MP3 Language Courses: Minimize Time, Money and Frustration all the While Maximizing Your Foreign Language Speaking Skills

Learning a foreign language can be a daunting task for anyone; yet, as businesses grow more increasingly global and travel abroad becomes more affordable and more popular, people are finding that knowing at least the very basics of other languages is paramount to professional success and personal fulfillment. And many of these people are finding that MP3 language courses are the fastest, easiest way to learn almost any foreign language – including French, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Italian, German, Chinese and more.

Just Why Did it Work For Him?

Take Joe, for instance. Joe is a Harvard Business School graduate who works for a large international shipping company out of Charleston SC. Joe has a component sales team and a dedicated customer service team, both with representatives that work around-the-clock, dealing with customers in international time zones. While he has carefully hired managers that speak a variety of languages, he knows that he must boast at the very least a minimal understanding of the languages his customers and his employees use every day.

But, like most of us, Joe is busy. He works 60-70 hour workweek and has a wife and three children at home.

Thankfully, about two years ago, his company introduced its top management to MP3 language courses and even gave them all Apple iPods, undeniably today’s most popular MP3 player at the corporate meeting last January.

New Mobile Technology

The head of the company’s Information Technology department explained to everyone in attendance that MP3 files were simply a sound format for the compression of CD quality audio, and said there were numerous freeware and commercial players that could be quickly and easily downloaded from the Internet for playing these files.

In fact, Joe’s company added the most current version of the Windows Media Player to its Intranet site, allowing employees to download it from the home page in a few seconds flat.

Admittedly, Joe was skeptical at first. He had his secretary download the media player and then had her add the first language course MP3 file to his iPod. He chose the MP3 Pimsleur course first.

Drive, Fly, Commute and Learn a Language

What he had his secretary do was this: She ordered the Pimsleur audio book chip (which compresses several CDs into a small memory card) and then added this file to Joe’s desktop. She then downloaded it into his MP3 player for review whenever he wanted – while exercising at the gym, flying to meet clients or attend international sales meetings, or even while he worked in the yard on the weekends. Best of all, the Pimsleur audio book chip worked in his new car stereo, so he could learn the basics of a new language while he drove to and from work each day, maximizing his time on the 45-minute commute.

Joe found that by listening to the conversational basics and the fundamentals of a different language, he could more quickly grasp it. And, with time and patience always in short supply, this was important to Joe.

Within two months, Joe was using learning French MP3 and even learned some Russian in MP3. He also tapped into a Spanish language course on MP3 and was perfecting more then the basics of this language.

In fact, Joe was so impressed with this style of learning, and the time, money and effort it saved him, not to mention the amazing results, that he talked to his wife, who always wanted to learn Hebrew, about giving the MP3 language courses a try.

Just Why was She Successful?

After all, she could listen to the audio files while the children slept, as she cleaned the house, even while watching her son’s soccer games from the sidelines. Of course, Joe also explained that the new MP3 player he had given her for her birthday (which remained in the box on her night stand) could be used with her existing car stereo, so she, too, could better use her time in the car.

She was impressed and willing to give it a try, but as a former elementary school teacher, she was skeptical. Not up on technology, this now stay-at-home mom just couldn’t believe that simply listening to an audio file could make a difference and certainly couldn’t teach her a new language.

Boy, was she wrong!

In just 30 minutes a day, she was actually learning how to speak Hebrew and not simply conjugate verbs! The interactive audio lessons helped her learn real conversational skills and there were no lengthy books to read and no written work, making it perfect for her lifestyle.

Best of all, the experience was as fun as it was educational. This was the best way she could think of to learn a new language and next on her course list in MP3 format was Italian and then it was on to German! These down loads were changing her life. It was so good to “go back to school” without actually physically being present in a classroom and without homework assignments. In just 30 minutes a day, she felt she was expanding her brain and her horizons, learning new languages and having a great time doing it!

Maybe she and the kids could accompany Joe on upcoming business trips, which she had always avoided because of the obvious language barriers, and she would have the opportunity to use her newly-acquired language skills.

Learning at her own pace gave her the freedom to enjoy the process and, like Joe, she was actually enjoying the small amount of time she dedicated each day to learning a new language.