WHAT NOW Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4830 days ago 6 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese
| Message 225 of 376 08 September 2011 at 3:24am | IP Logged |
My favourite is the hugely popular Teach Yourself as I find it
offers a more balanced approach than other courses.
Linguaphone and Pimsleur are close behind as they are more flexible, however
if one has the comprehensive "complete" book and audio linguaphone
course then that will be just about as good as it gets of any course.
Michel Thomas I found to sway towards the grammatical side of things
even though it's audio only and very much enjoyed it. The older MT
course are to be avoided at all cost.
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newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6382 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map
| Message 226 of 376 08 September 2011 at 6:12am | IP Logged |
I find your blanket enthusiasm for Teach Yourself surprising. I find most Teach Yourself courses terrible and plan on never buying another one.
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WHAT NOW Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4830 days ago 6 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese
| Message 227 of 376 08 September 2011 at 4:48pm | IP Logged |
newyorkeric wrote:
I find your blanket enthusiasm for Teach Yourself surprising |
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:) It just works.
I don't think for me there is a "terrible" course as all offer the learner somthing unless one has a phobia of learning from a foreign instructor.
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newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6382 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map
| Message 228 of 376 08 September 2011 at 4:54pm | IP Logged |
I mean terrible like they stink. Poorly recorded audio, bad lesson pacing, poor layout, bad paper stock, too much English, dumb exercises.
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Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4912 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German
| Message 229 of 376 08 September 2011 at 7:35pm | IP Logged |
WHAT NOW wrote:
newyorkeric wrote:
I find your blanket enthusiasm for Teach Yourself surprising |
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:) It just works.
I don't think for me there is a "terrible" course as all offer the learner somthing unless one has a phobia of learning from a foreign instructor.
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You're new here, What Now. You'll soon find every series has its detractors, and they often seem surprised that people don't agree with them. And notice how the poster trashes the whole series. Has he tried them all, or even 2-3 of them? There's no arguing about it.
But Teach Yourself has many supporters on these forums as well. I have found Teach Yourself to be good for Hindi, and the various TY courses compliment each other well. I've also used the various TY German sets, but it turns out there is far too much overlap between them. I'm currently using Fast French, by Teach Yourself, and for a quick introduction I think it's excellent. So, like any series, there are good and bad books.
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Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4912 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German
| Message 230 of 376 08 September 2011 at 7:36pm | IP Logged |
Dunno how, but I double posted. Deleted!
Edited by Jeffers on 08 September 2011 at 10:55pm
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newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6382 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map
| Message 231 of 376 09 September 2011 at 2:56am | IP Logged |
No, I haven't tried all the TY books. So let me qualify my statement. I bought three of the new ones and they were all terrible (Malay, Mandarin and Cantonese). So bad it was like flushing money away. On that basis I will never buy another one.
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montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4831 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh
| Message 232 of 376 13 September 2011 at 4:19pm | IP Logged |
WHAT NOW wrote:
Michel Thomas I found to sway towards the grammatical side of things
even though it's audio only and very much enjoyed it. The older MT
course are to be avoided at all cost.
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You mean the ones with MT himself speaking?
What's wrong with them?
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