|
 |
What level can Living Language get you to | ||
Tags: Living Language | CEFR Language Levels | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Jake Day Newbie United States Joined 5029 days ago 30 posts - 35 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 10 10 August 2011 at 12:47am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
|
While going through my old books, I found Living Language--Ultimate Mandarin Chinese, Basic-Intermediate, 2004
edition. What CEFR level (roughly, since Mandarin isn't a European language) could this program get me to? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| KCor Groupie United States Joined 5008 days ago 50 posts - 72 votes  | Message 2 of 10 10 August 2011 at 4:23pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
|
Any resource is a learning resource. You either want to learn the language or you
don't. You don't set out to learn a language because you heard Colloquial will take you to ## or Michel Thomas will get you to ##. You know why? Because no one can tell you definitively what obscure level that a single source can take you to. If someone gets on this thread and says you'll be a C2 and another person chimes in and says you'll be an A2... does that mean you no longer want to learn Mandarin? Why not instead ask for a review or what other people thought of it? Either commit yourself or don't. You're the only one that can determine your overall ability in any given language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5130 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 3 of 10 10 August 2011 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
I agree with this. Any course you use is just a starting point. It's not going to "take you to" any given level. It may give you the basics, or more advanced courses may give you more examples of lesser used language, but that's all they will do. I only have experience with one Living Language course - Italian. I studied it after speaking Spanish fluently for 15 or so years. But when I went into my first conversation-only Italian class, I was hard-pressed to categorize myself at any decent level. Sure, maybe I could understand more than I realized (thanks to Spanish in part), but speaking was another matter altogether. That part was entirely up to me, no one else. If you look at the material and like the content, us it. It'll help, but isn't the end-all. It's just a small part of your learning. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5022 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 10 10 August 2011 at 10:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
He didnt say he was basing his decision on whether or not to study Mandarin on how far living language might take him, did he? He just wanted to know how far it might take him. He is not the only person who can determine his overall ability, far from it. In fact, I would think trying to determine your own ability is a bad idea.Thats what the CEFR levels are for. Of course, no one can tell you exactly how far a given course may take you, and companies of course exagerate, but you can give a rough indication. OP: Im afraid I cant help you, as I havent used the course, but I hope someone on here gives you a proper answer. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| KCor Groupie United States Joined 5008 days ago 50 posts - 72 votes | Message 5 of 10 11 August 2011 at 12:25am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
You're right. Just as I didn't. His line of questioning did imply that he was interested in this certain material based on what level others perceived it could take him to.
That is absolutely false. He is the only one that can decide it. The decision to learn and to continue learning is solely up to the individual that takes on the task to do so. No doubt you can have influences and materials available to you, but they can't be surgically implanted in to your head. I could have Prof. Arguelles sit on a chair in the corner of my room all day long. Undoubtedly he would be a fantastic source of information to have, but if I'm not the one applying myself then I'm not going to get anywhere.
When I say, "determine your own ability" I'm not referring to stamping some obscure letter-number combination after the language to show everyone how accomplished you are by their guidelines. What good does that serve anyway? Instead, I'm merely trying to stress the point that it is the sole responsibility of the learner to increase their proficiency. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5022 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 10 11 August 2011 at 1:05am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
No, but you more than implied it.
No its not. You may have some idea of your level, but you need to get feedback from someone like a native speaker, or someone more knowledgable than yourself, at some point.
And thats a good point, but I dont see how it is relevant to the op's question. The "obscure letter number combinations" give people a frame of reference whithout having to use obscure and ambigous terms like "fluency". Edited by dbag on 11 August 2011 at 1:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6229 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 7 of 10 11 August 2011 at 2:25am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
|
I don't have experience with the Ultimate Mandarin per se, but I have completed a few of the others in the "Ultimate" series. One learns around 2000 words in a complete course and a large chunk of grammar. I imagine all of the
Ultimate courses roughly the same as far as vocabulary breadth is concerned. Looking at the definitions of the rankings I would estimate that you would be a solid "B1" or as it is defined: Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. This would roughly correspond to an " ILR level 2 " , or: ILR Level 2 - Limited working proficiency Limited working proficiency is the second level in the scale. This level is sometimes referred to as S-2 or level 2. A person at this level is described as follows: -able to satisfy routine social demands and limited work requirements -can handle with confidence most basic social situations including introductions and casual conversations about current events, work, family, and autobiographical information -can handle limited work requirements, needing help in handling any complications or difficulties; can get the gist of most conversations on non-technical subjects (i.e. topics which require no specialized knowledge), and has a speaking vocabulary sufficient to respond simply with some circumlocutions -has an accent which, though often quite faulty, is intelligible -can usually handle elementary constructions quite accurately but does not have thorough or confident control of the grammar. I, too don't think the "letter/number combinations" are very useful. The descriptions make a lot more sense to me personally! 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5375 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 8 of 10 11 August 2011 at 2:52am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
|
I will try to give the original poster an answer based on my somewhat limited experience. I have not done Chinese, but if I was going to study it I would definitely consider Living Language as my first course. I have done one Living Language Beyond the Basics course (Spanish) and I looked very carefully at three LL Ultimate-Beginner/Intermediate courses (Spanish, French and Portuguese) and one Ultimate-Advanced (Spanish). LL makes good products. I think the easiest way to answer your question is to say that none of them take you as far as an Assimil With Ease course and an Assimil With Ease course can take you to B1, but probably not B2. I would think the best you could get with a LL Ultimate-Beginner/Intermediate would be A2. I think you might not get as far with Chinese because it is simply such a tough language. I hope that helps. Good luck.
2 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
