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How long to use textbooks? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5459 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 1 of 8 07 June 2009 at 7:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
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During my studies, I've been wondering on how long to rely on the usage of textbooks. What I mean is once I'm past the intermediate stage, should I rely mainly on native material (TV, books, etc.) or continue using textbooks through the advanced levels (along with watching foreign TV, reading books, etc.) If it helps, I'm learning Korean and Japanese.
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| dmg Diglot Senior Member Canada dgryski.blogspot.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6821 days ago 555 posts - 605 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Dutch, Esperanto | Message 2 of 8 07 June 2009 at 8:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think the general consensus is that you should try to move to native materials when it's comfortable for you. Many people encourage moving to _interesting_ native materials as soon as possible. Your interest in the subject combined with your desire to learn the language will make working through the native materials less painful.
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| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5821 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 3 of 8 07 June 2009 at 8:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I reckon you should move onto native materials as soon as you can, but as long as there is a significant amount of language that you don't know, you should still be looking in grammar books or textbooks from time to time.
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| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5792 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 4 of 8 07 June 2009 at 9:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm still in the upper beginner phase of Japanese learning but I have made a point of getting exposure to Japanese audio pretty much from the beginning and I think it really has helped - although I don't use it as the main focus of my studies, which is still very much textbook oriented. There seems to be quite a difference between the language of textbooks and the language of native materials so you might as well start to get used to it from the beginning.
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| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5459 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 5 of 8 07 June 2009 at 9:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I should have clarified that in my first post. I have been exposing myself quite frequently to media in my target languages (I've been watching anime subbed for years now and I've been watching a lot of Korean dramas lately. I've also been listening to music in both languages well before I started studying them both.) I'm just wondering at what stage (beginner, intermedia, etc) I should do something like AJATT (all media exposure, no books.)
I'm mainly asking this because for Korean, the Intergrated Korean series has 10 total books plus the 10 workbooks. Would my money be better spent on native materials (books/manhwa in Korean, dramas, etc.) or continuing down the line in the textbooks past the intermediate stage? For Japanese, I haven't seen any textbooks past the intermediate stage, so I was going to rely on Tae Kim's guide for grammar while learning Kanji. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5792 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 6 of 8 07 June 2009 at 10:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I find it really helpful again to watch familiar anime without subs - I know enough about the story and the characters to keep me engaged even when I don't understand much of the dialogue and at the same time I sometimes surprise myself at what I can understand.
Continue using the textbooks for as long as you find them useful. If the AJATT approach appeals to you there's no reason not to give it a go now. If it works for you that's great, if it doesn't, try something else. The AJATT website outlines an alternative approach to using textbooks here - although I must stress this doesn't really work for me. What level would you place yourself at right now? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5821 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 7 of 8 07 June 2009 at 11:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think that's a difficult comparison. If you've only got enough money for one textbook at each level, you don't have enough money to buy varied native materials. But on the other hand, if you've got enough money to buy varied native materials, it would be madness to spend it all on textbooks, because you only need one or two!
To a certain extent, textbooks aren't needed beyond the intermediate stage. By that point you should be able to pick what you don't know and what you want to know and pluck what you need out of a grammar book as you go -- so don't think of the lack of advanced textbooks as a handicap! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5459 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 8 of 8 08 June 2009 at 2:28am | IP Logged | |||||
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g-bod: I'm at the beginner stage with each. I just recently started seriously studying both of them, but I've been listening to both of them for a long time now (and Korean is a lost L1 for me.)
I have the money, but I want to spend it wisely since I'm a college student. You guys answered my question, so I won't spend any more money on textbooks unless I find myself in a rut somewhere down the road. And yeah, I was planning on watching anime and K dramas that I've already seen without subs pretty soon. Thanks guys. Edited by The Real CZ on 08 June 2009 at 2:30am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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