Duolingo

[Morgana]

Well, go for it!

 

[barefootrebel]

Oh honey, you ain't ever heard me sing

I feel sorry for the folks standing next to me in church!

But it makes me happy, and I'm teaching myself ukulele, so maybe that will distract from the warbling...

 

[user 32232]

So are you going to stay with a "host family"?

No, I elected to just get a cheap solo place downtown near the school for two weeks. It was only $15/night, and allows me to pursue my REAL mission - to try every type of molé sauce I can find while visiting

 

[vanmannorm]

it feels like five days, not five months, since I started this thread, but
View attachment 32492
that's with the absolute minimum setting, so if I get busy I can get it done in 10 minutes.
I'm not sure you can really "learn a language in 15 minutes a day," but you can learn enough to give somebody a good laugh, and that's a start....
It's fun. I recommend.

Good for you! Keep it up. I'm also doing the minimum to keep my streak going (now at 865 days) without missing one. Even with that many days, when I listen to a Spanish speaking person (I'm in Arizona) I can only pick out words and not what they are saying. If I take my time I can say simple sentences in the present tense. It's a great course though and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in learning a language, although spending more time than I am would speed things up! Norm

 

[Morgana]

I'm also doing the minimum to keep my streak going (now at 865 days) without missing one. Even with that many days, when I listen to a Spanish speaking person (I'm in Arizona) I can only pick out words and not what they are saying. If I take my time I can say simple sentences in the present tense.

If you pick a song, and really memorize it, and figure out all the words you don't know -- then, when you listen to it (or even sing it yourself), it's almost like having a whole conversation in Spanish. I don't know how much progress it really is, but it feels like progress.

865 days is truly impressive!

PS here's another good resource, if you like news/current events:
Radio Ambulante
I think it's an NPR podcast? It's available in Spanish and English, with transcripts. They also have an app called Lupa that somehow restructures the content as Spanish lessons (not sure how it works; I haven't tried it).

 

[user 32232]

PS here's another good resource, if you like news/current events:
Radio Ambulante
I think it's an NPR podcast?

Yep, NPR. Thanks for the linkie.
My brother recently gave me an off-handed compliment about trying to learn a language at "our age." Heck, I've been "learning" espanol since 7th grade! I also reminded him that most Europeans speak at least three lingos. Many from the Americas speak two, including Canada .
I think alot of single language speakers think that they will never 'use' a second language, which is sad because while being able to converse while traveling is a bonus, it's really (for me, anyway) about exposure to ideas and cultures outside our singular experiences.
Imagine how much less we'd know about ancient Egypt if we hadn't figured out (more or less) hieroglyphs!

 

[Morgana]

most Europeans speak at least three lingos. Many from the Americas speak two, including Canada

And if you go to a restaurant, your busboy or dishwasher might speak three (indigenous language, Spanish, and English).

I met an ag worker once who said he spoke seven.

My brother recently gave me an off-handed compliment about trying to learn a language at "our age."

Here are some articles that help debunk the notion that older folks can't pick up a new language. Now the expert types seem to be saying that kids may have some language-learning assets but older adults have others (e.g. coping skills, general life knowledge)
a language blog
a PBS-related news site for older adults
Huffington Post

 

[Morgana]

So I finished the Duolingo (it's much shorter for Creole than for Spanish), and a similar program, Mango Languages, which I accessed free through the library (also very short), and one store-bought textbook that was short and lively, and one free PDF textbook from the 1980s that was more dull and stodgy and I skipped a lot.

Haitian Creole turned out to be a hard language to find free/cheap resources for! Duolingo was "in beta" and I definitely don't recommend doing a "beta" program unless you're a real language freak. I think Google Translate has errors too, and it doesn't have audio at all. There doesn't seem to be a really good dictionary -- sometimes I have to flip between three different ones + Google to find a word. It all feels very arcane lol, like you have to be a detective. There are a few good blogs too, and you can patch together a fair amount if you look at everything.

So no more textbooks for me now, just real life stuff! I just try to listen to one song and one news article a day. Here's a fun weird song about zombies that I totally don't get. For Spanish it's easy to find lyrics to songs but for Haitian music not so much.

Next I should try one of those "language exchange" programs but I am still working up my nerve. I swear everyone on those websites looks like about 19 years old.

And that is where you get if you just plug away at it a little bit every day. Hopefully at some point I get to meet a live human who actually speaks this language. Meanwhile, I guess it beats Sudoku for warding off old-timer's.

FWIW!