Off Topic Learning a Language.

Wondering what peoples thoughts are in the best free app around to learn a new language casually.
When I’ve tried before (Spanish, Turkish, French) it’s always been by classes or books but I haven’t really got the time for that nowadays
Looking at learning a little bit of Hindi that will help with my job as we go to so many patients that don’t speak English......Duolingo looks like a start. Has anyone else used it or are there better suggestions ?
TIA

 

This doesn’t really help at all but in my experience you learn more spending a month abroad speaking any language daily than a year or two trying to learn in a classroom.

 

I couldn’t agree more mate.....I spent a month in Guatemala and learnt more practical Spanish there in that time than I did in a whole year in the classroom.
Sadly I’ve no ambition to travel to India and only have an interest in learning a little bit to make my daily routine a bit easier. I definitely ain’t looking at becoming fluent

 

Check out Duolingo

 

Yeah I’ve started with that....finding it a bit frustrating as it teaches me letters first (which I don’t really need as I only want to speak a bit not write it). Also pisses me off that I can’t even get 10 mins through without losing all my lives and having to wait 4 hours to have another go

 

I used Duolingo for about six months, learning Portuguese as my brother-in-law is from there and when we went over to Portugal with him we couldn't communicate very well with his extended family.

It's a good app, but you do need to spend some time on it to progress. I'm sure there are others out there, but it is fun - and free. And it progresses at your own speed - but leave it behind for a few days and you need to repeat a few steps.

 

Ah ok mate, might try and persevere with it then......as I say I’m not looking at fluency, just a little bit to get by

 

Quickest way to learn Hindi is to watch Bollywood movies. Mind you they typically last about three hours, but you can skip through the songs, unless you really get into Bollywood
Hindi achha he. ! (Hindi is good)

 

I have now been in Paris 10 years and my French is ok. I find when I spend time with French people speaking French my French is a bit more comfortable very quickly. I work in English and speak English at home which has been a massive hindrance to my French improving.

My wife, on the other hand, worked in English for the first couple of years here and then she moved to her current company. Her boss agreed to speak to her in English during her trial period, and then after her trial period was finished her boss said to her, 'felicitations, vous avez un contrat perminent.' 'Amazing, thank you,' my wife replied. 'Pardon, mais je ne comprendre pas...tout en français maintenant'. Her boss now very rarely speaks to her in English, and she eats lunch speaking French with colleagues most days...needless to say she is essentially fluent.

 

My wife is of Italian heritage and speaks fluent Italian, along with perfect English.
Now after 40 years, l can still only speak the rude words and sentences from the Italian language although my wife reckons l'm multilingual, having also Majored in speaking fluent Bullsh!t for most of my life.

 

Try using Google Translate Stainesey.

I speak fluent Spanish but recently I have tried learning a bit of Italian. I just enter a sentence in English and it translates into Italian for me. It is good for showing you how write certain words. In addition to learning how to write words, you also have to train your ear to the sound of words so listening to some radio or TV programmes in Hindi might also help.

Best of luck.

 

Yeah I do use that quite often mate, and it’s a godsend for those who don’t speak any English at all. It’s just I want to learn a few bits to make the people I see feel comfortable....it goes a long way to put people at ease I feel

 

Learning Greek via Duolingo.
Slow and steady.
Maintaining the unbroken run actually does incentives you to keep going. I'm on day number 274!

 

Do you find it helpful mate ? What’s your thoughts on it ?

 

This isn't very PC, but made me chuckle

 

I did a month's French course in a college in Tours before uni. I met an English bloke there from St Albans and we teamed up with two girls from Solihull. All I came back with was a slight Birmingham accent

 

I had similar issues with my wife's family up in scotland. A few weeks up there and I realised the word c u n t wasnt an insult.

 

Very much so.
Its clever because it picks up on what you got wrong, teaches it to you again and then tests you again.
It's bite size learning but if you want you can sit on it all day and enhance your learning.
It's free but there's a premium version that removes adds. The adds are short and painless.
There are different leagues and you risk relegation if you drop below certain positions - I find that a good incentive if slightly twee.
Whatever you choose, good luck.

 

Yeah I’m gonna stick with it as well as watching a few tutorial videos on YouTube to get a few phrases under my belt. Nothing serious just might be good to know