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FSI German Advice | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| kronos77 Groupie United States Joined 6745 days ago 78 posts - 81 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Dutch, Mandarin | Message 1 of 5 15 August 2006 at 11:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Can someone help me with the following questions about the FSI German
course? 1. Is the language and style out of date in any way? Also, I have heard of some official changes in German spelling but I don't know any specifics. Would the FSI course be too old to incorporate the changes? 2. About how long would you spend on a single unit? If they are longer than the FSI Spanish units, as I think they are, I would guess 10-12 hours per unit? Any ideas? 3. Since the course was designed for use with an instructor, are there any drills you found to be not worth the effort for self study? 4. Do you memorize the dialogues to the point where you can run through them in your sleep? How long does that usually take? Thanks... and thanks to whoever digitized the course and put it on the web. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7110 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 2 of 5 15 August 2006 at 11:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm glad you enjoy the German materials.
I know there are some topics here that go into just how much you should learn before moving on to the next unit. Although I personally can't memorise things to the extent that I could repeat the dialogue or drill without the accompanying audio, I aim for making all the responses in the time provided with almost no effort. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Farley Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7098 days ago 681 posts - 739 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanB1, French Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 5 29 August 2006 at 9:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Steve,
Sorry for the delayed response but my current approach goes something like this: divide and conquer. Dialogs: Yes they are a bit dated and overly formal, but I think the core structure in the dialogs is worth mastering. Just for grins there is a dialog for interviewing defectors from the DDR, OK that one really is dated but it helps to keep the course interesting. I’m taking tape 1.1 (from gdfellow’s site) and cutting out the dialog for listening in a separate MP3 file and leaving the rest for the trash bin as an example of bad audio. I take the 3-5 minute dialog file left and play it through out the day similar to an Assimil lesson. I then transcribe the dialogs to a small hand held notebook, on left side I have German, and on the right side an over literal translation. Then similar to the active wave in Assimil, I review and then back translate the dialogs. Really I’m “back cueing” the dialog from the “bad translation”. I do this until it gets easy/easier. Pronunciation Drills: I’m skipping these out right. Please keep in mind I’m not a beginner. Substitution/Conversation Drills: I think these are the heart of the course. Again I split the tapes into 8-12 minute MP3 files and drill them throughout the day. I go for an “it sounds right” response, no real thinking just responding. Again I do this until it gets easy/easier. Vocabulary/Variation drills: I’m eyeing this briefly. I think they are effective, but in the interest of time I’m skipping these. I don’t think there is much point (for skill or motivation) to master these drills and not be able to understand a DVD or the news. In place of these drill I’m using Assimil. I think it does the same thing more effectively and with less pain. I don’t really have a schedule, just when I’m tried of FSI and go for Assimil and vise versa. So far I’m on lesson 3 of FSI and week 4 of Assimil. Translation/Situation Drills: I’m covering these in detail, in fact I using these in place of using an active wave of Assimil. I think the sentences in the translation drills are better candidates for back translating. Plus the situation drills are all practical. At no point do I try to over learn the material. That is just for my motivation. My studies go from 2-20 minutes around the day covering the dialogs, substitution drills or Assimil lessons. I then use the longer hours of my free time watching a DVD in German or listening to audio lessons such as “Practice and Improve” or “Schau ins Land”. I hope this helps. John Also, thanks again to Gdfellows and Sir Nigel for all the work on German FSI. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6671 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 4 of 5 04 September 2006 at 12:01pm | IP Logged | ||
To my mind, the language in the dialogues are in no way out of date. It's true that it's formal, but that's not necessarily a drawback. Personally, I prefer listening to a foreigner trying to speak in a formal way to listening to one who uses slang words. It's more charming (and usage of slang can seem terribly misplaced if you don't speak well enough). Bye, Marc 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sapedro Triglot Senior Member Portugal descredito.blogspot. Joined 7124 days ago 216 posts - 219 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, French Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Greek | Message 5 of 5 03 December 2008 at 4:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Well I was told by a German guy the audio files speakers are definitely not German, probably American.
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