Language Tapes/Cds?

[Paddy]

Why not FOAD?

Wrong login?

[doodab]

I would recommend the Michel Thomas CDs.

Having tried it myself I would say absolutely don't do it in the car though. You need to concentrate in order to learn so you'll either get distracted by events on the road and spend most of the time skipping backwards to where you left off, or give the course your full attention and end up finishing it in a hospital bed.

[swamp]

Pimsleur.

[TimberWolf]

A great speed advantage you have in understanding a language, whether communicated in spoken or written form, over having to express it yourself is that the rules of grammar, and all the time consuming things needed to be learnt by rote (e.g. word gender) don't need to be learnt. Quite opposite from what little French I recall from enduring at school, which concentrated heavily on grammar IIRC.

[Svalbaard]

I learnt Spanish from a Michel Thomas CD course while commuting on a 2yr gig between the South Coast and West London.

[swamp]

I learnt Spanish from a Michel Thomas CD course while commuting on a 2yr gig between the South Coast and West London.

Michel Thomas CDs really need to be stopped and started. Maybe with steering wheel controls this could work, but it would still be a big distraction.

Pimsleur courses are very long: around 90 x 30 minute lessons. You don't stop or start them but you need to talk out loud, so they are ideal for the car (as long as each journey is 30 mins or longer). The disks are very expensive though, but if you are so inclined you can find them for free on t'internet

[TheFaQQer]

Has anyone tried learning a language in the car while driving to a gig?

Are the linguaphone cds any good?

I found that I wasn't concentrating properly when I tried the Linguaphone CD when I was driving. Whether that was because I was driving and concentrating on the road, or whether it was the French CD and I already speak reasonable French but wanted to brush up a bit, I don't know.

I wouldn't recommend it, though.

[mudskipper]

Has anyone tried learning a language in the car while driving to a gig?

Are the linguaphone cds any good?

Is this for your two mile commute? It will take you a year to learn to count to 10.

[VectraMan]

I finally found a decent intermediate German audio course and have been listening to that whilst driving 3 hours a day the last few weeks. I did the same with French a while back. I'm at the stage where I want to hear as much as possible to get used to it, which works quite well, but I think if you're beginning a language it'll either distract you too much from driving or you won't be able to pay enough attention to the course.

The Michel Thomas ones only work when you pause and try to repeat, which will be difficult in a car. I started with the French and German Michel Thomas courses, and I'd highly recommend them, but they're really for beginners. Even his "advanced" courses aren't really very advanced.

[MrMark]

It's not something that can be used when commuting, but it's an excellent way to learn a (European) language if you have time in front of the PC. Heralded as one of the best Euro start-ups :

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