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Suggested methods for studying German | ||
Tags: Language Program | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery |  | |
| APerfectCircle7 Newbie United States Joined 5827 days ago 23 posts - 27 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 9 of 14 21 February 2009 at 7:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have seen all of your videos on YouTube and have tried many different methods for learning a language over a 2 year time period and have discarded all but one, Deutsche Welle. I have an idea of what to use but all courses seem to stop at the end of the beginner's stage. Most or all courses seem to be only phrasebooks disguised as complete self-learners. Old forms of these courses also either have no audio or are just long, drawn out grammar books.
I find all courses recommended here and by you, Professor, to be severely lacking in either exercises, competent audio or proper explanations above phrase book material. So I simply ask are there any courses that do not have these types of pitfalls or do I just need to uses many different courses at once to compensate? I know that you have recommended using 4-5 different methods at once but the only problem is time. I am a very serious language learner only I am having trouble finding the materials to use and the time frame to use them in. Edited by APerfectCircle7 on 21 February 2009 at 7:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stephen Groupie Australia Joined 6192 days ago 61 posts - 63 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Latin, Ancient Greek | Message 10 of 14 21 February 2009 at 10:06pm | IP Logged | ||
HI APC7 What Deutsche Welle course did you find helpful? I believe their are several DW courses are there not? Cheers Steve 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| APerfectCircle7 Newbie United States Joined 5827 days ago 23 posts - 27 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 11 of 14 22 February 2009 at 1:19am | IP Logged | ||
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The Deutsch Interaktiv course.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,,9572,00.html 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stephen Groupie Australia Joined 6192 days ago 61 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin, Ancient Greek | Message 12 of 14 22 February 2009 at 3:23am | IP Logged | ||
Recht schönen Dank! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7037 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 13 of 14 22 February 2009 at 8:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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“A perfect circle 7,” you letter raises several points.
The reason why most courses stop at the end of the beginner’s stage is twofold. In the first place, sadly, most learners never even get that far, and in the second place, those who do get to some sort of intermediate stage need to begin relying more and more upon authentic materials instead of course books. It is true that most contemporary methods are only phrasebooks disguised as complete self-teachers, but is wrong to say that they are all this way, and it is even more incorrect to claim that I advocate using such manuals. German is one of the most studied languages on the planet, and as such there are no end of methods available for its study, both in and out of print. You just need to look more thoroughly, ideally in a language resource center that would have a large selection of different kinds of materials. Not knowing how your mind processes information, what your past language learning experience is, or what your goals for German are, I cannot make any specific recommendations for you. However: If you want a slew of comprehensive written exercises, look at Hilke Dreyer und Richard Schmitt Lehr- und Übungsbuch der deutschen Grammatik. If you like pattern drill style exercises, all recorded on scores of hours, track down the 3rd and 4th volume of the older FSI courses (that most commonly offered by Barron’s as “complete” is the 1st volume, and the one they offer as “advanced” is only the 2nd volume). Finally, if you want a course that gets you as swiftly as possible into cultured discussions about Schopenhauer, Wagner, Goethe, the influence of medieval architecture upon Romantic thought, etc., have a look at the Cortina course with its 6-odd hours of recording. In terms of time, your average English speaker will need several thousand hours of good effective study to reach a solid level in German. When I advocate using 4 or 5 different methods, I am most certainly not suggesting investing extra time in the learning process, but rather only distributing your time over a variety of approaches and methods, which process in itself may actually reduce the amount of total time required as compared to working with only one method through constant revision. Alexander Arguelles 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| APerfectCircle7 Newbie United States Joined 5827 days ago 23 posts - 27 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 14 of 14 27 February 2009 at 3:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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I greatly appreciate your response, Professor. I apologize if I sounded critical or hostile.
Now, moving onto something more productive, what do you mean by a language resource center? You mean something like audioforum.com, or are there actually centers devoted to selling products for language learning? If so, where can I find some? Edited by APerfectCircle7 on 27 February 2009 at 3:10pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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