Thread: Just bought some audio* courses

Hello. I just ordered some course for learning Russian. (and Polish.)

Pimsleur's Quick and Easy Russian Course - I bought that because Pimsleur has gotten many good reviews, and I like the method Pimsleur uses. The course contains 8 lessons, which is supposed to be a teaser for me to buy the expensive 'conprehensive' courses. Well, I'll see about tat

Pimsleur's Quick and Easy Polish Course - I bought this for the same reasons above. I plan on learning both Russian and Polish, but I couldn't decide which language to go at first, so I bought both Pimsleur courses.

Idiots Guide to Learning Russian *book* - I have the Spanish version of this book and I like it. I like to read books like these that are easy on you, and provide tips and tid bits of info that other books don't give. I actually laughed before I bought this book.

Now, my questions is, if I learn everything from the Pimsleur courses, where should I go? Should I buy the other Russian courses, or is there better software that I can purchase. I didn't spend much money on this purchase, so just because I bought these items, it doesn't mean I have to continue with the rest of the courses. I already have the Transparent Language course for Polish, so I won't buy any more software for Polish for a while.

I have some really old "How to learn Russian books", printed in the 60's in the Soviet Union. The books are really for little kids, I think they are for the youngsters that are just learning to read. They have poems, short stories and other stuff to read. (as well as pictures of Lenin in the background lol.) I have been reading these books, and I've learned most of the Russian Alphabet.

I'm not an idiot at learning languages (that's why I laughed at the Idiot's Guide book.) and I know about the different aspects of language learning. So, if there is software that is more for people that know a lot about languages, just tell me. I can take it!

Language learning software is, alas, really bad. Unless you pay hundreds of dollars for it. And then it still might be really bad. For some reason most language learning software is created by the same people that compile clip-art CDs and free software sampler CDs. As a result it's usually a jumbly orgy of Macromedia Shockwave nonsense. By this I mean the opening screen greets you with about 10,000 little activities to do, most of which are stupid word-matching games, and then they give you a little quiz. I have heard some good things about Rosetta Stone software, but it costs a couple hundred dollars last time I checked. What did you order, BTW?

The sad thing is that you could really make a good language learning course on the PC if you really tried. There are some good courses online - I saw this amazing thing for Korean - but noone has had the thought to put it on a CD and sell it. Maybe because those courses actually require you to learn grammar rules and do work, as opposed to all the flashy softwares claiming you'll learn X language the fast and fun way.

Originally Posted by Pravit

Language learning software is, alas, really bad. Unless you pay hundreds of dollars for it. And then it still might be really bad. For some reason most language learning software is created by the same people that compile clip-art CDs and free software sampler CDs. As a result it's usually a jumbly orgy of Macromedia Shockwave nonsense. By this I mean the opening screen greets you with about 10,000 little activities to do, most of which are stupid word-matching games, and then they give you a little quiz. I have heard some good things about Rosetta Stone software, but it costs a couple hundred dollars last time I checked.

I almost ordered Rosetta Stone because it makes learning vocabulary very easy. I downloaded the demo and tried the software. T'was good until I reached the more advanced grammar, then things started to get fuzzy for me.

What did you order, BTW?

I listed the software I bought in my first post, maybe I should bold it :P

The sad thing is that you could really make a good language learning course on the PC if you really tried. There are some good courses online - I saw this amazing thing for Korean - but noone has had the thought to put it on a CD and sell it. Maybe because those courses actually require you to learn grammar rules and do work, as opposed to all the flashy softwares claiming you'll learn X language the fast and fun way.

Well, I have this Transparent Language Polish course, which doesn't provide any lessons; you pretty much have you make up your own lessons. It is a really good package, but you should only use it if you already know quite a bit of the language. I bought the Transparent Language for German and I understood just about everything, but that's because I was taught in school.

Eeeew, Transparent Language? I bought their Arabic software because it was in the bargain bin at Hastings. I thought their method wasn't that bad, it kind of reminded me of "Ilya Frank's Reading Method", but with audio, except the entire package just felt kind of unprofessional and unpolished. It kind of seemed geared towards a more advanced learner, since there was no sequence of "beginning" courses or anything, or any explanation of grammar rules - they just expected you to figure everything out on your own. And there were only 4 read-and-listen audio things.

As for Pimsleur, I had no idea they made software too. Do they actually display text?

Hehe, sorry, I meant the Audio stuff.. not software. My bad.

Yea, like I said, Transparent Language is for people with more experience in a language. I also got Transparent Language at a bargain price. $20, which is half of what it costs on the internet. What I liek about it is, that you can listen to conversations, and you have access to all those audio files, so I can make sure I pronounce words correctly.

I'm confused. Did you bold the software you bought, or the audio courses you bought?

The Audio.