Practicing a foreign language without native speakers

The ideal way to learn a foreign language is by conversing with native speakers, but this is not always possible in the USA.

I had two years of German in college and have some reference books in German that I need to use. Eventually I wanted to learn to understand spoken German and to speak some, too. Books are helpful, but can do only so much.

Step 1 Shortwave radio helped for a time.

Radio waves in the shortwave frequencies bounce off of the ionosphere and can reach the other side of the world. The Passport to World Band Radio is a Yellow Pages of foreign broadcasters and their schedules. For a decade or so I listened to German broadcasts on shortwave. Reception was often not very good due to sunspots, static, and weather. Still, it helped me to begin to understand spoken German and to mimic phrases so I could begin to converse with German tourists I encountered.

For the last few years shortwave service to the USA in German has come to an end. This is because of budget cuts and the broadcasters are changing over to digital broadcasts, but those will not be available in the USA for a few more years.

Comments

[uglymike]

Another great tip I've heard about is watching a movie or TV show you have already seen in English dubbed into the target language. Since you are already familiar with the story, you know what's going on (as opposed to a foreign movie in the target language where you have no clue what's going on). Many DVD's are dubbed in Spanish and/or French, other languages may be more difficult to find. Also "The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages Fast" by A.G.Hawke is a great step-by-step book setup for any language, though it does require you to have other reference material. Many of the recommendations in the book are similar to this instructable, though these instructions are far more technically savvy. Great Instructable!!!

[Phil B]

There are foreign language tracks on movie DVDs. In the USA these are usually Spanish and sometimes French. If either of those are your languages to practice, you are in business. Sometimes you find a DVD with a German language track at Borders or Barnes and Noble, but the price is quite high compared to other DVDs. If you go to Germany you can find DVDs of movies you saw in English, but with German (as well as English) tracks. But, their video system is PAL, not the VHS standard our equipment plays. We bought a PAL compatible DVD player and a couple of movie DVDs there, but their players use 230 volts, not 115. Then you need a voltage converter. The rate of speech in German Podcasts is a good normal rate. The speed at which people talk in German movies is faster and less distinct than Podcasts--very difficult for a learner. Thanks for the tip on the Hawke book. I will check on it.

[marcward86]

some cheaper dvd players can be hacked, by a combination/series of button presses on the remote control. you can reset them to region 1-6, usually. my roommate did it with his japanese dvds after a semester in japan.
here's one website i found:
http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/info/multiregion/hackable.asp

[Phil B]

Thanks for the information.

[unidyne]

You can also peruse dealers like Amazon.com for "region free DVD players" that sell for between $29 to $70 US. They play any region DVD player and automatically adjust between PAL and NTSC. Pay attention to the reviews on Amazon. If the 1 star reviews are almost the same number as the 5 star reviews, pick another brand.

[Phil B]

You may have heard the saying "too smart by half." We were in Germany and I wanted to buy some DVDs with the audio in German so I could practice better. We also bought a DVD player there, too. Of course the power requirement is for 220 volts, not 115 volts. So, when we returned home I spent more money on a power converter that changes 115 volts to 220 volts. I would have been smarter to do what you suggested. Thank you.

[aesipov]

Thank you very much for the article: My cross

[Sam the Wizer]

 Deutsche Welle (http://dwelle.de) is a  German language News Radio station with a live stream that I've been using to learn German.  

http://www.listenlive.eu/germany.html has a list of other streaming radio stations in German.  I like Deutsche Welle because it's more of an NPR format.

[Phil B]

I also have given preference to broadcasters that enunciate clearly.  The news channel at Nord Deutsches Rundfunk is very good, too.

[Ubbo]

Falls ihr mal Probleme mit dem Deutschen habt, schreibt mir einfach, dann helfe ich euch gern.
Aber bitte schaut erst nach, ob die Antwort nicht schon im Dictionary steht :-)

[Phil B]

Recht herzlichen Dank für das Angebot.  Oftmals verwende ich Leo, ein elektronisches Wörterbuch aus der Uni zu München und finde es mir zehr hilfreich.  Auch habe ich eine Duden (4. Band--Grammatik) und zusätzlich verschiedene Wörterbücher.  Alles Gute!

[chomporado]

Livemocha is nice at first but it gets boring later. It works a little like rosseta stone but I found some mistakes in the lesson and they never explain to you how the grammar works. Finding a native speaker is pretty hard, I found a really good one who ive been friends with for more than a year but I also found a lot of other users who use livemocha as a dating site... :(

[sliphorn]

The BBC have on-line courses for a number of foreign languages: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

[kostya]

Another useful tip is to listen to songs in target language. I'm a teacher of English so I recommend my students to listen to songs by Frank Sinatra,Madonna,Elton John,to name just a few. Nice instructable! Thanks.

[Phil B]

Thanks. The language I try to practice is German. English is my first language. I have tried listening to songs sung in German. I often find them difficult to follow. Similar sounding words are too much alike to distinguish with certainty. Sometimes the grammar is clipped to fit the music or to make a rhyme. I do better with Podcasts. An exception is finding the lyrics in German on the Internet and having them to compare as I listen.

[randofo]

You could always randomly prank call people in Germany.

[t.rohner]

What a fantastic idea, i stopped taking calls on my land line. I don't have caller ID activated yet, so i only take calls on my mobile phone lately... because of all the prank callers wanting to learn German. hahaha.
Not that i would keep anyone from learning another language, i'm actually thinking about learning Swedish.
I'd listen to http://www.dradio.de/podcast/

[Phil B]

What you might do is search the Internet for "Swedish MP3." Do a search for "Radio Sweden" to find Sweden's national broadcaster. Most countries have one. Often the broadcaster offers helps for people who want to learn the language and study the culture, maybe even free language courses.

[Phil B]

After listening to hours of German, you quickly recognize a certain timbre in the voice of a native German speaker, even if he is speaking excellent English. I make it a habit to waylay German tourists in the USA. They are usually appreciative that a US citizen took the time and made the effort to be interested in their language and to speak to them in it. They are very forgiving of mistakes you might make. They struggle enough to speak English when in the USA that they know very well how hard it is to get everything right.