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Anyone familiar with Learn in Your Car? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| arkady Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States rightconditi Joined 5182 days ago 54 posts - 61 votes  Speaks: English*, Russian* Studies: German | Message 1 of 5 12 February 2010 at 3:41pm | IP Logged |
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Came across this audio package from amazon, it appears to be a strict audio program only and no matching book. Wonder if anyone is familiar with it.
German 3-Level Set: The Complete Language Course (Learn in Your Car) [Audiobook] (Audio CD) http://www.amazon.com/German-3-Level-Set-Complete-Language/d p/1591252091 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kmart Senior Member Australia Joined 5906 days ago 194 posts - 400 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 2 of 5 14 February 2010 at 1:23am | IP Logged |
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I got Learn in Your Car Italian" from Audible in some special deal they had going some years ago - you download the handbook as a PDF as well as the audio.
Here's how it works, in their own words "For each expression, you will hear the English version followed by a pause, then the Italian translation followed by a pause, Then the Italian translation a second time followed by a third pause...No more than one new word is introduced at a time". Starts off with simple words - I, you, he, she, this, good morning, good evening, etc, then creates simple phrases and gradually more complicated. But it's big-time boring. Many of the lessons are vocab lists of similar concepts, eg transportation, money, directions. I've always found this an ineffective and irritating way to learn vocab, but maybe it works well for others. But that's all it is. Lists and lists and lists. No "conversation" like you get in Pimsleur, no story-line to engage interest as in Assimil and Linguaphone allTalk. It may be good for reviewing, but I can't imagine many people having the dedication to learn the language from scratch with this. Having said that, it mostly gets good reviews on Amazon (probably from people taking medication for their Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - just joking). But read the 2-star review here http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Your-German-Level-Audio/product- reviews/1560151714/ref=cm_cr_dp_hist_2?ie=UTF8&showViewpoint s=0&filterBy=addTwoStar 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| TerryW Senior Member United States Joined 6139 days ago 370 posts - 783 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 5 14 February 2010 at 8:58am | IP Logged |
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I give some info about Learn In Your Car French 3-Level set, including the types of phrases they use, in this thread: Learn-In-Your-Car review 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5793 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 4 of 5 14 February 2010 at 11:24am | IP Logged |
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List courses are always a bad idea, and the 5-star crowd on Amazon have fallen into their trap...
When you are presented with a fixed, unchanging list, the human brain has a tendency to switch into "script" mode, and memorise the whole sequence. If the list is (using French as an example) "raspberry - framboise. strawberry - fraise. blackcurrant - cassis" then you learn to say "framboise... fraise... cassis". You get so used to this order that you can say it without thinking. The voice says "raspberry" and you think "framboise... fraise... cassis". So you're already thinking "fraise" before he says "strawberry". In fact, you don't even hear him say "strawberry" because you don't need to hear it. It offers no new information, so your brain ignores it. But it's only when you stop and think about it rationally that you realise how bad this is. In your car, all you know is that you're getting the answer right -- you don't actually know whether you're really learning anything or not. Notice how none of the 5-star reviews mention that the reviewer actually went to Germany and tried to speak? If you test yourself against what you learnt with, it's easy to get full marks. That said, there's no reason it wouldn't be helpful as additional material, if you can get it at a discounted price.... 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| TheBiscuit Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5705 days ago 532 posts - 619 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian Studies: German, Croatian | Message 5 of 5 15 February 2010 at 5:36am | IP Logged |
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Yes, it's not great for retention. I mean, I do learn by listening but with this, nothing stuck for me. It made me realise how valuable context is when listening. You can recreate this product by recording yourself reading a list of vocabulary with translations. I guess you could use it to work on your pronunciation but that's about it.
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