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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| StuHughes Diglot Newbie Wales Joined 6594 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English*, Welsh Studies: Mandarin, Indonesian | Message 9 of 16 23 October 2008 at 3:50am | IP Logged |
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"However the Oral examination is the most daunting in both languages as it is hard to remember like 50 answers and then ways to ask things for roleplays."
Language use regardless of its context is not a matter of memorising phrases. If you find yourself unable to do more than this it simply means you are not at a level of advancement with the language that you can use it properly. How much self-study are you doing per week, and what does it entail? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Blazethemonkey Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5911 days ago 19 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 10 of 16 28 October 2008 at 5:48pm | IP Logged |
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Well you would need to learn phrases so that you can adapt and expand in the future and in conversation?
Not a lot at the moment. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jamesdean888 Diglot Newbie Philippines Joined 5879 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: Tagalog*, English Studies: German | Message 11 of 16 28 October 2008 at 9:13pm | IP Logged |
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I have Pimsleur German I,II,III CDs. I started listening to it yesterday afternoon.
I find it hard to appreciate since I do not have a soft/hard copy of the CD's transcription. I google for it and one link lead me to this site. I saw AML's post on Pimsleur German transcription but i cannot access it yet. Can somebody please clarify to me just what will it take for me to access AML's post. Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| norsklære Newbie United States myspace.com/shootfor Joined 5916 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Studies: German, Norwegian | Message 12 of 16 29 October 2008 at 5:14pm | IP Logged |
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I honestly think that learning Norwegian first will make it easier to learn Swedish or Icelandic.
I have been learning Norwegian for about 3-4 months now and I find that I actually can decipher things in Swedish/Danish/Icelandic with relative ease, than if it were the other way around. Its strange, but I have feeling that if I learned a different Scandinavian language first, deciphering the others wouldn't be as easy. But, learning German, should help you somewhat in learning swedish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Blazethemonkey Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5911 days ago 19 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 13 of 16 02 November 2008 at 1:46pm | IP Logged |
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Yeh i noticed that when I changed the language on my Ipod to Swedish and certain things i could work out like Blanda spar (missing the accent on the a) as maybe blind play = shuffle.
With Norwegian though, are you learning Bokmal or Nynorsk or are they just deviations? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| TheElvenLord Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6088 days ago 915 posts - 927 votes  1 sounds Speaks: Cornish, English* Studies: Spanish, French, German Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 14 of 16 02 November 2008 at 2:14pm | IP Logged |
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Hi Blazethemonkey
I am in a very similar position to you, I am doing my GCSEs now aswell. I am taking 6 language qualifications (3 GCSEs + 3 asset language)(luckily my school is a Language specialist college) all through self-study. If it wasn't for that last word - self-study - I would be barely scratching 1 or 2. The first thing is to NEVER EVER EVER EVER rely on school - it is rubbish. It cannot teach you languages as much as it can't teach baboons to sing and elephants to dance through rote, detention, more rote, detention, test, test, test, test, test, test, test, rote, test again. So, yes, use school as a source for explanations of things you don't understand, vocabulary and some grammar - but do not rely upon it. There is one difference between me and the rest of my peers. They have memorized phrases that they need, and will have to rely on their memory for these phrases in the oral test. For example: Je m'appelle TEL J'habite en Grande Bretange and they just memorized that. The problem is that if they are asked something outside of what they memorized, they are stumped I create sentences spontaneously. I use the patterns I have learnt to create any sentence I need. I have memorized PATTERNS not Phrases and sentences. I believe this is crucial. If I am asked something out of the blue, I can answer it. Its a hard concept to explain, but try to develop the skill (speaking, conversing, writing as much as possible) to create spontaneous sentences, and you will do fine in your oral. Now, onto the question - how are you going to get your GCSE's. First thing is that, as I have said, you need to self-study. Firstly, get Michel Thomas German/French, both Foundation and Advanced. Complete these courses, by the time you have finished, you will be able to create sentences well, and know more than a fair bit of grammar. And this is without memorization/Rote or anything else like that. Trust me, you will benefit HUGELY from this course. For example - I am sure you are familiar with National Curriculum levels. I was acheiving level 4/5 in my Spanish tests in school last year. I did Michel Thomas Foundation Spanish First test afterwards, I acheived Level 8 - because of the huge amount of grammar I could include and my very complex use of tenses, taught in the Michel Thomas course. After this, buy Assimil German/French with ease. This will cover anything that Michel Thomas left out, and by the end of it, I am sure you will have no problem speaking with proficiency. Many people on this forum, especially Prof. Arguelles (the resident Polyglottery expert lol), will reccommend Assimil. Throughout this, I would reccommend reading Die Zeit (http://www.zeit.de/index) and Le Monde (http://www.lemonde.fr/) (German and French newspapers online) as much as possible, recording any unknown vocabulary and entering into an SRS (Spaced repetition system) like Anki. There are many other newspapers, but these are the ones I know/use. Also, try to get hold of a book (preferably available in English and German/French) - The Little Prince/Le petit prince/Der kleine Prinz would be a good option to start with (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/1916/online.html) - and read and compare to the other language, and, in my opinion, the best thing to do is memorize it! There are many other approaches, but this is the one I find works, and hope it works for you to. And for what to do in other lessons? Get out some reading material (like a printout of an article, 1 page, hidden in your pocket or something similar) and read it. Or run through some dialogues from Assimil in your head. But do pay attention to what they are saying - I have now realised that a subject I have hated for years is required for my choson career path - you never know when you might need the knowledge. But when you have time, do something language related. Good luck in your GCSEs!!!!!! TEL Edited by TheElvenLord on 02 November 2008 at 2:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Blazethemonkey Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5911 days ago 19 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 15 of 16 05 November 2008 at 5:16pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the post. Dauntingly, I have my German Oral next week and my French in two. What patterns do you learn, like any examples just out of interest?
I find self teaching is hard because there are so many different resources and things although this seems like an excuse. One problem is the cost of all this. I know that pimsleur costs a fair amount and as my parents would probably have to pay for it, I do not expect them to spend a lot. I love languages but I have to revise for other subjects too taking away a lot of time I could use - plus I am trying to kick my lazy tendency I have slipped into. And I know what you mean about school being rubbish. German he decided to teach us grammar in year 11!!!! Our exam year so I had no desire to learn vocabulary. How do you learn apart from the software because surely vocabulary plays a big part? Also, what languages are you studying? And, what career path are you going to follow? Seems, I have a lot of questions as usual but now someone in a similar situation could help a lot. Edited by Blazethemonkey on 06 November 2008 at 4:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Blazethemonkey Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5911 days ago 19 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 16 of 16 14 November 2008 at 1:59pm | IP Logged |
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Had my German Oral yesterday - 36/50. Did terrible and knew the limits of my vocabulary when i was asked a question on what I thought about smoking... forgot to say about it being bad for your health.
French on tuesday. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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