goosefrabbas Triglot Pro Member United States Joined 6367 days ago 393 posts - 475 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German, Italian Personal Language Map
| Message 9 of 16 12 February 2010 at 5:15am | IP Logged |
I've used Hugo a few times. Their Russian course is almost a copy of the New Penguin Russian Course. It's not as substantive, but it has audio, whereas Penguin's course does not. Their Advanced French course seems to be pretty good, but I can't say for sure because I haven't gone through much of it yet.
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fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7145 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto
| Message 10 of 16 12 February 2010 at 7:35am | IP Logged |
I bought a copy of the book for Hugo German at an op shop last week for 50 cents. I borrowed the audio from the library.
It appears to be OK but, as you say, not really interesting. I was intrigued by some of the explanations for pronunciation which I hadn't come across elsewhere, mainly the glottal stop. That is something I had copied without thinking about it.
I still like the Assimil German (Without Toil) which I used to learn and also the Lewis Robbins course. I don't have much in the way of German courses. I went straight from Assimil to reading and writing reports for my company in Germany and translating the technical English text. I did buy a couple of grammar books and discussed grammar with Germans when I could. I think I felt that was enough.
Still, I think you will find the Hugo course to be helpful.
I wish you well with it.
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zerothinking Senior Member Australia Joined 6371 days ago 528 posts - 772 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 11 of 16 12 February 2010 at 10:20am | IP Logged |
I used the French one back in 2007 when I was learning French. You can go through the
whole thing in about a month if you want. It's a very good general over view of French
grammar and usage. After I went through a grammar book from cover to cover which I highly
recommend. Read mostly the example sentences not worrying so much if you don't get why or
understand the explanations. The point it to be aware of all the language's grammatical
structures.
Edited by zerothinking on 12 February 2010 at 10:21am
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ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6315 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French
| Message 12 of 16 12 February 2010 at 10:32am | IP Logged |
I have the Hugo course for Russian, but I bought it mainly for review. I wouldn't personally use it as my main resource. I think courses like Assimil or Linguaphone would far better serve in terms of getting a thorough grounding, though Hugo do provide good bird's-eye overviews of the grammar. Is Hugo your only resource for German?
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Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6717 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German
| Message 13 of 16 12 February 2010 at 12:03pm | IP Logged |
ChristopherB wrote:
Is Hugo your only resource for German? |
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As I only really started studying German this week, it was my only resource... until I went shopping today. I bought the "Collins Easy Learning German Grammar" book and ordered Teach Yourself German (I've had this book before - it's just lost in storage somewhere - so it was easier to buy it again).
I've also downloaded FSI and I bought Michel Thomas a long time ago.
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ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6315 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French
| Message 14 of 16 14 February 2010 at 12:19pm | IP Logged |
I think using Hugo and Teach Yourself will give a good grounding in the language. I haven't personally used the Assimil course, but I've heard only good things about it, so if you happen to come across a copy of it, you would be well served I think.
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tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5452 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 15 of 16 14 February 2010 at 12:26pm | IP Logged |
ChristopherB wrote:
I haven't personally used the Assimil course, but I've heard only good things about it, so if
you happen to come across a copy of it, you would be well served I think. |
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I'm currently using both the old Assimil German without Toil and the newer Assimil German with Ease, and I think
both are brilliant.
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Tafa Diglot Newbie South Africa Joined 5445 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: Afrikaans*, English Studies: Xhosa, Lingala, French, Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese
| Message 16 of 16 15 February 2010 at 11:25pm | IP Logged |
I've used the Hugo German in 3 months course a few years ago as a complete beginner, and must say that I can highly recommend it. I thought they gave a very good explanation of the grammar (German is know for its challenging grammar), and I found the dialogues in the book very entertaining. I'm now also going to be using Hugo in 3 months for French and Mandarin.
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