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Japanese
#1
I could not find any online Japanese classes for credit, so we are considering self study and oral ACTFL test. I wonder if that is doable. Does anybody know of an online course for credit?
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#2
http://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/online-de...panese.htm

not necessarily cheap, but Japanese courses online for credit. Although, it looks like the sequence has to be started in winter term, so likely not of much use to you (but maybe for someone else in the future)

Oh! check out Mesa Community College https://www.mesacc.edu/schedule/search
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#3
I would supplement with some free and/or cheap resources.

My favorite when I was learning Portuguese was using a language exchange. Basically, there are websites out there that allow you to swap a few minutes of speaking English for a few minutes of practice in their language More info here: https://www.thebalance.com/free-language...es-1357059 Note: While I firmly believe that this is what helped bring me from novice to speaking Portuguese in 6 months, IT IS HIT OR MISS. You're just randomly connecting with other people. My advice: Have a plan on how to get off Skype politely if you're not enjoying the interaction, Get online at the times your target language is most likely to be represented. Time distances make or break your experience. Japanese speakers won't be on in the middle of the day.

Another option that is paid, but not usually too expensive is to find a tutor that is living in the country through a website such as Preply.com. You won't get bargain-basement pricing with Japanese, but you will get someone who you're paying to sit there and help you and it could cost you anywhere from 4-5 dollars for 30 minutes to perhaps double.

But overall, PLEASE DON'T GO IT ALONE. No one learns to speak a language by reading and listening. Almost 100% of Americans learn a language in school, yet somehow no one really seems to speak their high school French or Spanish. Take it from someone who was an "expert" Spanish-speaker... until she moved to Mexico and couldn't speak to anyone for at least 6 months! All of my high school AP garbage did nothing for me. I couldn't understand or be understood until I lived there long enough to practice the language.

The good news is that there are SO SO SO many resources online. Use them. And since speaking (I mean really speaking) another language is so valuable, focus less on the credits and more on truly being fluent. Or, if you just want the credits, please save yourself some time and pick an easier language or subject.
Regis University, ITESO, Global MBA with a focus in Emerging Markets 4.0 GPA, Dual-university degree (Spanish/English) 
COSC BS, Business Admin

My BS Credits:
Spanish 80 | Humanities 67 | A & I Lit 72 | Sub Abuse 452 | Bus Ethics 445 | Tech Writ 62 | Math 53 | HTYH 454 | Am. Govt 65 | Env & Humanity 64 | Marketing 65 | Micro 61| Mgmt 63| Org Behavior 65| MIS 446|Computing 432 | BL II 61 | M&B 50 | Finance 411 | Supervision 437| Intro Bus. 439| Law Enforcement 63|  SL: Accounting I B | Accounting II C+| Macro A | ECE: Labor Relations A | Capstone: A| FEMA PDS Cert 
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#4
I'm actually just getting into learning Japanese. I wasn't trying to get any sort of credit for it though when I started. I was just doing it to learn Japanese. Upon looking though, I did not see anything that didn't cost a good bit. If you self teach, here are some of the resources that I'm using. 

Dr. Moku - Dr. Moku is making Hirgana and Katakana a breeze for me. Plus it's a phone app so you can study anywhere at any time. 

Learn Japanese Basic - Learn Japanese Basic Season 2 - Youtube videos and videos they probably showed in early 90's Japanese classes for sure but hey, it does the job. 

TextFugu - I have also heard good things about TextFugu I jumped on a lifetime membership to the site when it was $50. The usual price is $20 a month. I haven't had a chance to play around with it yet though. 

NHK World - Free lessons and resources


Also depending on your stance with torrenting there was one packed full of resources. It was like a treasure chest of Japanese learning tools.
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  • leland.kirk
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#5
To elaborate further, our son needs 6 foreign language credits for what he wants to do
Any language. Since he has been learning Japanese using japanesepod101.com I thought that he could somehow get credit relatively easily. To be honest, it might be easiest to just do Spanish at study.com and continue Japanese for fun. I wonder if those Spanish courses at study.com are doable within a reasonable time frame for someone starting off with zero Spanish skills, but I guess that is a topic for another thread. Thanks a lot for all your help.
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#6
I will be chaperoning a student group to Japan in June. I have been learning Japanese with the group. I am still woefully poor at it, but it is kind of nice to see some people here learning as well.
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#7
I had a friend years ago who learned Japanese in college, majored in International Business, and then moved to Japan for 3 years to work after college graduation. When she came back to the states to work, she had to meet with a group on a WEEKLY basis to keep up her skills. I would say that although I appreciate wanting to learn a language like Japanese, it is really hard to get fluent in, and even harder to stay fluent in. At least with Spanish (here in SoCal) you can speak Spanish as much as you want.

My only suggestion is to learn it and then keep on it fairly often.
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#8
(02-23-2018, 09:30 PM)homeschoolmom1 Wrote: To elaborate further, our son needs 6 foreign language credits for what he wants to do
Any language. Since he has been learning Japanese using japanesepod101.com I thought that he could somehow get credit relatively easily. To be honest, it might be easiest to just do Spanish at study.com and continue Japanese for fun. I wonder if those Spanish courses at study.com are doable within a reasonable time frame for someone starting off with zero Spanish skills, but I guess that is a topic for another thread. Thanks a lot for all your help.

