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Most efficient way to spend 120 hours

 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
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jeff_lindqvist
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 Message 17 of 59
11 June 2010 at 2:48pm | IP Logged 
LangOfChildren wrote:
So you're saying L-R would be useful, but that is just too hard or requires too much effort for the average person to be considered an established favourite method.


I think that many simply don't believe it's "working" and/or would rather spend an hour a week for the rest of their lives even if the total amount of hours surpassed one hundred hours.

(Bear in mind that the amount isn't set in stone. Siomotteikiru supposedly (said he/she) got decent skills in German after four 10-hour rounds of Kafka.)

I haven't done 120 hours (more like ~90, for Spanish alone), and definitely think it's a useful method (especially if you like books anyway), but depending on your motives for learning the language you might find another method more useful.
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Volte
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 Message 18 of 59
11 June 2010 at 3:04pm | IP Logged 
jeff_lindqvist wrote:
LangOfChildren wrote:
So you're saying L-R would be useful, but that is just too hard or requires too much effort for the average person to be considered an established favourite method.


I think that many simply don't believe it's "working" and/or would rather spend an hour a week for the rest of their lives even if the total amount of hours surpassed one hundred hours.

(Bear in mind that the amount isn't set in stone. Siomotteikiru supposedly (said he/she) got decent skills in German after four 10-hour rounds of Kafka.)

I haven't done 120 hours (more like ~90, for Spanish alone), and definitely think it's a useful method (especially if you like books anyway), but depending on your motives for learning the language you might find another method more useful.


Fully agreed.

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MarcoDiAngelo
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 Message 19 of 59
11 June 2010 at 5:09pm | IP Logged 
LangOfChildren wrote:
Volte, I'm glad you're saying that. :)

I was actually thinking that myself, but needed someone else's oppinion.
So I guess what you're saying is that all of the 120 hours should be spent L-R'ing?

Supposedly 50 hours of L-R can be enough to reach natural listening and thus basic fluency.



Right now I'm listening to "Crime and Punishment" in German and reading it in Serbian. I never listened to any German, I only read several German-English parallel chapters of "Der Prozess" long ago and that's all. After 17 hours of listening (done in three days) my head is full of German, sometimes I can close the book and just listen to the recording, and still know what's going on! Sometimes I understand the whole paragraph without reading the translation. I can only IMAGINE what would happen if I listened to this book two or three times (it lasts 22 hours), or continued listening to new texts. So my vote definitely goes to Listening-Reading!
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Volte
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 Message 20 of 59
11 June 2010 at 5:11pm | IP Logged 
MarcoDiAngelo wrote:
LangOfChildren wrote:
Volte, I'm glad you're saying that. :)

I was actually thinking that myself, but needed someone else's oppinion.
So I guess what you're saying is that all of the 120 hours should be spent L-R'ing?

Supposedly 50 hours of L-R can be enough to reach natural listening and thus basic fluency.



Right now I'm listening to "Crime and Punishment" in German and reading it in Serbian. I never listened to any German, I only read several German-English parallel chapters of "Der Prozess" long ago and that's all. After 17 hours of listening (done in three days) my head is full of German, sometimes I can close the book and just listen to the recording, and still know what's going on! Sometimes I understand the whole paragraph without reading the translation. I can only IMAGINE what would happen if I listened to this book two or three times (it lasts 22 hours), or continued listening to new texts. So my vote definitely goes to Listening-Reading!


This closely matches my experiences with listening to "The Master and Margarita" in Polish while reading in English, and listening to "Crime and Punishment" in Russian while reading in English.
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MarcoDiAngelo
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 Message 21 of 59
11 June 2010 at 5:27pm | IP Logged 
Volte wrote:

This closely matches my experiences with listening to "The Master and Margarita" in Polish while reading in English, and listening to "Crime and Punishment" in Russian while reading in English.

For me, Russian and Polish were a piece of cake, as they're Slavic languages. They demanded far less than 50 hours. I could even listen to Slovak radio with some fluency.
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ellasevia
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 Message 22 of 59
11 June 2010 at 6:46pm | IP Logged 
I'm sorry if this has already been mentioned here or elsewhere, but what exactly is this natural listening thing you have been talking about? Thanks.
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MarcoDiAngelo
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 Message 23 of 59
11 June 2010 at 10:33pm | IP Logged 
It's the stage when you can understand almost everything that is being said and hear distinctly borders between words, known and unknown.
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Volte
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 Message 24 of 59
12 June 2010 at 6:37am | IP Logged 
ellasevia wrote:
I'm sorry if this has already been mentioned here or elsewhere, but what exactly is this natural listening thing you have been talking about? Thanks.


Being able to understand the gist, while missing some words and details, of reasonable audio in your target language you haven't heard before. News broadcasts and simple literature are good examples. By simple literature, I mean for children, or by authors known for having an approachable style, as opposed to the most difficult authors that native speakers struggle with at first in schools.



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