Rosetta stone.

[Colin]

Has anyone here used this to learn another language, and if so did you find it easy to use and effective? Been thinking about buying in to this but would like to hear a first-hand review.

[Colin]

Oops, can a mod move this to off topic!

[nakamura]

Isn't this something from Double Dragon?

On topic, i have used the Dorling Kindersley stuff and that is pretty good overall. Although if I am honest I am just trying to get on topic so I can squeeze that lame joke in because I have typed it so I might as well damn post it.

[J0e Musashi]

Isn't this something from Double Dragon?

Damn you. I was going to say that!

[averybluemonkey]

Don't know anyone who's used it myself but my girlfriend did psychology at uni and said their approach is pretty flawed as it teaches you the language the way a child would learn it, quite a lot of flash card style learning, and she says the adult brain doesn't learn nearly as well using this methodology (we were thinking of buying it for her Italian but she looked into it and decided to go for lessons instead).

[endo]

Never used them myself, but I've heard the Michel Thomas courses are good.

[koopatroopa90]

My uncle and his girlfriend have just done 4 Sundays worth of intensive Italian lessons. 6, or might have even been 8 hours at a time. He did say he can't speak it very well but now understands Italians on the tube and when it is written, plus he literally did nothing outside of the lessons and apparently was the worst of the 3 of em doing the classes. He's a rather tight git but swears its the best ?200 he's spent in a long time...

[endo]

My bro's been doing Dutch classes too (don't know where exactly- somewhere in central London), and it's really improved his understanding/conversation.
Depends what you want out of language learning really. If it's to get up to a conversational level, i.e. to learn how to speak it, then interactive classes are going to be the best bet. You can study grammar, vocab etc. all you like at home, but it won't guarantee you'll be able to speak a language or, crucially, understand what others are saying.

Beyond that, the best thing obviously is total immersion, but you don't need to go that far unless you're after fluency. Repeat exposure to, ideally, native speakers really is the best thing I can recommend and what you'd get out of classes. It's certainly better than recordings since you end up listening to the same things over and over.

Another quick pointer is to brush up on your English grammar too. Knowing what's going on, grammatically speaking, in any given sentence will help enormously.

[Colin]

Yeah, i'm only looking for conversational levels of understanding, not really reading or written. I might just sign up for some tuition as i've found a website which gives some one to one lessons relatively local. Cheers all!

[koopatroopa90]

Out of interest, what are you wanting to learn dude? In London you must be spoilt for choice with regard to lessons nearby

[ETC]

Out of interest, what are you wanting to learn dude? In London you must be spoilt for choice with regard to lessons nearby

They can barely do english up here

[Colin]

Out of interest, what are you wanting to learn dude? In London you must be spoilt for choice with regard to lessons nearby

Norwegian mate.

[EvilBoris]

Ouch! That can't be an easy one

[Colin]

I already know a little, I lived there for 8 months 5 or 6 years ago. If I was full time immersed in it I think it would be relatively easy.

[endo]

Historically, it's more closely linked to English than you'd think too- English and Norwegian are both Germanic languages. They share an ancient common ancestor.