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IsabellaLinton
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29 Nov 2023, 10:06 pm

My son wants to improve his fluency in another language to add to his resume.
He's the OCD type who will probably go at it full-force if he starts.

Can anyone recommend a good program / site to use for fairly quick results?


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MatchboxVagabond
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01 Dec 2023, 6:49 pm

IsabellaLinton wrote:
My son wants to improve his fluency in another language to add to his resume.
He's the OCD type who will probably go at it full-force if he starts.

Can anyone recommend a good program / site to use for fairly quick results?

There is no quick results, but in relative terms. As far as programs go, Fluent Forever and Glossika are pretty good in terms of developing the listening and speaking components. Fluent Forever is especially nice, as you can add as many sentences as you like to fill in holes.

I personally like starting with a phrase book to learn the basic language I need. In general, I like ones that have an audio component that I can use to train my ears with. Ideally, there'd be time with listening and reading to a large amount of material and time speaking and writing the language to help identify the holes that you need to more language to fill.



DanielW
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01 Dec 2023, 7:01 pm

I've used duolingo and rosetta stone. My fluency got to be passable with both. My problem was not having anyone to converse with. With no practical use, I forgot a lot fairly quickly.



MatchboxVagabond
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01 Dec 2023, 8:30 pm

DanielW wrote:
I've used duolingo and rosetta stone. My fluency got to be passable with both. My problem was not having anyone to converse with. With no practical use, I forgot a lot fairly quickly.

That's a common thing, although it is worth realizing that reading and listening are pretty much key to the process anyways. It's great if you've got the opportunity to converse with somebody, but most of the actual language learning comes from the input.

You don't generally forget all of it unless you go a very long time without using it. I remember my Chinese coming back when I hit the border and managing to get myself to the school I was going to work at on my own even though I hadn't done much with the language in the meantime.

Personally, I've gotten curious about AI chatbots as a method of practicing.