Free language courses

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Re: Free language courses

Postby kilroy » Sat Oct 30, 2010 3:44 pm

don't know about the other languages, but i can tell you for certain that pimsleur and rosetta stone suck balls for korean. i learned more in a bar in a few days than from those language software packs.

yo suwon, any idea how headstart stacks up to the above mentioned?

PS, if you are actually in suwon, check out club NB if you haven't yet.
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Re: Free language courses

Postby deselby » Mon Nov 01, 2010 3:14 am

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Re: Free language courses

Postby suwon fish » Mon Nov 01, 2010 3:24 am

The DLI course is not "pretty". It's old school, hard core rote learning. The website is VERY rich in local info. If you are serious about learning, it'll get'll get you done. What makes it unique for this forum is that it includes standard military tasks, interrogation and mine warefare modules which you will have trouble finding elsewhere.

Members could benefit from picking up some interrogation skills in Tagalog and Thai to find out where their f#cking wallets are in the morning ^^

High five for knowing Suwon! I ran the world famous (in Suwon) Suwon Scuba Club for years. My students came mainly from Osan AB, Camp Humphries and Camp Eagle. Hell, we might have met...

NB club??? If you mean the Now Bar in Yong Tong I have been a regular since Mrs C opened the place. I'm kinda old for nightclubs and only Tai Pan/Safari in Patong or Heart in PP gets my juices rolling these days...

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Re: Free language courses

Postby kilroy » Mon Nov 01, 2010 10:47 pm

i'm not so huge on the rote learning bit. there's only a hundred or so words that get used really frequently, and once you pick those up, the rest can be explained using them. trying to improve my grammar now, and got no real use for mil type speak. suwon was a regular weekend hangout for my last half year in korea.

and as far as the too old for clubbing, you never know. one of the last times i went out to NB in suwon i picked up (or rather got picked up by) a woman who was 11 years my senior, though i didn't find that bit out till the next morning.
when they ask how you feeling
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you tell em you feeling like something even more important arrived breathing
something you should probably try feeding
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Re: Free language courses

Postby JamesInTheWorld » Tue Nov 02, 2010 12:41 pm

lmetrucking wrote:So,not only can you not take some kidding but you own "20 or so Rosetta stone courses" and have failed to learn a language...
and I'm the fucking retard?


Yes


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Re: Free language courses

Postby Atrax » Wed Nov 03, 2010 6:19 pm

deselby wrote:Learn Arabic with Maha:

http://www.youtube.com/user/LearnArabicwithMaha#p/a

Image


Deselby, you beautiful son of a bitch. My flashcards are in the trash and I'm re-watching the beach episode, even though I already knew what al-bahr meant.
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Re: Free language courses

Postby vagabond » Wed Nov 03, 2010 6:50 pm

I feel strangely compelled to learn some Arabic as well now...
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Re: Free language courses

Postby deselby » Wed Nov 03, 2010 11:37 pm

Atrax wrote:
deselby wrote:Learn Arabic with Maha:

http://www.youtube.com/user/LearnArabicwithMaha#p/a

Image


Deselby, you beautiful son of a bitch. My flashcards are in the trash and I'm re-watching the beach episode, even though I already knew what al-bahr meant.


How's it going, Atrax. I trust your summer went well.

I have to start taking lessons, I've got a couple of possibilities to go back to Iraq in process.

Maha speaks Italian fluently, too. http://learnarabicwithmaha.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/the-interview-2/
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Re: Free language courses

Postby Atrax » Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:35 am

deselby wrote:
How's it going, Atrax. I trust your summer went well.

I have to start taking lessons, I've got a couple of possibilities to go back to Iraq in process.

Maha speaks Italian fluently, too. http://learnarabicwithmaha.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/the-interview-2/


My Summer was well Sir, as is my Fall. Desert boots are in the closet, where they belong, and I've got a college acceptance letter in my hands. No complaints.
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Re: Free language courses

Postby vagabond » Fri Nov 05, 2010 6:29 pm

Atrax wrote:
deselby wrote:
How's it going, Atrax. I trust your summer went well.

