PeterMollenburg wrote:I agree, courses are not enough. Even extremely advanced courses possibly aimed at C1/C2 exams for example -and this took me a long time to finally understand- are not enough. They are appropriate as part of the overall mixture of materials perhaps, depending on one's needs, but you are right, not enough. And vocab alone, I also agree. One must be able to hear, use, speak the language of this level. You are right Serpent, as are many others, and I was wrong when I used to think that courses alone could get me there. In fact they might get me close, but i'd be doing courses for the next 5 to 10 years to cover enough content I think. I've gradually changed my tune and still might change it further, in that I'm totaly in agreement, courses do not suffice. For this reason I have been using native content for some time, but not realised (or wasn't ready) how much more I needed to be using such content.Serpent wrote: No courses are enough for this level. Knowing a lot of vocab is great but not enough.
Part of the reason I find this thread really interesting and valuable is because I think we're likely at pretty similar stages and have similar goals - just with different languages. I agree with Serpent and everyone else that courses aren't enough for this level. That said I think that they are definitely a useful tool or really part of a whole for some depending on the L2, the learner's competencies (or lack thereof), where the learner is living, etc etc. That said, I think I've probably been far more non course dependent in German then you have been with French and I know that I need the structure of a course. Honestly the most ideal thing for me would be living in Germany or Austria and taking a good intensive class while also spending a lot of out of class time immersing myself in German. That, however, is not possible within the next year and a half unless I'm able to go to Germany for a month this summer (in which case I'd spend a second month in Austria and take the TestDaF that summer as well).
I think I tend to spend less time actively working on vocabulary acquisition than most people here do which hasn't actually served me very well. I'm working on it That said what is the first thing that goes, language learning wise,when I'm really having trouble with my depression? Working on vocab. That need for a more secure base of vocabulary is a big reason why I'm working with the Studio C1 textbook. There's a ton of reading (one of my weaknesses) and with that a lot of vocabulary. For various reasons it's a lot easier for me to deal with intensive reading and vocab acquisition through textbooks than actual books. Additionally as I talked about earlier, writing is my other major weakness and the textbook I chose has some nice prompts based on the material that's being covered. Could I come up with or find prompts on my own? Sure. Am I going to do that? Maybe.
That said, again textbooks are just a part of a whole in terms of my language learning - I expect the is true for you. I also try to talk to a friend of mine in German as much as possible (which works out to less time than both of us would like due to our schedules), I watch or listen to 7+ hours of German media a week (it feels like less) all of which is aimed at native speakers, I try to do some extensive reading though my motivation is kind of a mess with that, some of the recipes I use for cooking and baking are in German (I'm currently in love with my new German bread book), and I'm trying to do more writing in German.