Please remind me... How am I suppose to teach my children a foreign language

[Jumping In Puddles]

when I don't speak another language and don't know any FL native speakers to help?

 

I've been searching the forums (German, Spanish, French, Japanese!!!) and still have not come across a good way to overcome this problem.

 

My ds wants to learn Japanese and we have movies, workbooks, cd's but he doesn't have anyone to speak with and I can't really correct him except at the very basic level. :banghead:

 

I thought about dropping Japanese and go with German but will that make it easier? Should I get Rosetta Stone (dh gets any RS for free from work) for myself to get my kids started? Is it reasonable to think that I could learn a second language without anyone to converse with?

 

Sometimes I wish I could pick up and move to another country! :lol: (Hmmm, dreaming of Switzerland, Italy, Austria!)

 

BTW, I agreed to Japanese because I was going to sign ds up for a class that meets once a week but it turns out the class was just too far to drive every week (it would have taken about 1.5 hours each way) plus with gas money it would have turned out to be pretty expensive. For the money, I could take ds to Japan every summer! :lol:

Edited January 17, 2011 by Jumping In Puddles

[MomOfOneFunOne]

My daughter's math teacher once said she'd be willing to teach hindu via skype.

 

Maybe someone in Japan would be interesed in that. How would you find out??? I do not know. sorry.

 

just an idea.

[NanceXToo]

I haven't had a chance to check this out firsthand yet, but I definitely will at some point! I read about this in "Secular Homeschooling Magazine" and I'm going to type some excerpts from the very thorough review here. It's in regard to a site called:

 

http://www.livemocha.com

 

This is supposed to be free online tutoring from native speakers. Well, it's partly a program you do on your own, and partly a social thing. It's supposed to be like a facebook type thing (don't get nervous yet, keep reading)- you can have a profile, you can "friend" people, etc. But the sole point to it is supposed to be learning languages. You can benefit from the skills of other students on the site without "friending" anybody.

 

It offers instruction in many different languages. You are supposed to be at least 13 years old to have your own account "but the material is completely appropriate and family-friendly."

 

You sign yourself up as a native English speaker who is a beginning (language of your choice) student, or whatever applies.

 

"They start you off with words or short sentences in your language of choice, but you can click on the "translate" button at any time for clarification."

 

"So: the first lesson in beginning French show a picture of a man. Underneath him is written the word "homme." You hear the word spoken by a native French speaker. You can click play as often as you want to hear it again. When you feel ready, you can move on to the next picture and word. There's a rewind button that will take you back one word at a time, and a forward button that allows you to move ahead.

 

Each section of each language course is divided up into four segments. What I've just described is the first part of each new lesson and is called "Learn." You can spend as much time as you need here mastering the new vocabulary words and working on your accent."

 

Then there's a review part where students are quizzed on what they've learned. There are quizzes you can take if you want.

 

Then there's a third activity: "Write" where you have to compose a paragraph in the language you're learning.

 

"This is where the social interaction aspect of the site kicks in. Once you complete this exercise, you "submit" it, and it goes out to the Livemocha universe. The site offers you the names of some members who would be appropriate readers of your work- native or fluent speakers of the language you are learning. You can send an automated request to these people to please read your work, or you can just send it out to the general Livemocha universe. Anyone who cars to can take a look and leave comments on how you're doing. They will correct spelling and grammar" etc.

 

"Though no-one is required to participate in this commenting and correcting, students on Livemocha are very willing to help one another out. For one thing, it's fun to check someone else's work. It's like a game, or a puzzle. This activity can be especially valuable for young students, and a good chance to hone their spelling and grammar skills. They get to feel like experts on a subject- which they are, at least so far as the accent and flow of their native language is concerned. It's a real boost for children to be able to take the role of teacher for a change." AND students are awarded "points" for helping other students.

 

The last exercise in each lesson is a spoken word activity- you read aloud a short paragraph in the language you're studying and submit it just as you did with the written paragraph. They can give feedback on your accent etc.

 

"While I'm logged in at Livemocha, I have received occasional requests for live chats. I have accepted a couple, and they have been exactly the kind of conversation you'd expect from two people who are not fluent in the same language: Hello. How are you? Fine, thank you! How are you?" "I've had NO inappropriate or unpleasant contacts from other students- as I said, the air is one of fellowship and hard work. I think Livemocha is the perfect blend of privacy, scholarship, and conviviality."

 

So, it sounds really promising! And if anybody uses it, let me know what you think! :) My daughter's only 10, I think maybe when she's a bit older- 12 or 13 maybe- we'll check it out and try it together!

[Chrystal]

Try livemocha.com

This is a site where you learn a new language with native speakers. You will need a microphone so that he can speak and have other evaluate his work, and he should be willing to evaluate others work in his native language. There are exercises to complete before the spoken and written portions for each unit. The spoken or written portions are then evaluated by others and you see and hear thier responses.

The best part, it's free. It's also really fun.

I have done this and really enjoyed it. I never had anyone ask to chat. I also used a stock avatar and not a photo of myself. Maybe that's why : )

[Jumping In Puddles]

I just checked out LiveMocha and it does look excellent!

 

Japanese appears to be free while German, Spanish, Italian are $150/year. Maybe we will stick with Japanese! :lol:

[Mabelen]

I have used a similar website to LiveMocha, busuu.com, to brush up my Italian and French skills over last summer.

 

I definitely think the concept is great. It gives you a way of learning and of practicing the language, but there are limitations that you should be aware of.

 

The first thing you have to take into account is that the users are just ordinary folk and you have no way of knowing/judging (especially if you are a beginner) how good their native language skills are. They may indeed be native speakers; some of them might have very good language skills, but some others I would rather avoid learning from due to their poor grammar, non standard pronunciation etc.

 

The other thing you have to keep in mind is the interactive chat (with or without webcam) feature. While it is a great way of practising with real native speakers, you have to use your judgement again. I have encountered a couple of users that I suspected were using the chat as a chat up line rather than as a language learning service. You can block users but I would not let a young student unsupervised while using this feature. I think there is a minimum age for users anyway, it might be 17 or so, I forget, but be aware that you might find people that will try to have strange conversations with you!