How your brain is wired to learn a language in 10 days?
 

I call bullshyt on this but for $10 I might be willing to give it a try. What do you think?

Would be nice...

I have tried the CD's in the car...

Books from the library... computer programs (that I admit I'm too lazy to use).

Still willing to give anything a try to keep the old brain stimulated... use it or lose it as they say.

I want to learn to speak a few different languages (Japanese and Spanish to start). I did some research and found that the two most recommended packages for Japanese were Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone.

Pimsleur is basically just tapes or CDs that you listen to. They start out almost entirely in English and then IIRC as you progress through the 30 minutes lessons they start to give more and more of the instructions in the language. The book or visual material is minimal. You listen, repeat and have "conversations" with the audio.

It's good, but expecting to be fluent it 10 days is insane unless you are immersed in the language all day long.

Call me a sucker but I will give it a try. The worst thing I will be out is $10. I spend more than that on candy bars a week!

Mike,

If you order online be careful.

Looks to be a standard DRTV transaction format.

Take credit card info on the very first page. Once you click submit you have authorized the initial transaction and any subsequent offers.

If I'm correct once you hit submit the upsell process will start and you'll be presented with additional "bargains".

If you elect to take any of them you'll be charged for them.

There will be no final "cart" screen or "submit" function where you can elect to remove items before final checkout.

You "checked out" when you hit submit the 1st time.

$10 can turn into $100 faster than you'd think.

Scott

Usually in less than 10 days.

Just FYI, most of the Pimsleur languages are sold in 3 large sets like Spanish 1, Spanish 2 and Spanish 3 - German 1, ....

Each set is, I think 30, 30 minute lessons. If you want to buy one set, it's about $200-250 from Amazon, so for all 3 Spanish sets, you'll be spending about $700. If you're only paying $10, then it must be for just one of the 30 minute lessons which won't get you much past something like Hello/good morning, how are you the weather is nice, etc...

Hmmm. Well, I used my company card and plan to expense it. The upside is that my AMEX card is no good next month and that they are great at not paying if I say not to.

I checked out without an upsell. I guess the worst is that I will be out $10

I've also heard a good way to learn is to purchase some magazines in the language on topics you're interested in (cars, sports, etc.). I know someone who learned English by reading Archie comic books.

Good luck learning Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, etc... that way.

My mind doesn't work that way even if they are using the Roman alphabet.

I was thinking more along the lines of Spanish, German, Italian, etc.

So what language do you want to learn? What'd ya order?

Get back to me in Swedish in 10 days Lube.

Maybe learn a little Latin first ??




as in "Caveat emptor"

SWEET! Swedish Google
https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=xx-bork

I even found a site that could translate for me which will be very useful as I'm learning.
The Dialectizer

Leern tu speek Svedeesh in 10 deys

Here's yuoor Svedeesh lungooege-a instrooctur. Hurty flurty schnipp schnipp!

http://www.deviantart.com/download/1...ellion_Kat.jpg

If your brain explodes, I have dibs on your pron collection...

You're going to have to call within 30 days to cancel,

† Important Information: About the Pimsleur Rapid Fluency Purchase Program:

Your purchase of the Quick & Simple language course today also includes entry into the Pimsleur Rapid Fluency Purchase Program.

The Pimsleur Rapid Fluency Purchase Program is an incredibly easy way to try Pimsleur Approach's advanced Gold course series and with zero obligation to buy!

Our elite-level Gold course series - the same course used by national security and intelligence agencies - is hands down the best language learning course money can buy, helping you to learn a language faster than you ever thought possible.

While in the Pimsleur Rapid Fluency Purchase Program, you can expect the following:

A 30-Day Trial of Advanced Level 1:
About 30 days after you receive your Quick & Simple, we'll begin to ship you advanced level language courses starting with our Gold level 1, in the same language of the Quick & Simple you purchased.
The advanced level Pimsleur language course is yours to try completely for 30 days. Each advanced level Pimsleur course contains 30 lessons on 16 audio CDs.

