Hoping to learn a new language? Maybe you should brush up a bit on that high school french to ensure you pass the language test. Maybe you’re getting transferred somewhere and want a head start. Maybe you just have too much time on your hands. Heaven knows I do. Here are five simple resources to help you improve your language skills.
- Rosetta Stone - As far as I know, this is the most popular language learning program there is. They’re a bit pricey, but they’re the industry standard for this sort of thing. (P.S., if you work for State, I’m told we can get these for free, let me know if you can confirm or deny!) There’s a six month, money-back guarantee, so try before you buy. Take a look at their selection of languages.
- BBC Language Courses - BBC is a trusted name and these courses are free. The selection isn’t great, but they offer Mandarin in addition to the standard European languages. They also offer 12 week courses for four languages and promise a “BBC Certificate,” which I imagine looks awfully good on a resume for a free course.
- eduFire - eduFire is an online tutoring site that promises “live video learning.” This is sort of a social media foray into learning, so buyer beware. They offer a wide selection of languages. On the plus side, some courses are free and some charge, so there’s a lot of flexibility depending on what you want. FYI, you do need a webcam.
- Take a quick trip. If you want to learn a European language and you live in the U.S. (or Europe) it shouldn’t be hard to take a long weekend somewhere that speaks your language. Haiti has some nice beaches. Try your adventurous side by practicing Dutch in Suriname. One weekend will likely do you more good than a month of a course. This option may not be the most cost effective or, in all honesty, the most effective period, but it’ll be fun.
- Word2Word - Ok, you’re cheap, and BBC doesn’t offer the language you want to learn. Lucky for you, Word2Word has assembled quite a list of free resources for every language from Abenaki to Xhosa. (No Guarani though, so you’ll have to stick with Spanish if you go to Paraguay.) It’s the only one on this list that works for the lanugage I’m learning this year (in keeping with my resolution).
Have I forgotten anything? Do you have a better site/resource? Let us know in the comments!
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sharedtalk.com
Practice foreign languages with foreigners who want to learn your language.
But seriously, the age of language learning is over. Google translate gets more and more sophisticated by the day. A telephone translator will be out any moment. Iphones instantly connect you to a on the spot phrase writer in any language.
I know many people with livelihoods invested in the language industry say that something intangible will be lost through the machines. But instead of spending hundreds of hours with flash cards and grammar drills, why can’t we just study the culture?
Apple’s iTunes Store has many foreign language options- either via podcast or app store. I bought ArabicPod101 app and have been doing through some lessons. There’s plenty of free podcasts as well.
Here’s my $.02, as a language teacher who has studied language acquisition:
Sharedtalk.com is another great resource for learning conversational skills, and also for building relationships/finding friends with folks in other countries. Unfortunately, the site itself can be a bit buggy at times, and it can be hard to keep up with the people you meet. However, the audio/video chatting feature is really great, and nothing can replace speaking with a native to improve your grammar and pronunciation.
Rosetta stone: I really am not a fan of this program. In language-learning terms, we say that that program focuses on “accuracy” over “fluency”. Accuracy is, well, the preciseness with which you can speak a language. Fluency is how well you can make yourself understood. In language learning, should come first, then accuracy. Trust me, it’s better to sound like a moron but be understood than not be able to say more than a couple things, but know how to say them correctly and confidently. Rosetta stone’s grammar is quite random, and it starts off the same in each language. For instance, if I remember correctly, among the first words you learn are: boy, girl, elephant, aeroplane. The first two are good. The second two…wtf? It also focuses almost entirely on grammar. While grammar is good, studying it primarily can lead to someone who can read and perhaps write well, but not speak confidently, as they are always second-guessing their grammar.
Taking a trip: I second this. My mother speaks 5 languages (I am envious) and spoke German to me all the time as a kid. In fact, we still use many German phrases in our house. However, I do not actually *speak* German, unlike my mother. In the summer of 2007, I went to Switzerland for 6 weeks to travel a bit and stay with some friends, and I found that, given even my small amount of prior exposure (which does make a huge difference, if it is an early exposure such as mine, but still…), by the end of the 6 weeks I had gone from being able to say a few words to being able to read a front-page newspaper article and grasp about 75% of it. If I had stayed another 6 weeks, I would have been conversational. I’ve slipped a little bit, since I have not had much practice since returning stateside, but it did make a huge difference in ability.
