Learning a new language?

[raw]

Any of you had to do it before? and if so can you give me any pointers or useful cd's/books etc? In the next 12 months the misses is going to be asked by her employer to move to Genvea and I'm pretty sure she will have to say yes to further her career so rather than fuck her plans up I am just going to quietly prepare and go with her, I reckon my job as a technical services analyst/manager is going to be a million times easier to get over there if I can speak at least one of the local languages like French or maybe German?

Any input would be hugely welcome......... :S

 

[caLLous]

For French, you can't go wrong with Michel Thomas (amazon linky). Some people swear by the Rosetta Stone courses but I didn't find them particularly helpful. Also, look at Duolingo.

 

[Raven]

I used Rosetta Stone to learn a bit of German but got fed up with it in the end. Not because it didn't work I just found other things to do...

I thought it was excellent though as a course.

 

[caLLous]

Rosetta Stone is good for some stuff; basic verb conjugations and vocab but it falls short imo when you get to a more advanced level. But it works for some people so it's horses for courses.

 

[raw]

Id say I need to hit fairly reasonable to fluent in 12 months, ill have to take a look at both and see which works but thanks for the options!!

 

[Vae]

Whatever route you go down it is the practice that is vital. I have 1.5 hours of German tuition a week but it's only when you are in the country 'living the language' that you can even start to think and speak in it properly. Does your misses speak one of the languages? If so lots of practice at home with her.

I've used both Michel Thomas for French and started Rosetta Stone for German (before I had tuition) and found both good but they need dedication. If you're serious make sure to schedule time and keep to it.

 

[caLLous]

Yep sage advice, get out there and speak it as soon as you feel confident. A regular class once you're over there is also invaluable. One of my problems was that there were so many English in this part of France that it's entirely possible to get by without having much need to speak the language, you just have to force yourself out of your comfort zone.

 

[ileks]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyzJ2Qq9Abs


I stumbled across this last night. I spent three years learning German at school but have forgotten nearly everything. Might give this a go when I get some more time.

 

[Lamp]

I did conversational Japanese for 3 years. My bank paid for 1-2-1 tuition. Superb way to learn but very expensive I'd imagine.

 

[Yoni]

I learned Dutch but I have had much more success with Swedish. I use berlitz and have weekly lessons. Vae is correct though you really have to use it

 

[old.Tohtori]

Learn Finnish. You'll suck at it even after a year, but it's ok 'cause no one outside Finland speaks it so you can claim you're fluent like a waterbirth!

All the good tips were said already, outside maybe; when you move, switch completely to that language even if it's painful.

 

[Mabs]

if youre going to learn something, immerse yourself in it, try to get things to read in that language, papers, etc. watch tv programs, even kids stuff, etc
dont just do textbooks

 

[Lethul]

Only tip I have is that German is a lot easier than French (at least for a swe )

 

[caLLous]

Only tip I have is that German is a lot easier than French (at least for a swe )

You think? I took both at GCSE at school and found French much easier.

There's some basic rules for switching English words to French and vice versa which means that you basically already know thousands of words before you even start. For example, take a word ending in "ation" (calculation for example), replace the "ation" with "er" and you have the infinitive of the French verb (calculer). The "er" verbs are the easiest to conjugate by a country mile so you can form the present (knock off the trailing "r" > je calcule), the future (either the "easy" way, same as English, put "to go" in front of the infinitive > je vais calculer or the actual future tense, which adds the present of avoir to the back end of the infinitive > je calculerai) or the past (using avoir > j'ai calculé or the imperfect > je calculais).

And you can do *all* of that just by recognising that the English word ends in "ation". Obviously that's only helpful if you're English, though.

 

[Lethul]

You think? I took both at GCSE at school and found French much easier.

There's some basic rules for switching English words to French and vice versa which means that you basically already know thousands of words before you even start. For example, take a word ending in "ation" (calculation for example), replace the "ation" with "er" and you have the infinitive of the French verb (calculer). The "er" verbs are the easiest to conjugate by a country mile so you can form the present (knock off the trailing "r" > je calcule), the future (either the "easy" way, same as English, put "to go" in front of the infinitive > je vais calculer or the actual future tense, which adds the present of avoir to the back end of the infinitive > je calculerai) or the past (using avoir > j'ai calculé or the imperfect > je calculais).

And you can do *all* of that just by recognising that the English word ends in "ation". Obviously that's only helpful if you're English, though.

Swedish and German share a lot of words in the same way. A none german speaking swede can understand quite a lot of german usually.