Is there a good, inexpensive way to learn a second language?
I very much want to learn a European language (probably French), but I'm hoping to find a less expensive way than a curriculum like Rosetta Stone that is still thorough. Any ideas?
Yes. My husband and I have learned Mandarin (and continue to learn Mandarin) and have now been working on Spanish. Rosetta Stone is widely advertised but it is expensive and actually the reviews aren't that good. We have used podcasts, Pimsleur tapes and I'm now using All Talk. I think the Pimsleur has been the best for me but it can be boring, so I'd intersperse it with some podcasts. We've actually found that there are a lot better materials for Chinese than Spanish. I don't know about French--my husband speaks that pretty well already because his mom was French. I have writte a hub about our learning Mandarin, which gives more information about our experiences. You should start by looking at podcasts--many of these are free. You sometimes spend a small fee to download transcripts. If you buy a one month fee you can usually download as much as you want. Oh--you also may want to look at your library. We just got a great computer program that is free for us to use from ours. It is a Powerspeak program, which I think uses the name Power Glide. My kids are taking Chinese with this in an online school. It is great.
The Instant Immersion language program available from Amazon is supposed to be good, I can't personally say though. It is between $35 and $45. The reviews on it aren't bad.
In internet there is a lot of courses and E-books with sound track included that are cheap and could help you. The second one is try to practice with some native on the language by skype or by chats.
Your best way is to go to a class and when you have some basics try and speak to as many people who speak that language as possible. CDs can teach you the basics as well, but i find that it doesn't really stick unless you are atually speaking the language in a real scenario.
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by Shil1978 13 years ago
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