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Most *enjoyable* learning materials | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6391 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 9 of 14 29 June 2015 at 8:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have an immense respect for emk and iguanamon but let's please stay on track. Much like Josquin, I used to be fine with the average textbooks, but now I just can't stand them. I'm glad for those that can combine boring textbooks with fun native content.
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| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5022 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 10 of 14 29 June 2015 at 9:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My two favorite ways of learning language are both in Latin.
Lingua Latina is a series of books that is written entirely in Latin, but use pictures to introduce new vocabulary, and then use that basic vocabulary to introduce increasingly difficult grammatical patterns. What makes it fun is that the book also tells a story, starting with the introduction of the setting, then a family, then the life of that family and related characters. So one starts with simple sentences such as "Roma in Italia est" and by the final chapter the characters are discussing poetry with each other, such that one finds themselves learning the basics of dactyllic hexameter (not to mention how to form the nearly obsolete future imperative!). This without a single word word in English. Wheelock's uses plenty of English, but I also enjoy it. As soon as possible, Wheelock's begins including in each chapter native material (slightly dumb-downed when necessary, but in the later chapters, verbatim quotations become more plentiful). Not to be missed is the accompanying volume (called something like Scribes and Scribblers). This follows the outline of the main text, but uses actual inscriptions to supplement that teaching. These range from comical engravings recovered from Pompeii, to heart-breaking funeral orations found inscribed on period tombs. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4315 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 11 of 14 29 June 2015 at 10:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
Books from the same publisher are also available for English, French and Italian. Same concept, but different story of course. I found it a bit boring in French, so I didn't get very far... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5326 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 12 of 14 29 June 2015 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'm really sorry if I annoyed you! For whatever it might be worth, I wasn't trying to derail the thread at all. I was actually trying to answer the original question as literally as I could:
This was all stated in terms of "materials" and "programs" and "tools", and not in terms of courses. If you do want to limit it to language textbooks, then like I said, I find Assimil can be pleasantly amusing. I wouldn't call it "compelling" or "addictive", except in so far as I can see progress. But it's the progress that keeps me going, not the dry jokes. Besides Assimil, I've mostly enjoyed textbooks when they get to native materials as quickly as possible. Several popular Latin textbooks are actually pretty good at this; I remember being given slanderous poems by Catullus. Similarly, I've seen some graded readers that looked reasonably interesting, and Destinos was fun when I tried a couple of episodes. But in the end, Avatar: la leyenda de Aang and a deck of subs2srs cards was the single most entertaining and addictive thing I've ever tried at the beginner level. If somebody wants "compelling" and "addictive", it might be worth looking at more than just traditional textbooks, courses and tapes. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5022 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 13 of 14 29 June 2015 at 10:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks daegga! I had no idea.
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| anamsc2 Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 4353 days ago 85 posts - 186 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan, German Studies: French | Message 14 of 14 30 June 2015 at 6:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I enjoyed Extra auf Deutsch and Grüße aus Deutschland quite a bit. They're both just the right amount of silliness without being too over the top or trying too hard. There are a lot of free resources for that level of German out there, but most of them were pretty painful to use besides these two.
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