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zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6495 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 1 of 16 30 December 2006 at 5:47pm \| IP Logged
	Ok after reading some entries (Andy E was quite useful) and futzing around with German (I have a private one-on-one and more material that I can cover in the next 12 months) I've decided to kickstart with FSI which seems the best suited for me at this time. So on the eve of the new year I am a real beginner, finished half of Vo1 1 Unit 1 1.1. My method will be aurally intensive (ipod city) and will more clearly explain in a future post my thoughts on desktop review, dialogue, drills, etc. Objective is to finish a Unit a week? Not sure if this is realistic or too easy. Let's start with that and adjust. Edit: a little more about tools I am using on Windows and Pocket PC - the LingvoSoft German Bundle - I like the dictionary and flashcards - the phrase book is not that useful. Have a software issue with the PC Flashcard builder so I enter my personal flashcard data directly into the Pocket PC. Good but slow. FSI - great and bland program - just what I need, no bells and whistles Talk to me DVDs (Auralog) - good software, I am impressed by the interface - but the learning games are slow for me (I don't need motivational fun stuff) On the side board, waiting for a couple of months from now are half a dozen movies (mostly German dubbed films) - can't wait to attack "Easy Rider" in Deutsch! Learning Books - Langenscheidt Deutsch in 30 Tagen (right!?) It is already falling apart. And the "German Grammar in a Nutshell" - a truly depressing book for a beginner - not to be opened again until after FSI 1 is completed. Finally, Vocabulaire de l'allemand moderne - a French-German vocab builder (doing some cross language building with my teacher who is a quadriglot) Bilingual reading books - Bertolt Brecht Kurzgeschichten and Deutsche heutige Kurzerzählungen - The latter used only for pronunciation reading with tutor. Understanding will follow.... I have liters of water and colored pens... Edited by zenmonkey on 31 December 2006 at 5:24am 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6495 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 2 of 16 03 January 2007 at 4:30pm \| IP Logged
	Just a quick post to motivate myself, am moving into unit II (and doing n-1 tape review in order to overlearn it). So far need to do 4-6 repetitions per tape. But a lot still seems to be parroting as working with my tutor shows. The basic basics.... I know I am only focusing on the easy stuff now and will bang my head against grammar (not my friend) real soon. Have also read through Farber's book quickly and will revisit the grammar section. Some excellent ideas but IMHO not worth more than the 3-4 hours to read and then revisit from time to time. So a recommended read but not an excuse not to study. I find myself yawning through some of the tape work, anyone see that too? 1 person has voted this message useful
Kitty Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 6501 days ago 43 posts - 45 votes Studies: Spanish, German*, English, French Studies: Latin	Message 3 of 16 05 January 2007 at 6:48am \| IP Logged
	Wenn du das hier lesen kannst, ist dein Deutsch schon ganz gut, nur weiter! Nicht aufgeben! Wir haben alle mal klein angefangen. hehe sry - tell me if and when you understand what is written above ;) I just wanted to say - you will do it, your plan sounds good to me, you have teacher and obviously motivation too I'm not sure if Berthold Brecht is the best idea, just 'cause it's not so easy but if it works for you, thats fine :) I would be happy if I would be that motivated in french ;) 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6495 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 4 of 16 06 January 2007 at 12:08pm \| IP Logged
	Thanks!! Hmm, got about 70% of the first sentence. The books are bilingual editions so cheating will occur but vacab building needs to go beyond. Looks like your French is already pretty good! Just plan your next vacations ;) 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6495 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 5 of 16 30 June 2007 at 4:51am \| IP Logged
	Reality is a .... Well, 6 months down the road, I have not been able to concentrate enough on this. All is not lost, from zero to something and we are moving up on the learning curve. I've changed my focus a little: FSI - still at it - makes me yawn but now in mod 3.x and moving back and forth Private classes - 6 hrs per week as of this month Talk to me DVD - half way thru but losing myself there, need to concentrate. The flashcard programs have gone to the side for now, focused on grammar basics, pronouncing and just thinking some basic phrases. Objective: Be ready for an intensive 1 week course by mid August Edited by zenmonkey on 10 July 2007 at 4:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6495 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 6 of 16 10 July 2007 at 6:09pm \| IP Logged
