Best language course/book?

[jcdenton08]

Want to learn conversational French up to an intermediate level.

Can anyone recommend a structured learn-at-home course/book? Heard great things about Rosetta Stone but balked at the price!!!

 

[Dumseagull]

sign up to Rosetta stone's mailing list, and they send u offers, i got my spanish course for £99, its excellent

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Earworms Rapid Learning is a brilliant fun way to learn a language.... using music and catchy repetition of conversational hooks. It really works and will definitely get you started. FrenchPod101.com for a more comprehensive coverage of the language.

 

[jcdenton08]

Just done the French trial lesson on my phone. Brilliant - definitely the course for me is Rosetta Stone, thanks to all for their input.

Anyone seen any good deals around?

 

[ThePompousPaladin]

There is also to supplement Rosetta Stone, the quite good 'duolingo' app for smartphones/tablets.

It's free and there's questions where you talk into your device, so quite good for helping on pronunciation.

 

[swiss tony]

Having been a language teacher for 15 years, my advice would be forget the books and fine a one on one tutor. You can learn so much more in an hour with actual human interaction than any book will ever offer you.

 

[Gwylan]

Having been a language teacher for 15 years, my advice would be forget the books and fine a one on one tutor. You can learn so much more in an hour with actual human interaction than any book will ever offer you.

Totally agree with this. I'd also add that the best way to learn any language is get yourself over to that country and talk to people who don't speak English. My German went from OK to extremely good in just one week staying with a couple who didn't speak a word of English.

It might be hard to do that but, once you've got some basics, you could go over to France and force yourself to talk to people on the trains, in cafes etc

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

I've done Rosetta Stone and taken Swedish lessons 2 times a week for 6 months In a class of around 10-15 people.

Rosetta Stone is awesome but you must put in the time. It's boring and repetitive at first, but you end up learning.

But it doesn't even compare to going to lessons or holding a conversation with a person. Get a tutor or go to a small class and try to participate as much as possible is my advice. Software and books are great supplements to learning. But nothing can beat the real thing!

 

[Gwylan]

Just remembered this.

https://www.memrise.com/

There was an article on Memrise in the Guardian a couple of years ago: someone used it to learn conversational Lingala in a few weeks. Sounded impressive but tried it out - it is free though so worth a go

 

[Hamilton]

This isn't another thread about Leon is it?

 

[Marty McFly]

Pimsleur!

 

[Notters]

Duolingo easily. But nothing comes close to real immersion unfortunately.

 

[Mattywerewolf]

I went on an intensive language course in Italy 10 years ago....Went from nothing to very good conversational in 6 weeks.....small class teaching and full immersion. The way to go, although most find it hard to commit to that amount of time or money up front, in the long run it worked out cheaper.