Any good software for learning a foreign language?

[7ontheline]

Donkey,

After using Pimsleur did you feel fluent? Or at least moderately comfortable in basic conversation?

[TheMetetron]

[ QUOTE ]
Donkey,

After using Pimsleur did you feel fluent? Or at least moderately comfortable in basic conversation?

[/ QUOTE ]

I used this and Rosetta Stone in addition to a Danish girlfriend/friends to learn Danish. I learned about 1000x more from the actual people. Pimsleur taught me some really basic phrases but I was corrected multiple times using the stuff they taught me because the Danes told me they were incorrect or awkward ways to say things. The Rosetta Stone was okay for basic verbs and nouns, but wasn't all that gret. I finished both programs and I still don't feel even remotely close to fluent in Danish. Even conversational is stretching it with anything remotely advanced.

The only way to truly learn a language well is to have a tutor who is teaching you their native tongue. It helps even more to be in that country, but if you can't at least get a native speaking tutor.

[donkeylove]

[ QUOTE ]
Donkey,

After using Pimsleur did you feel fluent? Or at least moderately comfortable in basic conversation?

[/ QUOTE ]

I haven't started yet.Like I said in my first post, I did a bunch of research just last week. I want to tackle Japanese and almost purchased Rosetta Stone, but changed my mind after reading reviews on both. I am simply going on exhaustive reading of many reviews and not from practical experience. I bought Pimsleurs whole japanese course, but just got it yesterday. From what I gather it is going to be a very long process. A tutor I spoke with suggested it will take at least 18 months of study,tutoring, and eventually a few month stay in Japan for immersion. While being a very quick study at most things,my gut tells me I am not going to be a natural at this. Being truly fluent in a language seems to be quite a process, but I look forward to it.

[Allinlife]

it's not that hard to find torrents for all the pimsleur cds btw.

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The Plimseur cds are very expensive,

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, they seem to be about the same price as Rosetta stone.

[ QUOTE ]
Go check out user reviews of Rosetta Stone software and Plimseur cds on Amazon

[/ QUOTE ]

This is where I was looking for reviews of Rosetta and they were very mixed. Which is what prompted the inital question in the post.

Thanks for throwing in the other one. I'll check that out.

b

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey Bernie,I mispelled his name.It's Pimsleur. I meant expensive for audio only cds. Rosetta Stone from what I gathered is audio and visual. Good luck.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think Pimsleur also has DVDs available for like $20 extra. They're selling something in a package deal. The amazon reviews seem to be mixed on these as well.

b

[MagicNinja]

pimsleur is good because it teaches you how to say certain sentences overly formally and with pretty perfect pronunciation, so you feel confident saying the few sentences you actually know constantly; this is good because it gives you opportunities to talk to people who are native speakers of that language by using the few sentences you know as an icebreaker.

I assume if you want to learn a second language you are fairly open to talking to random people; this is a great way to keep improving conversationally.

If you want to read literature, you'll probably have to take a university course or something at some point though.

This has been my experience, anyway.

[rory]

My girl used Rosetta Stone for a little while trying to learn Italian-- I wound up learning a bunch of words just sitting there with her. It seems like a good way to learn a bunch about a language, especially if you are an analytical type of person.

I don't know if you know how it works or whatever but they put up four pictures and a word or phrase and you have to pick the picture that corresponds. First you kind of randomly figure out that like uhh the word for chair is X through trial and error. Then it will show you maybe like a picture of a couch, a picture of a chair, a picture of two chairs, and a picture of two couches and it will say the word for "two" and the word for chair, so you now learned the word for two and so on.

It gets to be pretty complex where you get into entire sentences with tenses and what not and you have to figure the rules out as you go along. The fact you have to figure it out makes it really engaging so you can almost learn by accident.

The thing it won't do for you is make you be able to speak the langauge really well, but nothing will I think. It will give you enough to go around and talk like a caveman about what you want, which is probably enough to then go for something more complex.

