Quote: (11-01-2011 05:50 AM)Laser Wrote:
In my opinion, the best self-study program is the Michel Thomas Method.
http://www.michelthomas.com/
You can find it for free online pretty easily. After completing the audio-course, my Italian was better than it was after 3 years of classes in college (b student).
I've also done:
Pimsleur - also very good, but kinda slow and repetitive.
Rosetta stone - good for acquiring basic vocab, but not very useful for actually becoming fluent
Another huge study tool I've been using lately is Anki, which is a smart flash card program for acquiring vocab. My vocabulary has been growing leaps and bounds using that thing on my android for 10 min a day.
Once you've completed Michel Thomas, I'd recommend getting some one on one language sessions. I'm doing 1 hour long session per week, and it's been great forcing myself to stumble through an hour of speaking on a regular basis. Fluency has gone way up.
Finally, I try and do a lot of reading and watching short clips on the internet. Check out the easy reader series. They publish them in a bunch of different languages at different vocabulary levels (i.e. A is 600 word vocab, b = 1000, etc).
1++ Michel Thomas. I stumbled upon him during my thirst to learn French (did 5 years in l'ecole secondaire) and I like his style of teaching. He dissects the language in a great fashion.
I tried Pimsleur and disliked it immensely. It was very slow and very repetitive. Why tell me how to say my name in Spanish 1000 times before moving on?? If I don't remember, I can merely rewind the session!
I have Rosetta (for free too) but I didn't like the fact that it's just pictures coming up with basic phrases. Yea if I am walking with a French lizard based on that, I can say, the dogs run or the boys jump but I'll just sound like a noob.
With Michel Thomas, I just load his lessons onto my iphone and then just let it soak in while I ride the transit system. Shyt began to kick in remarkably when I was in DR.
The best thing is as said is to lock down your basic grammar with Michel and then go to a meetup group and talk talk talk.
I learn so much by talking. The learning method is accelerated when you use your language skills instead of just sitting there listening.
Get your grammar and basic phrases down and go out and talk and write down words you are unfamiliar with. Learn them use them when they come back.
Before you know it, you will be flowing.
I helped my wing to hook a Belgian lizard downtown (she spoke ZERO English) just off of French. Bear in mind I'm not a Francophone.
How did I do it? Just thank Michel and French meetup groups.
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