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Language plan - it’s not just about Pimsleur | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| global_gizzy Senior Member United States maxcollege.blogspot. Joined 5706 days ago 275 posts - 310 votes  Studies: Spanish | Message 41 of 44 13 March 2011 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
Lol, guess it would help to mention that minor detail,huh? I already converse a few times a week. I talk with educated native speakers, fluent American speakers (their professors/teachers at my school) and with my own peer group, natives from across South America through student clubs for International students. This semester my conversation has been sparse because the native and fluent Spanish tutors are all teaching a big load and the lab is staffed by students who know less Spanish than me...But, my plan is to just keep on keeping on... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jpazzz Groupie United States Joined 5048 days ago 54 posts - 76 votes Studies: Russian | Message 42 of 44 14 March 2011 at 5:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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This has been an interesting and informative thread. One could wish that more people had understood the intent of the thread but what the heck...
The thread started me thinking about my own current, beginning study of Russian and where that study might be going. At present, my plan goes as follows. Michel Thomas system Beginners, Advanced, and Vocabulary Builder (as I've posted elsewhere on this forum, I very much like Natasha Bershadski's manner and technique). Learning to read and write Cyrillic script using the first chapters of Express Track to Russian. The rest of this course is too topic oriented for my taste. Linguaphone from the 80s. I've long liked the (sadly no longer offered) Berlitz Comprehensive series of courses, but Berlitz never did Russian in that format. Linguagphone is nearly identical with its combination of narrative accompanied by very complete grammatical explanations. By the way, the Hugo Russian in Three Months also follows this format and looks quite good. I've read negative criticisms (the word "criticism" -- at least in the field of literature where I made my living for forty years -- means "analysis" and can be positive, negative, or neutral) of the Hugo courses on this forum, but, being ignorant of them, can't comment. But I suspect that the quality of the Hugo courses varies greatly depending on who wrote/constructed them. The Hugo Russian course was written by the very highly regarded Nicholas Brown who also wrote the heralded Penguin Russian course book. If I can find the tapes at a reasonable price (doubtful) I'll use the Spoken Language Series, Spoken Russian, Books One & Two. I'm also planning to try the Language Bridge text/tape course. Language Bridge is an interesting approach which is similar to the simultaneous read/speak approach used by others on this forum. Learn in Your Car complete set (which I was able to buy very cheaply) may or may not be useful in vocabulary acquisition. I haven't looked at it yet, so don't know much about it. I have a small collection of Russian movies which serve as a sort of immersion time for me. My reason for trying to learn Russian is the same as my other language attempts...self satisfaction. I have no plans to travel to any Russian speaking countries. I just enjoy the challenge of language learning even though I don't do it particularly well. Now I'm going to do what so many other seem to do, i.e., get on a very tiny hobby horse. I don't find courses available only on tape to be a problem. In fact, I convert CD and Mp3 materials to cassette. I find that late model Sony Walkman players will play for over ten hours on a single AA battery, and I like the fact that I can stop and back up just a sentence or two if I wish to. And finally, how I wish I were twenty-two again, just finished with undergrad work and enrolled in the Goethe Insitut in Grafing/Obb. I have no idea how the Goethe Instituts teach today, but in the mid 60s they really did a fine job of immersion instruction. If memory serves (and it may not), a student with a bit of intelligence and work could get from scratch to German University level German in six months or so. I decided, however, to return to the U.S. and do a doctorate here. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| boisjolie Newbie United States Joined 5296 days ago 26 posts - 40 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 43 of 44 30 March 2011 at 6:11am | IP Logged | |||||
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Learning Japanese. Just started a couple weeks ago, but here's my action plan. Phase one is done more or less simultaneously:
1) Pimsleur 2) Assimil 3) Genki: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese I 4) Listening to live-stream Japanese radio/podcasts constantly. 5) Heisig's Remembering the Kanji 1 6) Rosetta Stone as an aside. In about a year, I intend to kick up my studies with a study abroad program in Tokyo. I may also stay with a friend's family in Nagoya, for a total of 6-7 months in Japan. While there, of course, I will continue to listen, read, write, and speak wherever I can. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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