Fat-tony Nonaglot Senior Member United Kingdom jiahubooks.co.uk Joined 6139 days ago 288 posts - 441 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Russian, Esperanto, Thai, Laotian, Urdu, Swedish, French Studies: Mandarin, Indonesian, Arabic (Written), Armenian, Pali, Burmese
| Message 9 of 59 20 July 2009 at 11:49pm | IP Logged |
@Tombstone
If only the British system was so professional! I've recently got access to some of your
materials (JLU etc) and they are fantastic; ours are hopelessly amateur in comparison.
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Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5668 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin
| Message 10 of 59 21 July 2009 at 7:41am | IP Logged |
Tombstone wrote:
"DLI courses are primarily for the military. You will learn how to say "The enemy tanks are approaching our trenches" and the like." -- Splog
-- You couldn't be more wrong.
The school teaches at a much higher level than you imply and take their instruction much more seriously. |
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I am sure you are absolutely right. The folks who attend DLI are without doubt extremely capable and the instruction is without doubt excellent. My comment referred to the DLI course materials that have been made available to the public (e.g. the old courses on ERIC) and contrasted them with the available FSI materials. These DLI materials (at least those I have looked through) are certainly very demanding, but are very much military focused. I apologise wholeheartedly if I have misrepresented them.
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pmiller Account terminated Groupie Canada Joined 5673 days ago 99 posts - 104 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 12 of 59 21 July 2009 at 7:06pm | IP Logged |
So if I understand correctly, the DLI material available to the public is not what is currently being taught at DLI?
Is there any way to get the current course materials?
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yobar Diglot Groupie United States Joined 7031 days ago 52 posts - 54 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: German, Spanish, Irish
| Message 13 of 59 24 July 2009 at 5:52pm | IP Logged |
Tombstone wrote:
On the flipside, the school does eat their young.
Because the key is to get trained linguists into the field, they have little tolerace for those who lack the dedication necessary to keep up with the demands or who exhibit a tin ear when it comes to picking up a language. |
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No doubt! I remember the stress of First Phase of Basic Russian course, the "do or die" phase, academically. I remember seeing friends wash out. Our military cadre used the threat of being sent to cook or medic schools as a motivator. If any of you Americans decide to go the DLI route, make sure you have the knack for languages and plan to work your asses off! You slack, you pack.
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maaku Senior Member United States Joined 5573 days ago 359 posts - 562 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 14 of 59 25 October 2009 at 7:41am | IP Logged |
pmiller wrote:
So if I understand correctly, the DLI material available to the public
is not what is currently being taught at DLI?
Is there any way to get the current course materials? |
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*BUMP*
Is anyone able to answer pmiller's question? I'm curious as well.
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lenya Diglot Newbie UkraineRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5554 days ago 15 posts - 19 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: French, German
| Message 15 of 59 25 November 2009 at 3:04pm | IP Logged |
I am familiar with only FSI and DLI French Basic courses. FSI is good but DLI is simply
the best. I think that these are the only courses that really teach a language. All
commercial languages courses make just an introduction to a language and will never lead
you farther than a beginner level.
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Thuan Triglot Senior Member GermanyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6929 days ago 133 posts - 156 votes Speaks: Vietnamese, German*, English Studies: French, Japanese, Romanian, Swedish, Mandarin
| Message 16 of 59 25 November 2009 at 4:55pm | IP Logged |
I think some are confusing the DLI Survival Kits with the actual DLI courses. I downloaded the DLI Survival Kits last year to study Romanian and it was mainly a phrasebook filled with mainly military terms.
A few weeks ago I found a link here to complete DLI courses from the 60s and from what I`ve seen this is probably the most comprehensive course for Romanian available. It looks very similar from the FSI courses that I`ve seen. The lessons are around 1600 long, and there are several textbooks included like books with military terminology or vocabulary for interrogations, a book on the history of Romania, and there`s even a songbook in there. I can`t judge the content as I`ve yet to use the course. But if I`m serious about Romanian, the DLI course certainly seems to deliver the goods.
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