Language courses

Guy, I've tried a few of them and the best to me, hands down, is Pimsleur. It is audio based so you can do it while in your car, jogging, etc. Each lesson is 30 minutes long. They sell a dizzying array of entry products but they're all just the first 8, 10, or 16 lessons from the 1st set of 30 lessons (The entire course for a language is 3 sets of 30 lessons). Skip the intro packages and do the set of 30 lessons. I find I need to repeat each lesson 2-3 times to really get it, and I do 1 lesson per day. Pimsleur is very expensive, but for major languages you can often get it from your local library, or at a substantial discount from retailers online.

What I like is that you've really learned what they cover and aren't fumbling thru books to find the right sentence, or trying to string together sentences from tapes that just teach various words.

(cont'd) With just a 30-tape course I knew polite greetings, numbers to understand prices, how to order drinks and food, could ask for simple directions, ask if a room was available, etc. A 15-hour course is not a miracle worker. Your ability will be very limited, but I've found a little language goes a long way. And at 10-15 new words per tape, you'll have a vocabulary of 300+ words that you really know quite well.

The way is works is thru repetition that trails off. For example, you learn the phrase "where is St. Marks square, please?". You might remember it for a few seconds, but they'll ask you to repeat it. Then a little longer goes by before they ask it again (meanwhile you are on a different phrase), then they come back to it. Each interval gets longer and longer, the idea being that its being cemented in memory. You don't learn a huge amount of vocabulary, but you're learning templates. As you learn more words of interest to you, you can plug them in (train station, museum, etc).

You can find a lot of reviews of Pimsleur and other methods you are considering on sites like amazon. Take a look and you'll get lots of feedback.

I've used both Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone. Pimsleur is better for learning handy phrases. And you learn quickly. To actually become somewhat fluent in the language over a longer period I believe Rosetta Stone does a better job. Neither of them are cheap.

I vote for Pimsluer as well. You can get a niuce 30 lesson set for about 100$ (all cheaper on ebay too). The rosetta is quite a bit more expensive - and although I havent used it - seems more PC_interactive vs CD-audio. I found the pimsleur worked for me almost faster in a short time than a full language class I took (at a local language school).

I've used/am using the Rosetta Stone for Italian. I like it because its like a language lab in college. The downside is there's no professor to ask for a clarification and as another response mentioned, you can't use it in the car since its PC based.

We got into Italy and the cab driver pointed us down the pedestrian walk to our hotel, which we didn't find. I walked up to a young and asked where the hotel was. He took us there. It turned out he worked there part time.

I spent an hour or so five nights a week for nine months to get what I consider a basic fluency in Italian. In my experience, speaking the phrases is half the challenge. Understanding the answer is the other half.

Rosetta Stone is very effective for becoming fluent in the long term-I became fluent in Dutch using it (with my Flemish fiancee to help). But, if your goal is just to learn a few phrases, try another source.

Personal preference, but I really like the Michel Thomas series. He teaches Spanish, Italian, French and German. I've gone thru Spanish Complete, Advanced Spanish and now starting on German Complete. It taught me the syntax of the language, rules, verbs, tenses. I was thinking of taking language classes but decided not to after going thru Michel Thomas.
I've tried Pimsleur on Japanase and Italian but i find it too long, repetitious and can't remember things.

Regardless of what course brand you choose, you also have to work on reading and very importantly listening. Listening is something I struggle with. I listen to music, read and watch filns dubbed to help me.

I too am a big fan of the Michel Thomas language program. I also like the Speak and Read series.

The best value for me to date is a program called "Learn to Speak". I used German before doing an exchange program. When I came home I bought Spanish and French (as far as I know they are the only titles).

It has about four computer CD's with about 25 chapters. Chapters are "at the airport", "at the train station", "at the grocery store", "at the pharmacy", etc. Chapters begin with vocabulary for those subjects. It has voice recognition to rate your pronunciation from tourist/red to native/green. As you progress throught the chapter you move from recognizing sentences to answering questions with appropriate sentences. The last stage of each chapter is a conversation with a videotaped clerk, ticket agent, etc. The character recognizes your statements and questions as long as they are in the ballpark and continues the conversation.

I've bought or borrowed (library) many different programs. To date I haven't found any better and the price was cheap.

One program that seems to be used a lot is Instant Immersion. Depending on the version, it's a variety of audio tapes and some very basic vocabulary programs for the computer. They are cheap, and worth half what they cost. You could do better by checking things out at the library.

I've done Pimsleur. It's a good audio program. I like the way they develop from easy words to complex sentences. My biggest concern with Pimsleur is that it's audio. IMHO you need to see words so you recognize them on a menu or know what you are trying to pronounce rather than just mimicing sounds. Could also be a reflection of the quality of my audio gear and/or hearing.

They may have newer programs I haven't seen yet. I would say get pimsleur for the car or jogging but also get a computer program for some study at home.

I just saw at my local library basic courses and advanced by Berlitz. They contain quiet a few CD's.
I also found some basic phrases on the internet for FREE. You will need to do a google search by the language.