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How best to use Linguaphone German?

  Tags: Linguaphone | German
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17 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3  Next >>
tennisfan
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
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Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish
Studies: German

 
 Message 1 of 17
05 March 2012 at 4:06am | IP Logged 
Just looking for some basic advice on how to approach the (old) Linguaphone German course. I tried to see if there were some generic Linguaphone directions but couldn't find anything recent after a few dozen pages.

I've gotten my hands on the old course, and it really looks great---fairly dense in material and the explanations are fantastic and seemingly thorough. It seems like there are about 30 "lessons" divided into three parts, many of which are conversations, similar to Assimil. So should one do one "part" of each lesson a day? or is it made to do all three parts in one day? and have those of you who have used Assimil and Linguaphone, do you generally follow the same method?

Any advice or links to previous topics would be much appreciated. Thanks.
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tractor
Tetraglot
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 Message 2 of 17
05 March 2012 at 9:18pm | IP Logged 
I think the recommended method is described in the "Handbook".
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Just a Dreamer
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Egypt
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 Message 4 of 17
14 March 2012 at 12:22pm | IP Logged 
I agree with tractor, but you must go through German Basic Course, Assimil German without Toil and Michel Thomas before beginning Linguaphone, I tried to do German Basic Course with Linguaphone, But I noticed that Linguaphone is very difficult to do as beginner, Good luck with your study :)

Edited by Just a Dreamer on 14 March 2012 at 12:22pm

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tennisfan
Triglot
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United States
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Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish
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 Message 5 of 17
17 March 2012 at 12:15am | IP Logged 
Just a Dreamer wrote:
I agree with tractor, but you must go through German Basic Course, Assimil German without Toil and Michel Thomas before beginning Linguaphone, I tried to do German Basic Course with Linguaphone, But I noticed that Linguaphone is very difficult to do as beginner, Good luck with your study :)



Just to make sure I understand correctly, you think that one needs to finish the Assimil German course before doing the Linguaphone basic course?
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sabotai
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 Message 6 of 17
17 March 2012 at 3:27am | IP Logged 
I wouldn't say that you have to, but like a lot of older courses, the difficulty increases much faster as you go along in Linguaphone than with more modern courses. Which is fine if you take it slower than Assimil German or Michel Thomas' course. If you have Assimil and Linguaphone, I'd use Assimil to about 1/3rd or 1/2 of the way through, then start up Linguaphone and use both.

Of course, if you've already started German and are a high beginner or better, then go right ahead and jump into it.

And to your question in the OP, I use both pretty much the same way, treating each part of Linguaphone like an Assimil lesson. Also, because the 2nd part of each Linguaphone chapter is pretty big compared to the 1st and 3rd parts, I usually broke that up in half as well, which gives me about 120 parts (doing 1 or 2 parts per day).
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HudaMd
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 Message 7 of 17
27 June 2013 at 11:20am | IP Logged 
how far can linguaphone takes you ? to which level ?
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Retinend
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 Message 8 of 17
01 July 2013 at 5:26pm | IP Logged 
HudaMd wrote:
how far can linguaphone takes you ? to which level ?


The old Linguaphone German course which is ...around... on the internet is the one that
I have used up until the end. I reckon it covers every tense in the language with many
variations in each. It also covers exceptions to general rules extensively. Everything
you read in a typical grammar book should be familiar to you by the end of the course -
provided that everything in it is truly understood and reproducable. It does not and
cannot cover much of the idiomatic-ness that exists in a living language, but it at
least gives you many examples. It strikes a good balance between formality and casual
conversation, and covers most broad themes of public and private except subjects which
came after its publication like the internet, bank cards.

If by "to which level" you mean B2, C1 etc. I'm not sure, but if you could
successfully talk like the characters do in the final Dreissigste Lektion at length and
fluidly, then you would probably pass any test of language skill. The C-exams would
definitely require much more vocabulary that a linguaphone course can give you, but
with the impressive breadth of structural experience that a thoroughly-used Linguaphone
course can give you, you would be much better prepared to acquire that breadth of
vocabulary.

This old linguaphone course is beautifully structured, with the explanatory notes
introducing concepts with a very thoughtful gradation. I started the course after
having already learned to a standard matching the half-way point of the 30 lessons, so
I was able to read the accompanying notes up and until this point with a somewhat
objection assessment.

From the mid-way point I shadowed each lesson thoroughly. I edited out the blank noise
and for each single session listened to a CD from beginning to end. Edited down they
total about 15-19 minutes long each. Since there are no complete translations of the
transcripts provided in the set, I unfortunately couldn't do the most "proper" form of
shadowing, but instead I read both the transcripts and explanatory notes after roughly
15 plays through of one CD and then continued shadowing another 10 or so times after
knowing exactly what I was saying. On iTunes with an iPod counting these plays was
automatic. So roughly 25 or more plays for every track on the 8 CDs by the time I was
finished. Finally I wrote everything I have been saying out sentence by sentence;
repeating the line until I have it in my head, then writing it down on page. This last
step, as many have said before, throws up some some points of grammar or meaning which
you previously took for granted, wrongly.

This
actually brings me right up until my present circumstances. I know that I cannot at
this moment speak contemporaneously at the level of lesson 30, but I plan to repeat and
write out the later lessons until the structures in them are second nature. This has
already happened with the structures until lesson 19 or 20, which I have no problem
recognising, composing and even (on a good day) producing. I have great admiration for
the old writers of this course for giving me this knowledge.

Edited by Retinend on 01 July 2013 at 5:30pm



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