Best ways to learn a new language?

[eb777888]

Is Rosetta Stone still the best way?

I took about four years of Spanish in HS and college and would love to get back into it and become fluent. I even have H on board! I'd prefer a way to download lessons on my phone since I'd be listening/learning while at the gym and in the car. Any recommendations?

[eb777888]

I found this site called Babble and have been having fun with it. It seems to be free so far.

Anyway, I found Rosetta Stone does have a subscription option you can use on your phone but it's a little pricey. If it's worth it, I'll spend the money but would prefer to try something cheaper first.

eta: Babble isn't free. I just got to the paywall.

[Shreddingbetty]

Rosetta Stone is pretty expensive and if you've already taken a few years you probably don't need to learn how to say the horse iis on the table (my H bought the Dutch Rosetta stone and that's what he learned. He didn't stick with it so I don't know how it advances)
I've heard good things about duolingo and it's free. Check the library because some of them have paid apps that you can access for free if you belong to the library. Try to find podcasts for relearning Spanish. Find a Spanish meetup group near you or find a Spanish speaker to hang out with and speak Spanish. Really the best way to learn is immersion and since you have a base already it would be awesome to be able to fins someone to speak with,
I spoke french pretty well as a teen but then I moved to the US and didn't use it for almost 20 years (or very little at least). I wanted my kid to learn french and actually reading to her really helped relearn a lot,of vocab and learn kid vocab (which you don't learn in school). One year we had a couple of French college students here that I spent a fair amount of time with and it was awesome for both of us. It was nice to learn a lot of up to date spoken french. We go back every year so that helps too. We have a small meetup group that meets once a months as well. And my kid and i speak French only so that helps a lot.
And having word reference on your phone for on the go looking up words. I also like a lot of french Facebook pages (some are just french FB pages (like news sites, or funny sites) others are to learn French that have useful grammar spot of vocab post etc . I imagine there ar eplenty like that for Spanish too. Also, watch Spanish tv.
Having internet makes it so much easier for resources. I would probably not do Rosetta Stone because it's expensive and if you look around ont he internet you will be able to find lots of stuff

[eb777888]

Shreddingbetty Lots of great advice, thank you!!! I did see duolingo in my search but have never heard of it before. I will definitely look into that.

[alleinesein]

Watch the news in Spanish. Listen to music. Watch movies in Spanish; most DVDs nowadays have a language option and you can select Spanish. Play around on Duolingo. Depending on where you live you may be able to start ordering stuff or asking for help in Spanish; if you have a local Mexican grocery store start going there.

[eb777888]

I've actually been playing around with duolingo for the past hour or two and am loving it!

[sonrisa]

In addition to whatever online program you choose, live in the language - location (for at least some time if possible), news, books, tv, radio, your own calendars and notes. Skip any subtitles if you can. You want to be hearing, talking, reading, writing - and most importantly - thinking in it. If you are busy translating to and from english in your head, that isn't going to get you there.

[dirtyred]

Tandem is a free app that allows you to converse with native speakers of the language you want to learn who want to learn *your* native language (I'm assuming english), so you each help each other out with grammar, etc.

I've been trying to brush up on my Spanish, and I've been using Duolingo and Memrise.  If you use Memrise, be sure to pick which country's Spanish you want to learn--Spain or Mexico.  The idioms and pronunciation are different between the two.

[candreco]

I'm really intrigued by News in Slow, they report current events in other languages, but slowed down so a non-fluent person has a better chance of keeping up.  I don't know if the episodes can be downloaded or not though.

[insominac]

The only way that I can really learn languages is in a formal class setting - I’ve taken rSpanish 1 and French 2 at my local community college and I was astounded at how much I was able to learn. It’s a huge time commitment though as a 5 credit class transferable to UC campuses - 5 hours a week, plus language lab, and outside of class work.

I only mention this because you said your husband is one board - he’ll need to pick up some slack if you take a course like this.

I had 5 years of HS in the early 90s, plus a semester of college French and French 2 was a good fit for me - I had seen everything before, but now really got the opportunity to understand it.

I rewarded myself at the end of the semester with a solo trip to Paris - my true final exam!

Now I’m planning on doing things to keep it up - watch movies in french with English subtitles, Duolingo, meetups, maybe a tutor...