Want to learn the lingo? We try out four language courses

If you learn the basics, maybe 50-100 words, your efforts will be repaid many times over. Your few faltering steps will charm and open doors.

There are many language courses which claim to get you speaking a language quickly and easily.

Surely that’s advertising hype? Learning a language is just unremitting tedium with a bit of hard slog thrown in?

Not necessarily. I tried four language courses and found some surprising ways to get you speaking like a native.

Michel Thomas

Michel Thomas

Established by the linguist Michel Thomas, these courses promise to let you ‘learn another language the way you learnt your own’.

His foundation courses are made up of eight one-hour CDs and I was immediately impressed by the way learning was a very relaxed experience.

A key part of these courses is that they work without the need for books, memorizing, or homework. You just need to relax, listen and understand.

The learner is put at ease and given confidence early on, by such techniques as pointing out shared words between English and the language being learnt.

In the Spanish version, for instance, you are told all words ending in ‘able’, eg ‘probable’ are the same in Spanish, only Thomas gives you the pronunciation and lets you repeat. In this way, only five minutes into the course, your vocabulary is already growing.

The courses all share a similar structure with Michel Thomas as teacher and two students. There is usually one quick learner and one not so bright, but as they put together their sentences, their mistakes are as illuminating as their correct answers.

The exciting thing about this method is that you start to learn very quickly, almost without noticing.

The language is broken down into useful components and phrases and sentences can be built from there.

This was a delightful, exciting way to learn a language. It is ideal to use on a commute and to fill an otherwise wasted half-hour.

Tony Buzan

Tony Buzan

A name more familiar in the business training world, Tony Buzan has turned his mind-mapping techniques to language tuition.

In partnership with Collins, his courses are available in French, Italian and Spanish and like the Michel Thomas course, they are fresh and unconventional ways to learn.

Here, you don’t only need a CD player, but a pad and a set of coloured pencils, as this is very visual way of learning.

Buzan’s techniques encourage the student to draw a diagram or ‘mind map’ to help embed ideas.

So, at the centre of your mind map could be the word ‘café, next, branches are drawn from the centre with associated labels, eg tea, sugar, orange juice, sandwich, etc, but all in Italian in my case.

While the Michel Thomas course hints at different memory techniques, Buzan’s has these principles at its core and is very powerful because of that.

Words are broken into three categories, green, amber and red.

Green are words which are almost identical to English and need little explanation – so in our Italian café, this would be ‘limon’ for ‘lemon’.

Amber words are similar but need a pause to think. For instance, ‘vino’ or ‘wine’ the word ‘vines’ can be used as a trigger.

Red words have no or little similarity, so when paying the 40 euro bill, remember the Italian for ‘forty’ is ‘quaranta’. You could think of ‘quarantine’ – meaning a 40-day period.

This fun and original course could be what you’re looking for if you struggle with traditional learning methods.

Dorling Kindersley

Dorling Kindersley/Hugo – Learn in Three Months

A more conventional way of learning is to sit down with a book.

One of a series of courses covering French, Italian, Dutch and Portugese, they feature explanations of the basics with short exercises and conversation drills.

A useful feature is breaking down the course into stages, so throughout the three months you get a clear sense of progression. For instance, in the section for ‘Week 2’ you will learn about how to express possession, in ‘Week 6’ you will tackle question words.

The student needs to ensure they learn the chapter thoroughly before progressing on to the next week and revision sections help you to do this.

You shouldn’t get too frustrated, though, if you take longer over each of the sections, the important thing is to understand before moving on to the next.

Students are advised to spend an hour a day on the course, which, over three months would require more self-discipline than the eight hours needed for the Michel Thomas course.

For those willing to put the work in the result could be a deeper understanding of a language than shorter courses can offer.

The exercises should stretch the beginner with short translation texts and realistic conversations to work through. CDs of pronunciation guides are also available to complement the course.

Earworms

Earworms

The last course is the most radical of the lot and is far away from the text book experience.

Earworms set their language learning to music, with the two CDs packed with phrases built and repeated set to medium-paced electronic music.

Sounds bizarre, but they claim this approach exploits more of the brain's native power and that music puts listeners into a state of relaxed alertness, the ‘alpha state’ which maximises their learning potential.

Learners are encouraged to relax and listen to the CDs while driving, jogging or doing the dishes.

Earworms takes around 200 common phrases which you overhear as an English-speaking person takes lessons from a native speaker, but in a social situation, not a classroom.

The pace is relaxed with the emphasis on pronunciation, and without you quite realising how, you start to remember phrases, as promised.

It’s worth saying that it’s not an effortless way to learn, even though you must just listen. They key seems to be to listen actively, as you would while learning the lyrics of a song.

Learners can go to the website an download 'memory hooks' ways of remembering phrases, eg for their Greek course, you are told ‘very good’ is ‘bolee galla’. To ‘hook’ this they give you the phrase ‘a very good and polished gala’.

So, if you’ve never learned a language before or a dedicated bookworm, there are courses to suit different styles. The most important thing is not to be intimidated – just stick your headphones on while you’re on the train or doing the dishes and within weeks, you’ll have learned at least some key phrases.

You’ll be guaranteed to raise a smile – even if it is for your bravery.