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Your favorite language program?

 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
376 messages over 47 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 34 ... 46 47 Next >>
hrhenry
Octoglot
Senior Member
United States
languagehopper.blogs
Joined 4890 days ago

1871 posts - 3642 votes 
Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese
Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe

 
 Message 265 of 376
24 February 2012 at 4:00am | IP Logged 
I know Busuu's been mentioned in one of these 33 pages, but I thought I'd bring it up again.

I signed up with them sometime last year when they first offered Turkish as one of their languages, then promptly forgot about them - I'm not really sure why.

Anyway, a couple days ago I was going through old email and was reminded of my account, so I decided to give it another shot.

I'm impressed. I wanted to start at their A2 level course and go from there, but it either wasn't allowed or I wasn't able to figure out how, so I had to go back to the beginner A1 course. I'm glad I did. It's been a really good refresher, as well as picking up some new vocabulary. I'm only about half way through the A1 course after two days, and I can honestly say it's much more complete than, say, Teach Yourself Turkish, or even FSI.

But I think what probably impresses me most is the social factor. Sure, there are other sites that offer a social aspect to learning, but I've not seen so much social interaction as I have on Busuu. Lang-8 comes close, but you don't get the camaraderie of shared courses like you do with Busuu. After every single exercise I completed, within seconds I had corrections, encouragement and requests for friendships. I've not yet tried the chat and other realtime features, but it looks pretty good.

Knowing full well that they didn't have any Georgian course, I still specified that I was learning the language. It gave me the option to search for native Georgian speakers and returned pages of users, so that may be an option for lesser spoken language conversation partners.

Anyway... if you've not yet had a chance to check it out, I recommend it.

R.
==

Edited by hrhenry on 24 February 2012 at 4:02am

2 persons have voted this message useful



Bjorn
Diglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 4628 days ago

244 posts - 286 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English
Studies: German, French

 
 Message 266 of 376
24 February 2012 at 5:09am | IP Logged 
I agree, Busuu is good value for money. You get access to all languages. If you will be away from your computer you can download pdf and mp3's.

They also have apps for iPhone/iPad.
1 person has voted this message useful



luke
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6965 days ago

3133 posts - 4351 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Esperanto, French

 
 Message 267 of 376
29 February 2012 at 3:31am | IP Logged 
For intermediate Spanish I like http://ssl4you.blogspot.com/, http://rojasspanish.com/, and http://spanishpodcast.org/, which all have free podcasts that are meant to be informational. E.G., the content is all in Spanish, but the podcaster circumlocutes in order to help you understand. SpanishPodcast also has some photos with descriptions which are also good for immersion style learning and they are enticing for travelers. Transcripts are available for free for SpanishPodcast and SSL4you (Spanish as a Second Language for You).

As far as courses for French, I like Assimil New French with Ease, and Using French. The all French audio and brief lessons are easy to use. Great for the hobbyist language learner.

I also like http://es.wikipedia.org for extemporaneous immersion learning and http://translate.google.com for creating quick fairly literal although imperfect translations on the fly. This is great for listen-reading.

For free audiobooks in Spanish, sometimes with bilingual text, http://albalearning.com is great. For French, http://www.litteratureaudio.com/ is amazing.

Edited by luke on 29 February 2012 at 3:41am

4 persons have voted this message useful



paisley
Groupie
United States
Joined 5472 days ago

59 posts - 60 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin

 
 Message 268 of 376
04 March 2012 at 11:08pm | IP Logged 
I just started up with Mandarin again after starting to learn it maybe 2 years ago, and I threw my Rosetta Stone in the trash, and now I am love love loving my FLuenz Mandarin. I actually look forward to using it. Granted, my only other software type stuff is LiveMocha and i've used Pimsleur for Spanish in the past, Fluenz mandarin is the easiest thing ever.


1 person has voted this message useful



joesoefkalla
Newbie
Indonesia
Joined 4472 days ago

22 posts - 22 votes
Studies: English

 
 Message 269 of 376
08 April 2012 at 8:52pm | IP Logged 
paisley wrote:
I just started up with Mandarin again after starting to learn it maybe 2 years ago, and I threw my Rosetta Stone in the trash, and now I am love love loving my FLuenz Mandarin. I actually look forward to using it. Granted, my only other software type stuff is LiveMocha and i've used Pimsleur for Spanish in the past, Fluenz mandarin is the easiest thing ever.



Is Rosetta Stone Mandarin really really that bad?
Why didn't you ask for a refund instead of throwing it to the bin?
2 persons have voted this message useful



sillygoose1
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4396 days ago

566 posts - 814 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French
Studies: German, Latin

 
 Message 270 of 376
14 April 2012 at 6:31pm | IP Logged 
Assimil Ease/Toil/Using & Old Linguaphone!
2 persons have voted this message useful



Wulf
Newbie
United States
traditionalisth
Joined 4334 days ago

10 posts - 17 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Persian

 
 Message 271 of 376
21 May 2012 at 12:18am | IP Logged 
Gallo1801 wrote:
http://www.dliflc.edu/products.html

Many of you probably are aware of these resources, but if you aren't, enjoy my discovery
of the DLI... So much supplementary stuff! (Esp. for Arabic and Spanish listening)

Wow, useful only if you're actually affiliated with the US government, since they have to authenticate your affiliation before you access the stuff, which you would know if you ever actually tried it yourself.
That has literally got to be the least helpful link I have ever followed on any forum ever.
In my quest to learn Persian, even an Ebonics link would have been more useful.
2 persons have voted this message useful



hrhenry
Octoglot
Senior Member
United States
languagehopper.blogs
Joined 4890 days ago

1871 posts - 3642 votes 
Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese
Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe

 
 Message 272 of 376
21 May 2012 at 1:21am | IP Logged 
Wulf wrote:

Wow, useful only if you're actually affiliated with the US government, since they have to authenticate your affiliation before you access the stuff, which you would know if you ever actually tried it yourself.
That has literally got to be the least helpful link I have ever followed on any forum ever.
In my quest to learn Persian, even an Ebonics link would have been more useful.

Don't be such an ass.

One link from the front page (on the Language Materials Distribution System page) there's a link for all of their Familiarization and some Headstart guides (as well as other materials, depending on language) here.

No authentication needed.

You *are* out of luck for Persian though, other than a Headstart 2 and Language Survival Kit - which is still worthwhile to look at.

R.
==



2 persons have voted this message useful



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