Learning Foreign Languages

[Temet Nosce]

What tools do you guys use to do it? I'm interested in learning Spanish to reconnect with my culture, but my school's secondary language system is terrible and I've read mixed reviews about Rosetta Stone.

Any thoughts, comments, or advice would be helpful.

 

[Dipper]

Check out Duolingo. Free, big on community, communication, etc. and the lessons are made by native speakers (as far as I remember). I grew up with various languages, and it was a perfect tool to brush up on the ones I'd gotten a bit rusty with.

 

[Temet Nosce]

Thanks, I'll definitely have to check that out. Is it friendly to beginners as well?

 

[Dipper]

Yes. The lessons start out pretty easy, and you're free to go back and practice as much as you want. Not to mention it feels all incredibly rewarding. And the folks there are pretty chill and open to helping where they can.

 

[chainedfiction]

I use www.jisho.org, music, studying, and anime to help me with my Japanese skills. If you're learning Spanish, I'd suggest listening to Spanish music without subtitles. Write down what you hear, maybe translate them for yourself. Here's a nice resource for learning Spanish as well: http://spanish.about.com

Italki is a language learning community to check out. They're helpful there and you get help from people who fluently speak the language you want to learn.