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Phrasebook Demolition Experiment | ||
Tags: Phrasebook | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6148 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 11 11 June 2014 at 1:32pm | IP Logged |
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When I dabble in a language for travelling purposes, I normally pick up several decent sized courses to learn as much as possible before a trip. For a recent excursion to Sweden, I decided to try a method Benny has mentioned, which is to use a phrasebook. I chose the Berlitz Swedish Phrasebook with CD. I spent four weeks listening to the CD, and learning off phrases from the book. The grammar explanations are extremely light and I found myself craving a typical course. I resisted, ploughed on with the experiment, and the results were quite surprising. I seemed to learn as much from demolishing the phrasebook as I would from passing through a typical course. With no additional waffle, the parallel English\Swedish audio contained more phrases than a typical TY or Colloquial course. After a couple of weeks, I found I was inferring grammar rules, and could adapt the sentences for my own use. I ended up speaking far more Swedish than I would’ve thought possible in such a short time and with such a small little book.
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| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4635 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 2 of 11 11 June 2014 at 2:11pm | IP Logged |
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Interesting take on a resource which is often scorned(by me at least). Come to think of it, last year when I
went to Argentina I did find myself sometimes wishing I had set phrases for what should have been obvious tasks, but had to make up on the spot using my imperfect course book based Spanish. Edited by AlexTG on 11 June 2014 at 2:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4096 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 3 of 11 11 June 2014 at 4:30pm | IP Logged |
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Very cool! It makes me wonder, though, if you'd make as much progress if…
a) you weren't already experienced in language studies, or b) you were attempting to pick up a language that isn't already very close to your native language (or other languages you speak at or near native level). I'm not knocking the method, I'm just curious about its limitations (all methods have limitations after all). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5562 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 4 of 11 11 June 2014 at 4:42pm | IP Logged |
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I use this method as well - generally, though, after a shortish grammar course like
Michel Thomas or Hugo In Three Months. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4044 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 5 of 11 12 June 2014 at 6:20am | IP Logged |
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Hi, how did you memorize the sentences? how many?
Which percentage of completion and with how much average study time per day? Sorry for the interrogatory, I would like to understand if can I apply this technique to Icelandic for my forthcoming visit. Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Retinend Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4305 days ago 283 posts - 557 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), French | Message 6 of 11 12 June 2014 at 8:48am | IP Logged |
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This is something that dekaglossai, before he left youtube with no explanation, also
advocated. It makes complete sense to me and I'll try it with my Spanish phrasebook to round off my core knowledge now that I'm close to finishing my Assimil and Linguaphone courses. As I imagine it, the phrases will have a good likelihood of sticking if you can fully imagine yourself using them (everyday situations such as they are), and the psychological effect of them being ESSENTIAL phrases must also aid the memory. I like the idea of using it as a primer to a proper course, in order to facilitate speaking. If I can find a phrasebook with a CD for my next language, I would definitely consider this as a first course! Without a CD to go with my Spanish phrase book, I will simply write out all the content in the book 2 or 3 times in the scriptorium, reading them aloud as I write, and I would then annotate the text with the grammatical information in several colors (verb tense, gender, gender agreement and preposition collocation). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4441 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 7 of 11 12 June 2014 at 1:58pm | IP Logged |
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Travelling abroad is 1 thing. If you just visit a place for a week or 2 most people would be happy just to
stick to English. Unless you are going to be staying in a place for a few months then you need to start communicating in the local language. There are good phrase books around but rather doubtful whether knowing a few phrases can get you very far when it comes to shopping, ordering from local restaurants or discussing politics with the locals. Definitely need more than a few months to be fluent enough to carry on a conversation. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Retinend Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4305 days ago 283 posts - 557 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), French | Message 8 of 11 12 June 2014 at 2:05pm | IP Logged |
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But... who said... why do you... how come... what?
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