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Deteriorating quality of methods | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Sprachjunge Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 7168 days ago 368 posts - 548 votes  Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 9 of 11 13 April 2005 at 12:57pm | IP Logged |
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Salutations! I realize that our gracious host discourages such a greeting, but this is my first post ever, and I feel it is proper that I should introduce myself. I am eighteen and am living in Germany for a year as an exchange student. Before I came, Spanish was my language, and I was proud. However, I gladly took on the challenge of German, and although now my Spanish is terribly rusty, I am quite pleased with my progress in Deutsch. The current plan once I get back home is to double major in German and Linguistics. I stumbled across Francois´ (if I may take the liberty of first names) superb website about a month ago, and have been hooked ever since.
So, intro out of the way. As regards your original post, Ardaschir, I agree wholeheartedly. For my first month here, my language study was stifled by insubstantial starter books that seemed to think that knowing greetings and a few foods was the basis of fluency. Fortunately, I managed to snag a used textbook from 1975 (!) from the internet that wasn´t afraid to call the future perfect tense the future perfect tense, for goodness sakes. Alas, aside from that book and Hueber´s A Practice Grammar, everything else has been mediocre. What struck me about your comment concerning the dumbing-down phenomenon (i.e. ´´you will learn how to say you will do something´´) is that even I, as a neophyte, noticed it. Is it too much to ask that publishers treat us as intelligent language learners who, yes, can actually comprehend the term genitive case? Thus, as a serious language learner, I have to say that I am definitely better served by the older offerings. One of my worst days here was discovering that First Year German (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975) had no sequel... Edited by Sprachjunge on 11 May 2005 at 10:31am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7321 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes 6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 11 13 April 2005 at 8:12pm | IP Logged |
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I must be lucky then. I'm very satisfied with the current textbook I'm working on, called "Deutsch als Fremdsprache" from Max Hueber Verlag.
Like you described, it starts with saluations, small talk, foods...but it allows you to discover grammatical patterns at the end of each unit, before they formally introduce grammar. No language other than German is presented in the book. It's more of a classroom type of textbook, not FSI or Pimsleur type of course. But evidently, many other methods (especially those on the American market) are of very low quality. I am very unhappy with the foreign language material at the local bookstore - there's nothing worthwhile there. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Eric Senior Member Australia Joined 7231 days ago 102 posts - 105 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 11 of 11 14 April 2005 at 7:33am | IP Logged |
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My 2c,
I think a number of factors would attribute to this. When I was a kid, I used to go to the library and see the Linguaphone series in all it's multi-casette glory, quite intimidating for the beginner! In today's world, the entertainment market is so saturated that people rarely pick up something new or if they do, it's a countdown until they drop it. Everybody wants something in 15 minutes ... no 10 ... 5 ... subliminal ... etc... You can't blame them, life is more complicated these days with longer working hours and more options than we need in 5 lifetimes! I think the onus is on the individual to be dedicated, just like weight-loss, even with the perfect diet they will not follow it if they are not interested. I think this maybe the reason the stereotypical "US high school spanish and can't speak a word of it" story floats around so much, because how many of those students really care about what they are learning to invest all their free personal time in the films of Almodovar & co, and study by themselves with Pimsleur/FSI/etc? I think in one aspect Ardaschir, these 'babying' approaches are good 'primers' to foster interest in todays hectic world, then the truly motivated can maybe track down assimil or linguaphone or even edit pimsleur etc. But important to remember, language learning for native English speakers born in English speaking environments has always been a niche, otherwise everybody would be at least bi-lingual. My 2c. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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