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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Americano Senior Member Korea, South Joined 6845 days ago 101 posts - 120 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean | Message 33 of 61 25 April 2010 at 11:06am | IP Logged | ||
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I completed the MT Russian course and I found it to be quite good. The instructor had a lovely voice and she was great at teaching the material. Two thumbs up. I wish there was a MT Korean course.
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| bushwick Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6243 days ago 407 posts - 443 votes Speaks: German, Croatian*, English, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese | Message 34 of 61 25 April 2010 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I like it. I'm currently using the Dutch foundation course.
This is because I am doing Assimil, but only the book, so I figured an audio component might be useful (it's just so much more difficult to retain and make it active when learning from text only). It might be only a little slow, with the students being a little annoying but they serve as a good comparison for pronunciation and even competition (they seem nothing short of stupid). The teacher is also a native speaker, altough with quite a specific accent (I think from the South) with very rhotic r's. Otherwhise it's nice and short (8 hours) with, although slow, it seems more active than Pimsleur (which is completely situation based, here you actually learn how to build sentences). I'll have a shot at the Russian one this Summer. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TheBiscuit Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5922 days ago 532 posts - 619 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian Studies: German, Croatian | Message 35 of 61 26 April 2010 at 5:49am | IP Logged | ||
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I wonder if I'm an MT success story. I did all the Spanish courses - the only actual studying (in the sense of sit down and pay attention) that I've done. After those courses I came to Mexico. I read, I listened, I spoke when I could but I never took classes. After about 2 years I was fairly fluent and working on the side as a translator. People would often ask me how I got so fluent in such a short time. You could say it was 'immersion' but I know foreigners who have been here twice as long as I have and can barely order their own lunch. Immersion is not a process that just happens to you whether you like it or not.
I remember all the new things I learnt just 'slotted in'. I never needed to refer to grammar books. In fact, I don't really know the names of the tenses or how to explain Spanish grammar (well) 5 years on. Other factors that could have helped me: Spanish was my third language. I know English grammar inside out. The same approach worked for Italian and is working for German. I hope an MT Croatian course comes out soon! Edited by TheBiscuit on 26 April 2010 at 5:49am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Americano Senior Member Korea, South Joined 6845 days ago 101 posts - 120 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean | Message 36 of 61 26 April 2010 at 6:52am | IP Logged | ||
Spanish was your third language following English and French? I'm sure that had a lot to do with it being easier for you, though I think two years of living in Mexico is more than adequate time to become very good. If people can barely order their lunch after a few years in Mexico then that is quite sad and embarrasing for them I must say. After taking one semester of Spanish and doing Pimsleur I only I spent two months in Mexico and my Spanish improved drastically. After two years I have no doubt I would have been near fluent. Instead, I did FSI at home and there are so many Mexicans around Chicago that it is very easy to use Spanish daily. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5564 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 37 of 61 26 April 2010 at 10:58am | IP Logged | ||
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The Dutch course is written and taught by two people - the teacher in the Foundation Dutch course (Cobie) comes from the north and the teacher in the advanced (Els) comes from the south.
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| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6537 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 38 of 61 30 April 2010 at 11:54pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm confused by what you mean about losing control the learning process. Consider the following procedure: 1. On screen the prompt reads "Translate this...." [this is the same as any prompt by MT] 2. The user types in the answer; this can be done by reading aloud if he likes [the correct answer must give an audio option using a native speaker because language is, after all, primarily a spoken phenomenon] The rest of the program is full of grammar explanations done either like MT or like a grammar manual. This would allow the learner to have a "firm and unambiguous grounding in the language", wouldn't it? I've already dabbled with it for fun, but without the audio due to my lack of computer expertise. A very basic experiment using a prompt/answer format Now, in comparison to the MT German CD 1, my experiment covers maybe(i'm guessing) 1/2 of the number of words, but it covers IMO a firmer foundation of grammar. Both cover word order, but mine went straight to the conversational past instead of doing the modal verbs. Either path is arbitrary, but the conversational past just has 2 helping verbs, compared to the 6 modal verbs. MT doesn't cover all 6 in CD 1, but sticks to them religiously for the foundation course, ignoring the conversational past almost all together. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but interesting to know. Edited by Kugel on 30 April 2010 at 11:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| irmar Bilingual Tetraglot Newbie Greece Joined 5353 days ago 5 posts - 7 votes Speaks: Italian*, Greek*, French, EnglishC2 Studies: Spanish | Message 39 of 61 01 May 2010 at 10:10am | IP Logged | ||
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My problem with MT is first his accent. I think someone who teaches a foreign language should at least have a good accent. As pointed out elsewhere, he also does mistakes. It's not fair on the poor innocent learner.
The other one are the students. The students make typical mistakes an English-speaking person would make. I am Italian, so obviously my mistakes will be very different. I will have no problem with uttering open vowels etc..., but I will have lots of "false friends" and other specific problems. So I cannot really see myself in those people. Of course, one cannot expect that a language program is made in many different versions, one for each learner's country. This means, though, that it should be as neutral as possible, equally useful to most students in any part of the world. This, by the way, is not only MT's problem. Even with Linguaphone AllTalk, which I'm happily using right now, they explain at length Spanish peculiarities that are exactly the same in Italian, so I have to patiently wait for them to sort out why libreria means bookshop and to say library you have to say biblioteca. OK, I am patient, I understand that English-speaking people are the rulers of the world so everything is geared to them. But in the case of the MT students, because of the format, this aspect has the chance to be much more annoying and boring. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rebrafi Pentaglot Newbie Brazil Joined 5328 days ago 18 posts - 23 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Spanish, Esperanto, French, English Studies: Italian | Message 40 of 61 01 May 2010 at 10:22am | IP Logged | ||
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There is no perfect language course method, even in language schools, or books of self study. But this one is better than Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur together, These two I really hate
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