Learning another language

[SidewinderINC]

After going to belgium again at the weekend I've really started to feel bad about going to other countries and not being able to speak the language.

So I'm determined to learn some other languages, starting with Dutch.

Does anyone have any experience of learning other languages (outside of school / college) and does anyone know of any good resources, free or paid for?


Cheers

Sinc.

[Greenlizard0]

Of course, sometimes it can't be helped but having somebody there live to interact with you and provide corrections always helps. We had a French girl living with us last year, and my French (untouched for years) improved a lot during her tenure.

I've heard lots of good things about the Rosetta stone as well.

Apparently it was the only "document" found to translate Ancient Egyption Hyroglyphics to Hebrew. Then Hebrew to Latin which meant that people all of a sudden could understand what was on the walls of Pyramids. Interesting factiola..

[phykell]

Michel Thomas?

[SidewinderINC]

Originally Posted by phykell

Michel Thomas?

French, German, Spanish, Italian

Or £5k for lessons.

[cleanbluesky]

http://www.gumtree.com/london/london...ap_1583_1.html

learn french, its the second most common language IIRC and french phrases have come in far more use than anything else when in europe and former colonies

[SidewinderINC]

Originally Posted by cleanbluesky

http://www.gumtree.com/london/london...ap_1583_1.html

learn french, its the second most common language IIRC and french phrases have come in far more use than anything else when in europe and former colonies

French is a language that I will not be learning.

All the belgians I have met do not like speaking french and would rather I spoke to them in english than french if I cannot speak dutch/flemish.
My travels take me to the netherlands and belgium more than anywhere else.

[AboveTheSalt]

You don't plan to learn French, so there is little point in my seconding "Michel Thomas" for you.

Having worked in both Belgium & the Netherlands, I have never felt the need to speak anything other than English. I really can't see any more point in trying to learn either Dutch or Flemish than Welsh or Gaelic.

[SidewinderINC]

Originally Posted by AboveTheSalt

You don't plan to learn French, so there is little point in my seconding "Michel Thomas" for you.

Having worked in both Belgium & the Netherlands, I have never felt the need to speak anything other than English. I really can't see any more point in trying to learn either Dutch or Flemish than Welsh or Gaelic.

The primary language in Wales is English, The primary language in Scotland is English.

I don't feel the need to speak anything other than english, but if we only did things because we needed to then we'd all be a bunch of boring people.

I want to learn Dutch so that I find it easier to get around day to day. reading menus, notices/signs and other things.
I also found myself feeling quite rude when I was out there at the weekend.

[Burble]

TBH Dutch would be pretty far down my list. From talking to colleagues when I've been in The Netherlands they freely admit that they need to be able to speak English because their language is not that widely spoken in comparison to English.

If I were learning a language I'd go for Spanish because the level of English spoken in Spain is by and large at a lower level than the rest of Europe.

I often have ideas about learning another language because I'm often working abroad in our foreign offices but in order to do everyone justice I'd need to learn French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, Swedish, Danish, German & Japanese.

[Pheebs]

Dude, I learned a lot of Mandarin through pimsleur audio cds. You can buy them (ho ho ho) or get them for free at your local library generally. I can still remember pretty much all I learned and I stopped listening to them last year. It's a really good base

Good luck