LAnguage School

[numonorean]

may pangarap talaga akong maging linguist.   i learned Mandarin a couple of years back at Berlitz.  I'm learning Spanish now with Languages Internationale because they have a tie-up program with my company.  sabi ko nga it's like going full circle because my grandmother's Chinese and my grandfather's Spanish.   susunod dito e seryosong Nihongo, Italian at French.

^naghanap din ako niyan dati, sis.  rare ang Cantonese classes kaya mahal.  pero kung may tiyaga kang mag-self study, hanap ka ng audiobooks.  naging helpful sakin ang Lonely Planet phrasebook.

^^^^personally, i wouldn't advice you to take different languages at the same time.  kasi magkakaiba ang hatak ng dila mo for every language.  ang sabi kasi ng teacher ko dati, kapag pinagsabay-sabay mo daw e malilito ka talaga.  and instead of making you learn the language, you end up confusing yourself.  unless you're solely studying languages at wala kang ibang ginagawa.  like people who took up Linguistics in college.

[swiTsuplada]

thanks sis for the advice... I'll look for audio books

[Heatherette]

Ok. I want to learn Mandarin AGAIN haha I studied in an exclusive Chinese school but never ko na naalala yung mga pinag-aralan ko well except a few. I can read Chinese characters and understand some. Gusto ko subukan yung Cambridge Banawe since its closer to me. Magtatanong tanong nga ko lol

[diannesy1200]

meron bang free spanish school

[trinity94]

free language lessons on MAY 16, 2-4PM...

[pomegranate]

Can someone please recommend a site where pseudo-Spanish speakers can chat/practice their Spanish communication skills? I am currently in a beginner's program in Instituto Cervantes. I'm really interested in applying what I learn so far (which is not much) and enriching it but unfortunately, I have no one to practice with.

[m_lim]

Ok. I want to learn Mandarin AGAIN haha I studied in an exclusive Chinese school but never ko na naalala yung mga pinag-aralan ko well except a few. I can read Chinese characters and understand some. Gusto ko subukan yung Cambridge Banawe since its closer to me. Magtatanong tanong nga ko lol

Language school ba itong Cambridge sis? saan sa banawe?

[Heatherette]

^Sis, di ko rin alam. I pmed one of our sisses here who studied there but wala pa rin reply Last month pa ata yung pm ko lol

[ladybeatrice_25]

sis trinity94 I saw sa link na binigay mo na meron free language lessons on june 20, 2009. Meron ba Italian lessons, and is it for beginner's level only?

and how much yung tuition for italian?

tia!

[trinity94]

free language lessons on June 20, 2009, 1-4 pm...

please pm me for details... yes, we teach every language requirement you may have... we have from beginner to advanced levels...

[Cynthia0915]

Ano po yung cover ng free language lesson this coming saturday?

[candydoll]

I really want to learn as many languages as much possible ever since..
I'm strongly considering it right now..
I want to learn Mandarin & Spanish first coz I'm part Chinese & Spanish..
Then French, German, Italian or Nihongo afterwards
As Ive read, these are the most recomended schools from our Girltalkers.. correct me if I'm wrong nalang.. 

Mandarin:
Confucius Institute at the Ateneo De Manila
UP Diliman's Department of European Languages
De La Salle University Center for Language Learning
Berlitz
The Bridge Language Institute
Asian Studies Center
Asian Ceneter for Foreign Languages
Languages Internationale

Spanish:
Instituto Cervantes
The Bridge
Alliance Francaise De Manille
( I read somewhere here that they teach Spanish daw? Is this true? )
UP Diliman's Department of European Languages
Languages Internationale

French:
Alliance Francaise De Manille
Languages Internationale

German:
Goethe - Institut Manila
The Bridge
Languages Internationale

Nihongo:
Nihongo Center
The Bridge
Languages Internationale


Questions:
1. Do you have to be a student to study a foreign language in Ateneo, UP, La Salle?
2. Is the tuition fee per level basis? or its for all the levels na?
3. Do u have to be a college grad to be able to enroll to any of these schools/institutes?
4. Is it advisable to take more than one class / language at the same time para mas mabilis? Or nose bleed na sobra?
 

Your response would be much appreciated girls.. TIA! 

Hello! I think I can answer your first question. I am a International Studies student of DLSU-M and they only offer French and Spanish courses for International Studies Students only. ^_~ However, don't fret because they get instructors from Alliance and Instituto so if you want you can learn French and/or Spanish straight from those institutions.

For your second question, well it's included for our semestral tuition fee. On my year, we studied Alter Ego 1 for 5 terms however this year French classes were divided to 7 terms. We're paying a total of 45-50k per term, three times a year. I'm not sure how much is for French classes, probably 5k per term.

For the third, this courses are for undergraduate students of IS (International Studies).

Fourth, French is a very extensive language. You really need to be exposed and practice well. After studying Alter Ego 1 for one and a half year, I must say that I only know BASIC French. ^_~

Hope this helps!

[smitten]

I used to study at Instituto Cervantes but alas I failed... . It was so hard...

[pomegranate]

^ waa totoo ba un? Whose your prof? They really fail students? Anyway, if you really want to learn the language, you can always try again right?  No new language is easy in the first place, I can attest to that.

