solaren Newbie United States Joined 3529 days ago 36 posts - 42 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese
| Message 9 of 11 26 May 2015 at 7:51pm | IP Logged |
So I'm halfway through Unit 5 of Platiquemos now. I've noticed that it seems like they
are really drilling irregular verbs so far in the course. I feel like I'm learning
intuitively when to use a specific conjugation thanks to all of the drills, but the level
of explanation on grammar points is really very light.
So at the moment I feel like I'm learning how to say things without knowing *why* I'm
constructing the sentences that way. Regardless, I'm just pushing forward with the drills
and hoping that eventually everything just clicks.
I think I may just start writing down these concepts I'm unsure about and looking them up
at the end of a chapter on my own.
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solaren Newbie United States Joined 3529 days ago 36 posts - 42 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese
| Message 10 of 11 06 June 2015 at 5:54am | IP Logged |
I'm basically finished with Unit 5 now and ready to start Unit 6. I do like the structure of the method and I feel from unit to unit like I'm getting results. However, I feel like I'm learning a lot of "how" to say things but not "why" they are said.
In other words, the grammar explanations have been very light so far and I feel I'd be having a smoother ride if I did a basic grammar course first.
For now though, I'm going to continue on course because I definitely feel the gains. This unit took a little bit longer than normal due to being out of town for a week and not able to do FSI. On a whim I picked up the Madrigal's Magic Key book for Spanish and flipped through it.
I may put FSI on hold at some point to work my way through that book, it seems to be a basic introduction to the structure of the language which could only help my comprehension of what I'm learning in FSI.
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James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French
| Message 11 of 11 06 June 2015 at 12:02pm | IP Logged |
Some people have good luck slugging their way through FSI right from the start. Crush did that and has done wonderfully with Spanish. I had a decent grounding in Spanish before diving into FSI and felt that was the way to go. I remember being very glad I had thoroughly done Assimil before starting on FSI. It makes FSI go much faster (four times per lesson instead of six or seven).
Madrigal's book is great. I often felt that would be the perfect beginner's resource if it had audio of those conversations.
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