buhrahyun Newbie United States Joined 5150 days ago 24 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 1 of 13 29 March 2010 at 4:04am | IP Logged |
Hello, I'm new to this forum and am looking forward to digging into its treasures. I'm on lesson 25 of Pimsleur Spanish 2 right now. I realize that Pimsleur alone will not get me near fluency, so I intend to use FSI basic Spanish afterwards.
I'm wondering though, if it worth the extra time to finish Pimsleur or should I just start off with FSI right now?
I realize I could do both, but I'd prefer to do one or the other right now.
Thanks in advance.
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robsolete Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5181 days ago 191 posts - 428 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin
| Message 2 of 13 29 March 2010 at 5:27am | IP Logged |
Will it cost you any money to do so?
If not, may as well use everything available to you. Why not make FSI your basis of study and then just do the remaining Pimsleur lessons in your car or while cleaning your bedroom? Just don't prioritize them anymore, but there's no harm in extra practice.
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buhrahyun Newbie United States Joined 5150 days ago 24 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 3 of 13 29 March 2010 at 4:36pm | IP Logged |
Well, you make a good point that there is no cost to adding pimsleur while doing other tasks. I borrow the CD's from my local library.
Thanks.
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Ajijic10 Diglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 6711 days ago 161 posts - 210 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish
| Message 4 of 13 29 March 2010 at 6:13pm | IP Logged |
buhrahyun wrote:
I realize that Pimsleur alone will not get me near fluency, so I intend to use FSI basic Spanish afterwards.
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You won't be "near fluency" after FSI either. Language courses are just little introductions to a language.
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datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5381 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French
| Message 5 of 13 29 March 2010 at 6:20pm | IP Logged |
Ajijic10 wrote:
buhrahyun wrote:
I realize that Pimsleur alone will not get me near fluency, so I intend to use FSI basic Spanish afterwards.
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You won't be "near fluency" after FSI either. Language courses are just little introductions to a language. |
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I agree with this.
FSI is very good (and free!) in my opinion, but it will take awhile to really get up to fluency (It's been 4 years for me (self study :() You will be able to converse fairly well with everyday topics and such!
My recommendation would be Pimsleur in the car, and FSI at home :)
STACK THEM! :D
(Berlitz Self Teacher: Spanish is excellent in my opinion also, your library might have it :) It's old be very effective. If they don't have it, it's around 5 dollars on amazon.com :)
Best of luck to you!!
-Jordan
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global_gizzy Senior Member United States maxcollege.blogspot. Joined 5499 days ago 275 posts - 310 votes Studies: Spanish
| Message 6 of 13 31 March 2010 at 2:45am | IP Logged |
Stick with Pimsleur for as long as you can so long as its free. I get them from my local library, I'm restrarting as of days ago, I'm on lesson 4 and doing them as I sit and study.
After Pimsleur, I'll be moving on to FSI as my primary source this summer and then just lots of reading/writing in Spanish, and watching the Spanish version of cartoons and shows on cable.
I haven't used FSI, but I intend to. I'm going to try and work my way through all the Spanish courses that they have on their website because they seem pretty good and the price cant be beat!
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buhrahyun Newbie United States Joined 5150 days ago 24 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 7 of 13 31 March 2010 at 7:38am | IP Logged |
Ajijic10 wrote:
buhrahyun wrote:
I realize that Pimsleur alone will not get me near fluency, so I intend to use FSI basic Spanish afterwards.
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You won't be "near fluency" after FSI either. Language courses are just little introductions to a language. |
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Ouch. Oh well, better to have realistic expectations. "little introductions to a language" is a great description.
You know, I do have a secret weapon in this quest, which is that my wife is a native Spanish speaker. It's just that she is kind of burnt out for life from translating for the family growing up. She helps me by answering occasional questions and I can practice with her, though there's not much we can speak about at this point in my learning process.
Anyway, I was hoping to show up at a family gathering one day and surprise them by just knowing Spanish after about a year of study. I think that idea is out the window now, because I FSI will take me at least a year with my other time commitments.
Now does anyone have a good definition of fluency? I don't really understand the meaning, and English is my native language.
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Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5218 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 8 of 13 31 March 2010 at 7:57am | IP Logged |
buhrahyun wrote:
Now does anyone have a good definition of fluency? I don't really understand the meaning, and English is my native language. |
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That'll start a debate on this forum :P
I (and I think a lot of others on this forum) would define it as being able to speak the language without hesitation to think, being able to read quickly, being able to write decently (not sure how to define "decently" here), and having good hearing comprehension in your target language. That's my definition of basic fluency, not advanced or native.
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