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Language learning support/community thread

Passive memory FTW. This week's class was about half the size it was in September, OTOH more at the same ability level, so far less stopping and starting.
 
Going to have a month off work more or less after the weekend, so going to have a standard holiday language learning push. Even though I've not been trying to learn much over the last few months, I do seem to be speaking more Mandarin generally. It just seems to be coming a bit more naturally now although I'm still really bad...
 
I want to do a Spanish adult evening class. Having a hard time finding a suitable one near me so far. Did find some courses but they were £170 for six weeks which seems a lot more than I can remember paying when I last did evening classes.

Anyone else doing adult evening classes and how much are you paying?
 
I'm doing a Spanish exam this year so need to pull my finger out a bit with writing more, especially.

It's the DELE B2 and isn't beyond me, but still requires a fair bit of thinking and practice.

Could anyone recommend a textbook by any chance?
 
weltweit said:
I want to do a Spanish adult evening class. Having a hard time finding a suitable one near me so far. Did find some courses but they were £170 for six weeks which seems a lot more than I can remember paying when I last did evening classes.

Anyone else doing adult evening classes and how much are you paying?
Click to expand...

I'm doing a one at the local Uni, £290 for 12 weeks. Works out at £12 an hour, and the credits go towards a degree or whatever. It's a bit more than I'd like to pay, but not many places teach Japanese in North Wales!
 
weltweit said:
I want to do a Spanish adult evening class. Having a hard time finding a suitable one near me so far. Did find some courses but they were £170 for six weeks which seems a lot more than I can remember paying when I last did evening classes.

Anyone else doing adult evening classes and how much are you paying?
Click to expand...
£110 per 11 week term, and 3 terms per year. No income-related reduction (there's one for pensioners), and the textbook for the year is roughly another £20. That's at Morley, which is pretty expensive for South London (and a long bus ride from here, add on another £4.20 or so just to get there and back). OTOH nowhere nearer or cheaper seems to teach Polish at all.
 
I've learnt all the basic Hiragana now, but during the recent exam I realised that I am no good at reading it (only very very very slowly). So I think I should read some children's books - but I have no idea where to get children's books written in hiragana in the UK. Any ideas ATOMIC SUPLEX Shippou-Sensei gaijingirl? Thanks!
 
mwgdrwg said:
I've learnt all the basic Hiragana now, but during the recent exam I realised that I am no good at reading it (only very very very slowly). So I think I should read some children's books - but I have no idea where to get children's books written in hiragana in the UK. Any ideas ATOMIC SUPLEX Shippou-Sensei gaijingirl Thanks!
Click to expand...

I probably have freaking loads. Though I don't know if they are in a position to be given away. I will have to ask.
You an get them very easily and cheaply though Japanese message boards, however these are all for fluent Japanese readers so it's probably worse than a catch 22.

There is a shop on Brewer street that deals in second hand Japanese language books and manga, they might have something.

Alternatively, I found a limited supply of Japanese kids books at our local library, I expect other library's do the same.
 
ATOMIC SUPLEX said:
I probably have freaking loads. Though I don't know if they are in a position to be given away. I will have to ask.
You an get them very easily and cheaply though Japanese message boards, however these are all for fluent Japanese readers so it's probably worse than a catch 22.

There is a shop on Brewer street that deals in second hand Japanese language books and manga, they might have something.

Alternatively, I found a limited supply of Japanese kids books at our local library, I expect other library's do the same.
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks. I'd quite happily buy some if you want to sell any!

I can't get to any shops/libraries that would have Japanese books here in Wales. Do you know of anywhere online?
 
Shame going to Japan is so expensive, they can cost as little as 50 - 100 yens in the book off exchange shops. That's about 40 - 70p
 
I need to brush up my German as quickly as possible. I started to read books in German but thought that perhaps someone could recommend a good German radio program that I could listen to online? I'm trying to surround myself with the language as much as possible. Thanks in advance!
 
Riklet said:
I'm doing a Spanish exam this year so need to pull my finger out a bit with writing more, especially.

It's the DELE B2 and isn't beyond me, but still requires a fair bit of thinking and practice.

Could anyone recommend a textbook by any chance?
Click to expand...
Have you already found something? I haven't got a clue but quite a few friends of mine work as Spanish teachers, so I could ask them.
 
Sweet Meiga said:
I need to brush up my German as quickly as possible. I started to read books in German but thought that perhaps someone could recommend a good German radio program that I could listen to online? I'm trying to surround myself with the language as much as possible. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Deutsche Welle does podcasts http://www.dw.de/deutsch-lernen/podcasts-newsletter/s-11696

BTW you might have already realised this, but it's possible to get audiobooks in German
 
Sweet Meiga said:
<snip> I've got a bit more than a week left till I have to start speaking German again. So I'm now in the capable hands of Deutsche Welle :)
Click to expand...
Oh right. Best of luck with immersion anyway. I'm sure you'll find it coming back after a few days :)
 
Sweet Meiga said:
Have you already found something? I haven't got a clue but quite a few friends of mine work as Spanish teachers, so I could ask them.
Click to expand...

Hi, i'd really appreciate it if you could, actually. Thanks :)

I bought the "Edelsa DELE B2" textbook but I'm thinking about taking it back, because...

1) I doesn't have the answer key and you have to buy it seperately. I can't find a pirated copy online as I hoped.
2) It's typically dull, and I hate to say it, typically Spanish ELE, with not much imagination or creativity in it, few decent pictures, no decent grammar exercises and a pretty shit format, which I didn't realise when I bought it.

I'm thinking about El Cronómetro DELE b2 as there's a new edition. Maybe your friends would know if it's any good, or if there's a better book they'd recommend instead?
 
I'm thinking of doing HSK. I don't think it would take long for me to do the level 1 really. Would just be a job of learning to read more as I've never put much effort into reading Chinese.

I've also found a couple of good websites

This one has a few Chinese vocab games
http://chineseinflow.com/

And this one (might of been mentioned on here before) is just for general learning but has a big focus on languages.
http://www.memrise.com/
 
Took French in school; always trying to update it, usually by listening to French language radio in the car, and watching French movies with sous-titres.

Did some Japanese at university; I can't speak it, but I'm able to break Japanese speech into words - before it was just sounds running together. Recent projects are Spanish - classes and at home, and thinking of Arabic - so far I can count to five - but not without cheating a bit. :D
 
Need to keep my ear in with German, I could probably do with listening to a bit more French as it's become far too passive for my liking *starts looking for audiobooks*. Still trying to keep up with Polish, which seems to be hooking itself into what I remember of German more closely than my English.

That'll do for now.
 
Okay, that's the cartoon done for tonight. We're supposed to show up with a bit of personal news and a picture of some sort to make it clearer.

Da Vinci's ghost can lie quietly for a while yet.
 
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