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What’s important, when you buy a course? | ||
Tags: Language Program | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| wieser_d Diglot Newbie Austria Joined 4374 days ago 9 posts - 18 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 1 of 8 14 October 2013 at 10:17am | IP Logged |
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Imagine you could create you own language course, or a language course is created on you preferences:
When you buy a language course, what's important to you? How should the book be structured? Should there be vocabulary at the end of the book(s)? Should vocabulary be at the end of each unit or dialogue? Do you like pictures? Is there a method you would like to use? Should the dialogues be translated word-by-word or only the meaning? What is most important to you, when you buy a course? AND How much would you pay? (Assimil, Colloquial, ...) In short:...Why is your favourite language course your favourite? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4709 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 2 of 8 14 October 2013 at 7:50pm | IP Logged |
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Assimil format without the fill in the blanks
and a comprehensive grammar section. No leaving the hard bits out. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7158 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 3 of 8 14 October 2013 at 8:18pm | IP Logged |
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As a beginner, if a course's structure and characteristics are very close or even identical to "Beginning Slovak", "First-Year Polish" or "Finnish for Foreigners", then I'm very confident that I have a winner.
Past the beginner's stage, if the course is designed and modelled closely on "Z polskim na ty" and "Kiedyś wrócisz tu" then I'll probably get the most that I can from such a medium. However it's a little trickier to identify here than for the beginner's stage since learning can be done more frequently using material or techniques not originating from a formal kit or textbook. I'm thinking of native materials and using the language with native speakers. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4713 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 4 of 8 15 October 2013 at 4:21pm | IP Logged |
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Expectations are what are most important when buying a course.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| I'm With Stupid Senior Member Vietnam Joined 4175 days ago 165 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Vietnamese | Message 5 of 8 15 October 2013 at 11:35pm | IP Logged |
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Listen first, speak second, read third, write fourth. And I can delay the latter two for a while tbh.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5102 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 6 of 8 17 October 2013 at 12:28am | IP Logged |
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I don't buy courses. I rely on my library to do that for me so my only criteria in a course is that it be free.
However, my preference is for a lot of listening and repeating initially and then when I know what a language sounds like I can move on to reading. This is why I usually go with Pimsleur, MT, and Mango Languages. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5011 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 7 of 8 17 October 2013 at 11:01am | IP Logged |
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The price to value ratio. I do buy courses but I need to be confident the gain I get will be worth it. I don't have a hundred euros to buy something inefficient yet my personal language library (and now counting only the things I really bought, not downloads or gifts) is worth much more and growing.
And how do I judge it: 1.A course of sufficient length and "density" compared to how far they claim the course will take me. I don't trust a one hundred pages long "a language in a month" course claiming B1. 2.It does have audio. Either in the price of the course or for a reasonable price separate. I have already chosen a different alternative several times because the authors had believed the audio is meant to be bought only by a school/teacher and priced it accordingly. This approach is wrong and I'm afraid it is a mirror of the overall approach centered around the teacher, not around the student. 3.I open the book and look how it is structured and whther that makes sense. Are there grammar explanations and exercises of various kinds, does it offer a reasonably looking alternative (such as assimil) or is it just a modern colourful booklet with little value? 4.Minor issues concerning the practical aspects. Is it a huge book? (=can I just take it to my bag and study in a tram?) Are there comfortable word lists in the lessons? Is the key to exercises included? Is it inside the book or in separate book? Is it in the price of the book or, if not, is it reasonably priced? (similar to the audio issue in point 1) And of course, I consider the alternatives. It is different when I have to settle for lower standards because there is little to choose from and when I choose from the heaps of material for French or German. Now, the few questions I missed: -most of my favourite courses don't have translation to dialogues. A word list suffices, unless the method is built on the translation (like Assimil) -pictures? Meaningful yes, fun yes, exercise tied yes. But I dislike those double pages of generic multi-culti pictures vaguely relevant to the content and with no informational or practice value. Their only value lies in marketing, the book looks modern and fun to general public, at least until they try to study from it. How much would I pay? I think a good quality course with audio (one volume A1-B1) is reasonably priced until it hits 30-40 euros. Smaller area covered-adequately smaller price. Separate workbooks or cds-smaller price. I pay more only when there is little alternative and after careful consideration. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5011 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 8 of 8 17 October 2013 at 11:03am | IP Logged |
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Oh, forgive the grammar. I tend to write worse when I am not too concentrated and now I am even ill. I'll spare your feelings next time, I promise ;-)
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