Word2Word: I hadn’t found this before, but it looks cool!
I just wanted to comment on Google translate and online services in general. I think Steve’s point is valid, but these services are far from the standard needed to replace traditional translators. I urge you to run some Korean text through one of those sites and see if you’re satisfied.
PF: Oh yes, believe me, I know. I work in South Korea, actually, and at times I previously had to resort to online translators to communicate with my former boss (thankfully, my new one speaks at least a modicum of English). They are unreliable at best, and dangerous at worst - many times the words that your own text is translated into bear little resemblance to what you originally wanted to say, and the results can be potentially offensive. The the same thing can occur when going the opposite (going from foreign-language to English) direction. By the way, odd that you should choose Korean as an example, PF - do you live there?
No, I don’t live in Korea. I lived in China for a while and would have used that as an example, but the google translation is actually pretty decent for that language.
I studied Korean on my own for a while, and tried to use those sites as a study aid. Not very helpful. I also seriously considered joining the military for cryptography, and if you ask anyone that has been through DLI they’ll all say Korean is the hardest language to learn.
It’s certainly very difficult. There are a million different levels of politeness, and no “neutral” way to talk to someone - Hegemonist, it’s a diplomatic nightmare of a language - everyone is either higher or lower than you - never equal.
I usually have quite a good deal of skill at picking up languages (not to brag - I’ve been told this by many people), but I have had the damnedest time with Korean. I have a vocabulary of about 250 words at this point, but only a few different sentence structures. I have studied Japanese, which is apparently similar in grammatical structure, but I can barely see it (though many words are similar student in Korean: haksaeng, student in Japanese: gaksei). Previously I had heard that Japanese was the most difficult, but really, after living here for a year, I think it’s Korean. Not only that, but due to their history of isolation, they are very un-used to hearing foreigners try to pronounce their language, so you have to have a really good accent or people are going to look at you like you’re speaking Swahili.
Regarding resources, have you considered the tools for reading? How can we lower the barrier of reading in a foreign language?
One possibility is help from Google Translate, as mentioned in your discussion. It would be ideal to have a sentence translated (not just a word at a time) when you needed it, including text in links. Would that make reading a Korean newspaper easier for a learner? You can try it at http://mefluent.com. Let me know what you think if you do, via the email I entered or though the site. –larry
I highly recommend ChinesePod.com and the sites that are part of the Praxis Language community. If you use ChinesePod, you can connect your vocabulary lists to Skritter (www.skritter.com), which will help you with memorization and reading and writing.
Give this one a shot: http://fieldsupport.dliflc.edu/
I would not exactly call Google or Bablefish’s translations anything spectacular, let alone enough to erode the need to learn a language. It can help with very simple present-tense sentences, but falls short when you need to work in the language. Native-speakers know when you use it.
Plus I’m all for the BBC courses- though had no idea they offered a “certificate.” I’m 2/3 of the way through Ma France and NOW I find this out? Ugh.
Anyone interested in the lo-down on a State Department language exam from someone who actually took and passed one in the, egad, “Georgian” language? The test alone will demonstrate why language acuisition is still important. I won’t bore you with the details unlss anyone is really interested.
BTW, great blog!
@Maria–details, please! My mandarin isn’t good enough to test, yet. I’m crossing my fingers that I can pass the QEP and Orals without it, then test to raise my score on the list. Any pointers on what areas to focus on would be greatly appreciated.
I took the test after working independently on my Georgian while living in-country for a number of years, in other words no formal FS training at all.
I had already passed the orals, but my score was not high enough to get an immediate conditional offer of employment (meaning they would not commence the clearance stage). I was told at the end of the day of the orals that according to my profile, I appeared qualified to take the Georgian exam that would boost my score into this category.
