese, as we're all brazilian), and then they correct the mistakes and try to eliminate your foreign accent as much as possible. There are optional conversation classes once a week for "advanced" students, and once now and then instead of "proper" conversation classes they give us phonetics classes, another attempt to eliminate our foreign accent. I take Spanish lessons on the same school, but I'm a "newbie". The teacher has been doing exactly the same as English teachers, except he's been explaining things ONLY in Spanish since the first day, instead of waiting for us to become "advanced" students, as Portuguese speakers can understand Spanish pretty easily. I asked him about the advanced books, and he told me there are optional conversation classes just like in English. So I think there are language courses that are actually worth it. But you can't rely just on them. In Spanish I'm learning the grammar much quickier (maybe because part of it is pretty much the same as Portuguese, or maybe because when I started studying Spanish I was more mature than I was when I started studying English), but my vocabulary has been developing MUCH slower than my English vocabulary was developing on my first semester, and Spanish is much closer to my native language than English, and I'm pretty sure I can blame lack of use, as I use my English often on the internet, but never used my Spanish out of school (except to show off at home, haha). |
| The Fairy King 09.01.2007 06:24 |
<b><font color = "crimson"> ThomasQuinn wrote: I know I learned English the easy way: I watched kids' tv on BBC, and then when I could grasp it a bit, I started reading little easy English texts, and went from there. I think that is still the best way, but it takes time. Lots of time.Exactly the same way i learned the language. Watching Super Channel, MTV, Sky and BBC. |
| YourValentine 09.01.2007 07:41 |
Learning English by TV is very similar to what we call "natural language acquisition" which is how you learn your native language - by listening to people and communicating with them. Children in countries with many TV programmes in English language do in fact speak better English than children from countries with only few English programmes or children who do not watch much TV at all. However, this is not an option for other languages or for adults who want to learn a less universally spoken language. Your school seems to be very good, Rafael - provided you also have translation lessons which are important for the understanding of the different language structures and "written formulation" classes (essays etc) which are important to practice your writing and spelling skills as well as your skills to explain yourself in the foreign language in a non-conversational manner. Also, culture and communication classes are very desirable to enable the students to express themselves in a way that is acceptable for the culture whose language we study. Here on QZ I see examples of cultural misunderstandings each day. |
| carboengine 09.01.2007 10:51 |
Some people say watching soap operas is a good way to learn languages as there is very little action, they speak slowly, and the camera is usually focussed on the actor(s) face. My niece is a sign language interpreter, and when she sings songs to her two-year-old son, she signs also, so he always has his right hand up wiggling his fingers. It is so cute! I don't know what languages are being offered in USA classrooms, but French doesn't seem too practical to me (not that a language has to be practical.) I know lots of people who took four years of French, never "used" it, and looking back, thought it was a waste of time. That, of course, isn't anyone's fault - it just didn't happen. Decades ago, taking French had a kind of romantic mystique to it. Being that China is modernising rapidly, and the population is huge in numbers, Chinese dialects are the "in" thing for business majors to learn. |
| Aquillas 09.01.2007 15:23 |
I know Romanian (native language) , English (excellent), French (very good), Spanish (a little bit) and now I want to learn either Bulgarian, Czech or Serbian. |
| magicalfreddiemercury 09.01.2007 15:25 |
Wow. So many great replies. Thank you all.
<font color=blue face="Tahoma">Logan wrote: I know Romanian (native language) , English (excellent), French (very good), Spanish (a little bit) and now I want to learn either Bulgarian, Czech or Serbian.Are you serious?! That's incredible. By what method did you learn these languages? How old were you when you started learning your second, third, and so on? |