Voice Recorder

[Lola]

Has anyone had any luck with picking up Spanish by listening to voice recordings? I saw a recorder on sale this week and thought it might come in handy. When I was in school I memorized history lessons like this, but I am not sure about language. I figure if I can find some stuff online and record it, I can listen at bedtime and soak in some information.

[charahome]

When I was learning the correct pronunciation for the English language, I invested on a recorder. I listened to lectures, peoples conversations, and TV shows. I can remember slowing it down when I had difficulty understanding the pronunciation. IT was a great addition to my pronunciation learning.

[linguaholic]

A voice recorder only makes sense to me if you are about memorizing specific information. If you would just like to listen to the language, you could just turn on the (internet) radio in language X I guess, no?

I recently used a voice recorder in my Classical Chinese class...However, I did this because our teacher is talking sooo much and is sharing soo much knowledge, so that it is impossible to write down everything. Like this, I can listen to the lecture again and make additional notes and moreover I can use it to prepare myself for the next exam (I had an exam in Classical Chinese today but there will be another one in a few month hehe).

[Marico]

I have lad luck reading Spanish aloud and then listening to what I read. Since I am using more than once sense, there is more of a chance that I will retain and understand it. I find during this doubles the speed at which I learn a language.

[Lola]

I have read that if you listen to something while you fall asleep, your brain retains the info. That is why I thought buying the recorder might be a good idea. Recording television shows might help me, too. I just feel like I pick up more, with various teaching tools. Just studying gets boring, sometimes.

[Papryus]

When I was in school I memorized history lessons like this, but I am not sure about language.

That sounds really interesting. What process did you use to memorize the history lessons? Was it just listening to the lessons over and over again, falling asleep with them playing, or something else?

I'm thinking of using the webcam/microphone on my computer to record myself speaking in spanish. I'm hoping that if I keep making and watching these recordings, then I can fine tune my pronunciation and comfort with the language.

[SirTenenbaum]

Could you just download and listen to podcasts in the language you're interested in? It would probably be nice to listen to a native speaker as a model, and you would just download the podcast than having to record. An interesting podcast for Spanish is "News in Slow Spanish" if that's interesting for you.

[rgaz83]

I have read that if you listen to something while you fall asleep, your brain retains the info.

It doesn't really help you retain any more than if you actively listen when you're awake. It is, however, a good idea for getting in "extra" listening time that you might otherwise not get. In that case, it may help you. But it's definitely not the "magical fix" that some people make it out to be. 

[Kaynil]

A recorder is excellent to record yourself, forget about it for a few days and then listen to it. That's a way to realise how clear you're sounding. The trick is that when you're listening to the recorder you have forgotten exactly what you were saying so you have to pay attention to it. You can actually catch some shortcomings you didn't know you had this way.

[OddVisions]

I haven't tried this on such a scale yet, but I plan to in the oncoming future when I go back to college in the Fall;  I'm still unaware if I'll need to take Spanish III or not, but I'm certain I will take it just to be safe. If that is to happen, then I'm going to record as a professor speaking usually stresses the diction and colloquy necessary to speak a foreign language eloquently by that point in the class hierarchy.