The overall usefulness of FSI (Language Programs, Books & Tapes) Language Learning Forum

The overall usefulness of FSI
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Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes

35 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 Next >>

Spanky
Senior Member
Canada
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Studies: French

Message 9 of 35

04 September 2015 at 2:23am | IP Logged

ExRN wrote:

Prime example being the German course as it is technically
useless in a modern day setting.

Nope.
3 persons have voted this message useful

ExRN
Groupie
United Kingdom
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, Spanish
Studies: Dutch

Message 10 of 35

04 September 2015 at 2:42am | IP Logged

Alte Rechtschreibung. Spelling has been reformed since this material was written, which makes it
unnecessarily confusing.

Quote above is just to prove I am not going mad. So say you learn your German using fsi, surely you will be
spelling a lot of things wrong?

Spanky wrote:

ExRN wrote:

Prime example being the German course as it is technically
useless in a modern day setting.

Nope.

Very constructive reply. Thank you.

Edited by ExRN on 04 September 2015 at 2:47am
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flydream777
Triglot
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Message 11 of 35

04 September 2015 at 3:19am | IP Logged

Don't be so confused. Think about how much English has changed since 1960... Not that much right?
Neither has German. The spelling reform just established some rules like they write a double "s" instead of a
letter similar to a "B" and some other minor things.
4 persons have voted this message useful

ExRN
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Message 12 of 35

04 September 2015 at 3:22am | IP Logged

flydream777 wrote:

Don't be so confused. Think about how much English has changed since 1960...
Not that much right?
Neither has German. The spelling reform just established some rules like they write a double "s" instead of
a
letter similar to a "B" and some other minor things.

A honest thank you from myself this time. As I stated earlier, I haven't studied German so your response
has really helped. Thank you :-)
1 person has voted this message useful

vonPeterhof
Tetraglot
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Message 13 of 35

04 September 2015 at 4:12am | IP Logged

Elexi wrote:

As to FSI - the spelling reforms have not changed the way German is spoken - time has to a degree (e.g. the dative case is less used as it was and 'gnädige Frau' may lead to odd looks).

Yeah, spelling reforms don't really have much of an effect on the spoken language, unless they're accompanied with a massive and deliberate overhaul of the language's vocabulary (Atatürk's reform of Turkish is probably the most successful example of this). More often than not spelling reforms are actually carried out to bring the written language closer to the spoken variety, or, as was the case with the German reform, to make the orthographic rules more internally consistent.

FSI Greek is another course that was created before a reform. The Greek reform was much more significant in terms of the number of words affected and in some cases even the grammar. However, a style of writing that is more similar to the spoken language (and to the modern standard) also existed at the time, and the course starts out in this style, explicitly noting where there are departures between it and the more formal variant. IIRC the latter only starts to predominate in the middle of the second volume, so the first volume is still useful for the grammar drills and example sentences. Besides, the spelling changes were mostly about replacing the polytonic accent notation with a simple stress accent mark, so for most words it's no problem whatsoever to figure out the modern spelling. Since there are exceptions though, like κ becoming χ in some words, it's still a good idea to check any words you think of adding to an SRS with a modern dictionary or with Google Translate to see if the spelling has changed.

Edited by vonPeterhof on 04 September 2015 at 4:13am
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Serpent
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serpent-849.livejour
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Message 14 of 35

04 September 2015 at 4:13am | IP Logged

One thing here is that most people still understand the old spelling, and you may come across it. I think most learners still get acquainted with it, but maybe not from the beginning.
1 person has voted this message useful

ExRN
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United Kingdom
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, Spanish
Studies: Dutch

Message 15 of 35

04 September 2015 at 4:21am | IP Logged

vonPeterhof wrote:

Elexi wrote:

As to FSI - the spelling reforms have not changed the way German is
spoken - time has to a degree (e.g. the dative case is less used as it was and 'gnädige Frau' may lead to
odd looks).

Yeah, spelling reforms don't really have much of an effect on the spoken language,
unless they're accompanied with a massive and deliberate overhaul of the language's vocabulary
(Atatürk's reform of Turkish is probably the most successful example of this). More often than not spelling
reforms are actually carried out to bring the written language closer to the spoken variety, or, as was the
case with the German reform, to make the orthographic rules more internally consistent.

FSI Greek is another course that was created before a reform. The Greek reform was much more
significant in terms of the number of words affected and in some cases even the grammar. However, a
style of writing that is more similar to the spoken language (and to the modern standard) also existed at
the time, and the course starts out in this style, explicitly noting where there are departures between it and
the more formal variant. IIRC the latter only starts to predominate in the middle of the second volume, so
the first volume is still useful for the grammar drills and example sentences. Besides, the spelling changes
were mostly about replacing the polytonic accent notation with a simple stress accent mark, so for most
words it's no problem whatsoever to figure out the modern spelling. Since there are exceptions though, like
κ becoming χ in some words, it's still a good idea to check any words you think of adding to an SRS with a
modern dictionary or with Google Translate to see if the spelling has changed.

You are my idol!
1 person has voted this message useful

ExRN
Groupie
United Kingdom
Joined 3408 days ago
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, Spanish
Studies: Dutch

Message 16 of 35

04 September 2015 at 4:21am | IP Logged

Serpent wrote:

One thing here is that most people still understand the old spelling, and you may come
across it. I think most learners still get acquainted with it, but maybe not from the beginning.

And you too :-D

1 person has voted this message useful

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