Posted on 01/01/2023 9:29:20 AM PST by EEGator
Has anyone learned a foreign language as an adult using an online website? I’m looking to learn a foreign language via online “schooling” and was hoping to get some FReepers feedback. Thank you in advance.
I started learning Polish on YT as well.
I also want to learn Mandarin.
Duolingo discontinued the forums, although they are still archived. Which is really disappointing because that was actually one of the best things about it. Generally if you have a question, if you went through the forum, you would find your answer.
Had to laugh with you. We have a lot of relatives in the Crossville Tenn. area.
:)
This is true. It is best way.
My DH lived in France for 2 years and is fluent.
I took conversational French privately in HS. When I visited Paris, I could barely understand as they spoke so quickly...and my response time was so slow.
Bookmark
Thx!
Check out this guy.....https://www.youtube.com/@xiaomanyc
I watch Polish TV. I used to watch some of their serials, like “Klan” and “M Jak Miłość”.
I followed a fantastic Polish series called “Stulecie Winnych” which traced a Polish family from 1914 to 1989. I am now rewatching it with the Polish subtitles, and I find I understand a lot of it now.
The New Testament in a target language is my favorite language learning tool. Every time I read Holy Writ for the first time again, I see facets and nuances I never noticed before! For example, the Turkish phrase kendine keni (he, to himself) opened my eyes to the fact that it was the villains of our Lord’s parables who talked to themselves!
e-sword.net provides an excellent free resource for the Bible in 100+ languages.
Do you guys speak Jive?…
I’ve put together my own program.
Honestly, giving myself a few months of consistent comprehensible input has really been a game changer for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7T3Os4GM-g&t=417s
I’m able to read the simple, restricted-vocabulary book with a level of understanding I didn’t think I’d achieve so quickly.
Consistency is key. I’ve made a pledge to not go to bed without going through my flash cards, watching some Italian YouTube, working through my grammar book, and starting with the free bits of Ouino (which I will buy when I’ve exhausted the free content on YouTube). If you can be consistent and just keep chugging along, you can’t help but improve.
And Babbel was pretty useless for me.
I haven't availed myself of foreign language tracks on my Bluray movies as much. A recent Donnie Yen movie was all spoken Chinese. Perhaps Mandarin. Didn't even have subtitles or an English sound track. A bit difficult to follow.
My personal experience. Took Latin in Cath School in the 60s because all the priests could teach it and one gave us Cs for just being quiet in class while he and the brightest guy interpreted Caesar.
Then two years of French and no one in SoCal I knew understood it. But one of the priests was French and we took French.
Till I was 12 my grandparents lived with us. Siciians. But every one in our g\house wanted us to be good in English so no Italian. Missed opportunity.
Started traveling in my 50s. France and Italy a lot. I found the longer I stayed in a country and lived in peoples houses the more I picked up. Not real efficient, but after 6 weeks or so I greatly increased my vocabulary all of the methods here in play. TV, conversation, shopping eating out newspapers etc. If i stayed somewhere 18 months or so I think I would be doing complete sentences and asking people fewer questions. Living there would get me right, but need more time.
My worst experiences tapes in spanish learned more working in prisons especially being cussed out and i am a whizz at menus. Dar me la taco ensalada por favor.
Best wishes.
Thank you for the information. I’m good with doing something daily.
I already meditate twice daily.
Yep, foreign tv. I watch a lot of French and German shows on MHZ Choice, all of which have English subtitles. I watch on my laptop and keep additional windows open with google translate and English-French / English-German dictionaries.
Huge added benefit — virtually no Woke shite in the European shows. Women are still women (and gorgeous) and men are still men.
It was my wife's first trip to a non-English speaking country. She was confident enough to take the trains, visit some museums and grab lunch while I was actively presenting my paper and listening to others.
In the evening, we took the train downtown. 15 miles from our hotel. As the train reached our destination, the operator announced they rail workers were on strike. Oh joy! We found a nice Thai restaurant for dinner, then the adventure to get back to the hotel started. The buses were striking too. We located a bus station and the cabbies were having a field day with all the opportunities. We were able to hire a cab to get us back to the hotel and did it all in Italian. I'm back to Italian again in Duolingo and making fine progress.
I worked in Chile, Argentina, Ecuador and Mexico almost 50 years ago. Watching TV, listening to radio, and going to movies (with English subtitles) really helped me a lot. Unfortunately, I just learned a few hundred nouns, a handful of verbs, and almost no grammar, so I sounded like a complete idiot. But, that rudimentary learning plus a lot of hand gestures got me by. Some friends in Chile were very complimentary on my pronunciation and urged me to go farther.
The most amazing thing was a guy I met in Chile who spoke absolutely PERFECT American midwest English. I asked him where he had studied in the States and it turned out he had never been to the USA. He taught himself pronunciation by watching American movies! But he also had excellent grammar as well.
It sounds like Duolingo might be a good addition to my own mashed-up course.
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