stmc2 Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6254 days ago 45 posts - 58 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German
| Message 41 of 47 28 July 2014 at 10:04am | IP Logged |
I have ordered the French pack in advance and it looks like it will be released it
September this year. I am looking forward to giving it a go as part of four months of
quite intense studying that I am planning from September.
Did you have much prior knowledge of Mandarin before starting the course?
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Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5868 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque
| Message 42 of 47 31 July 2014 at 1:18am | IP Logged |
Yeah, i'd say i'm around an HSK 4 level (supposedly B2, but probably closer to B1), so a good portion of what i've done is a review of what i've already learned, the new things seem mostly related to the Taiwan dialect of Mandarin. Though i believe the course is supposed to cover A2-B2 material, so it makes sense that the first level is easier stuff. I haven't looked at the later levels but from what i've read online the sentences seem to get much more complex.
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Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4256 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian
| Message 43 of 47 23 August 2014 at 2:46pm | IP Logged |
I was thinking I'd get the Icelandic thing to try out but I'm going to wait until I hear some thoughts from people who have used them. It's way too expensive to try out for the hell of it.
Edited by Henkkles on 23 August 2014 at 2:47pm
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chobbs Newbie United States Joined 4580 days ago 35 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 44 of 47 07 November 2014 at 6:59pm | IP Logged |
Henkkles wrote:
I was thinking I'd get the Icelandic thing to try out but I'm going to
wait until I hear some thoughts from people who have used them. It's way too expensive to
try out for the hell of it. |
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I picked up the Icelandic course while waiting for the French one to get finished. Prior to
purchasing this I knew zero about Icelandic other than the many internet claims of it being
a difficult language and that resources are very sparse.
At this point, I have gone through the first level of the 3 tier fluency package (1000
sentences per level) listening to all of the sentences from that pack multiple times - this
is about 1 hour and 38 minutes for this first level using the Icelandic only audio files
where the sentences are spoken only once. This same level comes out to a little over 4
hours of audio with the files which have the English sentence and the Icelandic repeated
twice.
I haven't started in with the actual GMS or GSR methods yet as my knowledge is still too
minimal to make any reasonable headway but what I have heard thus far is impressive. I am
starting to get a reasonable feel for the prosody of the language and have picked up a few
words as well. I need to spend a bit of time with some more beginner steps (pronunciation
and some basic words), but after that I feel like this will be a great next step.
Have you listened to the sample for Icelandic on Glossika's home page? It gives a pretty
good idea of content. There is some discussion ongoing about the clarity of the recordings.
I have the Chinese course as well and can say the audio is a bit clearer in that package,
but I don't know enough about either language to tell if that is just a natural result of
the language and the way it is spoken or a result of the bit-rate differences between the
files.
If you have any specific questions let me know and I will fill in what I can. Overall I do
think it is a well put together course and it is nice having a product like this for
Icelandic and other hard to find languages.
- Chris
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Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4256 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian
| Message 45 of 47 09 November 2014 at 7:24pm | IP Logged |
chobbs wrote:
Henkkles wrote:
I was thinking I'd get the Icelandic thing to try out but I'm going to
wait until I hear some thoughts from people who have used them. It's way too expensive to
try out for the hell of it. |
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-long post- |
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I listened to the samples and the Icelandic speaker sounded like he had bitten his tongue or something, definitely one of the most unintelligible natives I've ever heard. Other than that, the method really seems like it might be very good. I'm probably going to make the Finnish course a gift to somebody.
Edited by Henkkles on 09 November 2014 at 7:25pm
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Glarus Girl Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4578 days ago 50 posts - 108 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Swiss-German
| Message 46 of 47 09 November 2014 at 10:35pm | IP Logged |
I bought the German version on pre-order in July when it originally said it was due out
in September - no sign. When I asked was told in October... Still no sign - not sure I
want it anymore! Devised my own method with subtitles from German TV on demand from
things I like to watch then I cut and paste the subtitle and capture the audio. Seems to
work ok but involves a lot of pfaffing!
Edited by Glarus Girl on 09 November 2014 at 10:44pm
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chobbs Newbie United States Joined 4580 days ago 35 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 47 of 47 10 November 2014 at 4:20am | IP Logged |
Henkkles wrote:
I listened to the samples and the Icelandic speaker sounded like he had
bitten his tongue or something, definitely one of the most unintelligible natives I've ever
heard. Other than that, the method really seems like it might be very good. I'm probably going
to make the Finnish course a gift to somebody. |
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Thanks for the insight. Having never heard any Icelandic prior to the course I had no idea
what to expect. My fingers are crossed the French course, and the German which I purchased for
my son, come out closer in quality to the Chinese course.
- Chris
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