so, i was very appropriately being curmudgeonly, when suddenly i had a "happy feet" attack or something.

...

i was doing my 4 hr. daily commute -- not something to be happy about -- listening to language learning podcasts.

i was a bit depressed by the drivers of Very Large Vehicles trying to kill me, going 85/90 mph or so and not being able to actually keep their Very Large Vehicles in their own lanes, and, you know -- i see a lot of wrecks, most of which feature at least One Very Large Vehicle that has run over someone else, but sometimes Two or More Very Large Vehicles crahsed into each other, because not only do their drivers disrespect everyone else on the freeway, they also have no respect for each other.

which reminded me these are the same loons who think dropping bombs on innocent people is a Really Good Idea, in order to keep themselves safe to terrorize other drivers on a daily basis or something.  (as you can see, i'm unclear on the "logic" ...)

all, in all, appropriate curmudgeonly thought.

and then suddenly and without warning i found myself thinking how great it was to have podcasts from around the world, teaching me communication skills and sharing a "community" of people who just like to reach out and be nice to each other, as opposed to blow each other up, or run each other off the road.

and free software.

and free info on the internet.

and, well, dang ... we never had any of this when i was a kid.

i recommend you to Coffee Break Spanish and Coffee Break French.  i have used a lot of different recordings to try and learn languages over these many years.  And get this, we are going back a-ways in time here, the earliest weird system i used was some sort of super-low-fidelity magnetic film things that sort of played an analog recording with some kind of recording head "stylus" much the way an old timey "record" played on a turntable.  These were really weird! (way before "eight-track" or "cassettes" or CDs or anything else from the known world).

So, i mention all that because i find the approach of Mark (and student Kara, for Spanish and Anna, for the French series) really good!

But weird, too.  Mark has a heavy Scottish accent, as he is from Scotland.  Who'da thought?  i'm learning Spanish and French from a Scottsman.  I sometimes have more trouble understanding Mark's English than his Spanish or French.

When i get bored, i practice trying to speak English with Mark's accent.  That's actually more trouble than learning the Spanish or French ...

enough of this Pollyana stuff ...