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GermanPod101 Help | ||
Tags: Podcast | Learning Strategy | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| dleewo Groupie United States Joined 5657 days ago 95 posts - 131 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin | Message 1 of 4 10 September 2010 at 4:18am | IP Logged | ||
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I was wondering if anyone can help me.....I'm looking into Germanpod101.com and signed up for the 7-day trial.
I'm trying to figure out what order I'm supposed do the lessons in? Even though I've done Pimsleur I-III, I figured I'll start at the beginning and just go though them quickly if I already know the material. My problem is that I don't know what order I'm supposed to do them in and I can't find anything on the site that tells me this. For example, I see a bunch of "Newbie" and a bunch of "Absolute Beginner" lessons. Do I do all the Newbies lessons first and then when I'm done, move on to Absolute Beginner. Or do I do them in order of data....when I view oldest first I see them intermingled? Then they are lessons called "All About" and "Basic Bootcamp" which also seem pertinent to beginners. I imagine this must be quite simple once I figure out *how* the system works, but for now, I'm a bit lost. Derek 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6421 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 2 of 4 10 September 2010 at 5:13am | IP Logged | ||
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The xPod101 is a clone of the ChinesePod system. You don't do the lessons in a particular order. The program will keep churning out lessons on a variety of topics with a variety of levels. You find a level that feels right for you and look for interesting lessons on that level. When you feel that most of the material in every new lesson is review, you go up a level. There's no set order to them and you don't have to do all the newbie lessons to go up to elementary and so on. The special feature lessons, like Vocabulary Bootcamp (xPod101) or Qing Wen (ChinesePod) are complementary and supposed to have some value for most learners.
The xPod101 sites are quite new and as such don't seem to have that many lessons (CantonesePod101 had, last time I looked, only lessons on Absolute Beginner and Advanced). ChinesePod recently celebrated its fifth birthday and has been producing new lessons pretty much every weekday for those five years, so that one has thousands of lessons. The beauty of this system is that it allows to create a huge amount of lessons on a variety of topics and allows the learner to tailor his/her learning to the topics that are interesting and/or relevant at the moment. The continuous production of new lessons also allows you to discuss the newer lessons with the teachers and other learners. Some of these features take a while to develop, though, and the xPod101 sites are still fairly new. EDIT: CantonesePod101 is apparently called CantoneseClass101, but it's the same format. Edited by Ari on 10 September 2010 at 5:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6309 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 3 of 4 10 September 2010 at 10:21am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm the project manager of GermanPod101, so let me weigh in as well.
What Ari said is not quite true. The xPod101 sites are based on JapanesePod101, a hugely popular site which developed not long after ChinesePod, and which uses a different approach. Also some Pod101 sites are older than others, it's just that five new ones were added recently. GermanPod101 started in March 2008 and now has several hundred lessons. Most xPod101 lessons are meant to be studied in order; it's one of the advantages over the xPod sites. That is, if you start with lesson 1 of any series, then you will never be stumped for vocabulary or grammar, because every lesson builds on the last (also a reason why the first lessons of every series are freely available). Organic growth and actual progress; there won't be lessons where you know all but 1 item of vocabulary, nor will there be lessons where you'd need to look up lots of words that the hosts forgot to translate. Plus the transition from absolute beginner up to upper- intermediate has been pre-programmed; you won't always be stuck on the beginner level. Of course you can still cherry-pick interesting lessons and have a more chaotic introduction of grammar & vocabulary like at the xPod sites, but more likely you'll want to cherry-pick seasons, because there are several programs that teach more or less the same grammar but with a different focus and storyline (hence also different vocabulary). For example, for people starting from zero the following seasons are suitable: Newbie Series - focus: German for making friends & flirting - our very first program, a bit rough around the edges, but goes slow on grammar and teaches a good deal of colloquial everyday language. Beginner Series Season 1 - focus: grammar review - also rough around the edges, but it's a good as a way to review; both grammar and vocabulary are introduced at a faster pace than in the Newbie Series. Beginner Series Season 2 - focus: storyline - if you are afraid of dropping German quickly, maybe you'd like lessons that form a mystery story, so you're somewhat compelled to keep listening and find out what's happening. Absolute Beginner Series - focus: German for tourists - dialogs cover all typical tourist situations, and more. You could study one of these, or, if you want a lot of re-inforcement, all of these at the same time. Afterwards, we have series that pick up right where these series left off: Upper Beginner Series - focus: a longer holiday in Germany - direct continuation (in story & grammar & vocabulary) from the Absolute Beginner Series. Intermediate Series Season 2 - focus: German for moving to Germany / settling in - in terms of grammar and vocabulary, this assumes you studied either the Newbie Series or Beginner Series Season 1. Includes a lot of help for settling in, e. g. understanding apartment ads and job ads, writing a job application and CV, going to a job interview, filling out a visa form, this kind of thing. Intermediate Series Season 3 - focus: German for living & working in Germany - great either after season 2 or after you completed two of the seasons for beginners (for a vocabulary base). Everyday work talk, relating to your colleagues and your boss, but also other things that you may need when staying in Germany for a while, like going to a doctor / the pharmacy / the dry-cleaners... Upper Intermediate Series - focus: more German for living & working in Germany - this is a direct continuation of Intermediate Series Season 3. Provides help e. g. with talking about soccer, understanding contracts... Intermediate Series Season 1 - focus: German through songs - some of these lessons are Upper Intermediate rather than Intermediate, but we were just starting out. Looking at lots of popular German bands and helping you understand the song lyrics. The advanced lessons (audio blogs, prefix lessons, accent improvement) are meant to be taken in any order. My favorite is season 3 of the audio blogs because we have a better writer now, who makes them funny/witty and yet informative. I can't say that all is exactly how I'd envision it in my ideal language program - I'm an employee, gotta work within certain guidelines - but I spent a lot of thought on this and I believe that I've come up with an excellent program. EDIT: I see I forgot to mention All About and Basic Bootcamp. These, and also the Survival Phrases and Video Vocab lessons, are independent of our other series and produced by other people. They are supposed to kick-start absolute beginners but they don't go in-depth, unlike the other beginner series. Edited by Sprachprofi on 10 September 2010 at 10:24am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dleewo Groupie United States Joined 5657 days ago 95 posts - 131 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin | Message 4 of 4 10 September 2010 at 1:38pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks very much. The list you provided with explanations is exactly what I was looking for. You may want to put that in a FAQ somewhere on the site as it is a bit confusing for someone who has never used it or similar sites before. Derek 1 person has voted this message useful |
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