Tom79 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6222 days ago 15 posts - 15 votes
| Message 1 of 8 20 November 2007 at 9:21am | IP Logged |
Hi all, would using vocabulearn be a good idea? What is your opinion of vocabulearn?
Thanks for your time.
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Bruce Groupie United States Joined 6223 days ago 65 posts - 65 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, German
| Message 2 of 8 20 November 2007 at 9:46am | IP Logged |
Here is an older thread about Vocabulearn:
Vocabulearn
I have the set for Spanish and I found it incredibly boring and slow. I used the booklets to make files in my flashcard software.
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zigzag Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 6563 days ago 50 posts - 52 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Spanish
| Message 3 of 8 20 November 2007 at 11:43am | IP Logged |
Well, if you want to learn words like "snowplow" then it is ideal for you.
I never used this word in english actively before and I will probably never use it in Spanish and, as far as I remember - I never used it in German.
So the vocabulary is not useful and the way it is presented -halfway first English then Spanish, the other half otherway round is - for me - not useful.
I regret having bought these CDs.
Edited by zigzag on 20 November 2007 at 11:51am
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ChrisWebb Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6263 days ago 181 posts - 190 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean
| Message 4 of 8 21 November 2007 at 5:05am | IP Logged |
I picked up the vocabulearn Korean, Vocabulearn can be had pretty cheaply if you shop around. In my opinion they are not great but for the price they arent a complete waste either. If there is some other resource you are thinking of buying then I'd say its likely that you should buy that before Vocabulearn.
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Kleberson Diglot Senior Member Great Britain Joined 6418 days ago 166 posts - 168 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese Studies: Italian, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin
| Message 5 of 8 21 November 2007 at 6:20am | IP Logged |
I like the Vocabulearn series. I'm using it for Italian, and I would say I have retained something like 95% of the first set. I have however, used audacity to make the CD's into smaller tracks i.e. with 7-8 words per track.
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mcjon77 Senior Member United States Joined 6611 days ago 193 posts - 248 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Egyptian), French
| Message 6 of 8 21 November 2007 at 11:50am | IP Logged |
I'm using vocabulearn now. It could be much better. Here are a few of the problems I have encountered:
1) Does not focus on the most common words and includes many that are completely irrelevent for most people. Had they used a frequency dictionary to devise their list, it would have been more effective.
2) Definitions chosen for the word were put in hastily and are sometimes not accurate or at least not the primary definition of the word. Example: sauve is Spanish for soft, as is blando. Vocabulearn has sauve as being Spanish for bland.
There are other problems, but most relate to the two I mentioned above. I chose it because it was the largest vocabulary list being sold that actually had audio recordings of all of the words.
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apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6650 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto
| Message 7 of 8 21 November 2007 at 12:30pm | IP Logged |
mcjon77 wrote:
2) Definitions chosen for the word were put in hastily and are sometimes not accurate or at least not the primary definition of the word. Example: sauve is Spanish for soft, as is blando. Vocabulearn has sauve as being Spanish for bland.
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I have the Vocabulearn Polish CDs (just a dalliance) and I agree with this.
It's annoying to only hear a one-to-one definition when most words have multiple meanings. I know it would be rather difficult to give more than that without confusing a new learner, but it's still annoying.
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Takato Tetraglot Senior Member HungaryRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5048 days ago 249 posts - 276 votes Speaks: Hungarian*, EnglishB2, GermanB2, Japanese
| Message 8 of 8 23 August 2011 at 9:37pm | IP Logged |
I'm currently learning Spanish. I have finished Pimsleur Spanish I, II and III.
If I learn the first 2000 words of Vocabulearn then it might happen that I'll know some not really necessary words (like snow plow), but even so, I'll know 98% of the 1000-1800 most frequent words as well. Am I right?
I know that if I only know one or maybe two meanings of a Spanish word then I won't possess the word with all of its strength, but if I not only learn the 2000 words but even read some text (like online Spanish newspapers and other "hard-to-understand" native materials) then I'll surely be able to understand written Spanish (considering my brain doesn't function under the average human brain, and I won't just read it, but rather look up the unknown words in a good dictionary and ask a navite about sentences I don't understand).
I'm curently not interested in understanding spoken Spanish beyond Pimsleur.
So what do you think?
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