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Best language course/book?



jcdenton08

jcdenton08

Enemy of the People
NSC Patron
Oct 17, 2008
10,667
Want to learn conversational French up to an intermediate level.

Can anyone recommend a structured learn-at-home course/book? Heard great things about Rosetta Stone but balked at the price!!!
 






Goldstone Rapper

Goldstone Rapper

Rediffusion PlayerofYear
Jan 19, 2009
14,865
BN3 7DE
Earworms Rapid Learning is a brilliant fun way to learn a language.... using music and catchy repetition of conversational hooks. It really works and will definitely get you started. FrenchPod101.com for a more comprehensive coverage of the language.
 


jcdenton08

jcdenton08

Enemy of the People
NSC Patron
Oct 17, 2008
10,667
Just done the French trial lesson on my phone. Brilliant - definitely the course for me is Rosetta Stone, thanks to all for their input.

Anyone seen any good deals around?
 


T

ThePompousPaladin

New member
Apr 7, 2013
1,025
There is also to supplement Rosetta Stone, the quite good 'duolingo' app for smartphones/tablets.

It's free and there's questions where you talk into your device, so quite good for helping on pronunciation.
 




swiss tony

swiss tony

Member
Aug 3, 2004
138
Honduras
Having been a language teacher for 15 years, my advice would be forget the books and fine a one on one tutor. You can learn so much more in an hour with actual human interaction than any book will ever offer you.
 


G

Gwylan

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
31,336
Uffern
swiss tony said:
Having been a language teacher for 15 years, my advice would be forget the books and fine a one on one tutor. You can learn so much more in an hour with actual human interaction than any book will ever offer you.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with this. I'd also add that the best way to learn any language is get yourself over to that country and talk to people who don't speak English. My German went from OK to extremely good in just one week staying with a couple who didn't speak a word of English.

It might be hard to do that but, once you've got some basics, you could go over to France and force yourself to talk to people on the trains, in cafes etc
 


TWOCHOICEStom

TWOCHOICEStom

Well-known member
Sep 22, 2007
10,565
Brighton
I've done Rosetta Stone and taken Swedish lessons 2 times a week for 6 months In a class of around 10-15 people.

Rosetta Stone is awesome but you must put in the time. It's boring and repetitive at first, but you end up learning.

But it doesn't even compare to going to lessons or holding a conversation with a person. Get a tutor or go to a small class and try to participate as much as possible is my advice. Software and books are great supplements to learning. But nothing can beat the real thing! :thumbsup:
 




G

Gwylan

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
31,336
Uffern
Just remembered this.

https://www.memrise.com/

There was an article on Memrise in the Guardian a couple of years ago: someone used it to learn conversational Lingala in a few weeks. Sounded impressive but tried it out - it is free though so worth a go
 










Mattywerewolf

Mattywerewolf

Well-known member
Mar 7, 2012
894
Saff of the River
I went on an intensive language course in Italy 10 years ago....Went from nothing to very good conversational in 6 weeks.....small class teaching and full immersion. The way to go, although most find it hard to commit to that amount of time or money up front, in the long run it worked out cheaper.
 


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