Anyway, an event at Instituto tomorrow: http://img19.imageshack.us/i/eldia2009.jpg/

[yaelski18]

^Yes, they do. I once had two classmates back in Curso 1 (first class ng beginner's level) who didn't pass the final exam so they weren't able to enrol in Curso 2. Then in Curso 4 our prof told one classmate that she would not be letting him enrol in Curso 5 because it was obvious that he didn't really understand the lessons.

And yes, pwede namang umulit ng level kapag hindi pumasa.

[silver_dust]

@silver_dust - wow how long were you in beijing?

@wuvshoe: So, sorry... I haven't been able to check the thread for quite some time.

Anyway, I stayed there for almost a year (2 sems). Mahirap nga mag-"er hua yin" if you live outside Beijing lalo na kung sa Taiwan. Did you learn from podcasts and flashcards lang? Ang galing mo!   My grade and high school used a Taiwan-based chinese curriculum (phonetics and traditional writing) kaya familiar din ako with that, tapos recently nalang ang Pinyin and simplified. Honestly ngayon, rusty na traditional ko lalo na yung phonetics. Hahaha! But it's easier for those who learned traditional to read simplified (with or without formal training).

Converse with the locals, sayang naman kung hindi kasi you'll learn more from it. Ma-practice yung speaking and listening skills mo. I know it's kinda embarassing at first, pero masasanay ka din in time. Jia you~!

Let me know if you'll need help on translating something (yeah, you can probably send it via email..haha!), baka maka-tulong ako kahit paano. Same goes for everyone

[silver_dust]

Mandarin:
Confucius Institute at the Ateneo De Manila

Questions:
1. Do you have to be a student to study a foreign language in Ateneo, UP, La Salle?
2. Is the tuition fee per level basis? or its for all the levels na?
3. Do u have to be a college grad to be able to enroll to any of these schools/institutes?
4. Is it advisable to take more than one class / language at the same time para mas mabilis? Or nose bleed na sobra?
 

Your response would be much appreciated girls.. TIA! 

I can only answer your questions for Ateneo Confucius.

1 & 3 . You don't have to be a student of Ateneo. Ateneo Confucius is a separate institute for chinese studies. I dont think age and educational bg would be an issue here. 

2. Tuition is on a per level basis; they have classes from Beginner to Advance levels, with sublevels on each. I think the registration for the next cycle is ongoing, classes will run from July25-Sept26. Here's the website for more info: www.ateneoconfucius.com

4. Personally, it's not advisable to study several languages at the same time. Maguguluhan ka lang, and you wont be able to master the language. As for more than one class (same language), I guess it'd be ok. But different teachers will have different ways of teaching (approach, curriculum, etc.) so if you're just starting out wag muna. One at a time muna... Listening to podcasts helps a lot though!

Good luck!:)

[smitten]

^ waa totoo ba un? Whose your prof? They really fail students? Anyway, if you really want to learn the language, you can always try again right?  No new language is easy in the first place, I can attest to that.

Anyway, an event at Instituto tomorrow: http://img19.imageshack.us/i/eldia2009.jpg/

Yup. I think they really fail students...eh I was depressed those time so I didn't bother na enrolling again but now I'm thinking of enrolling again but a different language to be more competitive in the working environment

[wuvshoe]

@silver_dust - Hi sis!
Yeah, conversing with the locals is the easiest way to learn the language. I do listen to podcasts and I have a lot of flashcards... even if I have memorized them, hindi ko rin nagagamit in actual conversations (how do you insert 'long (dragon)' in a sentence di ba?). But once I 'encounter' a word while talking to a local, nagsi-stick yung word kahit I have no idea what the character looks like (minsan pati tone ambiguous). Yun nga lang... minsan instead of trying to understand or practicing my mandarin, nagpapa-cute ako... so sila yung nagi-english. hehe, bad student!
Thanks sis... you're my translator laoshi!

^Grabe may language school na nagfe-fail ng students? Sayang yung money. I took up Spanish in college and I almost failed too kasi mali yung verb form na ginagamit ko (yo hables! tu hablo!) Kung 2x ka rin magbabayad to advance to the next level, mas sulit ata yung 1-on-1 lessons tapos you can schedule your classes pa. 

[pomegranate]

^Yes, they do. I once had two classmates back in Curso 1 (first class ng beginner's level) who didn't pass the final exam so they weren't able to enrol in Curso 2.

Grabe, when I told my classmates, none  of them can believe it. My friend reasoned out that they will lose students if they fail agad in Curso 1. Can't say din kasi terorista din ang prof namen. Buti naman puede mag repeat hehe, I'm loving the language.

^^ Yes, don't give up on learning; sometimes kasi when we are trying to learn something, the gratification period that we get fuels us to learn more. A re-route is not a bad idea. Ako I stopped learning French level 1 because nosebleed talaga ako literally and I feel guilty whenever I don't read some of the letters, so I opted to learn muna a language that I can quickly grasp and appreciate. Go girl

^ medyo expensive pa rin. In Instituto Cervantes, for example, a tutorial costs P1630 per hour for a minimum of 30 hours. I think Alliance charges higher (fine bias ako sa Spanish). A regular program costs P2920, which is reasonable because it caters to a low student ratio (we are 8 right now) but at the same time it provides interaction too since it's not everyday that you can chat up with an Espanol in Manila. I think sulit ang one-on-one in Mandarin and Nihongo because of the writing. But of course, as you said, conversing with the locals is the easiest way to learn the language; and you are so lucky to be in such circumstance. Good luck