Recommended Language Resources
I've been heavy into language acquisition the last three years. I'll just quickly share the books and other learning resources that have helped me the most, leaving out the rest.
For Any Language¶
Rosetta Stone¶
My strongest recommendation before starting any new language is to cruise through Level 1 of Rosetta Stone. Focus on pronunciation. Write down any questions you have, things that surprise you, etc., but don't try to answer your questions just yet. Hang on until you finish Level 1.
If the language uses a non-Roman script, alternate between the romanization and the native script, but DO NOT try to write the native script without a handwriting workbook. Also, beware of different types of romanization for the same language.
It is absolutely essential to get your first exposure to a new language through listening to and repeating after native speakers (the so-called direct, natural, or immersion method). If you try to read out of a book before getting a solid oral foundation, you will make mistakes that will HAUNT YOU FOR YEARS.
Pimsleur Method¶
The Pimsleur Method is a series of language learning audio lessons. The publisher claims that the Method is based on sound science -- a claim which I believe entirely.
In comparison to Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur has three major advantages: (1) your pronunciation will be better, because you have no script to misguide you, (2) you are forced to be more creative (i.e., generative), because of the "anticipation" aspect of Pimsleur's method, (3) you learn more function words that are needed for everyday communication, and (4) because of the audio-only format, it may be more convenient.
The relative disadvantages of Pimsleur are (1) you do not learn to read or write (which should only be attempted after a while anyway), and (2) you do not gain the same broad content vocabulary that Rosetta Stone gives you.
In short, the Pimsleur method is gold if your goal is oral functional fluency. And, since an oral command of the language is an excellent precursor to written studies, this is a great place to start. I recommend following up with Rosetta Stone starting at around lesson 10 (i.e., after ~5hrs of instruction) for learning to read and to build your content vocabulary.
For German¶
Lost¶
The improvement in my oral comprehension and pronunciation after watching seasons 1 and 2 of dubbed Lost was phenomenal, almost automatic. My passive comprehension of vocabulary improved also, because whenever I clearly hear a word that I don't understand, I press Alt-Tab and check dict.cc for a translation to English. Now I only have to do this maybe once per episode.
You can get a similar experience from any other TV drama dubbed in your target language. Just make sure you have good dubbing and no subs.
For French¶
Grammaire Progressive Du Francais (CLE Publishing)¶
French grammar is a pain in the neck. You need to do exercises with a solid grammatical explanation. Thankfully, English is close enough to French that you should be able to understand (basic) grammatical explanations directly in French. Don't believe me? Try this classic. It's a workbook with lessons on the odd pages and exercises on the evens.
Don't mess with the "niveau debutant" (beginner-level) version. Stick with the original so-called intermediate-level book. It starts with conjugations of etre (to be) -- I don't know that you can get any more debutant than that. Then again, it brings you up to hypotheticals, conditional, and subjunctive.
Essential French Grammar¶
This Dover series of "Essential Grammars" is fantastic. The book is only $6 and it's thin, containing only what you really need. A great reference, and good reading.
On that note, I would recommend the Dover Essential Grammar for your target language if it exists. I have German, Swedish, and Italian as references.
For Mandarin Chinese¶
Learning Chinese (Julian Wheatley, MIT)¶
There are many books for learning Chinese... most are crap. After studying Mandarin directly for a few months I had many questions about the grammar and the development of the language that my lame books (and Wikipedia for that matter) just weren't answering. Wheatley's text is superb -- it answered a score of my questions just within the introduction. An older version of it is available at no cost on MIT OpenCourseWare. I started with the online copy but I found that I was printing out so much of it that I just ordered a fresh copy from Amazon and I must say it has been well worth it.
My only gripe with Wheatley is that he doesn't include the characters for new vocabulary, leaving characters to separate units at the end of the book. His reasoning seems to be that the student should not hyperfocus on reading/writing. But, this just doesn't work for me. I always want to be at least exposed to the character when I learn new pinyin.
eStroke (smartphone app)¶
This app gives you a dictionary and character stroke order reference. This is an essential companion to any other study. It helps supplement Wheatley's lack of characters in his text and can be used alongside Rosetta Stone to learn to write properly. Practicing writing characters helps with memory. Also, getting the stroke-order correct is essential if you ever want to be able to read or write cursive Chinese.
For Japanese¶
Japanese: The Spoken Language (JSL) by Eleanor Jorden¶
Japanese grammar is horrendously complicated and JSL makes no attempt to dumb it down. But this book is solid. The author's style is dense but intelligent and insightful.
This text relies heavily on the recordings which are available online in MP3 format from Ohio State University.
A parallel text for writing exists called JWL. I don't have that one but rather the older version Reading Japanese by the same author. This book also looks solid, but I haven't gotten to it yet.
Originally published on Quasiphysics.