While I don't necessarily agree with the "hours it takes to learn a language" that I've read about in many places, the hour concept definitely should be a guide.  In my personal experience studying multiple languages (and working in international business with people who've learned the really hard languages for their job,) I would say interest plays the biggest factor.    If your son is most interested in Japanese, then it really could be the easiest for him, even if that's not generally the case for others.


I'm biased - I lived in Mexico for 6 years and can tell you how the language has changed my life.  Everything from simple conversations at a grocery store to having a major impact on the amount of money I make per year.   I'm not kidding.  Spanish is really just that useful IF you use it.    

For my other languages, I think that French is less useful unless you plan on working  in France or parts of Africa.   Yes there are a million articles out there that will disagree with me, but I know better lol.   I worked in France on and off for years and managed with just my basic French - Used English inside my business meetings and had translation when needed, but it wasn't a deal-breaker. Most French business understand that English is the language of commerce. I also didn't need French elsewhere -    When I worked in Northern Africa, I always had an entourage with me for safety, but they also translated when needed, which was almost never. Man those guys in Northern Africa can speak some languages - so impressive!   Therefore I can't recommend French from my personal experiences.

Brazilian Portuguese is fun and similar to Spanish in many ways and different in others, but unless you go to Brazil for business or otherwise, you'll never use it.

Overall, Italian is the easiest to learn of the languages that I've studied, but when you factor in the usability of Spanish, it really wins hands down. Not to mention that if your Spanish is really good, you can pick up one of these other languages within 6 months if needed.

But if you're just going for the credits, definitely re-think Japanese unless he's well into learning.   It just takes a REALLY long time.  I don't know about Study.com, so I can't speak to that. I saw that SL uses Rosetta Stone and costs a pretty penny. I like Rosetta Stone, but I was surprised how much SL was charging.

....Just my 2 cents.
Regis University, ITESO, Global MBA with a focus in Emerging Markets 4.0 GPA, Dual-university degree (Spanish/English) 
COSC BS, Business Admin

My BS Credits:
Spanish 80 | Humanities 67 | A & I Lit 72 | Sub Abuse 452 | Bus Ethics 445 | Tech Writ 62 | Math 53 | HTYH 454 | Am. Govt 65 | Env & Humanity 64 | Marketing 65 | Micro 61| Mgmt 63| Org Behavior 65| MIS 446|Computing 432 | BL II 61 | M&B 50 | Finance 411 | Supervision 437| Intro Bus. 439| Law Enforcement 63|  SL: Accounting I B | Accounting II C+| Macro A | ECE: Labor Relations A | Capstone: A| FEMA PDS Cert 
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#9
Thanks a lot again. I really appreciate the input. I have considered Norwegian for him, too, since he is bilingual German/English (German would not count as a foreign language for him, but we will definitely get the easy credits via CLEP and ACTFL). Going by the list of relatively easy languages that have been written about, Norwegian seems to be one of them. Plus, it is a beautiful country with friendly people and pretty girls (always looking out for my first born Smile ) Norwegian is available online through UND. Or maybe Korean through BYU, at least Hangul is easier than Japanese writing. We shall see, for now he seems to be obsessed with Japanese, so I have no intention to stop him. This morning, he has already done 2 hours on duolingo. He likes to unlock chests. I think his Judo class started it. In any case, thank you very much again!
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#10
(02-24-2018, 09:04 AM)homeschoolmom1 Wrote: Thanks a lot again. I really appreciate the input. I have considered Norwegian for him, too, since he is bilingual German/English (German would not count as a foreign language for him, but we will definitely get the easy credits via CLEP and ACTFL). Going by the list of relatively easy languages that have been written about, Norwegian seems to be one of them. Plus, it is a beautiful country with friendly people and pretty girls (always looking out for my first born Smile ) Norwegian is available online through UND. Or maybe Korean through BYU, at least Hangul is easier than Japanese writing. We shall see, for now he seems to be obsessed with Japanese, so I have no intention to stop him. This morning, he has already done 2 hours on duolingo. He likes to unlock chests. I think his Judo class started it. In any case, thank you very much again!

That is super cool that he's already bilingual.    Korean would be interesting.. I hear that the alphabet is incredibly easy for an Asian language.    Not sure that I would personally recommend Norwegian.   I'm full of bad tidbits of information about languages since I work all over the world, but in Scandinavia, absolutely everyone speaks English.  In fact, it's the lingua franca between the Scandinavian countries.     So, they speak English as well as we do (almost) so the only reason to ever use Norwegian is if you truly want to work in the country.     Not to say that it's not worthwhile, just to make sure he knows what he's getting himself into if he goes to all the trouble to learn it.       But there is always value in learning a language - I'm just all about trying to get more bang for my buck since most of the people I work with speak English as a second language.
Regis University, ITESO, Global MBA with a focus in Emerging Markets 4.0 GPA, Dual-university degree (Spanish/English) 
COSC BS, Business Admin

My BS Credits:
Spanish 80 | Humanities 67 | A & I Lit 72 | Sub Abuse 452 | Bus Ethics 445 | Tech Writ 62 | Math 53 | HTYH 454 | Am. Govt 65 | Env & Humanity 64 | Marketing 65 | Micro 61| Mgmt 63| Org Behavior 65| MIS 446|Computing 432 | BL II 61 | M&B 50 | Finance 411 | Supervision 437| Intro Bus. 439| Law Enforcement 63|  SL: Accounting I B | Accounting II C+| Macro A | ECE: Labor Relations A | Capstone: A| FEMA PDS Cert 
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