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FSI German or German without Toil? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Bobb328 Groupie Canada Joined 4366 days ago 52 posts - 78 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 1 of 13 27 November 2012 at 5:32am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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I'm about halfway through Assimil German with Ease - I had a lot of work over the summer and I took a month
break - and am trying to start adding on a course to do alongside GwE. If you've done either or both, which one would you recommend in regards to emphasizing grammar? Or just which one did you prefer. Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5346 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 2 of 13 27 November 2012 at 10:43am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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I am doing FSI German at present and it works well with dialogue methods like Assimil or
Linguaphone - although it is pretty darn boring. I have a 30 minute walk home and do one FSI tape per day (which I repeat until I get through it with at most a few mistakes). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5493 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi | Message 3 of 13 29 November 2012 at 2:17am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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In direct answer to your question, FSI is much more grammar oriented. That said, I would suggest you use both.
I used GwT first (shadowed, translated, transcribed, read, etc. the dialogues several times, i.e., overlearned them), then listened to GwE over and over and over until I understood everything I could. Only then would I read the text to see which words I was missing. This helped my listening comprehension immensely and I think you could do the same (in reverse order). For FSI, you could go through the whole think once or twice (or however many times you'd like without having the urge to pull your ears off), or you can figure out your weak points and drill them specifically. I did the first. You can of course go through the course as it's intended, but it's a big task and the point I would most want to get across is that you don't have to overlearn all the dialogs and get every drill down perfect to profit from the course. Just going through it once or twice is extremely helpful. And it's free. :D 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| Bobb328 Groupie Canada Joined 4366 days ago 52 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 4 of 13 29 November 2012 at 3:32am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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Thanks, I think I might use both. I have access to quite at few courses because my friend just finished learning
German and he bought TONS of resources. Has anyone used Linguaphone German? How does that compare to these courses? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| Antanas Tetraglot Groupie Lithuania Joined 4593 days ago 91 posts - 172 votes Speaks: Lithuanian*, English, Russian, German Studies: FrenchB1, Spanish | Message 5 of 13 29 November 2012 at 11:34pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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FSI or Linguaphone won't teach you more words than either Assimil. Why don't you try advanced Assimil? If you have at least a very very poor knowledge of French you could give it a try. Even without any knowledge of French it could be helpful.
"German for Reading" by Sandberg (there used to be links to it on this site) is a good book for learning both grammar and new words. There is also a frequency dictionary of German published Routledge which is useful for checking how much you already know. I would not recommend it for learning knew words, though. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5493 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi | Message 6 of 13 30 November 2012 at 6:41am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
I don't think that's true at all. We're talking about FSI German Basic Courses 1 & 2, or conversely Linguaphone German basic-intermediate and intermediate-advanced, compared to Assimil, right? I'm sorry, but I think that's wrong information.
That sounds cumbersome. Firstly, you'd need more than a poor knowledge of French, secondly, how would it be helpful not knowing any French? You'd be left with recordings and dialogs. Are they good quality recordings and dialogs? Sure. But you might as well just start off with native materials that you're more interested in, or, to that end, even Lingq. I see no point in using this if you don't have at least a high intermediate level in French. There are far too many quality English texts with which to learn German, why pain yourself by learning French at the same time if you don't want to? You'll effectively learn neither with this approach.
The Sandberg "Insert Language for reading" books are decent for reading comprehension, but almost nothing else.
I can't attest to the German version, but many books in this series are excellent (if not a little pricey). As Antanas says, they may be a little hard to work into your learning routine (unless you're a flash-card freak, which isn't exactly my cup of meat). Another good choice (my favorite) is Mastering German Vocabulary; it's also much cheaper. This is available in several languages but the new versions for Spanish, French, and Italian aren't as good as the older versions; they have more words, but I'm tempted to say that none of the new words have example sentences. I'm not sure if German has a newer version, but the older version has example sentences for every word (if I recall correctly). It's also small and easy to carry around.
Probably the best advice I can give you as a new language learner with German as his first is: limit your resources! I went resource crazy in German trying to find that magic bullet, and the only thing I got were a bunch of courses that, although really good, would never take anyone past an intermediate stage. The only thing that can do that is native materials. Stick with one or two resources at a time and only move on to other courses if: 1) it sucks and you're not enjoying yourself enough to actually use it 2) you get stuck (in which case you could also skip ahead then come back later) 3) you've finished.
I used the old Linguaphone (though never fully completed it if I recall correctly). It's very good and very high quality. I can still hear some of the dialogues in my head (I used Professor Argüelles's shadowing technique). It's a bit different than Assimil (I think it follows the same family on a trip throughout the book) and the dialogues are a bit dry, but it's very good and the information is very useful (especially if you plan to travel there). If you do both Assimils and FSI you won't need it. There's also an even older version of it that comes with records (which have probably been uploaded to the internet by now). I didn't use the audio, I just read the dialogues and made mark of any vocabulary I didn't know, but it is excellent. Both of these versions can be found on ebay, amazon, abebooks, etc. just make sure you don't get the newest version of Linguaphone German. The oldest version of the Linguaphone courses has the added bonus of being set up the same in all languages. Finally, anything after circa 1995 is horrible with the exception of Advanced Linguaphone German which is just a reprint of the older version. Haven't used it myself, but I've heard it's very good. ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------- This is more or less how I learned German. Although I've forgotten some of the resources I've used, the most basic and enjoyable resources are listed. If you stick with it, do what you enjoy in the language, and learn something new everyday you'll eventually get there. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| Antanas Tetraglot Groupie Lithuania Joined 4593 days ago 91 posts - 172 votes Speaks: Lithuanian*, English, Russian, German Studies: FrenchB1, Spanish | Message 7 of 13 30 November 2012 at 1:34pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
What concerns FSI German Basic, let's look at the glossary for the both volumes at the end of volume two (pp. 678-710). So, it makes 33 pages. Let's multiply it with a number of words on one page. Let it be page 708 (more than a fair one). I have counted 59. So, 32 x 59 = 1947. I might be mistaken but not much. I don't know if one can trust Assimil claims that their elementary courses teach your 2000 words but if you take a look at FSI after you have finished a half of Assimil advanced German, there will be almost nothing to learn from it. FSI Basic might teach you to speak better than GwE but it won't teach you substantively more vocabulary. Especially if you have also completed GwT. Anyway, my math may be wrong. And I don't like FSI courses. Do whatever you think suits you better. In language learning, self-confidence is as important as any learning materials. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| Bobb328 Groupie Canada Joined 4366 days ago 52 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 8 of 13 30 November 2012 at 11:31pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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Thanks for all the replies, I think I should clarify too. I posted this because I know using tons of resources is eventually just a waste of time so
I'm trying to decide two or three I can focus on before I move on to native materials. I have GwE, FSI, GwT, Linguaphone, Routledge Intentive German Course <--- haven't heard much about this one but it interests me anyone try it?, and TY Further German. I know this is waayy too much stuff but since I don't have to pay for It might as well take advantage of some of them. I've just started using Anki and filling in words from GwE (which has been tedious considering I'm about 30 lessons ahead of the vocab I'm currently putting in) and looking over grammar in German in Review and Essential German Grammar (Durrell). This is the first language I've ever tried to learn so this whole process is rather confusing for me. I feel like I'll never be able to get the cases and declinations right; I can identify them most of the time but sometimes I can't and I can't write or speak them on my own properly at all. After nearly 4.5 months I feel like I should be a lot further. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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