Has anyone learned another language on their own?

[Minnie824]

I was thinking of trying to learn Spanish. Whats the best way to go about this? DVDs, books on tape, what? I don't have time or any desire to actually take a class, just something I thought of doing in my free time to learn. Any suggestions?

 

[In a hurry]

Years ago I started learning Italian using a program called Rosetta (I think!). It was pretty good, but I didn't stick with it when we decided to stay state-side.

 

[Cindyluwho]

I'm in my 3rd year of trying to learn Russian. We've done college classes (evening), tapes, books. So far the best thing I've found is "Russian in 10 minutes a day". They have workbooks for every language and it's very quick and easy. If you do it as a family it's even better. You can order the books on Amazon. The tapes with books didn't work for our family, but the workbook is perfect! Rosetta Stone will help with pronunciation, they have a website but I don't have the url handy.
Good luck to you!

 

[LindaR]

Rosetta-Stone! I bought this for dd17. She loves it. She had taken 2 years of French in high school and this year they hired a man (who is a special ed teacher) to teach French, but he barely knew the language! Even their foreign exchange student (french speaking) said he knew nothing about the language. My daughter does this every morning and you learn at your own pace.

 

[Chicago526]

I've never used it but I've heard of Rosetta Stone. The State Dept. and FBI use it, I guess, for foreign language training. I've been thinking about learning French myself and if I ever get around to it, I was going to look into them.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

No, I haven't, but I just wanted to say that I misread the title of your post and thought it said, "Has anyone learned another language in their oven?". I really need to slow down and read the thread titles more carefully!

 

[Dakota_Lynn]

I can also highly recommend Rosetta Stone. It's expensive; about $200 for level one (probably much cheaper on eBay). But it is very much worth it! I've been studying Danish for the last couple of years and I have every book, langauge tape and software program available (it's impossible to find "real" Danish instruction in the US so I have to rely on these study aids). Rosetta Stone is by far the best!

A few more things that you might find helpful while you're trying to learn the language:

1) After you learn some vocabulary, rent or buy Spanish movies and watch them with English subtitles and rent movies in English and watch them with Spanish subtitles. This is extremely useful! I have tons of Danish films and I have also bought all my favorite movies from Denmark so I could watch them with Danish subtitles. Very helpful indeed!

2) Listen to Spanish music. Print out the lyrics. Learn to sing along! It will help tremendously with pronunciation!

3) Most importantly, make Spanish speaking friends! The most pleasurable part of learning Danish for me has been making Danish friends! You can meet people on penpal sites and believe me, it is so very rewarding to get to know people in other places. My Danish friends help me practice my Danish all the time.

Good luck to you!

 

[Sleepy]

I took 2 years of Spanish in HS and was pretty good, but after school, there was nobody to practice with, so i got really rusty and forgot just about everything. I am now trying to teach myself Italian. I just have a good dictionary and piece sentences. People get the idea.