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Most efficient way to spend 120 hours

 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
59 messages over 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next >>
LangOfChildren
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 Message 1 of 59
10 June 2010 at 3:14pm | IP Logged 
Suppose you have 120 hours of pure language study time to spend on a completely new
language, what would be the most efficient way to get as far as possible in that
language?

Please feel free to bring anything that seems worth mentioning into the discussion,
try to think outside the box here, if you can.

Let's start from the premise that the learner in question is able to withstand anything
they may be put through during this (theoretical) experiment.


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Adrean
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 Message 2 of 59
10 June 2010 at 3:21pm | IP Logged 
In terms of hours I would spend the first hours working with the Michel Thomas foundation courses. I would go through the course 3 times so 30 hours.

I would combine this the first 50 lessons from Assimil up to lesson 50, 30 minutes each day. So thats another 25 hours.

At a later point I would incorportate the first C.D from a Pimsleur course. Thats another 15 hours.

I would think then about commencing with a few audiobooks which are relatively easy. An obvious example may be Harry Potter or Le Petit Prince. 20 hours.

Next I would move onto an advanced Michel Thomas course. 6 hours.

The rest of time I would spend on movies and or podcats.

That would be my introduction to a new language if I was to take one up.
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Volte
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 Message 3 of 59
10 June 2010 at 6:08pm | IP Logged 
L-R.
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LangOfChildren
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 Message 4 of 59
10 June 2010 at 6:24pm | IP Logged 
Volte, I'm glad you're saying that. :)

I was actually thinking that myself, but needed someone else's oppinion.
So I guess what you're saying is that all of the 120 hours should be spent L-R'ing?

Supposedly 50 hours of L-R can be enough to reach natural listening and thus basic fluency.



Edited by LangOfChildren on 10 June 2010 at 6:24pm

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datsunking1
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 Message 5 of 59
10 June 2010 at 7:40pm | IP Logged 
LangOfChildren wrote:
Volte, I'm glad you're saying that. :)

I was actually thinking that myself, but needed someone else's oppinion.
So I guess what you're saying is that all of the 120 hours should be spent L-R'ing?

Supposedly 50 hours of L-R can be enough to reach natural listening and thus basic fluency.



That's it? maybe thats why my listening skills are horrible :(
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patuco
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 Message 6 of 59
10 June 2010 at 11:00pm | IP Logged 
LangOfChildren wrote:
Supposedly 50 hours of L-R can be enough to reach natural listening and thus basic fluency.

The key word here is "supposedly".
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magictom123
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 Message 7 of 59
10 June 2010 at 11:15pm | IP Logged 
being unemployed at the mo I have a lot of free time and would like to know if indeed
anyone has had the success of reaching basic fluency from scratch using the l-r method
only.

volte, have you done this? I spent a long time reading through the old thread and I saw
that you were an advocate of this technique and had at least begun to use it
extensively. I'm guessing since above you mention it you had a good experience with
the language but could you please expand a bit more on what you did over a certain
timeframe and your level of progression. Please note, I am not cynical in any way - I
would just like to know if it is something I could feasibly do.

Outside of L-R, I would do MT (both courses - not the vocab courses though) and then
start assimil (maybe with some crossover if you like). As I start assimil I would
begin to watch TV online in the target language (dvd's too if I could afford them or
knew where to get them for free).

People here seem such champions of assimil although there are many people here too who
like FSI. Having looked at FSI it is not something I could stomach, regardless of the
results. I hope to learn languages for practical reasons but the journey has to be
fun. The same could be said for pimsleur as it is boring.
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jeff_lindqvist
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 Message 8 of 59
11 June 2010 at 1:34am | IP Logged 
I have dabbled a bit with L-R, not really from scratch though. It has felt most beneficial in Spanish, but I already have some experience in that language. I think that some of the explanations why people are skeptical to the method is that:
1 they don't think it's possible
2 they don't want to spend a lot of time (especially not on the same activity)

Not that ~50 (even 120) hours is "a lot of time"...

Even if the method guaranteed "native fluency" after, say, a couple of hundred hours, I'm pretty sure that nobody but the most avid polyglots would even try.


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