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Awesome learning routine?

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13 messages over 2 pages: 1
owverysweet
Diglot
Newbie
Poland
Joined 3451 days ago

18 posts - 20 votes
Speaks: Polish*, English

 
 Message 9 of 13
03 January 2015 at 7:09pm | IP Logged 
Really MT is like introduction to language? I
thought that after German Foundation, Advanced,
Builder and Vocabulary I would be able to watch TV.
I read this xd. So what's after Michel Thomas?
Shadowing 20mins a day, 1 essay a week, listen
reading, daily assimil? Cool idea? What about Paul
Noble? It's ideal to use it after MT?
1 person has voted this message useful



nowneverends
Newbie
United States
Joined 5224 days ago

26 posts - 38 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 10 of 13
03 January 2015 at 10:23pm | IP Logged 
rdearman wrote:
Looks fine to me, although personally I would do all of Michel Thomas,
then move to Pimsleur, so 2 lessons per day?

I feel like Pimsleur after Michel Thomas would be mind-numblingly boring. Pimsleur is
slow enough if it's your introduction.
1 person has voted this message useful



fortheo
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4825 days ago

187 posts - 222 votes 
Studies: French

 
 Message 11 of 13
13 January 2015 at 1:06am | IP Logged 
I actually prefer doing Michel Thomas after I already have a good amount of exposure to the target language.I'd recommend doing Pimsleur to get your feet wet, and then after a little bit of pimsleur you should get some other forms of comprehensible input—perhaps Assimil—and then do Michel Thomas. Michel Thomas is at it's core a grammar course. I find that the grammar he teaches makes so much more sense when you've already had ample exposure to the target language. This way you're not learning Grammar and vocab all at once; instead you will already have a subconscious feel for the correct grammar, and you will have a decent amount of vocabulary stored away in your passive knowledge. Using Michel Thomas in this manner (after a few months of study) helps bring your passive understanding of the language into an active phase. You may find Michel Thomas easy at that point, which is great because now you're focused on the grammar, thinking in that language, and activating your passive knowledge. IF you find it too easy, you could skip a few disks or go straight to the advanced course. Either way, I think it's best to use Michel Thomas a bit later on in your studies because it is a great tool that engenders activation of the language, and in order to have an active knowledge you will first need the passive knowledge.

I rambled.


Whatever you decide though, just have fun and don't turn it into a job. Good luck!



*edit*

I just saw this.

owverysweet wrote:
Really MT is like introduction to language? I
thought that after German Foundation, Advanced,
Builder and Vocabulary I would be able to watch TV.
I read this xd. So what's after Michel Thomas?
Shadowing 20mins a day, 1 essay a week, listen
reading, daily assimil? Cool idea? What about Paul
Noble? It's ideal to use it after MT?


After Michel Thomas I'd recommend Assimil. It's a great course and it will give you lots of comprehensible input.



Edited by fortheo on 14 January 2015 at 1:17am

2 persons have voted this message useful



Straya
Diglot
Groupie
Australia
Joined 3406 days ago

57 posts - 73 votes 
Speaks: English*, FrenchA2
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 12 of 13
16 January 2015 at 11:14am | IP Logged 
I have studied German in the past, pimsleur was just mind numbing honestly. I can now say
"i would like to eat something at my place" because that is what they kept saying for 6
lessons consecutively

I would go with assimil
1 person has voted this message useful



soclydeza85
Senior Member
United States
Joined 3696 days ago

357 posts - 502 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, French

 
 Message 13 of 13
17 January 2015 at 12:18am | IP Logged 
owverysweet wrote:
What about Paul
Noble? It's ideal to use it after MT?


Paul Noble kind of "is" MT, you'd know what I mean if you listened to it, but that's not to downplay it at all. I used PN for French and thought it was great. It's almost identical to MT except with a clearer, British accent and no students (and with help from a native speaker). I would see no point in doing one after the other. I've used MT for German and thought it was great for building a general foundation, you should use it before Pimsleur, or at least get a bit of MT done before starting, then do them together.

With the routine you have, you might be overloading yourself if you do that all together, especially if you have no previous experience. You might find the writing and TV part to be a bit daunting and discouraging at that level. Maybe try something like:

-Do MT
-Get yourself a "general" grammar resource - by general I mean something that explains it in laymans terms and not too much in depth. I thought "The Everything Learning German" book was great for this, has some good vocab and examples of usage too.
-Start Pimsleur maybe after a few weeks.
-Look up random videos lessons on youtube, learn sayings, maybe random grammar points, etc.

-After you have finished MT and most of level 1 of Pimsleur, start Assimil

-Once you've finished about the first 50 lessons of Assimil, you can probably read/write to some capacity. Here you can try reaching out and finding a penpal.
-Pick up some Readers for yourself. Check Amazon for books by a guy names Andres Klein; he writes great German short stories for anyone from beginner to intermediate levels
-Check out zdf.de, see if you can navigate the page and find some German shows to watch. You won't be able to understand everything, but you'll probably recognize words/expressions here and there. I personally keep a notepad next to me and write down any unknown words/expressions that I hear and find the translations later (once you know German pronunciation, the words are almost always written how they sound, which makes this very easy)

-Do Duolingo and podcasts throughout, once you finish Assimil you can probably move on to native materials and such.

Also, don't be afraid to act upon random curiosity. If you're on a commute and you see a sign, or hear someone say something in English and think "I wonder how you say that in German", look it up on your phone real quick or write it down for later.

These are just some ideas, a lot of which have helped me.

The key to learning anything quickly: become obsessed with it.


1 person has voted this message useful



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