|
 |
Living Language Ultimate | ||
Tags: Living Language | Language Program | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| MichaelM204351 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5443 days ago 151 posts - 173 votes  Speaks: English*, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish | Message 1 of 8 29 December 2009 at 8:07am | IP Logged | ||
|
I have obtained the Living Language: Ultimate programs in Spanish, Russian, and Arabic. I would love to use them, but I'm not exactly sure how. What is the best way to use this particular method. I am aware of the fact that I will need many more materials, but how should I use this material. I would greatly appreciate any advice.
Thanks 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hobbitofny Senior Member United States Joined 6232 days ago 280 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 8 01 January 2010 at 9:49pm | IP Logged | ||
|
The weak link in the Russian course is the start of the first lesson. I do not like the beginning if you do not know the Russian alphabet. If you do not know the alphabet. I recommend taking a few days working to learn the letters.
here is how I use the Russian course. I read through the English text of the chapter. Next listen to the dialogue in Russia and read the English. I would do this three or four times. I would then try to read the Russian as I listen. It will take a many times through to be able to do this. For me this takes a few days of work. (I find my mouth does not always form Russian words and sentences easy. So I can spend much time trying to say the words and not trip over myself.) Each day, I first hear it in Russian and read the English one time. After that listen to the Russian and try to speak the Russian. Once I can speak the dialogue in Russian and can keep up with the audio, I am now ready to do the chapter. I also have a good idea of the meaning because I have read the English translation a number of times. At this point I make flash cards of the words, and work on the material in the chapter. I listen to the other audio material. I also work at writing the words in the text and dialogue. Once I master the chapter I move on. At least once a week I review the earlier dialogue in Russian. Should I forget something, I look it up. The English translations for the dialogues are not always literal. So you need to understand the dialogues are presenting equal expressions in both languages. Some call it a weakness, but a word for word translation can be misleading and not helpful. Earlier, I learned to read the alphabet using the Pimsleur Russian I reading lessons. So I did not have the same learning issues at the start of chapter one, that others might have. There are some good free materials on the web to learn the letters. If you need more help than this course provides, i can direct you to some other resources. I am sure other people use this course differently, but that is how i have been using it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| MichaelM204351 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5443 days ago 151 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish | Message 3 of 8 01 January 2010 at 10:22pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Awesome! Thanks!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TerryW Senior Member United States Joined 6356 days ago 370 posts - 783 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 8 02 January 2010 at 4:24am | IP Logged | ||
Could you elaborate? I find it a weakness when a course *doesn't* provide a word-for-word translation. Especially for languages where word order is very different then English. Then you're just rote memorizing phrases without knowing what you are really saying, not a great way to learn. I'm talking about word-for-word translations in addition to the English equivalent. If they're not helpful for some, they can be ignored, but if they're missing, I find it frustrating. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 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 5 of 8 02 January 2010 at 4:40am | IP Logged | ||
|
I look for a word for word translation in any language course I take. I think it is essential when you are beginning a language.
Language For Travelers, Lewis Robbins reinforced learning method, used both colloquial and literal translations for every sentence. Assimil generally gives a literal translation, especially at the beginning of a course. That way, you are not simply parrotting sounds, you are really learning the language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hobbitofny Senior Member United States Joined 6232 days ago 280 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 6 of 8 02 January 2010 at 10:46am | IP Logged | ||
|
If you are learning the vocabulary for the lesson and working through the chapter, you will know what is not word for word in the dialogue. However it does not point it out. The dialogue gives the way you say it in Russian and the way you say it in English. I would not call it parrotting. I have never completed a Chapter and not understood the differences in expressions.
Parrotting for me is taking a phrase book and repeating whatever is given in the other language. If you only learn the dialogues in the course and do nothing more, yes, you are parrotting. However only learning the dialogues is skipping most course content. If one wants to learn only dialogues, Teach Yourself series offers a collection of only dialogues. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TerryW Senior Member United States Joined 6356 days ago 370 posts - 783 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 8 02 January 2010 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | ||
Not all courses have the vocabulary broken down anywhere, which makes not having the word-for-word translations a big deal. Case-in-point: I think "Behind the Wheel Mandarin" would be *awful* for beginners. I bet 90% of them don't get past the very first lesson. I didn't. I'm putting it away until I get somewhat more immersed in the language, since the CDs might be pretty good as a phrase review. The first CD lesson (with transcript in the book) has "What's your name . . . Ni jiao shenme" (I'm omitting the tone marks here). A beginner would probably assume a 1-to-1 correlation to the 3 words, and would have no way of knowing it's literally "You named what." Knowing that would help *immensely* to learn vocabulary and sentence structure. Plus, the included book does have lessons and vocabulary, but they don't correlate well at all to the CDs. In fact, the first phrase in there is "What's your name . . . Ni jiao shenme mingzi." So the beginner now gets confused as to what that extra "mingzi" means compared to the CD phrase without it. There's no explanation or glossary for it. For beginners, the strange sounding syllables and tones are scary enough to tackle without the confusion of not knowing what you're really saying. I do see your point, but I think, at least for beginning material, that added word-for-word translations can only help people to learn, and that it can be very frustrating without it. Some people don't like Assimil's word-for-word, but I'm glad they're there. Edited by TerryW on 02 January 2010 at 9:11pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| delta910 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5874 days ago 267 posts - 313 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, German | Message 8 of 8 06 January 2010 at 3:28am | IP Logged | ||
|
I basically use these courses the same way as I would with Assimil. I go through them in a passive wave, maybe two times with these Ultimate courses, and then do an Active wave which consists of reciting the text and transcribing it(you basically copy the text out a few times). I also speak along with the native voice a few times. I do the "active" wave about two to three times. I uses these courses along with LingQ. I import them into LingQ so I can learn words I don't know easier and get credit for "known words".
1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
