Speaking italian by using a method that cia agents use

[En_lizard]

while ago i read in one of the threads that you have learned speaking italian by using a method that cia aganets learn how to speak foreign languages with accent. where i can get that?

 

[Doc Al]

You know she'll have to kill you if she shows you, don't you?

 

[Evo]

I'll see if I can find it, it sounds like Pimsleur uses a similar technique.

 

[chroot]

Are you thinking about "graduated interval recall?"

My three-pronged approach has always worked well for me:

- Use Pimsleur for pronunciation and intution about grammar.
- Use Rosetta Stone for vocabulary and written language.
- Read children's books and newspapers (out loud!) to pull it all together and give you real-world experience with the language.

I actually can't praise Pimsleur enough; they're really quite good (though expensive).

- Warren

 

[Beeza]

Are you thinking about "graduated interval recall?"

My three-pronged approach has always worked well for me:

- Use Pimsleur for pronunciation and intution about grammar.
- Use Rosetta Stone for vocabulary and written language.
- Read children's books and newspapers (out loud!) to pull it all together and give you real-world experience with the language.

I actually can't praise Pimsleur enough; they're really quite good (though expensive).

- Warren

300$ per level! Geez.

 

[ranger]

I haven't used Pimsleur before. But I'm very impressed with The Rosetta Stone.

 

[Math Is Hard]

I want to learn some Italian. I love the way it sounds. A couple of weeks ago I got an Italian for dummies book and CD just to try a few conversational phrases. I want to find a proper grammar book next.

 

[JasonRox]

NO!

I've been learning Chinese for almost two months now, and did Pimsleur for the first two weeks. Pimsleur is garbage. I did each lesson like 5-10 times, and when I met a Chinese girl she had no idea what I was saying.

Now, I'm learning through Chinese girls and they understand what I'm saying. Sometimes they get really happy because I pronounce the words really well. (My French helps a lot because the sounds are similiar.)

I say no to Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone. I tried like 4 different kinds of audios. I spoke the words to like 3 different Chinese girls and they had no idea what I was talking about.

Or maybe it's just for Chinese because there is more emphasis on the words. Who knows.

 

[Loren Booda]

Chinese girls always laugh and blush when I try to speak their language, especially my last name. Truthfully, I have always had a impediment worrying about innuendo when speaking socially a foreign language.

 

[En_lizard]

evo's post:

I haven't used Pimsluer, but I've heard it is the best.

When I learned Italian, I used a CIA training system used for training government employees to quickly learn a foreign language. It was great because it would tell you where to place your tongue and form your lips to rid yourself of sounding foreign, it made you aware of what made sounds natural to a language. Absolutely necessary, IMHO. LOTS of repitition. I got the tongue thing down, and just picked up the language while in their country.

 

[Smurf]

I don't know maybe I'm not allowed to post this, but if you don't want to pay $300 for pimsleur:
<edit: Evo - sorry>

 

[radou]

In a way, I always found American girls speaking Italian or any other European language somehow sexy.

 

[zoobyshoe]

In a way, I always found American girls speaking Italian or any other European language somehow sexy.

I've always found American girls speaking English to be somehow sexy.

 

[JasonRox]

In a way, I always found American girls speaking Italian or any other European language somehow sexy.

No way!

I found Canadian or American girls or people in general are terrible in other languages, especially French.

 

[radou]

No way!

I found Canadian or American girls or people in general are terrible in other languages, especially French.

Well, that's the whole point.

(Btw, that was my little secret. )

 

[Math Is Hard]

In a way, I always found American girls speaking Italian or any other European language somehow sexy.

Bone jerrno!

 

[En_lizard]

NO!

I've been learning Chinese for almost two months now, and did Pimsleur for the first two weeks. Pimsleur is garbage. I did each lesson like 5-10 times, and when I met a Chinese girl she had no idea what I was saying.

Now, I'm learning through Chinese girls and they understand what I'm saying. Sometimes they get really happy because I pronounce the words really well. (My French helps a lot because the sounds are similiar.)

I say no to Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone. I tried like 4 different kinds of audios. I spoke the words to like 3 different Chinese girls and they had no idea what I was talking about.

Or maybe it's just for Chinese because there is more emphasis on the words. Who knows.

chinese? why ? isn't it very hard and useless outside of china?

 

[Moonbear]

NO!

I've been learning Chinese for almost two months now, and did Pimsleur for the first two weeks. Pimsleur is garbage. I did each lesson like 5-10 times, and when I met a Chinese girl she had no idea what I was saying.

Now, I'm learning through Chinese girls and they understand what I'm saying. Sometimes they get really happy because I pronounce the words really well. (My French helps a lot because the sounds are similiar.)

I say no to Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone. I tried like 4 different kinds of audios. I spoke the words to like 3 different Chinese girls and they had no idea what I was talking about.

Or maybe it's just for Chinese because there is more emphasis on the words. Who knows.

I've heard this from others too, but now can't remember who, unless you've commented on it here before and it was you. I hadn't heard of Pimsleur before, but have heard that about Rosetta Stone, that you think you know what you're doing with it, and when you actually try to talk to people, they haven't a clue what you're saying.

My preferred method of learning a language is to spend time learning the grammar from a textbook, and practice pronunciation and spoken phrases with a native speaker who can give you feedback to correct your mistakes. If you try to learn pronunciation from books or tapes, you don't get the feedback to know you're not saying something right or not hearing an important inflection and said something totally different from what you intended.

It also depends on the language as to how well you could get by with "just" a phrase book. For example, if you're speaking Spanish and mispronounce something, there's still a good chance you'll be understood. If you're speaking Chinese and mispronounce something, there's a good chance you'll offend someone with an entirely different meaning than intended.

 

[mgb_phys]

Now, I'm learning through Chinese girls

Now that might have made me do better at French in school!

 

[radou]

Bone jerrno!

Don't make me start PM-ing you.

 

[chroot]

JasonRox,

Clearly, no form of language education is going to come anywhere close to having a native speaker as a friend! However, most of us don't have the luxury of finding a native Estonian down the street who'd love to spend all his free time teaching you to count in Estonian.

I have no particular experience with Pimsleur's chinese programs, but I'd imagine chinese is one of the very hardest languages to learn by audio alone. The intonations need to be so precise! I doubt a native english speaker even has the auditory acumen to notice the subtle differences in their own pronunciation versus that on the audio tape.

I have had good luck with other Pimsleur programs like German. I lived with a native German speaker for a couple of years, and learned quite a bit of German from Pimsleur. He said that my American accent was pretty atrocious, and my word choices were sometimes a bit formal and weird, but otherwise I was perfectly understandable.

- Warren

 

[angel 42]

It's only your luck that will help you, if you can find a person German or what ever who's interested in your language, that way you can learn from him/her and teach yours to him/her, (not actually teaching but speaking and talking...)