I am wondering what the best way to learn a language is.
I am also wondering if rosetta stone really works ...
I am willing to pay the steep price if I am guarentteed to be fluent in read , writting , and speaking/communication in that language.

So I am curious if anybody ever used rosetta stone and what there opinon is of it. i.e weather it is the best overall tool to uses to learn a language or if there is better methods, software or ways of learning a human language fast and efficently .

 

What happen to your plan about a farm and living the simple life

 

SO you think farming is simple ? I disagree. Maybe simple in principle but actually getting up everyday to do it is another think.

I still am learning the information and techniques this will take quite some time.

But I also want to know if anybody has tried rosseta stone because I want to also learn or improve on my language/languages

 

Farming in the US requires speaking Spanish fluently..

Thought they were giving away free trials now.. Get it and try it out.. From what I've heard its an excellent program..

 

What happen to your plan about a farm and living the simple life

Or his import/export business or his robots to replace manufacturing or hair care products or fishing business.. This guy is all over the place.

 

Rules of thumb for learning lasnguages

1. Go to the country
2. Get a girlfriend
3. Have her teach you the language

That's how I'd do it.

 

Farming in the US requires speaking Spanish fluently..

Thought they were giving away free trials now.. Get it and try it out.. From what I've heard its an excellent program..

This is the best line I've seen this week. I nominate it for post of the week.

 

Rules of thumb for learning lasnguages

1. Go to the country
2. Get a girlfriend
3. Have her teach you the language

Correct: Works best.

Fluent in 2 to 3 years.

I used Rosetta stone and didn't like it. To much senseless repetition.

Go to the country and work there or do what Papabravo suggested.

 

Correct: Works best.

Fluent in 2 to 3 years.

I used Rosetta stone and didn't like it. To much senseless repetition.

Go to the country and work there or do what Papabravo suggested.

Well I'd rather get a girlfriend than work if I'm going to be in another country -- GRIN!!

 

Rules of thumb for learning lasnguages

1. Go to the country
2. Get a girlfriend
3. Have her teach you the language

That's how I'd do it.

+1 That's the best way.

I tried rosetta stone for Arabic; FAIL. Tried it for spanish; Eh....

Rosetta stone works on what they call the "total immersion" or "instant immersion" (can't remember) principal. It's supposed to be "how a child learns a language." They don't tell you in English "Pelota is Spanish for 'ball.'" They show you a picture of a ball and say "pelota." Then a picture of a boy, and build on your nouns and then some verbs and such. Eventually later on at a higher level they combine the boy and the ball and say a sentence in spanish like "the boy kicks the ball onto the roof" so you can fill in the gaps between boy, kick, and ball.

It's a good idea, but "total immersion" it is not. Total immersion is going to a country, living there, having nothing but the native language spoken in your presence and having no choice but learn it. When I moved to the Philippines and lived in the same house with my wife's family, I was roughly following conversations in tagalog within a month. If asked a simple question, I could usually answer it, but only in English because I felt self conscious about my pronunciation.

Another example is my step daughter. She came to America when she was 5, and spoke like 20 words of English at the time. We enrolled her in Kindergarten and she was in the ESL program, which in my area was almost exclusively for Mexican immigrant kids. We had regular conferences with her ESL teacher, and she was absolutely amazed with her progress; the teacher said she had never seen a kid pick up English that fast. She was fluent within 6 months. It's because we spoke English exclusively at home, whereas most of the Mexican kids that the ESL teacher was used to dealing with, were only exposed to English at school, and their parents spoke Spanish to them. It took those kids a few years to learn English.

There is a whole world of body language, context clues, and first person one-on-one tutoring that, I would say make up 80-90% of learning a language, that Rosetta Stone cannot provide IMO.

Moving to another country probably isn't an option for most people, but you could "immerse" yourself in other ways. I learned (and retained) more Spanish in one year working at KFC than I did in 3 years of high school Spanish class. That's because I worked the drive through & the counter and none of the cooks spoke English. I had to communicate to them what and how much they needed to cook, and also got bored and talked to them when work was slow.

 

Thinking about the Rosetta stone. The day then somebody discover the up now lost Loosewire Rosetta stone. Things will fall into place

 

do you have preference or need for particular language? some are easier and faster to learn (German for example).

17 years ago I was living in Germany when group of Canadian exchange students (English speaking) arrived. They knew few words on arrival but within 2 months got quite fluent. Now I'm married to one of them and she does all the talking.

 

Really the best way is to learn the key phrases you think you will need. Spend 6 months doing it.. Theres websites you can join that you can talk with people that speak spanish that want to help other people learn. They have it for all languages. But you gotta do the same thing and have conversations with people learning english. They arrange it thru skype. This way you can learn the exact dialog of the language you wanna learn. i know cuban spanish is different then mexican spanish which is different then spain spanish. Then just goto the country for 6 months and you should be passable.

 

i know cuban spanish is different then mexican spanish which is different then spain spanish.

When I heard we were pulling in to Spain, I thought it would be a good chance to show off my Spanish skills. Turns out it wasn't.

 

When I heard we were pulling in to Spain, I thought it would be a good chance to show off my Spanish skills. Turns out it wasn't.

Did everyone look at you like an esse'?

 

Did everyone look at you like an esse'?

No they pretended I wasn't there until I directly addressed them, and then acted as if my attempt at two party communication was a huge inconvenience. They're a lot like the French in that way.

 

They knew few words on arrival but within 2 months got quite fluent.

They must have been geniuses. Although young people learn so much faster...

 

Rules of thumb for learning lasnguages

1. Go to the country
2. Get a girlfriend
3. Have her teach you the language

That's how I'd do it.

Then I would learn how to tune out women it two languages.

Great!

 

not really, English and German languages are quite similar, and by staying in a country you are "immersed" in local language and forced to use it. being exchange students, they had to continue taking classes (in German), it is not like they ware on vacation.

 

not really, English and German languages are quite similar, and by staying in a country you are "immersed" in local language and forced to use it. being exchange students, they had to continue taking classes (in German), it is not like they ware on vacation.

That and its proven the younger you are the easier learning multiple languages is. The older you are the harder it is. I think English is like 20%-30% similar to Spanish, French and German. Thats what they told us in HS.spanish was easiest with 33% similarity, then French with liek 28% , and German with what ever the percentage is. Just living in FL with no spanish training at all i can hear spanish conversations and hear the key words and get the gist of what their talking about. But thats only cause so many people here speak spanglish.