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Which course took you furthest? (B1+) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| 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 9 of 51 15 June 2013 at 4:49pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
This is correct, but I was also balancing out other languages at the same time. If you gave it a full-time focus then B1 in a couple months is definitely possible - I've seen it happen to people who did not have the vast experience I have now (and for all I've done, these were related languages as you pointed out). You can improve vastly in a couple months. But be prepared to still make mistakes after them; I make mistakes in ALL of my foreign languages, including those that I have vast amounts of experience with (such as French and German). And that is perfectly okay. B1 does not mean you understand everything, but what you will be able to do is express yourself. I was spreading myself thin; if you focus on Assimil for an hour a day or so, you can get really really far in a couple months. Maybe not to fluency, but you'll speak a whole lot better. My answer to his question was though "which methods take you the furthest"? In my experience Assimil and FSI are the most thorough, particularly FSI. But FSI is very old-fashioned and you need a lot of perseverance to work through it. Assimil is really fun though. In general; the older the course, the more thorough its material, but ALSO the more dry the course. I have seen very few comprehensive courses from after 2000 in any language. Assimil is often not that comprehensive, and if it is, then that course is usually out of print. (Romanian is an exception, but that has no proper grammar and vocab index which annoys the living shit out of me, although it's easy enough of a language to do without). Also keep in mind that I have studied Breton, Russian and Hebrew (I have not finished the latter yet) with Assimil, and I didn't get as far in any of those languages (some of them are related in a vague way).
It isn't hard work if you like what you are doing. However, yes, it is good to refresh on your grammar. Also accept that in Spanish, there are going to be many moments where you'll think "why the hell is it like THAT?" The best way to overcome this is to think that Spanish is always right. You are adapting to the Spanish mode of saying things, which means Spanish is the right way of doing it. English doesn't figure in this. Put Spanish on a pedestal.
I agree with this completely. Consequently I have always stated that French (which is the first foreign language I learned consciously) was the most difficult for me to learn (even though it came easy to me at school, same with German and Latin) - it was the first language I had to learn to speak properly. It took me two years to understand I needed to work on it; and by the time I decided to, two months had passed and I suddenly spoke with confidence in a language that had gotten old, rusty, and defiled. Edited by tarvos on 15 June 2013 at 4:51pm 7 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 10 of 51 15 June 2013 at 5:18pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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In my experience, techniques matter more than the specific courses.
Specifically for Spanish, I highly recommend these resources: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/# http://lyricstraining.com/ - for playing with song lyrics. there's a karaoke mode. if you find it difficult as a beginner, come back every now and then and see if it's any easier. http://albalearning.com/ http://gloss.dliflc.edu/Default.aspx - free lessons with interesting content, will be useful when you're intermediate or so. and you've already got a rec for Destinos. I recommend watching the videos for free no matter what other resources you decide on. If it's your main resource you'll also need the books of course. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| DevonAero Newbie United States Joined 4181 days ago 34 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English* | Message 11 of 51 16 June 2013 at 1:42am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Will look into it man! Also does anyone think Living Language Spanish (Ultimate Spanish Beginner-Intermediate) is a good supplement to Assimil? It seems the first two lessons are pretty advanced. But, I still don't have a good "technique" (ie; shadowing) for either program. Let me in on your learning methods :) And thanks for all the answers, really helped a lot! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| lingoleng Senior Member Germany Joined 5297 days ago 605 posts - 1290 votes | Message 12 of 51 16 June 2013 at 3:27am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Lyricstraining? Must be the first time I see this mentioned. Can you elaborate a little bit further? The course that took you furthest was lyricstraining? Can one learn a language without it or is it absolutely necessary for any serious student? Edited by lingoleng on 16 June 2013 at 3:28am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| lingoleng Senior Member Germany Joined 5297 days ago 605 posts - 1290 votes | Message 13 of 51 16 June 2013 at 3:35am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I am amazed. Why did it take so long? Was there any event in your life that made you see the light, in a kind of epiphany?
Again, just amazing. How long had you studied the language at school? Longer than two months? Had you been a lazy student or why didn't you get confident earlier? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| DevonAero Newbie United States Joined 4181 days ago 34 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English* | Message 14 of 51 16 June 2013 at 6:06am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Had a busy day, so I'm just now getting to replying back to some of you:
@iguanamon: Thanks so much for the suggestions man, I will definitely give it a shot. @tarvos: Really appreciate the time you took out to give me an idea of what I'm head for, thanks.
Honestly, during school (I'm a senor this year) I won't have time to commit to a language learning schedule. Also I wanted to aim for B1-2 so I could understand some TV, because there's a lot of interesting Spanish TV, and for jobs. Also what's your method for FSI? I have the Platiquemos version. 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 15 of 51 16 June 2013 at 9:05am | IP Logged | ||||||||
There are several reasons why I didn't get past that barrier. Most of these are personal. However, I was an excellent student and studied French for four years. The main reason was that I had spent two years travelling to a francophone area and had not succeeded at holding conversations in French. My ex- girlfriend was demotivating as she preferred to let me interact with her English-speaking friends. It was only when I moved with a view to living there when I moved in with French people who spoke bad English that I realised things had to change. Then they did. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4888 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 16 of 51 16 June 2013 at 9:22am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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FSI is a massivecourse. It theoretically can get you to a decent level of
proficiency. But ... as tarvos mentioned ... it takes a lot of perseverance. I can't imagine doing it all in one round. I think Spanish alone has about 120 hours of recordings, spread over four thick volumes. For me FSI courses are multi-year projects, something that I only do when I'm ready to really grind. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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