I have to start taking lessons, I've got a couple of possibilities to go back to Iraq in process.

Maha speaks Italian fluently, too. http://learnarabicwithmaha.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/the-interview-2/


My Summer was well Sir, as is my Fall. Desert boots are in the closet, where they belong, and I've got a college acceptance letter in my hands. No complaints.


Congrats!
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Re: Free language courses

Postby deselby » Sat Nov 06, 2010 12:44 am

vagabond wrote:
Atrax wrote:
deselby wrote:
How's it going, Atrax. I trust your summer went well.

I have to start taking lessons, I've got a couple of possibilities to go back to Iraq in process.

Maha speaks Italian fluently, too. http://learnarabicwithmaha.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/the-interview-2/


My Summer was well Sir, as is my Fall. Desert boots are in the closet, where they belong, and I've got a college acceptance letter in my hands. No complaints.


Congrats!


Work hard and trade your veteran war stories in for as much fun as you can among those college freshman girls.
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Re: Free language courses

Postby friendlyskies » Sat Nov 06, 2010 7:09 am

My plan is to go to Berlin and learn German for free - it's so cheap! Almost as cheap as Central America - €150 for your own apartment, about the same as I was paying for my place in Granada. Granted, it won't have a gorgeous interior garden and premium location, but it will have reliable electricity and hot water. Not too shabby.

Better, the German government has decided multiculturalism doesn't work, oh well. But instead of threatening to deport everyone, like all the other European countries I've visited, the they've decided that Turkish and Eastern European immigrants just need to learn German... for free. Hmmmmmm....

I doubt I can do it on a tourist visa, but it's apparently quite easy to get a work visa in Germany. My friend writes for some newspaper that homeless people sell for €1 on street corners, and he's all about having an English-language edition. Nothing wrong with making euros instead of cordoba, that's for sure. I don't know if German will be an especially useful language, but it's a lot easier than Chinese or Arabic - and Berlin is fucking cool.
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Re: Free language courses

Postby deselby » Sun Nov 07, 2010 11:23 pm

friendlyskies wrote:My plan is to go to Berlin and learn German for free - it's so cheap! Almost as cheap as Central America - €150 for your own apartment, about the same as I was paying for my place in Granada. Granted, it won't have a gorgeous interior garden and premium location, but it will have reliable electricity and hot water. Not too shabby.

Better, the German government has decided multiculturalism doesn't work, oh well. But instead of threatening to deport everyone, like all the other European countries I've visited, the they've decided that Turkish and Eastern European immigrants just need to learn German... for free. Hmmmmmm....

I doubt I can do it on a tourist visa, but it's apparently quite easy to get a work visa in Germany. My friend writes for some newspaper that homeless people sell for €1 on street corners, and he's all about having an English-language edition. Nothing wrong with making euros instead of cordoba, that's for sure. I don't know if German will be an especially useful language, but it's a lot easier than Chinese or Arabic - and Berlin is fucking cool.


You probably can get jobs teaching English or in English oriented retail businesses, but you might feel different after that long dark gloomy German winter, not seeing the sun for weeks for the low gray skies and nightfall at 1600.

I've looked at this expat forum before, it is pretty active: http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/
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Re: Free language courses

Postby vagabond » Mon Nov 08, 2010 12:02 am

I've heard the teaching English game in Germany is much harder than it used to be for Americans because of the visa process. Find some way to make money off hipster tourists and you'll be set. Looks like your friend can hook you up with a decent gig though so that could cool too. Seems like there's a lot of opportunity in that city, and Germany, still despite everyone else's economic troubles.
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Re: Free language courses

Postby Caliban » Tue Nov 09, 2010 11:02 am

suwon fish wrote:Thanks for the welcome gents!

Just so you know, I've been in and around Asia Pacific and SE Asia for 8 some years so I hope I can add something useful to the forum from time to time.


More than most I would say !.... (me certainly)

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