Ich heiße Aaron
AS mentioned previously, I have recently transferred to a new unit -- the 133d Mobile Public Affairs Detachment (MPAD). One of the cool opportunities I have with my new unit is to go to Germany for my annual training (AT).
It has been several years since I was anywhere near Germany. In 2000, I went to Ethiopia to do some missions and humanitarian assistance work. The flight over (and back) included a stopover in Frankfurt, Germany. But I was only able to spend about 2 hours in Frankfort before continuing my flights.
This time I'm going to spend the better part of a month in Germany. I'm hoping to be able to go see an Eintracht Frankfurt soccer match. Wouldn't that be great? Anyway...I'm taking some time before I go to learn German. The Army encourages learning in general, but it also especially smiles upon learning foreign languages. So much that they make available free access to online Rosetta Stone language training software.
I like Rosetta Stone, but it's a different style of language learning than I'm used to. I am a graduate of the Defense Language Institute (DLI) at the Presidio of Monterey, CA. At DLI they train you to a proficiency level of a well-educated native speaker. You walk away with a very good understanding of the grammar of your new language. Rosetta Stone, on the other hand, takes a different approach to language training. Rosetta Stone uses an intuitive style where the software shows you photos of an item or situation, then plays an audio description of the image in the target language. You have to associate the audio with the image to understand what you're being taught. But that's not my problem. My problem is that you don't really get an explanation of the grammar that you are learning. So I find myself looking on the web for German grammar and verb declination websites.
One of the really cool things about Rosetta Stone is that, if you have a microphone attached to your computer, the software will require you to speak in the target language and will challenge you to properly pronounce your word or phrase. It's pretty strict about its pronounciations. I highly recommend that, if you need to learn a language, you should give Rosetta Stone a try.
It has been several years since I was anywhere near Germany. In 2000, I went to Ethiopia to do some missions and humanitarian assistance work. The flight over (and back) included a stopover in Frankfurt, Germany. But I was only able to spend about 2 hours in Frankfort before continuing my flights.
This time I'm going to spend the better part of a month in Germany. I'm hoping to be able to go see an Eintracht Frankfurt soccer match. Wouldn't that be great? Anyway...I'm taking some time before I go to learn German. The Army encourages learning in general, but it also especially smiles upon learning foreign languages. So much that they make available free access to online Rosetta Stone language training software.
I like Rosetta Stone, but it's a different style of language learning than I'm used to. I am a graduate of the Defense Language Institute (DLI) at the Presidio of Monterey, CA. At DLI they train you to a proficiency level of a well-educated native speaker. You walk away with a very good understanding of the grammar of your new language. Rosetta Stone, on the other hand, takes a different approach to language training. Rosetta Stone uses an intuitive style where the software shows you photos of an item or situation, then plays an audio description of the image in the target language. You have to associate the audio with the image to understand what you're being taught. But that's not my problem. My problem is that you don't really get an explanation of the grammar that you are learning. So I find myself looking on the web for German grammar and verb declination websites.
One of the really cool things about Rosetta Stone is that, if you have a microphone attached to your computer, the software will require you to speak in the target language and will challenge you to properly pronounce your word or phrase. It's pretty strict about its pronounciations. I highly recommend that, if you need to learn a language, you should give Rosetta Stone a try.
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