Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5363 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 1 of 8 05 September 2012 at 3:13pm | IP Logged |
According to Amazon.co.uk a Paul Noble German course is coming out this month. Anyone
know what it will be like? More to the point, does it deal with cases?
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fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 4834 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French
| Message 2 of 8 03 March 2014 at 7:05pm | IP Logged |
Has anyone tried this? I saw it on amazon but it has poor reviews so I didn't buy it.
Any insight from someone who has tried it would be much appreciated!
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Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5363 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 3 of 8 03 March 2014 at 11:11pm | IP Logged |
I have completed it - its not bad. I'd say, in fact, its ideal for an absolute
beginner. Its basically a Michel Thomas derivative without the students and it covers
more ground grammatically than the MT foundation course and, at the same time, less
ground in terms of vocabulary.
Paul Noble himself is a bit lacking in the charisma department, but he explains things
well and there is a female native speaker to get your pronunciation onto a good start.
If you have any German already, however, its likely to be too basic - but I would
recommend it as a starter course before moving onto Michel Thomas.
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fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 4834 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French
| Message 4 of 8 03 March 2014 at 11:25pm | IP Logged |
Thanks Elexi! your post definitely helped! I was actually looking for an alternative to Michel Thomas because I have used him for other languages, and I am so tired of his voice/accent/saliva slurred speech, even though I do learn a lot with him. I will try Paul Noble's method first and then decide if I am ready to tolerate Michel Thomas' speaking again.
Also, did Noble's method deal with cases at all?
Edited by fortheo on 03 March 2014 at 11:31pm
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Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5363 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 5 of 8 04 March 2014 at 11:06am | IP Logged |
Yes, Noble's course does deal with cases - He explains the accusative by the 'victim of
the verb' explanation used in the MT Method Vocabulary Course, and also deals with the
dative, describing the female dative by 'a sex change operation'. I don't think he
covers the 'des/der' form of genitive - I think he uses the von + dative work around
instead.
Edited by Elexi on 04 March 2014 at 11:32am
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ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4509 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French
| Message 6 of 8 05 March 2014 at 2:10am | IP Logged |
Elexi wrote:
I have completed it - its not bad. I'd say, in fact, its ideal for an
absolute
beginner. Its basically a Michel Thomas derivative without the students and it
covers
more ground grammatically than the MT foundation course and, at the same time, less
ground in terms of vocabulary.
Paul Noble himself is a bit lacking in the charisma department, but he explains things
well and there is a female native speaker to get your pronunciation onto a good start.
If you have any German already, however, its likely to be too basic - but I would
recommend it as a starter course before moving onto Michel Thomas.
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That seems like a great summation, Elexi! Have you ever used Madrigal's Magic Keys to
German? It seems like maybe that would be a great supplement to Paul Noble if his
course covers less vocab, relatively speaking.
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Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 3880 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German
| Message 7 of 8 10 March 2014 at 7:41am | IP Logged |
I am looking at the description:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-German-Paul-Noble/dp/000748626 X
Quote:
within a few hours you will have learned over 6,000 German words. |
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I looked at the course, and no way is it anywhere near 6000 words.
I would guess it to be less than 1000.
Edited by Gemuse on 10 March 2014 at 7:42am
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Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5363 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 8 of 8 10 March 2014 at 1:25pm | IP Logged |
I have an ancient 1950s 'Teach Yourself' book where there is a joke about a fraudster
who tells a person that if he pays him £50 up front he will teach him how to acquire a
French vocabulary of 6000 words quickly and painlessly. After the money is paid up,
the
fraudster explains the basic rules of cognate changes (e.g. -ent and -ant, -ence and -
ance are the same) - hey presto 6000 words - the fraudster moves off quickly.
What the Teach Yourself author didn't know is what in 1950 would be considered a fraud
is legitimate advertising these days!
The 6000 words derive from Paul Noble teaching cognate rules, all taken from the MT
Method Vocabulary Course, btw - the course probably teachings 200-300 words at most.
Enough to get going, but this is pure advertising puff.
Here's a link to the French booklet that shows the structure of the Paul Noble courses:
https://www.collinslanguage.com/Data/Sites/1/ProductFiles/co llins-french-with-paul-
noble-part-1-9780007433483/collins_paul_noble_french.pdf
Edited by Elexi on 10 March 2014 at 1:37pm
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