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Which course took you furthest? (B1+) | ||
Tags: Language Program | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5008 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes  Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 17 of 51 16 June 2013 at 11:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Living Language courses have very good reputation.
Lyrics training was mentioned repeatedly on the forums but in short: It is a wonderful site where you can listen to songs while filling the gaps in the lyrics (or typing the whole lyrics). It stops when you are having trouble, accepts only correct answers etc. They have a great selection of music, I'm sure nearly anyone can find something they like (and it is a good way to start exploring music of your target language as well). You can choose easier songs first as they have everything sorted into three levels (easy, medium, hard). I totally understand the need to progress a lot in the summer and use mostly fun native sources during the year. You can do that even if you get "only" to A2/B1 from my experience (or even lower. the gaps in your knowledge can be outweighted with excitement and stuborness, trust me). Just please, do not underestimate the basics. Getting the pronunciation right and trully learning the basic grammar before moving on, that does have a lot of value in the long run. P.S. I'm not a man :-) 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 18 of 51 16 June 2013 at 12:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was hoping you'd respond like Eowyn ;)
lingoleng, the original question is which course took you furthest, but the point of my post was that additional resources are very important and can make your learning more fun. And I would say using music in some way is a must for everyone who likes it. Edited by Serpent on 16 June 2013 at 3:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DevonAero Newbie United States Joined 4181 days ago 34 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English* | Message 19 of 51 16 June 2013 at 8:19pm | IP Logged | ||
lol Sorry about that and thanks again for the advice! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5008 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 20 of 51 16 June 2013 at 8:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, using several sources can take you much further than using a single source if you put the time in them in my opinion. I found that no single one resource gives me enough practice on what it teaches.
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| Steffen Newbie Germany Joined 4970 days ago 27 posts - 63 votes Studies: German* | Message 21 of 51 18 June 2013 at 2:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Judging by DevonAero's style and attitude, it seems quite obvious to me that he is an inexperienced and
somewhat naive language learner vastly overestimating his skills. I don't say that to hurt his or anyone else's feelings, it just seems something to be taken into consideration before offering any recommendations. As far as I can recollect, FSI courses are meant to bring you up to - more or less - level B2 (C1 perhaps, although I doubt it) within 9 months. This regards languages such as Spanish and French. At FSI, there is also daily personal instruction in small groups, learners are assumed to dedicate 6 hours a day to language learning, and the courses are aimed at highly educated diplomats. As a result, I would assume that it takes the average self-taught learner at least nine months of regular and intensive study to reach level B1. In the real world tough, he or she should be prepared to invest much more time - about two years to finish level B2 sounds much more reasonable to me. As is always the case, this should be done with various sources to avoid boredom and to make up for the shortcomings each and every single course has. Pimsleur, Paul Nobles, Michel Thomas, Assimil, Rosetta Stone, Madrigal's Magic Key, Practice Makes Perfect are all good resources if you combine them wisely to keep things lively and varied. And no, switching to another Romance language after just three months of study is definitely not a good idea. Edited by Steffen on 18 June 2013 at 2:43pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5008 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 22 of 51 18 June 2013 at 4:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Just a note: The good Living Language, as you asked about them, are the Ultimate series. There are as well new courses which I just explored a bit both for the Wiki and the Forum and those are totally horrible.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 23 of 51 18 June 2013 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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FSI taking you to a higher level than Assimil? Nah, you'll just have a better conscious knowledge of grammar.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4706 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 24 of 51 18 June 2013 at 11:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I respectfully disagree there - the FSI courses are usually also more thorough and
contain more vocabulary. Whether you can extract more out of FSI is more dependent on your tolerance for doing drills (or finding a way around them) than it is on how far it will take you. Mileage may vary between different courses of course, but I have found that the new Assimil courses - while generally quite comprehensive - actually lack in thoroughness at times. This doesn't go for the Russian course, which in my view was comprehensive enough, but the Hebrew course does not really explain the binyanim (the houses; basically the way of verb construction in Hebrew) in detail, and only treats the two most common verb paradigms in detail (when knowing how to use the other 5 would be pretty useful, especially as those changes are regular and can be explained). There are exceptions to this rule. The Romanian Assimil course is very thorough, for example, and so is the Breton course (although the Breton course is quite dry, sadly). However the Romanian course is clearly an older course (it writes sînt for sunt, f. ex.), and in general, the older a language course, the more thorough the information, but also the more boring and grammar-focused it is. It's up to whichever method you prefer that determines which method suits you more. I've had success with both methods, although I have to say that I have only used one FSI course and that was for Swedish. In general, FSI feels like they have grammar much more well-structured, which suits me just fine. Edited by tarvos on 18 June 2013 at 11:56pm 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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