STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

bex · Chanel

Japanese?

tara t · Marc Jacobs

i've been wanting to learn japanese too. i feel like i haven't been challenging my brain enough. i take karate, and my instructor teaches language, but my schedule doesn't really allow for a set time to take a class right now. but eventually it will.

ayo · Coach

the Rosetta Stone series (you could do a google search)

Is pretty good and I know it is what the State department uses to train it's diplomats in different languages.

I took 3 years of Japanese. I loved it! I can still write some of it and can understand a little

bex · Chanel

thanks for the rosetta stone suggestion ayo. i just looked it up and it looked great- until i saw the price. $200!! i was hoping for something in the $30-50 range...

anyone else?

-- Edited by bex at 14:24, 2005-11-14

cc · Marc Jacobs

bex I don't have any suggestions for Japanese but you can try to find language CDs to download on the internet (if you're ok with that). I got a bunch of French language CDs out of the library and was going to try to put them on my ipod but realized it would be easier and faster to just dowload a bittorrent instead. I found one for a Pimsleur series which is really long (maybe 3 CDs) and which retails for several hundred dollars. My boyfriend has been using it while living in France since he had very little background in French and he likes it for brushing up and practice. You could also look on half.com or ebay. The better sets can still be pretty expensive but I've found some for around $50.

bex · Chanel

cc wrote:

bex I don't have any suggestions for Japanese but you can try to find language CDs to download on the internet (if you're ok with that). I got a bunch of French language CDs out of the library and was going to try to put them on my ipod but realized it would be easier and faster to just dowload a bittorrent instead. I found one for a Pimsleur series which is really long (maybe 3 CDs) and which retails for several hundred dollars. My boyfriend has been using it while living in France since he had very little background in French and he likes it for brushing up and practice. You could also look on half.com or ebay. The better sets can still be pretty expensive but I've found some for around $50.

you know what? you just gave me an idea to do a library search for them and download them to my itunes library. or burn them.

thanks!

going off to library site to reserve them!

cc · Marc Jacobs

I think the library is such a good option as long as you can find a good selection. This way you can try out different programs. Also I forgot to mention that itunes has some language programs available for download under the audiobooks category but the last time I looked they didnt have that many choices.

gingembre1 · Kate Spade

Hi Bex,

I've found that to keep up my French nothing works better that finding real live French people to converse with. Through craigslist.com I actually met a super nice French guy, and we would meet up 1x a week to chat. That helped more than taking classes, reading in French, or anything else I tried. Now I'm dating a French guy, and that's just even better! Hahaha

Deuce · Dooney & Bourke

I was going to suggest the library or going in with a friend and burning copies and sharing to reduce costs.

I have a few friends who speak spanish and talking to them fairly regularly is the only I can keep from losing it. But it does come back after resuming.

Good for you, I have heard Japanese is quite hard. I admire your ambition.