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Cheap Language Learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| nathdep Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3826 days ago 11 posts - 15 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese | Message 9 of 43 03 November 2013 at 7:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you all for the great suggestions!
I didn't realize there was so much out there to use for free. I do have a question, though. How should I set a goal for myself to learn the languages? I know that in a traditional setting, I was able to hold a substantial discussion in French in about three or four years. Would the time frame be different since I am trying to learn on my own? I also want to note that in my traditional, classroom setting, I was always bored as we moved too slow. How should I pace myself? Merci beaucoup! :) Edited by nathdep on 03 November 2013 at 7:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4610 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 10 of 43 03 November 2013 at 11:25pm | IP Logged | ||
Hi, great that you are interested in learning Welsh (among other languages), and SSiW has already been mentioned. For that particular course, the advice they give is to move on to the next lesson as soon as you are giving most of the replies without hesitation before the female voice cuts in with the "correct" answer. For "most", say about 80% of the time. A lot of the material comes up again in later lessons, plus there are also free weekly practice sessions. The aim is that the further into the course you get, to use the pause button less and less, since in a real life conversation, you don't have a pause button. OTOH, in a real life conversation, you can politely ask the person to speak a little more slowly, or to repeat something, so of course you can cut yourself a little slack in the lessons. One of the things they encourage you to do, as well as the lessons is to listen to Radio Cymru, which you should be able to do from the USA via the internet (probably not the live broadcast, but you should be able to "listen on demand" to already broadcast materials, plus there are podcasts, e.g. "Pigeon" which is aimed at learners. You can also watch the Welsh language TV channel, S4C via a service called Clic. But for this you will need to use a web proxy service. I have never used it, but I've seen "expatshield" recommended. S4C Clic One good S4C programme to watch, especially if you do the northern course is "Rownd a Rownd". It is a soap, but somewhat aimed at learners. You can choose Welsh, English or no subtitles (as you can with most S4C programmes). If you like "noir" style detective drama, try "Y Gwyll", a new series that's just started. EDIT: Another great programme on S4c, aimed specifically at learners is called "HWB" (which I'm guessing means "hub", as in the centre of a wheel). HWB on S4C Clic Edited by montmorency on 07 November 2013 at 2:31am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tlanguell Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3821 days ago 24 posts - 54 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Vietnamese | Message 11 of 43 06 November 2013 at 7:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Below is a complete archive of FSI courses:
http://fsi.antibozo.net/files/ Complete DLI archive: https://jlu.wbtrain.com/sumtotal/language/DLI%20basic%20cour ses/ Kickass.to has a lot of language torrents such as Michel Thomas, Pimsleur etc. Too bad you don't live in Asia here I can buy movies, games, and software for $5 a disk. I'm starting to learn German because I have a pretty Vietnamese colleague who also studies German and I want to talk to her :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6485 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 12 of 43 06 November 2013 at 10:41am | IP Logged | ||
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My expenditures on language learning are mostly limited to dictionaries, grammars and travelling. You can find the rest for free on the internet.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6364 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 13 of 43 07 November 2013 at 6:41am | IP Logged | ||
Dito, except I don't buy much dictionaries or grammars or travel very much. :) For most languages there are excellent dictionary apps if you have a smartphone. Some cost money, some are free. Learning a language is a very cheap hobby. There are all kinds of free resources on the Internet. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| I'm With Stupid Senior Member Vietnam Joined 3955 days ago 165 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Vietnamese | Message 14 of 43 07 November 2013 at 8:54am | IP Logged | ||
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I haven't used it myself, but I've heard good things about this website for German:
http://www.dw.de/learn-german/german-courses/s-2547 I presume that your university has a modern languages section, so there's got to be plenty of books aimed at learners in the library, and possibly even copies of stuff like Pimsleur and Michel Thomas (or if not, they might be in the public library). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4791 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 15 of 43 07 November 2013 at 2:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I think cheap learning, even if you take away things "against the copyright"
(pure download for your personal use is legal in most countries, torrents are not), comes down to several points: 1.Using the good quality free sources and tools. FSI is a very good exemple, so is Anki, the deutsche welle website or lernu. Yes, the offer is narrower when it comes to small languages but settling for crappy resources won't get you anywhere. THere are tons of free sites with too little amount of real information and even with mistakes. Some more great free tools: italki.com, lyricstraining.com, duolingo. 2.Finding the cheaper choices of commonly used things. For example the site germanpod101 is of very good quality for a reasonable monthly price and they have a lot of languages, including small ones. The key is not to pay for more months than necessary. Get them for the months you are sure to have time for the resource, not for a month when you are busy with other things and still primarily using something else. On the other hand, there are many similar things, online courses, podcasts and so on that cost several times more money for similar content. Always do your research, many tools get a cheaper "clone" with similar features these days. 3.Using libraries and second hand bookstores. The best base resources still come mostly in paper. Look at what is available in your library. If your universtiy teaches some of your target languages, you will surely find at least something in the library. If there isn't much, try second hand bookstores. You can find jewels for marvelous prices this way. And truth be told, if you are like me, the late return fees may sometimes cost nearly as much as the second hand book and you still may not be done with it when you say goodbye. ;-) 4.Using the student discounts, eshops with free delivery etc. 1 more expensive but great quality resource may take you much further than several cheap ones. If you want it, you can find significant difference in prices between various shops. Discounts, free delivery (for example bookdepository.co.uk or deastore), copies with damaged cover etc, that all can make the price drop significantly (up to 1/3 of the price from my experience). 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6938 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 16 of 43 07 November 2013 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | ||
In general it's possible to learn (or at least get a solid background in) several languages without spending a dime (assuming also that you want to keep things on the level and avoid illegal downloading), although these languages tend to be the "popular" ones such as French, Spanish or Mandarin. If you do venture off the beaten path, things get dicier, and you'll probably have to shell out a bit if there's anything available at all. A good place to start looking for material that's available legally and for free is So you want to learn a language. 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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