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Tags: Learning Difficulty | Language Program | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 24 15 June 2012 at 1:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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What courses would you strongly advise against using and why ? I'm not thinking about courses that don't suit your learning style, but ones with fundamental mistakes or difficulties.
My list would be, Colloquial Latvian by Christopher Moseley - Uses non native speakers, incorrect explanations, impossible to use audio. Read and Think in French - Fundamental mistakes in writing. E.g. Mon femme Read and Think in Spanish - Incorrect facts about some Spanish festivals. Some articles written by a non native speaker based on style. Small grammar mistakes. Teach Yourself French Grammar - Numerous small errors. Edited by DaraghM on 15 June 2012 at 3:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5567 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 2 of 24 15 June 2012 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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I must say that I think Read and Think in French is very useful advanced beginner-
intermediate practice, so I wouldn't strongly advise against it - in any event by the time you can use it most profitably, you already know the mistakes (which are sometimes made by native French speakers just as we English speakers make grammar error....) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6599 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 3 of 24 15 June 2012 at 2:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've been told that the "learn ... in three weeks" series contains a lot of errors, not to mention it won't get you anywhere near fluency in three weeks.
Also while I really love [URLħttp://www.tpbooks.comímgćoversúsa_span_5000.gif]this series of themed dictionaries[ÚRL], be careful, it's native-target only. Finnish books not recommended for Russian speakers - Простой финский (only good for teaching the pronunciation) and the one by Разинов, Афанасьева. Edited by Serpent on 15 June 2012 at 2:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| aokoye Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5543 days ago 235 posts - 453 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, Norwegian, Japanese | Message 4 of 24 15 June 2012 at 3:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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Read Think Spanish is actually a completion of articles written by the writers of the magazine Think Spanish.
Almost all of those writers are native speakers. Additionally the vast majority of the articles aren't on Spain so if a few of the articles on Spanish festivals are wrong factually I don't see much of an issue, though I would hope it would be corrected in additional editions. In regards to whether or not native speakers should be writing articles, I think it's more than a little ridiculous to say that somehow articles or literature written by non-native speakers is somehow of lesser quality across the board than that of native speakers. All that said, I found Read Think Spanish very useful when I was studying Spanish. 2 persons have 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 5 of 24 15 June 2012 at 3:52pm | IP Logged | ||
I really wanted to consider using this for my French study. I wouldn't mind if the mistake was just in the article, but they also repeat it in the glossary - "Mon femme - My Wife". I noticed the online magazine has a corrected version. Hopefully they'll release a second edition which eliminates all errors. Edited by DaraghM on 15 June 2012 at 3:52pm 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 6 of 24 15 June 2012 at 4:04pm | IP Logged | ||
I noticed they're due to release a 2nd Spanish edition in August. Hopefully they've amended the errors. I also remember there were a few small mistakes with the use of prepositions with verbs. Edited by DaraghM on 15 June 2012 at 4:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5857 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 7 of 24 15 June 2012 at 4:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Any Russian course which do not introduce the Cyrillic letters.
Any language materials produced by the BBC. All of them are too slow, too touristy and are way over priced. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6911 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 24 15 June 2012 at 5:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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Any so-called "language course" with just a CD (or more) and thin booklet with phrases. Language course? Yeah, right. The ones where you're supposed to learn a good chunk of the language in just "15 minutes a day" are ususally not that impressive either.
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