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TAC 2010 - Team F - DaraghM | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 41 of 74 26 July 2010 at 5:26pm | IP Logged |
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As can be garnered from my profile, I've recently added French into my study mix. My curiousity was pipped by a relatively cheap copy of Hugo's French in three months. As I've studied French before, I plan on completing the course in a bit less time than three months.
This is my first encounter with the Hugo range and it's a nice change. The course, and the associated audio material, are very vocabulary and grammar focused. While each unit finishes with a dialogue, these are not the main body of the audio. The majority of the audio is the conjugation of verbs, grammar examples and vocabulary lists. There are also a number of transformation and response exercises. E.g. Present to past tense. There is very little English on the audio so the CD's are fairly packed with good content. The course, like the audio, covers a range of grammar points and vocabulary. Only at the end will they be combined into a dialogue. If ever I tackle another brand new language, and Hugo have a course, I'll definitely be using it. Time to French and Others Target: 81 hours (From 100 hours goal) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 42 of 74 27 July 2010 at 11:05am | IP Logged |
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I just revised my Spanish profile, as I haven't reviewed my skills in a long time. Since they were last updated I've acquired skills I never previously had. E.g. partially reading advanced texts. I decided to revisit them after I was reading an article in Punto y Coma intended for the European C1 level, and I already knew half the listed vocabulary. While I don't think my Spanish is fluent, it is at an advanced stage, especially compared to my other languages. It's very tempting to set my skill level to "Basic Fluency", but I'll wait till later in the year before deciding. Edited by DaraghM on 27 July 2010 at 11:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 43 of 74 04 August 2010 at 12:35pm | IP Logged |
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Since my last update, I've been sticking solidly with the Hugo French course. I've come to realise that this course should not be used as your first language course, and has probably intimidated first time language learners in the past. However, it's ideal for those who want a concise language course, and have previous language learning experience. It also works well as a revision course if you've previously encountered the language.
I think I'll stick to this course until I complete it. I was tempted to jump to one of my other languages, but I've built up a nice momentum with this material. One aspect I particularly like is the heavy emphasis on grammar. Though I'd completed half of the passive wave of Assimil, I never felt I could use certain French constructs correctly. E.g. relative pronouns, quel, auquel, duquel. This has been made easier by the Hugo French course. Time to French and Others Target: 64 hours (From 100 hours goal) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Adrean TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member France adrean83.wordpress.c Joined 6170 days ago 348 posts - 411 votes Speaks: FrenchC1 | Message 44 of 74 04 August 2010 at 12:53pm | IP Logged |
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Good to see you're still alive and kicking there Daraghm. I haven't used the Hugo foundation course but I've used the advanced one and I would strongly advise you not to use it. It's filled with lots of cryptic and pointless vocabulary. Though I just looked briefly over at amazon and the reviews seem rather positive, maybe I should take a second look. Good luck with auxqulles, duquel, a laquelle - it's REALLY hard.
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| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 45 of 74 04 August 2010 at 2:40pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the support. I'm glad to see your doing very well with your French. Your C1 by the end of the year would be an achievement. I got the two Hugo levels in the one package, but didn't like the look of the advanced as much as the standard course.
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| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 46 of 74 09 August 2010 at 12:22pm | IP Logged |
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Just a short update to mention that I'm almost finished the Hugo French course. While the start of the course was straight forward, the end of the course has been challenging. I'd never tackled the past historic or the subjunctive properly before. From what I can tell, the follow on Advanced course is actually less advanced than their basic course. Odd. After tomorrow, I'll have completed the course, and will move onto Hungarian. I just realised I've not done any Hungarian study since last year.
Time to French and Others Target: 53 hours (From 100 hours goal) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 47 of 74 13 August 2010 at 10:18am | IP Logged |
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I finished the Hugo course, but I didn't spend much time on the reading section at the end. The first extract was from Les Misérables which I did study, but the last two were news extracts. The first news extract was about computers, and from 1985, and the second about the introduction of the Euro in France. Maybe the computer in the article was a Commodore 64 (See Iversens Log). Brief aside; I always remember the C64 had no user friendly version of BASIC. If you wanted to change the screen black you had to type, "poke 53280,0". The number 53280 also happened to be my best friends telephone number, so I never forgot it.
Returning to languages, I've unearthed my copy of Colloquial Hungarian, which I picked up in 2004. I never used the course, as my wanderlust, moved me onto another language back then. A wanderlust that never seems to have left. The Colloquial course for Hungarian is very compact, and I think better than the Teach Yourself course. In the first chapter they cover nouns, adjectives and their plurals. The second chapter covers all indefinite verbs except the -ik variants. I'll work with this course for the next short while, blending in other materials as needed. While the FSI course is the most detailed, it's also the slowest to work through, and the Colloquial course acts as good revision. Time to Hungarian and French Target: 41 hours (From 100 hours goal) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5926 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 48 of 74 13 August 2010 at 11:03am | IP Logged |
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I also have both Colloquial Hungarian and Teach Yourself Hungarian. Hungarian might be my go-to wanderlust language though I've actually learnt very little. I agree that the Colloquial course gives a more concise presentation of the grammar, but I think I prefer the dialogues in the Teach Yourself course so I use both.
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