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6WC - August - German Discussion

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LebensForm
Senior Member
Austria
Joined 5054 days ago

212 posts - 264 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 25 of 35
04 August 2011 at 4:30am | IP Logged 
Ya, I am realizing just how dry it is lol. I don't have much time since I work a lot, but I am starting lesson 3 now, just did the first 2 earlier today, but ya, it moves a bit slow, and I feel I know most of what is being discussed. But overall it is good for me, so thanks for introducing me to FSI.
And dleewo, thanks for clearing up what to do on the drills, ya I was a bit confused on what to do, now I understand lol, and ya I kinda like them too.

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RedBeard
Senior Member
United States
atariage.com
Joined 6106 days ago

126 posts - 182 votes 
Speaks: Ancient Greek*
Studies: French, German

 
 Message 26 of 35
07 August 2011 at 3:56am | IP Logged 
Hi, fellow German students. You may be interested to know that there is another US Govt. produced language program "out there" called the Defense Language Institute. DLI instead of FSI. (It is from the early 70's if I recall correctly.) It has been a while, but it wasn't quite so full of substitution drills, more like question-and-answer, I think. I worked my way through the first booklet some time ago. It was meant for DLI classroom instruction, but it can be done as a home study. Typed workbooks with some cartoons/illustrations and the audio was in need of some tape-de-hiss-ifying.

Anyhow, my 6wc plan is to use the odd variety of German Tools that I already have on hand. Dual Language Bible. DLI Course. Berlitz Self-Teacher. Online Videos. Also a couple of vocab/flashcard applications. Also, maybe some podcasts from DW, but the link posted earlier left me confused. What is the one ("nachrichten"?) posted earlier? Where can I find that? Sound interesting.

So far all I've really done is some vocabulary work, but it will be nice to get back to studying German. :-)

--UPDATE-- OK, so I know that I'm rambling now, but here goes. The reason that I have listed so many items to use in this 6WC is because I'm so bad at keeping my focus and resolve. So I try to have plenty of variety, then at least I am still going toward the goal. (book lesson yesterday, flash cards today, movie tomorrow, whatever...)

I think I found the Nachrichten; that's the one where they read you a news item or two slowly, right? I like the sound of that, but apparently my Deutsche-Skillz aren't ready for that yet because I couldn't keep up. Is that the one that usually has the written transcript, too?

Also, does anyone have any good online (Youtube, Dailymotion, D-W, whatever...) videos to watch? I did French in the last 6WC and many of my DVDs have French language so I found movies/subtitles that I could use. I just don't have that luxury this time around with German. I have seen the Fokus Deutch series, but it was never quite as good as French In Action and it is gone now anyway... Is there something like that you could recommend?

Edited by RedBeard on 07 August 2011 at 4:28am

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RedBeard
Senior Member
United States
atariage.com
Joined 6106 days ago

126 posts - 182 votes 
Speaks: Ancient Greek*
Studies: French, German

 
 Message 27 of 35
07 August 2011 at 5:31am | IP Logged 
Hi again. I thought that I would add this information in a second post, hopefully someone will find it useful.   This is my own shorthand, quick notes, don't read too much into it, no disrespect is meant in any way. Here are the German programs that I can find on the FSI web site etc. and my quick descriptions of them.

Old German Course for WWII
-words & phrases
-for GIs on the ground in Germany
-it was a pamphlet, not really a course, I can't find a copy readily, but I've seen it

German Basic Course 1-12
-written 1961
-12 lessons, 333 pages
-the big one with all the pattern drills, the Barrons Master one, yeah-that one

German Basic Course 13-24
-written 1965
-approx 350 pages
-the pattern drill one continued

German Programmed Introduction Course
-written 1971
-25 lessons at approx. 12 pages each
-the one with the checkboxes & listening drills with "listen twice" etc.

German Headstart
-originally written 1977
-10 modules, approx 50 pages each
-cultural info, not a lot of language teaching (w/ photos, illustrations, examples.)

German FAST course
-originally written 1980, new edition ~ 1985
-10 lessons, 254 pages
-most like a traveler's phrase book (Arrival, Hotel, Shopping, etc.)
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booze007
Groupie
GermanyRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5096 days ago

41 posts - 45 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: German

 
 Message 28 of 35
07 August 2011 at 3:20pm | IP Logged 
okay anybody interested in teaming up for making anki flashccards
for assimil ?

i think doing it alone would be really difficult job !
we can do it 10 or 15 lessons each ?


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Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 5013 days ago

3277 posts - 6779 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

 
 Message 29 of 35
07 August 2011 at 4:16pm | IP Logged 
An FSI question. Which is better, basic or programmatic? I've started basic. I don't expect any of them to be less dry but perhaps programmatic might be more appropriate since it is less old? But it's less old just by a few years.


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RedBeard
Senior Member
United States
atariage.com
Joined 6106 days ago

126 posts - 182 votes 
Speaks: Ancient Greek*
Studies: French, German

 
 Message 30 of 35
08 August 2011 at 5:54am | IP Logged 
Cavesa: it looks to me like the Programmed Course is an introductory course for the Basic Course, so you could use both. It is free, perhaps you could spend a time for several lessons and find if it is right for you. If not, that's OK just go right back to Basic.

Booze007: I'm surprised that no Anki decks exist for Assimil vocabulary. I cannot help because I don't really have it. I just decided to use a pre-existing deck and go for it. I'll find something like "first 1000 words" or "most common 3000 words" or something like that.
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Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 5013 days ago

3277 posts - 6779 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

 
 Message 31 of 35
08 August 2011 at 3:17pm | IP Logged 
I have gone through first two tapes of Basic and I like it. Yes, it is dry and I don't think I will go through each tape several times but I think it won't be necessary as there is such an amount of exercises (or I can return later and turn FSI in a passive/active wave course) as I am using Assimil as well. So far my learning goes well, I am getting used to pronunciation and both listening and reading. But I am a bit afraid of those loooooong composed words which might come soon.
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dleewo
Groupie
United States
Joined 5822 days ago

95 posts - 131 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Mandarin

 
 Message 32 of 35
08 August 2011 at 3:41pm | IP Logged 
Cavesa wrote:
I have gone through first two tapes of Basic and I like it. Yes, it is dry and I don't think I will go through each tape several times but I think it won't be necessary as there is such an amount of exercises


I managed to complete the first 3 units within the first week of the challenge. Each unit took progressively longer to get done with unit 3 taking just under 8 hrs in total. I'll probably take 4-5 days to do unit 4 and then after that, I would be happy if I can get one unit done per week, although I suspect that may not be achievable

I have been doing all the drills at least twice and I did some specific exercises within the drills multiple times where it was causing me problems.

At this point I have a love-hate relationship with with. I guess the issue is that it isn't easy. Prior to this, I had only done Pimsleur I-II, but I do know the Pimsleur material well having done it several times over the last few years.

On the other hand, I do find that I have a better appreciation for the grammar and the drills are helping to hammer it home.

The unknown part for me is the cost-benefit analysis. For each hour I spend on FSI, would it be better spent on some other course or language learning task?

I'm doing Assimil at the same time, but I'm spending much less time on Assimil than FSI. Right now, Assimil is a cake-walk, but perhaps as I get further along and I see that it starts to get challenging, I may abandon FSI or take it much slower.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to whether FSI (24 units) or Assimil would take me further, or would they take me to about the same level each?

Derek





Edited by dleewo on 08 August 2011 at 3:42pm



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