The test is in three parts, measuring highly practical applications, given in the congtext of a conference call with two other people - a foreign national/native speaker of the language who I assume is employed by the State Department language program, and another American at the other end, who may or may not speak the language, depending on its esotericity. Georgian is WAY esoteric (a unique script, not a slavic language) and I got the impression that the second person did not speak the language.
Part 1 consists of about 5 minutes of pure conversation with the native speaker. This is the only portion of the test that you can drive according to your own topical, linguistic strengths.
Part 2 consists of a consecutive translation exercise which you pointedly cannot drive. The native speaks, you interpret for the benefit of the American, then the American speaks and you interpret for the benefit of the native.
Part 3 is the killer. You are given three topics from which you must choose one, for the purpose of giving an extemporaneous speech lasting about 5 minutes. Once you choose your topic, you are given 7 minutes of silence to prepare your remarks, then you’re on.
I assume that the entire call was being recorded.
Some interesting intelligence: no matter what languages you are fluent in, take the test in the language that is not on the critical needs list BECAUSE if you pass your initial test, you will be given the opportunity to take a SECOND qualifying test but only if it is in a critical need area. I.E. don’t shoot your wad early, and you can get 2 quals insteadof 1. I was told by my counselor after passing the first test that if I could also take a Russian test, I would be catapulted to the top of the hiring pool. The sad part was that I never studied Russian except to read Cyrillic.
I got the language credit and landed in the hiring pool ust as the last big wave of hiring ended in 2004. Just my luck. If I had been able to do the Russian test I would have been in the Foreign service a few years by now. Instead, I got my Masters in Int’l Development, and have just passed the FSOT, and, like many of you, are waiting to see if Iget past the QEPs.
Best of luck!
@Maria–Thanks for sharing your experience. Based on this, I’ll be lucky to pass the language test with a 2, if and when I get a chance to take it. Out of curiosity, what was the topic of the translation section?
I only remember 2 of the 3 choices - one topic was to discuss the developments in women’s rights/issues in the region since 1991, and the other was what impact that the internet was having/might have in a country to which it was relatively new. I chose the latter because I had been involved in “cutting the internet ribbon” in Georgia and had developed specific enough vocabulary from having done that.
You know, Mandarin while it is not an uncommon language, its difficulty level might make it similar to Georgian in that the scoring system could be different. For Georgian, the State Department issues only a pass or a fail, not a numerical score. So concieveably, a levelof proficiency that might be graded a 2 might in fact be a passing grade.
@Maria–You need a 2 to pass for Mandarin, and it seems you don’t even need to be literate, which I find amazing, and a little disturbing. Looks like I should concentrate on my conversational skills.
http://www.livemocha.com - by far the best free language software available.
@Chase–Thanks! Just signed up for livemocha, and so far it seems pretty cool.
If you pass two of the critical language are you given points for both of the languages or just one?
@Jimmy - Just one. Unfortunately you can’t add the points of multiple tests together. Among the super critical languages, you get a higher number of points for Arabic (MSA, Iraqi, or Egyptian); i.e. all super critical languages get a .4, but Arabic gets a .5. They really need Arabic speakers.
To learn a language, remember how we did it as children. Immersion is the best way. Listen to the language. Find a radio station in that language. Find anything in that language and listen to it over and over. Talking with people or at least hearing them speak the language is important. Being familiar with the tones and the sounds and they way the mouth moves when people speak that language is all very important.
A good tool that I have used is the Pimsleur method. You can buy Pimsleur language lessons from their site, or through iTunes, or Audible, or book stores. This approach is conversational and very good. At least it was for me. I let me 6 year old listen to a Chinese lesson and by the end he was repeating Chinese to me quite well.
Another thing about languages. The spoken/written language is inseparably connected with the culture. If you really want to learn a language well, study the culture and history of the country. Idiomatic phrases are much more easily learned when you understand the background.
Good luck.
The U.S. military operates the Defense Language Institute in California. Their Global Language Online Support System (GLOSS) is a great tool for building intermediate and higher listening and reading skills. The website is:
http://gloss.dliflc.edu/