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 Language Learning Forum : Immersion, Schools & Certificates |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5336 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 6 13 June 2010 at 6:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am fortunate enough to have been granted a two weeks's course in Ukraine to study Russian, and I can choose how many hours a day I want to do 4,6,8,10 (providing the language school can offer me that of course).
I am tempted to go full speed, and do 10 lessons a day - total immersion - but there are a few reasons why I am hesitant, and think that perhaps 6 would be a better number. - I still struggle to read Russian script - I must still be counted as almost a beginner, even though I have given Russian my best effort for the last three months (in between work, family, parents who are very ill, voluntary work) - It is pretty demanding to have individual classes in a language like Russian when you know so little - It could be nice to actually see something of the city and the country while I am there - or go to a pool, given that it will be in August. On the other hand - This may be my one shot of doing a language course in a Russian speaking country - you do not get all that many chances at my age - I am extremely motivated - It might take me past my present struggles, and into actually speaking basic Russian (that thought is almost intoxicating!) - I have an iron will when it comes to carrying out what I want to do - I have lots of experience learning languages already (though this one is the hardest fight I have had with any language) What are your thoughts - and possibly experiences? Will it be a total overload? Will I just sit there going "Da, Njet, Spasiba" and looking empty into space every evening? Will I end up hating Russian for the rest of my life? What would you do if you were in my shoes? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5671 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 2 of 6 13 June 2010 at 6:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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It is impossible to say without knowing what they will teach and how they will teach it. If it is hours of grammar lessons all day long then few people will have the mental energy to absorb that for 10 hours a day for two weeks. On the other hand, if the focus is on conversation, just think about the students who spent full days with Michel Thomas, learning and talking all day long for several days and went from zero to hero pretty quickly.
So, my first question would be to ask what they will be teaching, how they will teach it, and whether there is any flexibility in it to suit you own goals, leaning style, and energy levels. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5337 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 3 of 6 13 June 2010 at 7:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't have experience to draw from so I'm just going to think about what I would do if I were in your position. Firstly, I would be psyched about getting to go to Ukraine and I think I would try to find a balance between studying the language and sight seeing. However, while I have never been to Ukraine I don't know whether you have so you might feel less need to see the country than I would.
I think it also depends on how well you are able to concentrate. I am hardly ever able to concentrate on the same thing for longer than three or four hours so the additional seven or six hours would be wasted on me. Would you take breaks every couple of hours or would it be one long haul and is this how you normally study on your own? I think that if you're still a beginner it's good to have a couple of hours without the language to let it sink in so you can start afresh the next day. Also, I don't know how widely Russian is spoken in Ukraine but wouldn't there be other ways to immerse yourself? I guess you can get Russian TV on the internet so it would be a waste of precious time but you mentioned going to the pool. Would there be native speakers there whom you could have a chat with? Using the language is a great motivation tool, as you probably know better than I do. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6472 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 4 of 6 13 June 2010 at 8:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't have one really relevant experience but two that come close in a way, maybe it
will help... In China I took four hours of Mandarin lessons daily (all at once) for six weeks in a group of about 20 students. I didn't have a choice of how many hours I wanted. The idea was to have two hours of grammar and hard study followed by two hours of conversation, but each teacher's interpretation of that was different, e. g. one had us memorize dialogs and then say them over and over again for the two hours conversation practice. On the other hand, for some time we also had a really awesome teacher who'd explain colloquialisms that we picked up on the street, and teach us songs. Most of the teachers were somewhere in between. So yes, the teacher will make or break a class, no matter what the description of it says. Either way, four hours with additional homework was plenty for me to go over later, to memorize the vocabulary and the new characters, do the exercises and just wait for my brain to absorb the matter. When taking individual lessons, your teacher may of course be ready to wait for you rather than ruthlessly pushing ahead (depends on how much freedom the organization gives him), and if you do 10 hours of class a day, there probably won't be any homework; try to find out. I've also done a few "Immersion" programs on Myngle, i. e. online learning in a virtual classroom, private lessons with just the teacher and myself. There, "Immersion" means up to one lesson per day for 30 days. Okay, it's not as intensive, also because I was working part-time next to it, but we did go over new material equivalent to a Teach Yourself lesson every time, and I found that I would not have taken more than one lesson a day even if I could have; some days I didn't even take a lesson. For me, the teacher finds interesting materials, grammar points and vocabulary at the n+1 level, and the teacher is there to patiently help me practice (especially when my conversational ability is too weak to bother a native friend), show me my mistakes and provide additional explanations when I need them, but in between seeing the materials and practising them, it is me who is doing all the work. I hardly get any benefit out of listening to a grammar explanation; it usually won't click until I read it for myself. Same for vocabulary, I don't memorize it until I have some moments to myself. Classroom study, even with a better-than-average teacher, can never replace self-study for me, though I learn best when I don't just self-study but also have someone to turn to, like a coach. You should figure out how big the ideal role of a teacher is in your language-learning; how much time they can save you when it comes to understanding new things and how much alone time you need until you have mastered a unit. As a test I'd recommend thoroughly studying the dialog and grammar points of a typical textbook lesson (e. g. Teach Yourself) and just seeing how much time you then need to digest the lesson, learn most of the vocabulary and move on to the next lesson. Teachers will probably try to cover the material of one such lesson, including all practice and conversation, in 4 hours of class time. To calculate a good number of hours, the key is for you to know how much such material you can hope to absorb in a day, but also how long of a recovery period you need (can you decide when to take breaks?) and how effective classroom study is compared to self-study for you. All this is void if you have an awesome, Michael Thomas-like teacher, or the kind that my boyfriend spent time with in the Netherlands, but those tend to charge upwards of 1000 EUR per week even for group classes. Chances are that you'll just have an average teacher, in which case you need to think about the above. Edited by Sprachprofi on 13 June 2010 at 8:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5336 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 6 13 June 2010 at 11:03pm | IP Logged | ||
I haven't chosen the language school yet (I'm planning to do that tomorrow) but I have had one to one teaching with Berlitz for a while, so I have some experience. I was actually quite frustrated at that, because the teacher's idea of teaching didn't coincide with the way I was able to learn. She would put up big grammar charts which I could barely read, and struggled like hell to write, give me one example, and then move on. I, however, am unable to learn just from one rule and six exceptions, I need tons of examples, which is how you learn in the real world. I tried to move her in my direction, but although she would say, "Of course, we'll do it your way" she would then possibly give me two examples - and then move on. I am however planning to try to be specific about my need for flexibility, and hope we can do mostly conversation. However after Sprachprofi's comments, I am inclined to go for perhaps just 6 hours a day. Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 13 June 2010 at 11:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Declan1991 Tetraglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6441 days ago 233 posts - 359 votes Speaks: English*, German, Irish, French | Message 6 of 6 15 June 2010 at 3:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would go for 6. Individual lessons are great, but extremely tiring and intensive, therefore I think you would start to lose out with another 4 on top of that. You would be better off, I think, to listen to some Russian music, read a book, have a conversation etc. than another 4 hours of classes.
And Sprachprofi's second last paragraph seems right on the mark! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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