Learning another language

[Hibbyradge]

I didn't want to start another thread so I've dragged this one up.

Has anyone tried Babel or any of the other language apps?

I'm interested in learning French although Spanish might be more useful and I was wondering if these products are effective or if I should look elsewhere.

[nonshinyfinish]

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I didn't want to start another thread so I've dragged this one up.

Has anyone tried Babel or any of the other language apps?

I'm interested in learning French although Spanish might be more useful and I was wondering if these products are effective or if I should look elsewhere.

My experience with Duolingo (I believe Babbel is fairly similar) is that it's a useful supplement to learning/improving a language, but not enough on its own. I found that it helped me pick and reinforce lots of vocabulary, but did very little to help me structure sentences and understand grammar. I used it for German, which has fairly complex grammar where different cases change the articles and spellings/endings of words – Duolingo would teach you the right article/ending combination for a given example, but didn't really help with why that was the case, so I'd struggle to apply it to a new example. I'm not sure if this is worse in German vs French/Spanish.

IMO the best thing you can do (assuming going to live in France/Spain isn't an option) is get private lessons over Zoom or Skype or whatever – I did this during lockdown and made much faster progress than any other approach I've tried (group classes, working through books, Duolingo etc). The foundations I established in about 25 lessons allowed me to go back language books and make better progress on the higher level books. It's expensive though.

(BTW how did this thread survive so long on the main board?)

[marinello59]

I was looking for something to help me with everyday practical conversations abroad. Duolingo I found to be pretty poor. Babell was much better and I took out a subscription with them. It served my needs well though obviously I had to put a fair bit of effort in.

[hibsbollah]

I use Reverso context for translations. Frantastique and coffee break French I’ve used in the past, up to a certain level it’s free but usually you need to pay something to really get serious about it.

[OstKurve Hibs]

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Just make sure it's not Gomorrah. I have an Italian friend who can't follow the Naples gangster dialect without the subtitles.

Buona fortuna...

It's not gangster dialect, it's the version of italian they speak in the campania region where naples is situated.
I think it's pretty different from normal italian, much like the dialect of german spoken in bavaria. Normal german speakers struggle to understand it in spoken or written form.

[Green Man]

I started using Duolingo earlier this year to prepare for a trip to Berlin. It gave me enough to understand basic signs and little things like ordering and asking for the bill in restaurants. I’ve kept it up, and also started listening to the coffee break German podcast - I know they do a French one as well, think there might be Spanish too - and that has given me a much better understanding of the grammar aspect (the different cases in German are weird, and I’m still trying to get my head round them).

[Hibrandenburg]

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I started using Duolingo earlier this year to prepare for a trip to Berlin. It gave me enough to understand basic signs and little things like ordering and asking for the bill in restaurants. I’ve kept it up, and also started listening to the coffee break German podcast - I know they do a French one as well, think there might be Spanish too - and that has given me a much better understanding of the grammar aspect (the different cases in German are weird, and I’m still trying to get my head round them).

Den Mann hat der Hund gebissen.

Or

Der Mann hat den Hund gebissen.

German grammar is a minefield.

[Keith_M]

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Den Mann hat der Hund gebissen.

Or

Der Mann hat den Hund gebissen.

German grammar is a minefield.

[SickBoy32]

Resurrecting this thread just to ask if anyone on here has any experience of 'in-person' language classes in Edinburgh?

Have found a few on google around the city with decent reviews but was looking to see if anyone had any personal experience of these?

Lots of great tips in this thread - but I'm keen for this to be face to face, to primarily target speaking (have been on Duolingo for years but feel need to try something more effective)

Many thanks