My goal is to learn atleast one foreign language this year.

[harmin]

I am planning to learn a new language this year. Spanish and french are on my top todo list.Can you please suggest any online resources as I already searched google but couldn't find any easy to learn site.

[ad14n994]

thats great, i like your goal, that encourage me to learn again about english, i think my english is bad.i think u should have a dictionary for that two languages, and buying some books that like "french for dummies".

[daveking]

Your goal is great ! Learn Chinese I suggest, If you like I can teach you because I am a Chinese, email me ~

[Fergal]

Harmin, thanks for sharing your goal with us. Have you looked at Amazon.com, they have a huge array of books, dictionaries and other language learning tools.

Have you decided what language you wish to learn?

Why do you want to learn a new language, having a strong reason behind why you want to do it will act as a strong motivator?

[silent_thunder]

I am learning german!! One simple reason the scripts od german and english are exactly similar, and german is a phonetic language easy to learn

[Nazreen]

Try the BBC Languages website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/) harmin. It has both Spanish and French and has some videos so you can learn by hearing a native speaker talk. I got this site when I googled it. There are a lot more websites in the search results so I cannot put them all here.

The thing with online language websites is that most are just for beginners. It would be good if you get yourself a book or cd/dvd to guide you through the more advanced topic of the language you're trying to learn.

[Hurbel2k]

spanishpod.com

[harmin]

Thanks everyone.There is no any strong reason.This is my hobby to learn a new language.I can speak in 6 Indian languages-Assamese,Bengali,Gujrati,Nepali,Hindi and Marathi.Now I am highly interested in foreign language.

[Fergal]

You obviously have excellent language skills Harmin. Having travelled in India and met with lots of Indian people in England, I've always been very impressed with the number of languages many Indian people can speak.

Is Nepali an Indian language?

[silent_thunder]

No nepali is not indian, but anyway india is home to more than 1000 dialects. If you are in India you will be learning 3 languages minimum and the maximum depends on your skills..I know 4 languages..learning the Fifth (ie) german :)

[jackmcmanus21]

I want to learn Portuguese.

[DEADMAN]

harmin At first mind your second post. You should buy books and dictionary which are easy than going through website.


can speak in 6 Indian languages-Assamese,Bengali,Gujrati,Nepali,Hindi and Marathi.
Nepali language is the national language of Nepal, not the stupid India. There had been controversy few months back too that India said Nepal was their land and showed that India owns Nepal in their Tv channel, which is bluddy stupidness. Don't repeat such mistakes. And I'm not offending your thread too.

[harmin]

I exactly don't know about the origin of Nepali but it speaks in India.There are so many Nepali's in India and I have a good friend who speaks pure Nepali.

[youbetcha1018]

I am planning to learn a new language this year. Spanish and french are on my top todo list.

Your goal is cool. Learning another language is just like adopting anther culture. Just had a question, why would you need to learn these languages? Is it a necessity in your job? Or you would just like to visit Spain and France then use the languages? Anyway, Daveking suggested that maybe you would love to learn mandarin too. Btw Dave, I know a little of mandarin cuz I travel alot in China.:)

You can check the internet for a free tutorial for those languages that you want to learn. But you know what? I use Babelfish translation if I am communicating with my foreign people. It is useful to me.:)

[chica]

Ok! Um if you want to learn chinese, MIT (the college) has a program that is free that has a wonderful free chinese program that you don't need a book for. Check there for french too. You do need a book but it is like taking a free class. Check if your library has it. What is your first language? If it is a romance language (french, spanish, italian, etc...) it would be easier to learn one of those. If your first language is english try latin then learning one. It is supposed to make it easier. I can speak a little french (very) and latin is really helped(helping) me learn it.

I wish you the best of luck!

[Fergal]

Chica, I'v also heard that learning Latin is a great foundation for learning other languages. But is it worth the effort to learn it, considering that it is not really spoken any more? Would it not be better to spend the time learning the language that you really want to learn?

[Kay]

I studied Latin in high school for a few years - not through choice, but because it was given to the top two classes in their year. The teacher used to go nuts about people calling it a dead language when so many are based on it. My friend went on to study Latin further and eventually worked as a translator. She said it was helpful to know and surprising how much of it hadn't changed a lot.

I hated it though. :D

I learned French though I have barely used it in decades, and studied Afrikaans and Zulu for a few years in South Africa in my youth. Couldn't get two much more useless languages when it comes to global reach though...

If I were to choose now, I think I'd be learning Chinese. My son's teaching himself Japanese online. I can ask him about it if you want details.