	Last days with the teacher, I feel a stronger progression with speaking out loud, but am now running into the dative et al.... I must say that Mark Twain's essay is great, humor that helps learn the language. Look him up. The mixture of methods works, I see improvements in all areas but it is somewhat disorganised to work on vocab, pronunciation and grammar all at once.... 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6495 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 7 of 16 18 October 2007 at 10:10am \| IP Logged
	Finishing now 2 weeks of intensive German classes (8 hours / day) and I must say that this is inefficient but effective. A good way to force oneself to spend the time. I think I now have an ear for this language which is the biggest advance. Now somewhere at A2 level and the biggest work will be vocabularly building. 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6495 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 8 of 16 30 October 2007 at 4:56pm \| IP Logged
	So, where am I now? Well, I can not truly hold a conversation but can express my thought on some subjects and get some basic ideas from the radio. Learning on tapes are now advanced somewhat as level one tapes bore me to tears. I wish I had acquired the Michel Thomas tapes earlier - I find them interesting and refreshing (even if the German accent of the two students is atrocious). I am listening to CD4 now, a good refresher and rounds out some things I missed at first. The quality of the FSI material leaves a lot to be desired - hiss, speeed issues, noise so I will not focus on that. while I take a break with MT. Course book with my F2F teacher is Themen 2 - which is just ok, the grammar section is good enough for me to make my own in the next periods.... Next steps? Vocab building and Grammar review - I really see my vocabulary as being an important limiting factor. Mornings will be with Langenscheidt - Basic German Vocabulary with the objective of 20 words a day / 5 days a week - 1000 words in 10 weeks or for the 1st of Jan. Still continuing with one on one courses - 4,5 hours a week And I need to plan the next SuperIntensive 2 week course - most likely in January. A lot of work, and I live here. So those of you that learn away from the a spoken-well - hat's off!!! So what is next? I am thinking of adding a new language to my studies soon (parhaps by December) and do not know where to go - I've challenged my daughters that they must choose one with a different written alphabet - they mentioned Greek and Arabic. Perhaps Russian? Edited by zenmonkey on 02 November 2007 at 4:50am 1 person has voted this message useful

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zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6495 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 1 of 16 30 December 2006 at 5:47pm \| IP Logged
	Ok after reading some entries (Andy E was quite useful) and futzing around with German (I have a private one-on-one and more material that I can cover in the next 12 months) I've decided to kickstart with FSI which seems the best suited for me at this time. So on the eve of the new year I am a real beginner, finished half of Vo1 1 Unit 1 1.1. My method will be aurally intensive (ipod city) and will more clearly explain in a future post my thoughts on desktop review, dialogue, drills, etc. Objective is to finish a Unit a week? Not sure if this is realistic or too easy. Let's start with that and adjust. Edit: a little more about tools I am using on Windows and Pocket PC - the LingvoSoft German Bundle - I like the dictionary and flashcards - the phrase book is not that useful. Have a software issue with the PC Flashcard builder so I enter my personal flashcard data directly into the Pocket PC. Good but slow. FSI - great and bland program - just what I need, no bells and whistles Talk to me DVDs (Auralog) - good software, I am impressed by the interface - but the learning games are slow for me (I don't need motivational fun stuff) On the side board, waiting for a couple of months from now are half a dozen movies (mostly German dubbed films) - can't wait to attack "Easy Rider" in Deutsch! Learning Books - Langenscheidt Deutsch in 30 Tagen (right!?) It is already falling apart. And the "German Grammar in a Nutshell" - a truly depressing book for a beginner - not to be opened again until after FSI 1 is completed. Finally, Vocabulaire de l'allemand moderne - a French-German vocab builder (doing some cross language building with my teacher who is a quadriglot) Bilingual reading books - Bertolt Brecht Kurzgeschichten and Deutsche heutige Kurzerzählungen - The latter used only for pronunciation reading with tutor. Understanding will follow.... I have liters of water and colored pens... Edited by zenmonkey on 31 December 2006 at 5:24am 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6495 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 2 of 16 03 January 2007 at 4:30pm \| IP Logged
