M. Medialis Diglot TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Sweden Joined 6358 days ago 397 posts - 508 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Russian, Japanese, French
| Message 34 of 66 01 April 2011 at 9:16pm | IP Logged |
Wow, you really seem to be devouring those podcasts. Keep it going man! :D
In my book, getting massive input from listening to podcasts is definitely studying, so no need to feel guilty if you ask me. ;)
Long distance running sounds like a fascinating hobby indeed. ((but I have to confess that I've only tried it a handful of times...)).
It probably creates a good combo with language learning since it keeps your head fresh and your stamina high. Do you listen to anything while you're running?
And now you activated my French wanderlust again.. An LR-session together with Jules Verne.. Can't. Wait.
Edited by M. Medialis on 01 April 2011 at 9:17pm
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Adrean TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member France adrean83.wordpress.c Joined 6169 days ago 348 posts - 411 votes Speaks: FrenchC1
| Message 36 of 66 10 April 2011 at 12:23pm | IP Logged |
Yeh running is great. Contrary to what one might think you come back with your body all
worked out and your mind nice and clear. Zen! I don't listening to anything while
running, I don't have a small enough mp3 player.
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I want to say that I've joined the club...The Assimil club. I totally get it! So many
people couldn't have been wrong. I'm learning German from a French base.
I've borrowed several courses over the past two months. I've tried an old Teach
Yourself (without audio), Hugo and Colloquial. I found Hugo to be much less tension
inducing then Colloquial. Colloquial has you learning biggish numbers from the 3rd page
and you constantly have to check the back of the book for translations. Chuck in
worthless exercises and drawing up silly tables, No! Hugo is much better, I got to the
fourth chapter in four weeks. I guess the issue is I am supposed to spend a week for
each chapter and 1 hour a day; where, how, how long should I spend on each
exercise/section of that chapter, I was jumping around and looking forward to the next
chapter too quickly.
Now Assimil...you know what you have to do each day. No silly exercises or drawing up
tables. Translations are side by side. I find the lessons to be about 20 minutes and
not frustrating, I look forward to them. The dialogue is normally the most interesting
part of any course for me so one a day is much better then 1 or 2 a week. Some clear
notes on grammar are concise and not overwhelming, in the notes they are saying they
will get to things later a lot. I think this is a course I can finish, percentages are
normally low with these things. Michel Thomas and Pimsleur means I had a good base.
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M. Medialis Diglot TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Sweden Joined 6358 days ago 397 posts - 508 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Russian, Japanese, French
| Message 37 of 66 12 April 2011 at 6:01pm | IP Logged |
Yeah, even people who hate language courses seem to admit that Assimil is quite good. :) Haven't tried it myself yet, maybe in the future.
It's cool that you're laddering Assimil (learning German through French). Reaching the state where you are able to do that is a massive achivement.
Edited by M. Medialis on 12 April 2011 at 6:01pm
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Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5557 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona
| Message 38 of 66 12 April 2011 at 9:55pm | IP Logged |
M. Medialis wrote:
It's cool that you're laddering Assimil (learning German through French). Reaching the state where you are able to do that is a massive achivement. |
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I agree, French opens up whole new doorways with Assimil. Once I can add French to my list, I'll be able to finally study my copy of "L'Égyptien hiéroglyphique" like an eager Champillion! :)
@Adrean
Good luck with your prep for the big race! As the London Marathon's coming up soon, I guess this isn't the one you're gearing up for? With regards to running music, I used to take an iShuffle with me and listen to a playlist of energetic tracks that matched my average running pace. It was small and clipped on easily, rarely falling off. Before that, I had to use one of those crazy arm straps for the first gen Nano I bought in Japan, which slipped off all the time, and made me look like I ran off whilst having my blood pressure taken. What distance will you need to cover?
Edited by Teango on 12 April 2011 at 10:19pm
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Adrean TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member France adrean83.wordpress.c Joined 6169 days ago 348 posts - 411 votes Speaks: FrenchC1
| Message 40 of 66 06 May 2011 at 7:25am | IP Logged |
M. Medialis wrote:
It's cool that you're laddering Assimil (learning German through
French). Reaching the state where you are able to do that is a massive achivement.
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Yeh it's such a bonus to be able to do it this way. The explanations relate to a French
base and it's interesting to see how they learn some concepts which are foreign to
French speakers but not so much to us English speakers. Sometimes I do have a French
word which I have to go look up but not very frequently.
Teango wrote:
It was small and clipped on easily, rarely falling off. Before that, I
had to use one of those crazy arm straps for the first gen Nano I bought in Japan,
which slipped off all the time, and made me look like I ran off whilst having my blood
pressure taken. What distance will you need to cover? |
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I'm looking out for one of those arm bands now. I'm getting a little bored out on some
of my jogs. Some competitions have banned mp3 devices and a marathon winner later had
her title taken away. A very sensitive topic in running communites (not so much for the
language community. At the moment I'm focusing on 10km running. A marathon is out of
the question for life.
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Just coasting along with language studies. The German studies are done very
sporadically and intermittently. Advancing in small steps through Assimil. As for
French I find this as always almost not like work. I've been watching 2 or 3 movies a
week and listening to podcasts. I can easily find the will and the time for this kind
of study unlike sitting down with a book i:e Assimil.
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