schmat Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4712 days ago 4 posts - 5 votes Speaks: French
| Message 1 of 9 04 February 2012 at 9:35pm | IP Logged |
Hi,
Today I decided I'd start platiquemos. However, I'm slightly confused on how I'm supposed to use it. I've had a look
around the documents but I can't find any proper instructions - perhaps I'm missing something.
So am I supposed to use the book while repeating? Have a scan over the text before repeating, read the text as I
repeat or not look at the text at all?
Thanks all.
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James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5377 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French
| Message 2 of 9 05 February 2012 at 12:58am | IP Logged |
Ultimately the goal is to do the lesson without the book. I think most people look over the lesson and read the notes before doing the lesson... then the first time or two use the book, as necessary. Then, when you are comfortable with the lesson try doing it without the book. Some people say not to move on to the next lesson until you can do the lesson without any mistakes and without the book.
Here is what I do: I read the dialogue section out load and check any words or phrases that are new. I read it out loud a couple times. I read the footnotes also. Sometimes I read the grammar sections before the lessons, but I usually read them after. Then, after reading the dialogue a couple times I just start the audio. Usually the first time through I need to check a few things with the book. The next day I do basically the exact same thing except I try to do it without the book (except those darn response drills that I find so hard). I started FSI/Platiquemos as an intermediate so beginners would likely need to do each lesson more than twice.
I skipped lessons 1 and 2 because they are different.
Good luck. Platiquemos and FSI are great courses.
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petteri Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4934 days ago 117 posts - 208 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: German, Spanish
| Message 3 of 9 05 February 2012 at 10:14am | IP Logged |
James29 wrote:
Some people say not to move on to the next lesson until you can do the lesson without any mistakes and without the book.
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I think this is bad advice. In language training it is not necessary to learn everything at once. It is not efficient use of time to learn every detail by heart. If some details feel difficult it is often useful to move forward and review the material after a while.
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flydream777 Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6493 days ago 77 posts - 102 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: German, Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Greek, Hungarian, Armenian, Irish, Italian
| Message 4 of 9 05 February 2012 at 5:44pm | IP Logged |
After hearing some of the non-native speakers in the recordings I boxed mine up and sold it...
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dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5024 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 5 of 9 05 February 2012 at 6:52pm | IP Logged |
flydream777 wrote:
After hearing some of the non-native speakers in the recordings I boxed mine up and sold it... |
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A shame. I think there is only one non-native voice on the recordings, and while I agree he doesnt have a good accent, it was good enough for him to function as U.S ambassador in various different Latin American countries for a very long time.
I see your profile states that you speak Spanish. What did you use instead?
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flydream777 Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6493 days ago 77 posts - 102 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: German, Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Greek, Hungarian, Armenian, Irish, Italian
| Message 6 of 9 05 February 2012 at 11:09pm | IP Logged |
I'm sure he was a great diplomat and language learner but his pronunciation was not something I would want
to absorb or model. I was very disappointed with the course and was glad to be able to get a portion of my
$500ish back...
I used Colloquial Spanish of Latin America and dabbled in the Barron's FSI course. I was fortunate to spend
a couple months in Latin America and then practice Spanish with people at work.
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schmat Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4712 days ago 4 posts - 5 votes Speaks: French
| Message 7 of 9 06 February 2012 at 2:33pm | IP Logged |
And one more question. When the guy on the tape says the English, I pause the tape, say the Spanish, then listen to him saying the sentence twice? I should repeat this process until I more or less know it completely?
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dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5024 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 8 of 9 06 February 2012 at 3:20pm | IP Logged |
schmat wrote:
And one more question. When the guy on the tape says the English, I pause the tape, say the Spanish, then listen to him saying the sentence twice? I should repeat this process until I more or less know it completely? |
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Dont pause the tape at all. You need to be able to say the sentence in the gap provided, which I think is only about 2 seconds. When he says the English, say the Spanish version, then listen to the answer, then repeat what you just heard again. Sometimes they say the answer twice, in which case I do likewise. So essentially you will have Spanish coming out of your mouth pretty much constantly as you do the drills.
I usually do one drill at a time until I feel completly comfortable with it, and maybe return to it a few times after a day or so.
Trust me, this will get much easier as time goes on. Are you going to keep a log? Im sure that would make interesting reading.
Edited by dbag on 06 February 2012 at 3:22pm
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