Advice on Foreign Language Skills

[GroundPounder]

My friend tells me that the Pimsleur courses are pretty good, and from what he's observed they seem to be more helpful than Rosetta Stone. As Eric said, the dialect issue is key.

When my friend was working for the Govt. ( ours ) he said that as a native speaker he could tell almost immediatly where someone was from, whereas a person who had learned Arabic as a second language might not ever really know where someone was from.

He says that the more time where you can listen to a live person speaking the better off that you will be.

For the guys on the ground having a native speaker makes picking out the bad guys a lot easier when you can tell right off the bat that out of 100 folks milling around that there are 98 speaking in X dialect and 2 speaking Y.

Good Luck

 

[llnick2001]

But that's profiling, and that's wrong.

 

[k_smittay]

College courses are the way to go to learn a new language. Rosetta stone will teach you crap. It will help expand on a basic understanding but will not help you learn from scratch very well. Don't buy into the hype.

 

[SailingSkyHawk]

Does anyone have any advice on what a good commercial foreign language product would be? I am particularly interested in learning Arabic.

Sabah al Khair

College courses are the best way to go, but, if you don't have the time or money for it the best way is to:

1. Grab a cheap grammar book, a really good dictionary and the general service list

2. Translate onto notecards the top 100 most common verbs into the language you are looking to learn.

3. If you want to learn pronunciation download free podcasts of language tapes from iTunes, they have them for just about every language.

4. For languages with non phonetic alphabets (like Chinese) forget teaching yourself the written language, just take a class for that. It's a waste of your time and resources to try to teach yourself that stuff without an instructor since a lot of it is idiomatic. The exception is Chinese where you can at least learn Pinyin.

This way works great because you can start using the language quicker and that is really how to learn - especially if you have a knack for languages.

 

[Brett327]

Bottom line here, you're not going to be able to pick up enough of any foreign language "in your spare time" to score high enough on the DLPT to get paid for it - especially something as esoteric as Arabic. I've seen people study latin based languages formally for 4 years in college and score no better than 1s and 2s, so unless you're some kind of linguistic genius, it ain't gonna happen.

Brett

 

[insanebikerboy]

so unless you're some kind of linguistic genius, it ain't gonna happen.

Interesting side point, but a guy I worked for when I was in Monterey used to recruit linguists for the military/DOD. He said the best learners and most "natural" speakers were musicians. Guess it has something to do with being able to hear tones more distinctly.

Flytpay, if you play an instrument, bodes well for you.....if not, you're fvcked! :icon_tong

 

[Flamedog]

I've used several different resources in studying Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin). The best way to learn is by immersion, then taking classes in college. For self study I found that Pimslers worked the best for me. I picked it up faster using that than any other study aid, and it stuck better too. Regardless of the method used to learn the language, you have to continually use it or you will forget. Good luck in your studies!