Learning a Language the Right Way: Cheap

Molto grazie  to yesterday's exemplary guest posting from il signore Thalia from our West Coast office.  We here at the East Coast headquarters always welcome Mr. Thalia's fine contributions.  And he runs the San Diego branch of Innamorato della lingua the same way we do here: as a tight ship, with a staff of one and no payroll expenses.  Kudos Mr. T.  Keep up the good work!

Indeed, I heartily concur with Thalia's praise of the FSI language learning system.  And it is possible to find completely free (though not updated and maintained) versions of the agency's primary language materials on the Internet.  I've used both the Italian and French programs and have found them just as good or better than some of those commercial packages you have to pay molto denaro for. In fact, it seems to me that the wildly popular Pimsleur method is highly derivative of the FSI system.  Both use a combination of an old Berlitz-style listen and repeat drills, plenty of exercises in using what you've learned, and (most importantly) constant review of material covered.  This is crucial, since new vocab and grammar structures are quickly forgotten if not constantly re-enforced.  

In closing today's post, I wanted to mention yet another language learning tool that I discovered recently:  foreign language chat rooms.  There are several of these on the 'Net.  The mylanguageexchange.com site has one, though it is very limited, especially if you don't want to become a Gold member.  Better is the one at ICQ: http://www.icq.com/icqchat/chatroom.php?c_id=1221.  Here you do have to register, but it's free.  It works like any ordinary chat room with the user logging on and clicking on one of the 'rooms.'  There you'll see a thread of conversation that you can join by typing in something in the given language in the comment field.  This beats the pen-pal approach in that you get instant feedback, often from native speakers.   It's also very good for getting you used to very conversational and slangy speech.

Il signore Thalia, however, has expressed concern that I am spending too much time in the Scottish Room and picking up 'non-standard' dialect.  Thanks for your concern, Mr. T.  Perhaps I need Lexie from Glenbogle to give me a good talking to.