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Colloquial | ||
Tags: Colloquial (program) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5151 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 17 of 21 04 August 2010 at 11:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
I felt this way sometimes with TY and Colloquial, so I took the following approach to get around this problem. I always go through the grammar points and examples first, before answering any questions. It has been my experience that this kind of book typically re-generates the same vocabulary words throughout the whole chapter, within its examples, etc. I personally use flashcards to study vocabulary, although I know others use different methods. Therefore, when going through the examples, I also write the vocabulary words (and the useful sentences) onto flashcards. When I am finished with doing this for the chapter, I go back and look at the dialogue, and also work through the questions. This process helps me efortlessly memorize a good portion of the words, and then I dedicate time later to learn the words further via the flashcards I made. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| flydream777 Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6290 days ago 77 posts - 102 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: German, Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Greek, Hungarian, Armenian, Irish, Italian | Message 18 of 21 05 August 2010 at 3:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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I would not start out as a beginner with a Colloquial course, although I realize that, for some languages, the learner does not have much of a choice. That being said, I use Colloquial as a followup and review for several languages.
I love the Colloquial books for two main reasons: 1) The audio is great, namely for the reason that it seems to be spoken at a native pace, with natural intonation and pronunciation. It is in fact "colloquial," which to me means the language as heard on the street (more or less). The Colloquial Irish course, which teaches Irish from Cois Fharraige in Conamara, was an invaluable resource because of the focus on a colloquial dialect instead of some watered down "standard" language. The drawback is that it does contain a lot of English, which I edit out. Towards the end of the book, there are whole paragraphs which are read - which is highly desired I think. 2) Grammar explanations/reference. I like the Colloquial series as a grammar summary/review, mainly after I get through an Assimil course. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Przemek Hexaglot Senior Member Poland multigato.blogspot.c Joined 6274 days ago 107 posts - 174 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, SpanishC2, Italian, Portuguese, French Studies: Turkish, Hindi, Arabic (Written) | Message 19 of 21 11 August 2010 at 12:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I just finished Colloquial Hindi. I also have other books, e.g. Teach Yourself Hindi. As others I can only say - combine several sources. As to Hindi books: Colloquial has fewer dialogs, boring ones, little grammar - but some things are explained better than in TY. Apart from that I hate the scheme of the dialogs in Colloquial. They are written in devanagari and right after the sentence there is its transliteration. If you want to learn to read devanagari it's not good, because you unconsciously tend to look at the transliterated text. In TY you have transliteration after the text, but only in first lessons, then the authors decided it is not needed any longer, and they were right. The dialogs in TY are more intersting, they tell the same story throughout the book, they include more words you will need to communicate effectively. TY has more detailed explanations about verbs and tenses. If I could use only one book, I would pick TY.
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| Danac Diglot Senior Member Denmark Joined 5147 days ago 162 posts - 257 votes Speaks: Danish*, English Studies: German, Serbo-Croatian, French, Russian, Esperanto | Message 20 of 21 11 August 2010 at 2:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've only been through one lesson in Colloquial Hungarian, but I'm using TY and Assimil
at the same time, so I can't help comparing them to each other. As far as I can see, Colloquial is the most ambitious one of the three. It has the most vocabulary and the most grammar details right from the start. TY is fine as well, and it adds some different elements to the mix. It doesn't have as much grammar as Colloquial, so it goes down easier. Assimil might be the most approachable of the three, since the lessons are quite short and they keep the grammar stuff down to a minimum at first. I'm also excited to see how it goes on, since it's my first try with Assimil. I think I read something about Colloquial (and TY for that matter) being of different quality, so it might differ. The Hungarian seems fine to me, though. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6955 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 21 of 21 11 August 2010 at 6:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I generally find Colloquial's method to be satisfactory for my purposes when beginning the study of a foreign language. However, the quality of a course from "Colloquial..." varies from one language to the next because of the different authors involved even though they adhere to the basic chapter-structure of dialogues followed by grammatical notes and then followed by a few exercises.
My biggest complaint about Colloquial's method is that it often skimps on exercises at the expense of the other sections in the chapters when compared to the competing offering from "Teach Yourself...". Courses from "Colloquial..." also make up the biggest portion of the worst language courses that I've encountered. I've been disappointed by "Colloquial Croatian"/Colloquial Croatian and Serbian"/"Colloquial Serbian", "Colloquial Estonian", "Colloquial Finnish", "Colloquial Romanian" and "Colloquial Slovene". With the exception of "Colloquial Slovene", the appropriate counterpart from "Teach Yourself..." provides a much better introduction to the language. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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