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FSI or Pimsleur? (German) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5011 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes  Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 9 of 13 17 November 2011 at 2:34pm | IP Logged |
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I am a beginner in German (learning with smaller breaks for about five months) and I have tried a few of the courses mentioned, some of them for other languages as well. I can't tell yet how far will each of these things lead in the end but here are my notes to them.
What I find great about FSI is the amount of exercises, the downside for me is not that it is "not fun" (I actually enjoy most of the exercises. And it brings me a good feeling of achievement to complete every exercise.), but I somehow dislike the choice of vocabulary, even though it is a logical one considering the primary purpose of the course. It is the best free course. Assimil is great, most of the lessons are fun, the vocabulary is slowly but constantly growing and they try to not scare you by some parts of grammar too early. I am progressing slowly because I didn't learn every day which is something you really should do with assimil. And it is difficult for me to "just assimilate", I prefer to accompany the course with grammar so I am more comfortable with the language and to stick with every lesson for longer and review it several times instead of just moving on and waiting for the active wave. I'll post somewhere how did my way of using Assimil go when I am finished with it. A great complement to everything are the courses at Deutsche Welle. I am going through Deutsch Interactiv and there is a lot of exercises and lots of listening. I can't imagine it as a main course but alongside something else, it is wonderful. I use it every time I need to change activity. Have a look at their site, there are more courses including some in a form of detective stories etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| BlueZepher Newbie United States Joined 4763 days ago 9 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Swedish | Message 10 of 13 18 November 2011 at 12:11am | IP Logged |
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Thanks everyone. (:
My long term goal is definitely to be able to speak German as fluently as possible. I don't have a time limit. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HenryMW Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5176 days ago 125 posts - 179 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, French Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 11 of 13 18 November 2011 at 1:21am | IP Logged |
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I love FSI. I'm almost done with their German program and feel very confident with my German. I'm in law
school, but I've gotten to know the chair of the German department here. He was impressed with my level of fluency when I told him that I've been using self study materials and compliments my accent all the time. I was apprehensive about my German until I met him and realized how far I had come. I'm nothing special, just stuborn. The trick with FSI is sticking with it. Some people find it boring and I have some issues with the layout, but you will learn it with FSI. And you'll learn it well. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5867 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 12 of 13 19 November 2011 at 5:24pm | IP Logged |
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What I found with the German FSI course was that they taught a lot of governmenty words, one of the units talked about the chief of the labor union or something like that. I managed to get to unit 16 or so then just read through the dialogs and grammar of the last 8 units. Also, after unit 12 the drills no longer provide the English sentence to be translated and I found I just couldn't do the drills that way (you have to read it from the book and translate it), it became way too painful and boring, took much longer, and in the end was another big reason why I stopped doing the course.
I've done (completed) both the Spanish and French courses and really enjoyed them, especially the Spanish course. Platiquemos is probably my favorite course ever. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HenryMW Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5176 days ago 125 posts - 179 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, French Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 13 of 13 19 November 2011 at 7:57pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah, the second half gets a little rough. Having the English prompt is a big help, so I
just pause the mp3, read the English, unpause and then speak the answer. I don't like having to do it that way, but I think the drills are worth it. Some of the vocabulary deals with the government, but that's also the type of vocabulary that shows up in the news a lot. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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