	Just a quick post to motivate myself, am moving into unit II (and doing n-1 tape review in order to overlearn it). So far need to do 4-6 repetitions per tape. But a lot still seems to be parroting as working with my tutor shows. The basic basics.... I know I am only focusing on the easy stuff now and will bang my head against grammar (not my friend) real soon. Have also read through Farber's book quickly and will revisit the grammar section. Some excellent ideas but IMHO not worth more than the 3-4 hours to read and then revisit from time to time. So a recommended read but not an excuse not to study. I find myself yawning through some of the tape work, anyone see that too? 1 person has voted this message useful
Kitty Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 6501 days ago 43 posts - 45 votes Studies: Spanish, German*, English, French Studies: Latin	Message 3 of 16 05 January 2007 at 6:48am \| IP Logged
	Wenn du das hier lesen kannst, ist dein Deutsch schon ganz gut, nur weiter! Nicht aufgeben! Wir haben alle mal klein angefangen. hehe sry - tell me if and when you understand what is written above ;) I just wanted to say - you will do it, your plan sounds good to me, you have teacher and obviously motivation too I'm not sure if Berthold Brecht is the best idea, just 'cause it's not so easy but if it works for you, thats fine :) I would be happy if I would be that motivated in french ;) 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6495 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 4 of 16 06 January 2007 at 12:08pm \| IP Logged
	Thanks!! Hmm, got about 70% of the first sentence. The books are bilingual editions so cheating will occur but vacab building needs to go beyond. Looks like your French is already pretty good! Just plan your next vacations ;) 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6495 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 5 of 16 30 June 2007 at 4:51am \| IP Logged
	Reality is a .... Well, 6 months down the road, I have not been able to concentrate enough on this. All is not lost, from zero to something and we are moving up on the learning curve. I've changed my focus a little: FSI - still at it - makes me yawn but now in mod 3.x and moving back and forth Private classes - 6 hrs per week as of this month Talk to me DVD - half way thru but losing myself there, need to concentrate. The flashcard programs have gone to the side for now, focused on grammar basics, pronouncing and just thinking some basic phrases. Objective: Be ready for an intensive 1 week course by mid August Edited by zenmonkey on 10 July 2007 at 4:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6495 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 6 of 16 10 July 2007 at 6:09pm \| IP Logged
	Last days with the teacher, I feel a stronger progression with speaking out loud, but am now running into the dative et al.... I must say that Mark Twain's essay is great, humor that helps learn the language. Look him up. The mixture of methods works, I see improvements in all areas but it is somewhat disorganised to work on vocab, pronunciation and grammar all at once.... 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6495 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 7 of 16 18 October 2007 at 10:10am \| IP Logged
	Finishing now 2 weeks of intensive German classes (8 hours / day) and I must say that this is inefficient but effective. A good way to force oneself to spend the time. I think I now have an ear for this language which is the biggest advance. Now somewhere at A2 level and the biggest work will be vocabularly building. 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6495 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 8 of 16 30 October 2007 at 4:56pm \| IP Logged
	So, where am I now? Well, I can not truly hold a conversation but can express my thought on some subjects and get some basic ideas from the radio. Learning on tapes are now advanced somewhat as level one tapes bore me to tears. I wish I had acquired the Michel Thomas tapes earlier - I find them interesting and refreshing (even if the German accent of the two students is atrocious). I am listening to CD4 now, a good refresher and rounds out some things I missed at first. The quality of the FSI material leaves a lot to be desired - hiss, speeed issues, noise so I will not focus on that. while I take a break with MT. Course book with my F2F teacher is Themen 2 - which is just ok, the grammar section is good enough for me to make my own in the next periods.... Next steps? Vocab building and Grammar review - I really see my vocabulary as being an important limiting factor. Mornings will be with Langenscheidt - Basic German Vocabulary with the objective of 20 words a day / 5 days a week - 1000 words in 10 weeks or for the 1st of Jan. Still continuing with one on one courses - 4,5 hours a week And I need to plan the next SuperIntensive 2 week course - most likely in January. A lot of work, and I live here. So those of you that learn away from the a spoken-well - hat's off!!! So what is next? I am thinking of adding a new language to my studies soon (parhaps by December) and do not know where to go - I've challenged my daughters that they must choose one with a different written alphabet - they mentioned Greek and Arabic. Perhaps Russian? Edited by zenmonkey on 02 November 2007 at 4:50am 1 person has voted this message useful