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
My girl used Rosetta Stone for a little while trying to learn Italian-- I wound up learning a bunch of words just sitting there with her. It seems like a good way to learn a bunch about a language, especially if you are an analytical type of person.

I don't know if you know how it works or whatever but they put up four pictures and a word or phrase and you have to pick the picture that corresponds. First you kind of randomly figure out that like uhh the word for chair is X through trial and error. Then it will show you maybe like a picture of a couch, a picture of a chair, a picture of two chairs, and a picture of two couches and it will say the word for "two" and the word for chair, so you now learned the word for two and so on.

It gets to be pretty complex where you get into entire sentences with tenses and what not and you have to figure the rules out as you go along. The fact you have to figure it out makes it really engaging so you can almost learn by accident.

The thing it won't do for you is make you be able to speak the langauge really well, but nothing will I think. It will give you enough to go around and talk like a caveman about what you want, which is probably enough to then go for something more complex.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the review.

[ QUOTE ]
The thing it won't do for you is make you be able to speak the langauge really well, but nothing will I think. It will give you enough to go around and talk like a caveman about what you want, which is probably enough to then go for something more complex.

[/ QUOTE ]

So basically you'd be like many immigrants that you hear in the US as they're learning english. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

b

[Magic_Man]

[ QUOTE ]
My girl used Rosetta Stone for a little while trying to learn Italian-- I wound up learning a bunch of words just sitting there with her. It seems like a good way to learn a bunch about a language, especially if you are an analytical type of person.

I don't know if you know how it works or whatever but they put up four pictures and a word or phrase and you have to pick the picture that corresponds. First you kind of randomly figure out that like uhh the word for chair is X through trial and error. Then it will show you maybe like a picture of a couch, a picture of a chair, a picture of two chairs, and a picture of two couches and it will say the word for "two" and the word for chair, so you now learned the word for two and so on.

It gets to be pretty complex where you get into entire sentences with tenses and what not and you have to figure the rules out as you go along. The fact you have to figure it out makes it really engaging so you can almost learn by accident.

The thing it won't do for you is make you be able to speak the langauge really well, but nothing will I think. It will give you enough to go around and talk like a caveman about what you want, which is probably enough to then go for something more complex.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have a full set of all the rosetta stone languages and I really like it. The "figuring it out" concept is definitely its greatest strength. They are trying to simulate an immersion environmment, and sometimes you will catch yourself thinking conceptually rather than translating; somehow, you'll just know the answer, without using the english middle-man. There are a lot of different modes that try to reinforce this sort of thing. Sometimes you will see a picture followed by hearing a phrase, or sometimes they give you the phrase, then the picture, sometimes they use subtitles, sometimes they don't, etc. The "guided tours" are definitely the best way to use it. It will definitely teach you vocabulary and give you a basic understanding of grammatical structure.

That said, the biggest problem with it is it doesn't teach you the actual formal rules. I tried to learn German with it about 6 months ago and I was bewildered by the German grammar. After I looked up some information on this internet thing, I realized that it would be almost impossible to teach those specific concepts with the Rosetta Stone method. So it seems that certain languages work better than others. Also, my other beef with it is that the course is exactly teh same for every language, so if you try learning more than a couple languages with it, you won't have to "figure things out" anymore, because you might remember from the last time you used it.

It works best in conjunction with other methods. It's a useful and fun way to learn lots of vocabulary and get a good intuitive understanding of the basic rules. Supplement that with some formal textbooks and/or real conversation and you should be set.

~MagicMan

[IggyWH]

One good thing about Rosetta is they offer a 6-month money back guarantee with no questions asked. I inquired about a refund, they emailed me a return order number and instructions on where to send it. They didn't even ask why I wanted to return it.

I've been a little too busy to really get into it like I wanted to. Still not sure if I'll send it back yet or not, I still got a month or so to go with my guarantee.

They also have a pretty much fully functional demo on their website. It says you have 10 minutes to try it out, but when I did the demo, I took an hour going through the first Spanish lesson and wasn't kicked off or anything.