[Kay]

I am planning to learn a new language this year. Spanish and french are on my top todo list.Can you please suggest any online resources as I already searched google but couldn't find any easy to learn site.

harmin, I was just thinking there...do you care much about whether you have a paper qualification or would you be happy just to have the knowledge at your disposal?

The reason I ask is there's The Open University. It's a well respected distance learning institution in the UK and has been around for decades. They have free courses (outwith the degrees themselves) available online which come under the name of OpenLearn. Anyone anywhere can use them and they're more informal but sound pretty comprehensive. The information is sourced from the degree course themselves it says.

http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/get-started/get-started-learner.php

I've had it bookmarked forever as something to go back and look at when I had time. Thanks for giving me a reason to! :D I noticed in the extensive list of their Learnspace units, one called "Finding Information in Modern Languages" which might or might not help you find resources. The Modern Language section's about half way down.

This is the list of all the Learning units offered and subjects covered:

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/index.php

Hope that helps! Even don't find what you need within that Modern Languages one I mentioned (http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=2377) there might be in amongst the other sites listed in Related Educational Resources near the bottom of the right hand column. It's a place to start anyway. :)

(Just as a general observation as well; the units can be anything from 4 to 100 hours long. The really good news is there's a Business and Management section too which draws the coursework from Introductory right up to Masters level. Who says learning's too expensive? :D)

Ok, I'm not wanting to veer off topic so will leave that there and wish you good luck in your search, harmin.

[chica]

Latin was technically not worth it. But, it did help me start to "rewire" my brain to work with different word order. I am still taking it, and just by being around it so much I can start to translate Italian. A bit odd but I am okay with it. hehe

Kay you are very helpful! I was actually looking for a class on law. Seeing no cc offers any law type class. I am thankful they do. So... You just saved me about 5 hours... Now I just need to figure out what do with those 5 hours. =D

If you are wanting to learn any language try Pimsleur. My parents both learned fluent german through them. It was amazing. I learned mediocre Spanish in about a month. I would defientally suggest them.

[Kay]

Latin was technically not worth it. But, it did help me start to "rewire" my brain to work with different word order. I am still taking it, and just by being around it so much I can start to translate Italian. A bit odd but I am okay with it. hehe

Kay you are very helpful! I was actually looking for a class on law. Seeing no cc offers any law type class. I am thankful they do. So... You just saved me about 5 hours... Now I just need to figure out what do with those 5 hours. =D

If you are wanting to learn any language try Pimsleur. My parents both learned fluent german through them. It was amazing. I learned mediocre Spanish in about a month. I would defientally suggest them.

Good, I'm glad it was a help to you. :D I come across a lot of topics when I'm doing research for articles and often tuck anything interesting away to look at later. It's finding it again that's the hard part in amongst them all. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the Pimsleur tip, chica. I'll no doubt add that to my collection.

[deepak_sharma]

Hermin go for Mandarin If you really want to learn a good foreign language. Also its the most common spoken language in world.

[Kay]

I want to learn Portuguese.

Hi, jack, apologies first of all for missing your post before now. Are you wanting to learn online? Here's free online lessons.

This is the Portuguese language link (http://fsi-language-courses.com/Portuguese.aspx)

This resource looks to be extremely useful, not just for Portuguese but for many languages. It states on the homepage the courses are in the public domain and were originally designed by the US Government but have no affiliation with them. The FSI (Foreign Service Institute) is an independent non-profit organisation.

Current languages listed are (and quite a few of these I haven't heard of!) :


Amharic, Arabic, Bulgarian, Cambodian, Cantonese, Chinese, Chinyanja, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hausa, Hindi, Hebrew, Hungarian, Igbo, Italian, Kituba, Korean, Lao, Luganda, Moré, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Sinhala, Swahili, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Twi, Vietnamese, Yoruba

The site's been updated in April this year so the information's not outdated.

FSI Language Courses (http://fsi-language-courses.com/)

Hope that helps. :)

[Johnhanry]

Yes indians know than 3 languages. Here we can see people of different states and countries speaking in many different languages.

[Kay]

I'm always impressed by how many non-native English speakers can speak English. In a way those of us that grew up speaking it can be so lazy! We expect everyone else to have learned English because it's so commonly used. I can speak a little French, Latin and learned some Afrikaans and Zulu as a child when I lived in South Africa as I mentioned before but as for being fluent in anything other than my mother tongue, I'm not.

If I were to choose a language to learn today, I don't know what would be the most useful. I know deepak mentioned Mandarin as the most common but for business needs, would that still be the best choice? That's a genuine question I'm asking.

