whatiftheblog wrote:Not sure if you're looking for feedback here, so take this for whatever it's worth as it's more thoughts "aloud", but between this log and your other thread about progressing to C1, I'm not sure why you're still keeping beginners' books in your course rotation. Following up on what you'd posted in the C1 thread, I think your instinct to go towards native material is spot on for precisely the reason you stated: that it is significantly easier to absorb vast amounts of language through interacting with it in the (virtual) wild than through courses, specifically at your level.
By way of example, take the subjunctive: courses usually include long lists of words and expressions after which it is typically used, they'll run you through a thousand drills, they'll explain that it's a reflection of lack of certainty and the entire philosophy behind it, because of course it has a philosophy behind it, it's French... etc etc. Unless you learn all of this - plus all the correct forms of literally all the verbs - you'll either be stuck wondering "was that verb on that list or am I confusing it with some other list?" or analyzing the precise degree to which you are certain of something and whether that would count in French. Yet once you've spent even a relatively insignificant amount of time with native material, you will have already come across some form of "je veux que tu saches" a hundred times, and bam, that's now become automatic. You might not get a whole lot of imparfait du subjonctif, but that's not in your beginner courses, either.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the material that makes up beginners' courses is classified as being beginner-level for a reason - it's a snapshot of the most commonly used vocabulary and grammar structures. If you still feel uneasy about it, reabsorbing that through native material, with all the collateral benefits that entails, seems to be a better use of time.
I agree, with everything you say here.
The issue is that I love makig my way through courses, which in all honesty have brought me a long way, as it's been my principal activity, but I
need native content as is obvious.
Thus I need to resolve this. I have already cut out many of the courses from my list. I won't cut more just yet- over 30 is a good start. I swing from native to courses, to native content and back again always fighing the two sides. Thus I just need to find peace and work towards rotating the two- one hour courses, one hour native etc or at least something similar. It might not be the most efficient manner in which to progress, but at the moment it seems like the only logical one with all things considered.