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NeonQwerty’s Italian and German thread | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6003 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes  Speaks: French*, English* Studies: Spanish | Message 73 of 206 17 January 2009 at 8:45am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the encouragement, ChiaBrain, and I wish you the best of luck with your studies!
I don't know that I have a very good answer to your question; what I can say is that I did Pimlseur and then MT, and this worked out great for me. Having said that, however, when I tried doing the same for German, I was finding that for some reason I couldn't remember the words as easily with Pimsleur, so after a couple of lessons I switched over to MT with much better results. If I had to do my Italian over, I would study Pimsleur first, but in conjunction with some sort of written work. I think that MT can be done first with no problems, but with the caveat that you may as a result find Pimsleur even more boring than I did. Pimsleur is notorious for getting dull and repetitive (especially in Pimlseur II), and I imagine that this would be worsened if you already know some of what you are being taught. Final assessment, though: I think I benefited a lot from doing both, and think that other language learners should do the same Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ninja Bunny Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5632 days ago 42 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Dutch, Danish, Mandarin, Afrikaans, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French | Message 74 of 206 17 January 2009 at 11:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is a marvelous log!
I self-studied through a first year book and decided to test my newfound chops on "Il mistero del cane," an Italian children's book geared for readers ten-years-old and up. I opened it up and within the first paragraph I discovered...that I was NOT smarter than a fifth grader. Sigh. But I will keep trying and I find your own learning adventure inspiring! Cheers! Edited by Ninja Bunny on 18 January 2009 at 4:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6003 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French*, English* Studies: Spanish | Message 75 of 206 18 January 2009 at 1:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you very much, Ninja Bunny. As you can tell by reading my blog, I get disappointed quite a bit too. (but then again, I also get excited!)
The way I see it, all we can do is identify correct things to do and do them with the faith that it will pay off at some point. We can't estimate when that payoff will occur. Sure, we need to re-evaluate whatever plan we're using, but once it's time to implement it, we need to do so with perfect faith... until the next re-evaluation. Besides... Italian may be an "easy" language, but if it were really easy, everyone would know it. Good luck with your studies! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5648 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 76 of 206 18 January 2009 at 12:16pm | IP Logged | ||
The same thing happens to me, thats why reading your log has been a big help. You really "hit the nail on the head" in your comparison of Pimsleur and Michel Thomas for me: Pimsleur is more of the "raw data": phrases and sentences rendered by native speakers and broken down into sounds to be repeated by the user. (I've only done the first two CDs) Michel Thomas delves into the "structure" of the language and has you think to formulate your own sentences (e.g.: "How would you say 'I would do it for you today but I can't as I will be very busy'?") I agree that they compliment each other well. True after doing CDs 1 - 4 of MT the first 2 Pimsleurs seem boring and basic but they are good practice as I do other things whereas with MT it seems is more important to pay closer attention. Biggest drawback for both is the lack written materials. Fortunately I found transcripts of MT online. I'm also thinking of complimenting with Assimil (they dont have that for free at the library though). Have you checked out LingQ? Edited by ChiaBrain on 18 January 2009 at 12:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6003 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French*, English* Studies: Spanish | Message 77 of 206 18 January 2009 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | ||
The very brief look I've had at Assimil makes me think that it's not really for me... But let me know what you think of it if you give it a shot. ---------- Today I did the fourth Michel Thomas CD (over an hour, I assume), and wow did it kill me. The subjunctive tense is no joke. I'm going to listen to the CD again, and will probably still nto be totally comfortable with it... but nonetheless, I will not listen to it for a third time anytime soon. At the very least I will be able to identify written instances of the subjunctive, and that's good enough for me at this point. But today really felt like another world of language learning... It's as though a voice was telling me: "Ok, you've learned a bunch of simple, cute stuff. Now you need to learn this if you *really* want to speak Italian." Still, satisfied with what I did today. Let's see what tomorrow brings. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5648 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 78 of 206 19 January 2009 at 8:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I remember my Spanish and French professor back in high-school used to warn me all the
time: "The Subjunctive! Wait till we get to that!" My friend's Italian grandmother who taught languages: "...the Subjunctive!" It all makes the Subjunctive feel like this Limbo of the hypothetical and abstract that aspiring linguists fear to tread! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6003 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French*, English* Studies: Spanish | Message 79 of 206 20 January 2009 at 8:24am | IP Logged | ||
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The thing with the subjunctive is that I'm not totally sure when to use it unless I am speaking or thinking in French. Technically, it's actually relatively easy... maybe it's because it came at the end of the course, maybe because at that point MT was getting much less colloquial in his teaching style, I don't know.
But I'm going to do it again today! :-D Yesterday I spent an hour transcribing "missed" vocabulary words into online software for later review, and in doing so was studying them a bit. Today I want to put the nail in the MT Advanced coffin. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6003 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French*, English* Studies: Spanish | Message 80 of 206 20 January 2009 at 8:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Mission accomplished. Reviewed CD#4 today, and wow did it seem much easier!
I can honestly say that the subjunctive is nothing to fear! :) It requires work and some memorization, but it's actually pretty straightforward the second time though. At this point I can recognize it, and when I eventually get to studying it "formally" with a grammar book, I'll feel much more confident. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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