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Finished Pimsleur French After 8.5 Months | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Marj Senior Member United States Joined 6415 days ago 257 posts - 283 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, French | Message 9 of 43 05 April 2008 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wow!! Congratulations on finishing!! Your determination is very impressive.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Leopejo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5958 days ago 675 posts - 724 votes Speaks: Italian*, Finnish*, English Studies: French, Russian | Message 10 of 43 05 April 2008 at 6:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Congratulations. Do you feel "empty" now without your daily dose of Pimsleur? While you are not fluent and have a limited vocabulary, I'm sure that your Pimsleur study will reward you when you'll take other paths to acquire fluency.
Just a warning: Pimsleur is not intended to be studied this way. They stress the "on 80 % correct answers move to the next lesson" part, to keep it going and being most new material reviewed in the following lessons anyway. This not to criticize the original poster, but just not to give beginners a "false" reason to avoid Pimsleur ("oh (s)he needed so many hours") - there already are "legitimate" reasons to avoid it. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Farley Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6941 days ago 681 posts - 739 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanB1, French Studies: Spanish | Message 12 of 43 05 April 2008 at 9:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Congratulations. You are better than me, I quit Pimsleur after lesson 45 in favor of other courses. If you can learn with Pimsleur like that you should be able to learn anything.
Any ideas for what is more fun? John 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fsc Senior Member United States Joined 6178 days ago 100 posts - 117 votes Studies: French | Message 13 of 43 06 April 2008 at 2:21am | IP Logged | ||
I didn't feel I got that much out of the FIA videos for the reason you stated. I did pick up a few things but it was more of a review of the few things I learned from Pimsleur. I might understand a little more now having completed Pimsleur (finished the FIA videos months before completing Pimsleur) but still think the audio and workbooks would be needed with FIA to get the maximum benefit out of it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fsc Senior Member United States Joined 6178 days ago 100 posts - 117 votes Studies: French | Message 14 of 43 06 April 2008 at 2:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all of you for your kind words!
After I posted my message here, I felt embarrassed and was afraid to come back and read any replies because I thought everyone would think I was some sort of a nut case. I finally got up the nerve to look and was surprised to have any replies, much less all the kind ones. I admit I got obsessive and compulsive. I just got so frustrated not being able to recall things I should have known (which other people seemed to have no problem with) that I felt I needed to take drastic measures. I hope I am not stuck in a perfectionist mode as that is not a good thing when it comes to language learning based on what I have read. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fsc Senior Member United States Joined 6178 days ago 100 posts - 117 votes Studies: French | Message 15 of 43 06 April 2008 at 3:40am | IP Logged | ||
Masochistic probably isn't too far off :) . However, having repeated the lessons so many times, I didn't feel making a mistake was acceptable. I either knew the material 100% or I didn't. If I didn't, I was going to stick with it until I did. Did I sometimes make a small mistake because my mind wandered because I was going through the lesson for the 18th time? Yes. Did I sometimes make a mistake on something I knew, but temporarily blanked out on or blurted out the wrong thing? Yes. Did I have to repeat the lesson to get 100% when this happened? Yes. I don't know how much it paid off verses having moved on at a faster pace with less than 100%. As I mentioned in my original post, I think there is a point where the amount of extra time spent isn't worth the little additional benefit. I might be further along in my studies had I not done it this way. However, I was also using this to see if I could break through the difficulty of not remembering things and to prove to myself I wouldn't give up. I am surprised I am the first person you know who has done all three levels in one shot. I am guessing a lot of people have. It seems I have read messages from people (and reviews) who do the course in 3 months. I even recall a messages recently from an advanced person who did all 3 levels in only one month. As far as the number of words I learned, it would be hard to say with great accuracy. Most people say Pimsleur teaches around 500 words and I would guess that is probably pretty close. Most lessons teach around seven words but some teach several words together in a phrase with several of these phrases in a lesson. Most of the smaller words like "is", "and", "it" and "are" aren't formally taught. You are just supposed to pick them up as they are used in the phrases. When I am going through my "Mastering French Vocabulary" book, I am surprised at the number of words I know (and also the number I don't :-) ) and at one point I thought of doing a count but decided my time would be better spent actually studying. However, Pimsleur doesn't just give you the words, it uses and manipulates them in phrases and sentences. It is amazing, at least for me, how difficult it sometimes is to understand, or say, a new sentence made up entirely of words you know, but have not heard together in that order. I wouldn't say completing Pimsleur gives you the ability to make up and create your own sentences on the fly, but it does give you more than just a list or words to know. Somewhat early on in the course I counted the number of prompts, after which I was supposed to repeat a word or phrase, to determine what was 80%. I counted around 120. Granted, not 120 new or unique words and phrases, but rather repeats of words or phrases, along with manipulation of the phrases using word you know along with the new ones. I know you asked "other than books or podcasts" but an interesting thing I did discover with the podcasts in the past couple of months, is that you can sometimes figure out the meaning of words you don't know, just because of the way they are used in sentences or phrases with the words you do know. I think once you have heard words or certain patterns of words often enough, you aren't translating word for word and it frees you up to "fill in the gaps" when a word you don't know is used. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fsc Senior Member United States Joined 6178 days ago 100 posts - 117 votes Studies: French | Message 16 of 43 06 April 2008 at 3:44am | IP Logged | ||
Thank you very much. High standards and dedication are good but I also know being a perfectionist can hold one back. I can tell you though that I had almost completely stopped watching TV and reading magazines since I started studying last July. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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