spanglish1205 Posted March 28, 2015 Report Share Posted March 28, 2015 Hey guys I posted this on another thread but didn´t get much hits. I was really curious to see if anybody has any other methods to share other than what I am doing. I´d be glad to hear! I usually go through the following programs to study a language:Beginner:-Pimsleur and Michel Thomas during my commute to work. This is good because it is during "dead" time. Pimsleur is especially very good at getting a base, functional level of conversation down. Michel Thomas is okay but better than nothing to help during this "dead" time.-I use Rosetta Stone a little for vocab but its not the greatest - money or time wise.Intermediate/Advanced:-Anki flash cards - EXTREMELY helpful to learning vocabulary. It is a spaced repetition program that will program the cards to reappear at a specified interval for you to be able to retain. There are several shared decks available in each language or you can create your own.-Read newspapers: any new vocab I put into an Anki deck-Read books: start off with children's stories and work up. If you have a kindle you can get a english translation dictionary and every word you highlight is translated and saved. Later on I go and put these words in an Anki deck.-For listening practice I watch TV, movies and TedTalks.-Grammar books of course.-Skype one on one tutoring - definitely the method I've progressed the most with. I use http://www.italki.com/?ref=1555469 which basically connects students and native speaking teachers. You can take advantage of exchange rates so the avg lesson is about $10/hour which pretty much beats any other paid course you can get. You can also connect with other students and exchange languages on Skype for free.Best of luck on your language learning! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Skype Teacher Posted April 2, 2015 Report Share Posted April 2, 2015 hey spanglish interesting on italki rates, they vary quite a bit..there's a couple of things I'd suggest in addition to your good list for those on a bit of a budget. We suggest these for those wanting to learn English with us... 1. Language exchanges in local cafe (offline)... great practice for really getting involved with the language and you can get more in with the local culture for the price of a coffee (I live in Ecuador and maybe should give this a shot). 2. Video games... I love them and play them in French/Spanish for maintaining/improving in these languages with subtitles on. I know there tends to be a stigma with video games but you need to have fun learning a language as the 'camino' is pretty long and you will get distracted if you are not enjoying yourself at least to a certain extent. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spanglish1205 Posted April 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 Hey Mark, Yes italki rates are basically governed on exchange rates and supply/demand. But it usually nets out to around $12/hr depending. You could also meet people and exchange languages for free via skype.So you're an American living in Ecuador? Go outside and talk then lol! Yes video games are good. Having your entertainment in your target language is always a good thing. I also heard some people who switch their settings on their computer and phone to the target language. I should do that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Skype Teacher Posted April 4, 2015 Report Share Posted April 4, 2015 Yes in the phone configuration I used to have it on French but no longer. I'm a Brit living in Ecuador. Where I live there are about 4,000 US citizens, mostly retired. Amazingly a huge amount of them, having lived here for years speak very poor Spanish. I guess they have little need to. Happy Easter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spanglish1205 Posted April 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 6, 2015 Yes thats crazy, same thing happens here with immigrants in the US who go into their own neighborhoods and never learn the language. Sad.Happy easter to u too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VNtomboy Posted April 8, 2015 Report Share Posted April 8, 2015 Oh man I LOVE anki, it helped me learn a ton of vocab for the SATs (which I aced). Also, I'd forget rosetta stone and go with duolingo instead, and another thing I found super helpful is to change the language on your phone to your target language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baburra Posted April 8, 2015 Report Share Posted April 8, 2015 Whenever I want to learn a new language I'd usually just try and repeat a good amount of phrases to myself. If I could, I'd try and work it into my routine by listening to audio of common phrases repeatedly and at some point I'd eventually have them memorized without even putting that much effort into it. After that it's just a matter of practicing pronunciations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lushlala Posted April 8, 2015 Report Share Posted April 8, 2015 Yes in the phone configuration I used to have it on French but no longer. I'm a Brit living in Ecuador. Where I live there are about 4,000 US citizens, mostly retired. Amazingly a huge amount of them, having lived here for years speak very poor Spanish. I guess they have little need to. Happy EasterI find this very strange! I have an English uncle who's lived in Botswana for over 40 years, and he doesn't speak a word of Setswana! Yet my English husband has been in Botswana for about 18 months and can understand bits here and there, and even tries to speak the language. There's a double standard going on because often you'll hear Americans and Brits going on about how important it is for people to learn English if they want to live in their countries, but they don't seem to apply the same logic to themselves LOL I'm not pointing any fingers at anyone as such, just making a glaring observation, that's all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spanglish1205 Posted April 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 8, 2015 VNTomboy, yea I'm at the point where I'm pretty much letting go of Rosetta Stone. If you could find an Anki deck with photos its basically the same thing and a much better use of time. I used DuoLingo a little but the sentences you go over are ridiculous like "The lion is eating the monkey" so I dropped that. Anki and Italki lessons I feel definitely move the needle the most for me.lushlala, yes! you're totally right. I hate that double standard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
languagelover Posted May 4, 2015 Report Share Posted May 4, 2015 I like listening to language podcasts. They often focus on the day to day type of conversations you are likely to have when conversing in a language. Some of the podcasts are free. It's also convenient to be able to listen on a mobile device when you are out and about. It's a good wait to get some language listening accomplished during what would otherwise be downtime--such as waiting for an appointment or standing in line for lunch at a fast food place. Second the Anki recommendation. I wish the mobile Anki app was a bit less expensive, although I understand the developer deserves to be compensated for all the great work on the program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spanglish1205 Posted May 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2015 Hey languagelover, where do you get your podcasts? I think a couple times but cant really find a good app/source. I would love to find a good one.I have an Android and Anki is free on there. If you have an iphone I remember it being like $20 when I tried to download it on my fiances phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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