Learning a foreign language (1 Viewer)

rettucs

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Post of the week winner: 22nd March, 2013
Am thinking of taking up Spanish classes. Some kind of evening class after work. Just wondering if anyone has done something like this or knows any places that does them? Or even what your experiences of same were?
 
Yeah, I really wanna learn Spanish too.
I was thinking of starting off with some of them language CDs or whatever.
Any tips on classes also welcome.
 
I learned my rudimentary polish from a pimlser audio course, for the craic.

A: pimlser leave out a lot of important shit, but get you talking quite fast. like i can ask a girl on a date and perform basic stuff like being in the shop or getting on a train etc, but i still cant count.
B: i'm always told by polish people that i sound completely convincing, that they think i'm polish till i talk english or call them a pedo.
C: having real humans to practice with makes it 100X easier, and probably possible in dublin.
D: i only did lessons 1-10 out of a potential 30.
E: there is not spelling or grammar on pimsler, you need another course or a human for that.
 
Yeah, I really wanna learn Spanish too.
I was thinking of starting off with some of them language CDs or whatever.
Any tips on classes also welcome.

those CDs might not be a bad idea but I've never learned anything that way so wouldn't know if its an effective way to learn.

they run classes in work here but there is no complete beginners class. They expect you to know at least a little. Maybe CDs would be the way to acquire the 'at least a little'.
 
I did a ten week Spanish course in some college out in Leixlip a few years ago. It wasn't too pricey, small classroom, good teacher. It's a handy language to learn but speaking with a native is the way to go. I think Havana on George's Street still do a language exchange thing where you can chat to a sexy Spanish person and help each other out with the languages. I'd say learn some basics off a CD or whatever first and then give something like that a go.
 
theres some basic stuff on www.studyspanish.com. But they want you to sign up after a while.

I was looking at some of the CD stuff you can buy. That Rosetta Stone shit is bleedin rip-off. Will keep looking.

Am thinking now that some kind of textbook for the basics along with a basic reader (actually must look for one of them in French to brush up on the cupla focail I have in that) might be ok for starters. And maybe the spanish news on the internet once in a while to see can I pick up something.

Will deffo do a course too though. Was looking at the link washingcattle ; posted. Those are 3 hour classes. It looks good but I reckon my limit might be somewhere less than 3 hours. I get to a point where my brain overloads and I need time to digest shit I just learned. Otherwise its forgotten.
 
theres some basic stuff on www.studyspanish.com. But they want you to sign up after a while.

I was looking at some of the CD stuff you can buy. That Rosetta Stone shit is bleedin rip-off. Will keep looking.

Am thinking now that some kind of textbook for the basics along with a basic reader (actually must look for one of them in French to brush up on the cupla focail I have in that) might be ok for starters. And maybe the spanish news on the internet once in a while to see can I pick up something.

Will deffo do a course too though. Was looking at the link washingcattle ; posted. Those are 3 hour classes. It looks good but I reckon my limit might be somewhere less than 3 hours. I get to a point where my brain overloads and I need time to digest shit I just learned. Otherwise its forgotten.

Rosetta Stone is pretty tedious - I tried a couple of times but keep ditching it. It's also very very expensive.

The FSI courses are good, they are in the public domian (they were designed by the US gov for foreign service employees) so are free with a bit of googling. Pretty to the point and free of the kind of cute bullshit that makes me want to throw most courses against the wall.

There are a lot of good podcasts - try News In Slow Spanish

ANKI is a good tool for learning. It's like a flashcard programme. It repeats the cards based on whether you fuck up or not, it's supposed to reinforce or some shit.

(also I am the absolute worst person in the world who's advice you should take on learning a language)
 
theres some basic stuff on www.studyspanish.com. But they want you to sign up after a while.

I was looking at some of the CD stuff you can buy. That Rosetta Stone shit is bleedin rip-off. Will keep looking.

Am thinking now that some kind of textbook for the basics along with a basic reader (actually must look for one of them in French to brush up on the cupla focail I have in that) might be ok for starters. And maybe the spanish news on the internet once in a while to see can I pick up something.

Will deffo do a course too though. Was looking at the link washingcattle ; posted. Those are 3 hour classes. It looks good but I reckon my limit might be somewhere less than 3 hours. I get to a point where my brain overloads and I need time to digest shit I just learned. Otherwise its forgotten.

It's my understanding that that's pretty standard. My ladies classes were really long too.

The thing about learning from the cultural institute of a country, (well with Goethe German anyway) is that you get a recognised qualification in that language. Not that you'll be going to Spain for work heh heh heh (though I hear Argentina and Chile are good options), but if you did you'd have a better chance with a cert from that institute. Not that that seems to matter in this case but still I thought I'd mention it just in case some lurkers are interested.
 
Rosetta Stone is pretty tedious - I tried a couple of times but keep ditching it. It's also very very expensive.

The FSI courses are good, they are in the public domian (they were designed by the US gov for foreign service employees) so are free with a bit of googling. Pretty to the point and free of the kind of cute bullshit that makes me want to throw most courses against the wall.

There are a lot of good podcasts - try News In Slow Spanish

ANKI is a good tool for learning. It's like a flashcard programme. It repeats the cards based on whether you fuck up or not, it's supposed to reinforce or some shit.

(also I am the absolute worst person in the world who's advice you should take on learning a language)

cheers man, good pointers
 
The FSI courses are good, they are in the public domian (they were designed by the US gov for foreign service employees) so are free with a bit of googling. Pretty to the point and free of the kind of cute bullshit that makes me want to throw most courses against the wall.

wasn't too hard to find;

http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php

went through about an hour of it last night. Might stick with it for a bit and see how it goes. Cheers again.
 
Has anyone ever tried a language exchange thing where you chat with someone on skype and you learn their language and they learn english? I'd say it's grand when you're doing the other language but a pain in the hole when you're trying to help them with english. Or maybe they speak english and you respond in their language? I dunno. Most non-native english speakers are probably better at it than me anyway. It turns out I've already signed up for Live Mocha and I have 40,999 of their points but I'm not sure what to do with it. I don't really want to do their lessons but theres nobody on the "Language Partners" page and I don't know where to find some.
 

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