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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| glossika Super Polyglot Pro Member China english.glossika.com Joined 6538 days ago 45 posts - 72 votes  Speaks: Mandarin, English*, German, Italian, Russian, Taiwanese, Shanghainese, Tok Pisin, Malay, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Romanian, Croatian, Serbian, Icelandic, Georgian, Indonesian Studies: Czech, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Latvian, Persian, Arabic (Written) Personal Language Map | Message 33 of 58 18 February 2007 at 8:56am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I used TY to learn Romanian. However I really disliked it for many reasons, and upon further research it seems that all the Romanian programs published in English are by the same author. I think TY gives authors certain guidelines to go by, but the actual content is really up to the authors and what they decide to include for the lessons.
The tape included helped with pronunciation and listening. But I didn't learn how to speak at all. I didn't like the texts in the book at all, and there was very little practice. I don't like learning languages by filling in the blanks in grammar exercises because I feel it wastes time especially if this is the first time I've seen the sentence structure. I'm better off guessing. I'd rather get drilled with various scenarios before I start filling in blanks. And then again, I rarely take a pencil to the book when I'm learning a language. I want to hear the language and feel it in my mouth, not look at a textbook. I read through the grammar explanations and I didn't have any trouble understanding it. Ok, they put the article at the end of the word, and it varies with case and number. I don't feel like memorizing it, I feel like practicing it with all kinds of words. That helps me really learn the patterns. If I don't feel the patterns inside, I won't get a feel for the language and memorizing paradigms won't help me get that "feeling" either. As a result, I got Berlitz's phrasebook, which I actually like because there's tons of example sentences and parts get repeated enough to get a feel for the sentences, grammar and vocabulary. I also got a small dictionary to build an initial vocabulary with. Both of those I went through, and I think if I traveled to Romania, I wouldn't have any trouble speaking at those basic levels. Going back to the TY book, I find I might be able to do some of the exercises more easily, but it's still not my preferred way of learning. I also have TY Arabic, A complete course for beginners. I don't know what kind of Arabic it teaches, but it seems archaic and not very modern. Actually it looks like literary Arabic. I didn't get further than lesson 5 or 6. There seems to be a lot of in-depth discussions in the book and dialogues (readings), but I don't think I can learn much useful conversational from it. The TY Cantonese I have actually uses Cantonese characters which are useful for identifying the cognates with Mandarin. I recommend it, although I feel it still lacks the same kind of exercises I mentioned above. The TY Hindi I have has sit on my shelves for many years. I've listened to the Hugo course which taught a few useful phrases but with no correct grammar whatsoever, because they said on the tapes correct grammar isn't necessary. I doubt that. But back to TY, it looks like the Hindi course does offer all the correct grammar structures. I can't really review it as I haven't started it. The TY Turkish I have reminds me of the Romanian. I went through a few lessons a few years ago but not much more. There aren't translations to the dialogues or the kind of practice I yearn for. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| cameroncrc Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6519 days ago 195 posts - 185 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Ukrainian | Message 34 of 58 09 March 2007 at 11:37am | IP Logged | ||||||||
The TY Russian course I find is a very good, basic course. However, I agree that most of the books range in quality. The TY Dutch book I have found to be a great coursebook for the language. Even so, I leafed through a couple pages of TY Swahili at my library, and it looked absolutely terrible. Very old fashioned, doesn't properly explain anything...it hadn't been revised in ages. This is due to the fact that all of the books have different authors and layouts. As for Occasvs, I would actually recommend Berlitz Beginner's Russian book, due to the fact that the book teaches you exact, literal translations of the sentences so you get a feel for russian sentence construction and word order. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Roger Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6594 days ago 159 posts - 161 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Indonesian | Message 35 of 58 10 March 2007 at 6:46am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I semi-completed the russian course, and found it absolutly boreing, I can't remember a thing from it, this may be due to the fact that I didn't/don't intend to learn russian thoroughly anyway, but the whole thing just bored me. I think it would be useful to the right person, but not other's.
I recently bought 'TY Italian grammar' and 'TY improve your Italian', and the grammar book, which was recomended by linguamor is absolutly great. Far from all the expensive grammar book's I have bought for Italian. It only set me back £6.57, whereas all the other's cost between 18 quid and 30 quid. Really recomend this book to anyone wanting to learn Italian. I am yet to use 'TY improve your italian', but will soon do so. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6945 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 36 of 58 10 March 2007 at 10:38am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I looked at "TY German Grammar" in a bookstore and thought it looked good too. If anyone here has used it, what did you think of it? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Vinnie Groupie England Joined 6526 days ago 65 posts - 66 votes Speaks: English* | Message 37 of 58 14 March 2007 at 12:37pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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"TY improve your Italian"
I personally think this isnt a very good course. I know ive slated many courses, but i have to add this one aswell to my ever growing "bad course" category. It has no english translation with the italian interviews, and if you dont understand a word your supposed to look in the back of the book for the it, which half the time isnt even there. Overall, i dont like this course, it would be interesting to hear what roger thinks of it, but with barley any english translations at all, and bad grammar descriptions i would say its not that good. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Linguamor Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6620 days ago 469 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 38 of 58 14 March 2007 at 4:24pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Interviews are good for exposure to spoken language. If you have a hard time understanding the interviews without English translations now, come back to them later when your understanding of Italian is better, and you feel less need for translations.
This is inexcusable, but unfortunately quite common.
Bad grammar explanations are quite common in language learning materials. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Vinnie Groupie England Joined 6526 days ago 65 posts - 66 votes Speaks: English* | Message 39 of 58 14 March 2007 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Linguamor, you obviously have a natural talent for language learning, i read all your posts and they all promote decent exposure to languages, for the level your currently at, which is sound advice. But how, do you personally go about it? I mean when you start a language etc. what materials do you use?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Linguamor Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6620 days ago 469 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 40 of 58 15 March 2007 at 7:05pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Everyone has a natural talent for language learning. Many language learners just don't make enough use of it. To make use of it, you need exposure to language that you can understand. To learn language, you need to understand language. The best possible way to go about it is to have one or more people speak to you in the language in a way that makes it possible for you to understand what they are saying. As they speak to you, your abiliy to understand more and more language increases, and your ability to speak the language emerges. That is the ideal situation. The problem is what to do when the situation is not ideal. The answer is to expose yourself to ample amounts of language (written and spoken) that you can understand, while gradually increasing the difficulty level. This means that you need to find material that contains language that you can understand, but which also contains some grammar and vocabulary that you have not previously been able to understand, and material that contains grammar and vocabulary that you can understand, but not yet produce. Any written or spoken material with these characteristics can be used. Now what do you do with these materials? You read and/or listen to them, focusing on understanding them. When you are understanding language, you are giving your brain the opportunity it needs to acquire the language. Grammar study? As much or as little as you want, provided you don't let it become your central focus. Speak and write the language whenever you have the opportunity. Don't worry too much about mistakes. All language learners make mistakes in the beginning - with sufficient exposure to meaningful language, mistakes become fewer and fewer. One last tip. If you have hobbies or interests in specific subjects or activities, try to find books, magazines, internet sites, etc. relating to these hobbies and interests, and read about them, focusing on content. Don't worry if you don't understand everything. It's what you do understand that provides input for language acquisition. Edited by Linguamor on 15 March 2007 at 7:23pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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