Any good software for learning a foreign language?

bernie · #1 03-13-2007, 05:02 AM

I've seen a couple, but they have pretty mixed reviews.

Any recommendations or experiences with them?

b

edit: Title edited. Just a little reminder to everyone to put a little thought into making titles clear or interesting.

nyc999 · #2 03-13-2007, 05:27 PM

My friend swears by Rosetta Stone, although I have no personal experience.

Do you have a specific language in mind - you might get better answers.

TheMetetron · #3 03-13-2007, 05:29 PM

Rosetta Stone is grossly overrated. It will teach you basic words fairly well. Anything more advanced or conversational is pretty much hopeless.

I'm going to guess that living in the country of the language you want to learn isn't possible? I'd try to get a tutor who is a native speaker. That will at least be close.

It's incredibly hard to teach yourself a language correctly.

TheMetetron · #4 03-13-2007, 05:30 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Do you have a specific language in mind - you might get better answers.

[/ QUOTE ]

This would be extremely helpful.

jba · #5 03-13-2007, 05:59 PM

I'm interested in this as well. I've been thinking about taking a class at a local private language school: boston language institute. The classes are pretty small (around 2-4 students), but I suspect what really matters is how good the teacher happens to be.

I'd like to learn vietnamese. Anyone have any experience?

FluffyTiger · #6 03-13-2007, 06:01 PM

What's good for Spanish?

cmoke · #7 03-13-2007, 06:04 PM

I have Rosetta Stone and it is great! It costs alot compared to other software for a reason. It works better than any other method I have been through including high school classes for three years. Doesn't hurt to get it on the company dime though.

bernie · #8 03-13-2007, 06:08 PM

[ QUOTE ]
My friend swears by Rosetta Stone, although I have no personal experience.

Do you have a specific language in mind - you might get better answers.

[/ QUOTE ]

Korean or Spanish for starters.

b

bernie · #9 03-13-2007, 06:12 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Rosetta Stone is grossly overrated. It will teach you basic words fairly well. Anything more advanced or conversational is pretty much hopeless.

I'm going to guess that living in the country of the language you want to learn isn't possible? I'd try to get a tutor who is a native speaker. That will at least be close.

It's incredibly hard to teach yourself a language correctly.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've heard very mixed stuff on Rosetta Stone. It really doesn't seem to favor either way.

As far as conversational, to me, the only real way to get that fluent is to live there. So I'm not aiming my sights that high. To me, it would probably sound more broken than foreigners coming here. Yet, even those foreigners can get their points across. Complete fluency is way on the back burner.

b

Kintamayama · #10 03-13-2007, 07:36 PM

As others have said, it is very difficult to gain any sort of real competency in a foreign language just studying by yourself. The next best thing to actually living in the country where the language is spoken would probably be to find a college with a good language program, one in which only the language being studied is spoken in the classroom (in other words, no English).