[Fergal]

Do you plan on doing business in any other language Kay?

What is your motivation for learning a new language?

I agree with you that English speakers are generally very lazy when it comes to learning other languages, we generally expect everyone else to speak to us in English.

[Kay]

Well, I don't know Fergal. I'm trying to think ahead and I notice more and more here that the stores are quietly adding a lot of Spanish in their signage and point of sale. I think it's Spanish anyway. It's whatever the official language of Mexico is. So if they think they need to do that, maybe the next thing they'll need is bilingual staff. I guess I should double check what language it is LOL.

My mind goes off at a tangent sometimes and I don't pursue things but it's something I'm thinking about for the "would be nice to do" list. I don't want to learn something that I'd never use.

[Fergal]

Kay, have you considered other ways that you could spend the time, that will be required to learn a new language? Don't get me wrong, learning a new language is a great thing to do and very beneficial in lots of different ways, not least because it helps exercise your brain.

[Kay]

Kay, have you considered other ways that you could spend the time, that will be required to learn a new language?

Sorry I'm not understanding what you mean there, Fergal. Maybe I should grasp English first LOL. Please expand. :)

[Nazreen]

Well, time is very precious Kay. I think this is what Fergal is referring to. If you want to learn a new language, there must be a motivation behind it. If you think that you'll be able to use Spanish in the future, then I think that you should go for it. If not, you can still learn if you're eager in learning the language. Otherwise, as Fergal has said that there are other ways that you could better spend your precious time on.

[Fergal]

Sorry I'm not understanding what you mean there, Fergal...

As Nazreen stated Kay, you might want to consider how long it will take you to learn a new language and then ask yourself could that time be better spent doing something else. Maybe you could even spend that time getting a little more sleep.

[AlexMathew012]

I suggest you to learn Spanish language. This is highly demanded language these days. There are many institutes and coaching classes available or you may learn this online also.

[Fergal]

I suggest you to learn Spanish language. This is highly demanded language these days. There are many institutes and coaching classes available or you may learn this online also.
Where is the demand for Spanish coming from Alex? Is the downturn in the Spanish economy affecting that demand?

[Clint Cora]

Where is the demand for Spanish coming from Alex? Is the downturn in the Spanish economy affecting that demand?

Don't forget that Spanish can open up pretty well the entire continent of South America for business.

[Princeoftart]

Hey Harmin! I like your goal really much! I'm too a language learning fan :) Currently I'm focusing on improving my English and learning Korean~ Well sometimes life is just
too busy to allow me to do this everyday...

Maybe you should try out Rosetta Stone? It is a language learning software and I think it provides a very effective way of language learning...

All the best in achieving your goal =)

[enajohn]

A language that will be bothe useful and easy is advisible. There are some lagguages that are not only easy to learn but mostly used in today's professional life such as french, dutch and spanish.

[jole]

I am learning Polish at the moment, and in about one year I plan to start with spanish. I use livemocha.com for learning in begining, and later I find books and study by myself...

[Clint Cora]

Maybe you should try out Rosetta Stone? It is a language learning software and I think it provides a very effective way of language learning...



Have you personally been through a Rosetta Stone program? I hear both positive and negative comments about their programs. Since they are not inexpensive, I would like to hear more feedback from past users. Anybody here with experience with Rosetta Stone?

[finejewellerys]

personally, i think you should learn one firstly.because of the popularity,i think spanish language is your primary choice.you should learn it firstly to become familiar.It is very helpful to you if you learn it well.

[jole]

Have you personally been through a Rosetta Stone program? I hear both positive and negative comments about their programs. Since they are not inexpensive, I would like to hear more feedback from past users. Anybody here with experience with Rosetta Stone?

I had opportunity to try for english, my friend has some version. I am not impressed. Livemocha.com has really similar concept of learning, so I think it's much better to use livemocha.com for free, then use Rosetta Stone.

[GlobeNat]

Nice goal actually! And if you learn one more foreign language every year in 5-6 years you should be just great!
Don't forget about Chinese and Japanese - they are much needed everywhere.

[Tohami]

One of the best places I found online in the past is http://www.lingq.com/

They have a very simple, engaging and effective approach to learning new languages. I've also interviewed the founder Steve Kaufmann about his success story (part of my interviews series with ultra successful people about their secrets of success...I've interviewed over 120 people so far).

Check LingQ.com out, I'm sure you'll like it.

[td2011]

I find it amazing when people from different countries feel their english is bad when it's not their first language. Many English people never learn to speak another language. When I visit a foreign country I'm always so impressed with the level of spoken English.