FSI (Language Programs, Books & Tapes) Language Learning Forum

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Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes

TRxIPxLEx
Newbie
Great Britain
Joined 6128 days ago
11 posts - 11 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

Message 1 of 4

14 August 2008 at 11:56am | IP Logged

Hello all

Basically, from what I have read, FSI French and Spanish will take the learner to quite an advanced level. I presume that means the individual would then be able to go to a French/Spanish speaking country and get by *Comfortably*

Will all FSI courses take an individual to this level? If this is not the case, which FSI courses take you the furthest?

ThankYou
1 person has voted this message useful

Cage
Diglot
aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6626 days ago
382 posts - 393 votes

Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French, Portuguese

Message 2 of 4

14 August 2008 at 4:04pm | IP Logged

It is true that not all FSI courses were created equal. I have used Spanish and am using French. They are both quite good and will take you to a very advanced level where you can go to Mexico and probably France and be comfortable. I know this for a fact about Spanish and am pretty certain of this with French as I have not finished it yet but so far it is every bit as good as Spanish. They should be the bedrock of your studies but you should use other materials along with them. Learning Spanish Like Crazy before you take on FSI Spanish. Assimil French is an excellent course to go with FSI French. The practice makes perfect books on verb tenses, pronouns and prepositions, and grammar are excellent supplemental material along with 501/555 verbs with cd rom. Some of the other FSI languages that I have not used but researched that I believe would probably be pretty good are German, Korean, Greek, and Portuguese. No single course will be all encompassing not even FSI. Using 2 or 3 major leaguers along with books, newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, movies, the internet, and of course native speakers should take you to near native ability.
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RDH
Newbie
Great Britain
Joined 5943 days ago
5 posts - 5 votes
Speaks: English*

Message 3 of 4

21 August 2008 at 8:39am | IP Logged

This doesn't really relate to your question, so my apologies.

What are the different types of drills FSI utilise? Are they all necessary? How are they supposed to be carried out?

Kind regards
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jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6911 days ago
4250 posts - 5711 votes

Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
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Message 4 of 4

21 August 2008 at 4:37pm | IP Logged

RDH, Chung pretty much summed it up in an old thread:

Chung wrote:

Substitution means that you get a sentence but there's a word that's always underlined. The drill is to repeat almost the entire sentence on cue, but fill in the blank with the correct answer.

Variation is similar to substitution, but this time your answer is a sentence that is similar to the example. On cue you have to translate a complete sentence given the example and the keyword.

Transformation is a bit like a pattern drill. You get an example, and your answer is similar to the example but the difference is that it's either the opposite (e.g. negation) or in a different conjugation (example sentence is in present tense, answer is in conditional tense)

Drills work, but one might find them boring. There are other ways to learn grammar.

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