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Best "Quickie" Language Methods | ||
Tags: Travel | Time to learn | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4701 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 1 of 29 03 November 2011 at 1:09am | IP Logged | ||
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Let's say you're taking a one to two week vacation in a new country, with a new
language. How much time do you all invest in learning the new language? There are some great resources out there for when we want to spend the time to learn a language well. Sometimes, though, an "advanced tourist" level of proficiency is all we want, and we don't have the two to three months it would take to do a Pimsleur or Assimil course properly. What method do you all use or recommend to get to the Advanced Tourist level? ************************************** 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| HMS Senior Member England Joined 4919 days ago 143 posts - 256 votes Speaks: English* | Message 2 of 29 03 November 2011 at 3:54am | IP Logged | ||
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If I'm honest - the best times I have had interacting with people of another language have been when we have been drinking together.
Alcohol "melts" languages together and aids universal understanding, I have found. I'm being serious as well. It is not good for retention though! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| VityaCo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6893 days ago 79 posts - 86 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian*, English Studies: Spanish, Japanese, French | Message 3 of 29 03 November 2011 at 4:11am | IP Logged | ||
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It is an interesting question. Do you mean an Advanced Tourist Level in two weeks or something else?
Clarify, please. But if you want to learn in two weeks, then it is not Assimil or Pimsleur, as they are not targeted for such an audience. They have a way different vocabulary than for a tourist. But you could try something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Berlitz-Arabic-Phrase-Book-English/dp/ 9812681868/ref=sr_1_1? ie=UTF8&qid=1320289658&sr=8-1 read the second reviewer. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| HMS Senior Member England Joined 4919 days ago 143 posts - 256 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 29 03 November 2011 at 4:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Most language books alluding to 'tourism' are way out of date in terms of concept and meaning.
Who nowadays shows up at a hotel and asks "could I have a room with a double bed and a shower?" If languages courses paid more attention to the leisure aspects of tourism - namely the nightlife then people would be more willing to subscribe. Nobody goes on holiday to learn the grammar of the country's language they are visiting, well a few may but - tourism nowadays is not only limited to visiting museums and buying train tickets to distant cities. The languages courses appear to be stuck in the 1960's. Language courses need to modernise. If I ws not married, I would not want to learn how to buy stamps in German - I'd want to know how to be a silver-tongued cavalier! My idea will probably be stolen and some phrasebooks will no doubt in future include a "Do you you come here often?" cliche ;) Edited by HMS on 03 November 2011 at 4:59am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6191 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 29 03 November 2011 at 5:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Too late, there is already the "Making out in ..." series.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4701 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 6 of 29 03 November 2011 at 7:23am | IP Logged | ||
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By Advanced Tourist, I mean that we can handle simple sentences in the present tense, and
can ask for directions, order at a restaurant, and exchange basic pleasantries and greetings. Enough to make the experience of travel richer, even if we don't retain much of the language. I would say that Pimsleur 1 & 2 brings you to the level I'm thinking of, but that seems like a lot of effort. I'm wondering more if there are programs designed for 3-4 week crash courses. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5132 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 7 of 29 03 November 2011 at 9:01am | IP Logged | ||
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Have a look at A.G. Hawke's The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages Fast for some ideas. Basically it's an outline on how to create your own language program. (At least 50% of the book are spreadsheets that you're supposed to fill in with the words and expressions that you need.)
Note that this book is mainly targeted at people who don't speak any foreign language at all. Therefore you're probably already familiar with 80% of what he suggests. However, if you have some money to burn check this book out, but read the negative Amazon comments first. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6362 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 8 of 29 03 November 2011 at 9:44am | IP Logged | ||
Oh, you want the effortless way. Did you ever see the Matrix? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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