A foreign language thread...

[MidnightCafe]

Let's talk about teaching foreign languages. What do you do? What do you wish you could do?

We are embarking on a journey to learn German. In the past, I've tried to get DD to learn some Spanish. She's been everywhere from totally resistant to very mildly interested. So, we dropped any attempts to work on a foreign language. It was just draining too much energy. This semester I started talking to her about how she's going to need a foreign language in order to graduate from high school someday. She started casually mentioning wanting to learn German. This week she asked if DuoLingo (a language learning app that we've used for Spanish) has German. We checked, and she immediately started working through the first German lesson!! All week she's been playing around with German learning apps, attempting to use all the German phrases she's learning, and organizing a binder for keeping German vocab!!!

So, anyway, we've found a few things to help us along. DH spoke German fluently in high school/early college. This means we have a little help when we get stuck...but very little because DH has learned Spanish since then, and he has a hard time switching languages.

We're using the following apps:
DuoLingo
Busuu
MosaLingua

We also found a podcast called Coffee Break German.

And we have free access to an online language learning program through our public library.

With so many free resources available, I'm disinclined to purchase anything. If we want it, our library also has Pimsleur, Mango Passport, and the Living Language Series. Anyone have experience with any of these? We have used Pimsleur Spanish. That's how DH learned Spanish. It's great for auditory learners, but it doesn't work well for me.

We have a Germanic American Institute not far from us, too, that offers classes, cultural events, and conversation circles. (We'll be attending a Swiss Yodeling class in a couple of weeks! )