Hey, from USA as well. I am a newbie as well and I hope this forum helps you with your language learning. I am here to learn Spanish and maybe some French.
Wow you have been studying a long time. Surely you aren't a beginner like myself. Well I'm a newbie here as well and I hope you get what you are looking for out of this forum.
Google translate, in my opinion, doesn't translate sentences well. I used it during my Spanish 1002 class and it was no help at all. It translates words and small phrases well though.
I never heard of this. I'm sure that translator will hit mainstream and soon everyone will know about it. The idea was brilliant to create a software that translate conversations.
I would love for my son to be bilingual because it will benefit him in the long run. I definitely thing children should learn to speak the language of their heritage.
I have tried flash cards and they do work with single words. However, they aren't much help with sentences. I think I need to find a new approach to learning sentences and just use flash cards for words and short phrases.
No matter how hard I listen to movies in Spanish with the subtitles, I can not comprehend at all. I learn better by reading in Spanish but still it takes me a long time so I become frustrated. I definitely need to improve my listening skills.
I am not a language teacher but I was advise to learn a language that will benefit me. I chose Spanish because it is the second popular language in the United States. It has similarities with the English language. I'm nowhere near an expert on these things but I think Spanish is easier.
I personally do not like Rosetta Stone. I got it free overseas on my deployment and I couldn't get into it. I learned more sitting down with my Spanish teacher which is unbelievable. I am I need of a new program ASAP