Payment Information:
If you decide to keep the course, simply do nothing and we'll bill the same credit card provided today 4 easy monthly payments of $64.
If you decide you do not want the course or any future courses, simply call 1-877-802-5283 to return it within the 30-day trial period and pay nothing except for the return shipping cost.
Future Risk Free Trials of Advanced Level Courses and Payment Information:
As long as you wish to remain in the program, every 60 days thereafter you'll receive the next level Pimsleur Gold course in your selected language on the same 30-day risk free trial basis as level 1.

The total number of Pimsleur Gold courses that will be sent to you in the program depends on the language you select. All languages have a total of 3 levels of Pimsleur Gold courses that will be sent, except for the following: Spanish has 4 levels
Modern Greek and Korean have 2 levels
Arabic, Chinese (Cantonese), Polish and Vietnamese each have only 1 level

Pay only four monthly payments of $64 for each course you keep past your 30-day risk free trial.

Cancellation Information:
You may cancel future shipments any time by calling 1-877-802-5283. You pay only for the Pimsleur language courses you decide to keep.
Remember, there's never an immediate obligation to buy any course because of the 30-day risk free trial period provided with each shipment. And you may cancel future shipments at any time by calling 1-877-802-5283.

Thanks Scott! I will check out what they send me - heck if it starts to work i may just keep expensing it.

Red - Spainglish! What else would a Texan need to speak?

I think learning Chinese might be a good idea.....

Good! Then you can talk to my wife...

I found that after 3 weeks in Japan I hardly learned anything because I couldn't read anything, but after a few days in Montreal I could read most French signs since I could recognize them.

You would think living in Houston I'd be fluent in Spanish because of all the beer billboards :D

When I was young (and religious) I applied to go on a church mission. I was to be sent to Japan so they put me in a Japanese immersion program to learn the language. Everything was in Japanese. We were not allowed to speak English. After one week I was speaking complete sentences to my companions and even saying prayers in Japanese. I think the only way to learn a language is immersing yourself in it.

Well, I couldn't learn enough Spanish in high school to get more than a C in 2 semesters. Musta been the wrong 2500 words.
If I didn't speak English, I'd hate to learn from anyone I know. We doan speaka da englise.

Deal but you have to learn 'crazy red head' so you can speak to mine!;)

I'm currently learning Swedish using Rosetta Stone. It's a great system, and I think I could easily learn it well enough to have a boring conversation within 10 days. I just wonder why "de" is pronounced "dome". Livi?

I'm on day 7 in China, my fourth time here and I hear nothing but Mandarin all day long at the dinner table, on the radio and tv, in the taxi, in the train station, nothing but Mandarin. I have a very keen ear for languages and I can pick up the subject matter of most conversations. But there is no way in the world anyone is picking up Mandarin just by being surrounded by it. It's a tough language and an even tougher alphabet, even when there's no dialect or cursive writing, respectively.

German, OTOH, can be learned that way, or at least after you have the fundamentals down. There are no silent letters, every word is pronounced the way it is spelled and even the biggest compound words can easily be figured out if you have a basic vocabulary of the root words. To this day I can instantly figure out words I've never heard or read before just because of the root words within it. Grammar is pretty tough, but not really necessary for just trying to function.

Steve, that Dialectizer was funny!

I spent about three years part time learning Germin, I mean German, and I'm not very good at it. I had a German girl friend so I learnt one very well, but these days I can only string together very simple sentences and haven't got a clue what they are saying.

I spent most of high school and 2 semesters in college learning French. Went to Paris on my honeymoon, got in a cab and told the driver where to go. He turns completely around in his seat and says "Don't ever speak French again, your accent is terrible." Having grown up and lived in the South most of my life, I have a very strong accent. Now, if a program could make me lose the accent just while I am speaking a foreign language, that would be great.

Hahah, that's a funny story.

I'm sure it is possible. Hugh Laurie (House) is a Brit, but has no accent when he's on the tube. Movie stars fake accents or lose accents all of the time.

Rosetta Stone requires you to speak into a microphone and say words until you get it right. No accent allowed. Of course, you may spend all night on one word until you go crazy. Like Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau trying to say "hamburger".

My Spanish IV professor in college was fresh from Madrid, and his "thing" was enunciation too. I swear he'd spend 15 minutes just trying to elicit a proper "Hola!" from folks "down east". The prof eventually realized "that just ain't gonna happen"...heck we can't even say "Hello" properly :).