Spanish

[atropine]

wow, spanisg is way easier to learn than english, if your having a hard time with that the education problems in the carolinas must be bad.

 

[JeffDHMC]

But I always tried, and am going to get the rosetta stone software and see what happens and see if it helps in prove my spanish.

Don't blow your $ on Rosetta Stone, there are better programs out there IMO. Rostta costs A LOT for what you get. Try Michel Thomas, it's all audio based and you can listen to it anywhere, no need to sit in front of your computer and you'll get usable skill much quicker. I have the online version of all the available Rosetta languages and it's the tool I'm least impressed with.

The 2 languages I've spent the most time with are French and Arabic and I have reams of resouces on both, there is no one perfect way to self teach a language, but if you're going to start with one, try Thomas. Also; pick up a copy of "How to Learn Any Language" by Barry Farber, he gives loads of great tips on language aquisition.

 

[JeffDHMC]

I come from a very "unique" family. Learning a different language isn't really an option. My family believes that in the US you should speak English. If you don't speak English or aren't trying to learn English and your in the US then basically you get no help.

This does make calls with Spanish only speakers very interesting and normally pretty quiet. I have no interest at all in learning another language. I took French in High school because I was forced to in order to graduate but I had no urge to remember any of it.

And now is when someone is going to comment about this being poor patient care and that I don't care about the patients.

Not sure it's poor pt care, but it is kind of sad.

 

[JeffDHMC]

ok so your not wired to learn a foreign language but want to learn Chinese? Even tho Chinese is harder to learn the Spanish from my understanding. Besides alot of employers will pay more if you speak Spanish. So why not open your mind, add a skill to your resume, and become that much better at your job.

Not so; give Mandarin a try, you'll be suprized. I insist that my girls learn a foriegn language and my 12 y/o daughter studies Mandarin Chinese. She is a wizard with that stuff and is only half way through her 2nd year. To see her read and write is impressive.

Mandarin has mercifully simple grammar compared to English or any of the romance semetic languages. Also there is no verb conjugation to speak of. Verbs come in one form and one form only. The hardest parts (for me) of spoken Mandarin are the tones, but with a little practice you can pick them up pretty easily though it helps to have a native or fluent speaker to correct you when need be. I have not tried written Mandarin yet but think that may be a bit of a challenge.

 

[dstevens58]

I'm not sure if I would like to be forced to learn another language, but if given options and/or free training, I wouldn't mind learning a second language.

I went out and took courses in sign language and enjoy it very much. I even immerse myself into their culture in order to learn more than what I can/have learned in the classroom.

 

[systemet]

wow, spanisg is way easier to learn than english, if your having a hard time with that the education problems in the carolinas must be bad.

Jeff makes some interesting points. I think a lot of this stuff depends on what background you're coming from. For most people who's first language is English, it's probably going to be easier to learn something with a Latin or Germanic background, e.g French, Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, compared to something coming from a completely different linguistic group, like Finnish, Korean or Hindi.

I also think learning sign language counts as having a second language. I find it absolutely amazing how quickly two people can transfer information in sign language... it makes talking seem so inefficient.