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Platiquemos starting point

  Tags: Platiquemos | Spanish
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InsanePenguin
Senior Member
Wales
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248 posts - 248 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 1 of 10
10 December 2006 at 4:27pm | IP Logged 
I'm on level II lesson 18 of Pimsleur and have done some Assimil so have a decent grasp of pronunciation, which unit do you suggest I start on with level I Platiquemos?

gracias
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luke
Diglot
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United States
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Speaks: English*, Spanish
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 Message 2 of 10
10 December 2006 at 5:33pm | IP Logged 
I had some experience with other courses and in school and I started with level 1 unit 1 and don't regret that choice.
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cadomniel
Groupie
Canada
senseandsanity.com
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Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish, Esperanto, French, Italian

 
 Message 3 of 10
10 December 2006 at 5:33pm | IP Logged 
You can start with Unit 3 and work through quickly through the units..until the drills start to get challenging.The first two units are pronounciation.

I just started Platiquemos and I've finished Michel Thomas courses, and all three levels of Pimsleur Spanish. Its better to start at the beginning because if you skip ahead too much there might be vocabulary which don't know because of skipping ahead.
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Sir Nigel
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2 sounds

 
 Message 4 of 10
10 December 2006 at 6:29pm | IP Logged 
Start from the beginning as there's plenty to learn in the first few lessons even after Assimil and Pimsleur. However, learning to pronounce Spanish will be easier so you'll go quicker through the pronunciation exercises anyway.
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InsanePenguin
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Wales
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 Message 5 of 10
11 December 2006 at 6:02am | IP Logged 
In the beginning (basic sentences) am I right in thinking you are meant to do them until you respond correctly and instantly to the audio?
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luke
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
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Speaks: English*, Spanish
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 Message 6 of 10
13 December 2006 at 4:37am | IP Logged 
InsanePenguin wrote:
In the beginning (basic sentences) am I right in thinking you are meant to do them until you respond correctly and instantly to the audio?

My ultimate goal is to be able to respond instantly. The basic sentences in the first 2 units contain several mini-dialogues. I.E. Hi, how are you, fine. My name is ..., what's your name, pleased to meet you, same here. These are more like formulas, rather than drills. You want to be able to repeat and understand them.
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InsanePenguin
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Wales
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248 posts - 248 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 7 of 10
13 December 2006 at 4:48am | IP Logged 
Ah I see so they're more for understanding and repeating accurately, the real drilling starts in Unit 3?
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luke
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
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Speaks: English*, Spanish
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 Message 8 of 10
13 December 2006 at 5:37am | IP Logged 
I was reading a learning diary today and I had some good ideas for Platiquemos that I didn't implement perfectly, although I think they are worth sharing, particularly for "global learners". I've been stumbling along with a much less refined version of the method below since about unit 15. I think I would have mastered the course earlier and easier if I'd approached the course more like this from the beginning. This would also work with the Barrons version of the course, but that has no English translations in the audio. The English translations in Platiquemos can be useful if you are studying away from the book most of the tmie.

0) General approach: Do several lessons before you start the drills. E.G. Do phase 1 below for units 1-3, or 9 or 15, or 30 or 55. If you hit a brick wall, go back to unit 1 and start the next phase.

1) Observation / Understanding phase.
Listen and understand the dialogs and illustrations. For Platiquemos, the dialogues and illustrations both come with audio translations. I made seperate mp3's for these translations, and also the "dialog for fluency". At this stage, just listen and understand. If you are editing the recordings, they don't even need space for repeats. I have several mp3 versions of the dialogues and illustrations, each with different content. These variations are helpful as your ability with the material changes. Read along in the book. Read the comments on the dialogs. Read the inital grammatical explanations that immediately follow the illustrations.
(Don, if you're listening, and you want to trade something for the Platiquemos mp3's I edited, PM me. They don't fit this method exactly, but my edits make the course more flexible and better - even if you think the method below isn't as good as the one described in Platiquemos book).

2) Initial repeating phase.
During the second phase, repeat the dialogs and illustrations. Because you've heard them a bunch of times, this will be easier than learning from scratch. Try to notice how the grammatical explanations are applied to the dialogs. Also notice these grammatical points in the dialogs.

3) Drill phase.
Add the drills. Continue reviewing the dialog and illustrations. Start listening to the conversation stimulus, but don't try to do the responses yet, at this point, you just want to understand the conversational stimulus. Read the grammatical explanations that follow the drills. If you like reading and you're in units 16 and beyond which have readings, read them. At least glance at the readings and the vocabulary.

4) Add conversation stimulus and readings.
The conversation stimulus is harder than the grammar drills. The pauses for responses are quite short. You'll progress further faster since you postponed these a for a while. Do the readings if the unit has them. At this point you are doing the whole unit.

5) Mastery phase.
Find a good native speaking tutor who gives you loads of encouragement and have her help you with corrections to the answers and discussion of the readings.

Hypothetical example:
Using phase 1 on units 1-16. At unit 16, you feel like you're things have been over your head for several units and this course is really tough.

Start phase 2 from unit 1. At unit 9, things seem to hard to carry on. Continue using the phase 1 approach and you find you got to unit 18 before the wall appeared.

Start phase 3 from unit 1. At unit 5 you're frustrated with your progress on phase 3. Continue with unit 6 doing the phase 2 approach. Phase 2 works until unit 11, at which point you revert to phase 1 for 12-20.

Start phase 4 from unit 1. This goes fine until unit 5. For units 6-11 you use the phase 3 approach.   You've become frustrated to you switch to the level 2 method for units 12-16. Using phase 1, you cover units 17-29.

Start phase 5 when you start to think things would be so much easier if you could talk to a tutor each week.

The units in the examples above are purely hypothetical. I have used a less refined variation of the process above when the course became difficult and I felt I had banged my head enough that it needed some rest. Phase 1, since it only involves understanding may shoot way ahead of the example given above. One isn't looking for perfect understanding at that point, just a good grasp of what is going on and what the course is covering. Phase 5 was an afterthought. I just got a tutor 2 weeks ago, (after self studying for 2-3 years and it's really lighting a fire under my studies.

Again, I think the method above is better for global learners and self studiers. The original method as described in the FSI/Platiquemos books is probably better for sequential learners and those in a classroom situation. If you wonder if you're a global or sequential studier, use the search function in this forum and do a topic search on "learning styles". You'll find forum members experience as well as links to online tests to help you determine your "style".


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