Language audio crash courses

[1K3]

Originally posted by moot
rpm, I am still split between german, arabic, and japanese.  Considering both personal and professional aquaintances I've made and expect to make in the future, those three are evenly split.
So I'll try all three and stick with the one or two that most easily come to me.

Ask yourself this... Are you studying foreign language for...

1.  self-enrichment
2.  business related (and because it's profitable in long term)
3.  both

?

The media also plays a big part when learning.  The media will help increase and retain the phrases/vocabulary you learn in a foreign language.  You also have to *surround* yourself with taht language to get the most out of itt.

[Vudak]

Well, learning German will open up even more of the internet and libraries to you...  I believe German is still the 2nd most used language on the internet.

Also, coupled with French and English, you'd have the three powerhouse European languages, and pretty much be able to go anywhere in the world and be understood by someone.

Spanish is pretty much useless unless you plan on working for the poor or stupid.  People who are neither tend to know English, or live in Spain.

[Viking]

Step one: Take a language course. Audio, web-based or otherwise.

Step two: Tune your TV to a channel using the language, or buy/rent/download episodes of TV series in that language. You can have them playing in the background while you work or play at home.

Step three: Find a bbs where people use that language and discuss things that interest you. Write first then use Word or another spellchecker to find errors and remember them. You learn from your mistakes, not by having a program fix them. Preferably you should read posts out loud to train your pronunciation. Compare with the TV in the background.

Step four: Travel to a country using the language and talk to people.

Step five: Practice regularly. You'd be amazed how fast you forget.

[1K3]

Originally posted by Vudak
I believe German is still the 2nd most used language on the internet.

No Japanese is the 2nd most active language on the internet.  Chinese (Mandarin, Traditional and Simplified) is creeping up FAST to take over the Japanese.  To give you an example, go to 2ch forum (Ni-Chaneru).  Ni-Chaneru is the largest forum in the world.  Try to check out videos on Youtube too.  Go look at videos on Youtube and you'll see that site bloated with Japanese anime and late-nite whacky game show videos (some are too waay hillarious... and brutal).

[Serenity]

Originally posted by Bruno
Freiheit für Moot...

"Freedom for" what? Wie has das auf English? Was beduetet das?

[moot]

Mav, that's the way I see it too.  I have the impression that German is a good bet.. I've always had a fair share of Arabic friends, and it would mean I can learn first hand all that there is to know that's written or spoken in Arabic, which is pretty vast, i think.
Japanese would not pay off so much (especially considering the time it would take), from what I've experienced so far, but as Chairboy said, Mandarin seems like a good choice..  I expect, especially also considering how prolific they are by nature, they will have at least some involvement in my field of research, Neuroscience.  That would be enough to warrant learning it.
Italian and latin would be pretty easy to learn if the need showed up.  Russian too, once I know German.

Yep Vike, that's how I learned english: 3 months of crash courses weekly with an old english grandma in France, at 9 years old, then straight into Toronto.

Ike: Both..
Japanese being so time consuming is why I stopped a while ago. I'm looking to make this as efficient as possible.

Zarkov, thanks, I'll try that one out too.

And thanks Chairboy, I'll consider that..

[jigsaw]

Haven't tried them, but the Rosetta stuff looks promising.  Next time I get an extra $350.00(ish) I'm going to get one.

Had a semester of German the first time I was in college. It's not that bad if you have a good teacher.

So many of the billboards and such around here are in Spanish that I've gotten where I can read it most of the time, but I couldn't speak it or pick up a conversation going on around me. Gets a bit frustrating because there have been days when I can go to multiple stores in the area and not hear one customer speak English the whole day.

[1K3]

Originally posted by Viking
Step five: Practice regularly. You'd be amazed how fast you forget.

Ehh:huh

I thought practice makes perfect

[VermGhost]

Originally posted by 1K3
I "cheated" by studying and mastering the Hiragana/Katakana 3 months before the elem. Japanese 1 class in UNLV started last fall:p  Because of that I was able to put 110% on other classes.  I only started to get serious in Japanese when the instructor introduced us the adjectives, numbers 1 to trillion, counters, counting time, and of course teh dreaded Kanji (how overrated:D).  I think Japanese is not difficult, it just eats your precious study time for other important subjects.  By the way, this is the same country where patience is (still) seen as virtue:)

That's interesting, I didn't find adjectives all that hard.  I think the hardest thing was remembering sentence structure, because if I want to translate something in english to Japanese I need to think in my head what I want to say, but change its order.  Was just a bit abstract for me I think.

[1K3]

Originally posted by VermGhost
That's interesting, I didn't find adjectives all that hard.  I think the hardest thing was remembering sentence structure, because if I want to translate something in english to Japanese I need to think in my head what I want to say, but change its order.  Was just a bit abstract for me I think.

I was told that Japanese is always sentence order.  The order does not always have to be that way.  In fact, Japanese does not even require sentence order like in English.  Correct use of particles (は・が・も・に・へ・を・の　etc etc) and a verb attached at the end of the sentence (as always) is enough to make a complete sentence.

Check out this page. http://nihongo.3yen.com/2005-02-16/debunking-the-japanese-sentence-order-myth/