How to study on public transportation

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Madrox
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Re: How to study on public transportation

Postby Madrox » Sun Apr 30, 2017 9:31 pm

Thank you all for your responses, especially Serpent for the link to the old forum website (I'm sorry for missing that in my initial search!). Reading that old thread I found a link to Iguanamon's "multi-track approach", which I think sounds fantastic! I was really reticent to start looking at native materials this early in my studies. I was worried that looking at articles/podcasts and understanding nothing would be a pretty discouraging way to start this new endeavor (I've only started listening to Pimsleur/MT 4 days ago). But the multi-track approach sounds like it might be a good idea for my learning style. I can see how puzzling through some native material on my commute can lead to greater understanding down the road, so I think I'll give that a try for now. Thank you all again for your help!
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Re: How to study on public transportation

Postby blaurebell » Sun Apr 30, 2017 10:19 pm

tarvos wrote:If you're in the north of Spain, then I know all about it... I had to go up and down the mountains to work every day for 8 months and after that time I would be completely nauseous every afternoon from the motion sickness. Same with Bilbao airport.


Yep, precisely north of Spain and, Bilbao airport! The only good thing about the airport is that security is usually super fast. Travelling from there is my own personal hell though thanks to coach and mountain winds. I'm much more sensitive to that kind of thing than most people. My mum too. Whenever she has to take the ICE from down south she almost faints from the motion sickness. And I get motion sickness on local buses when they go up the twisted mountain roads. I usually walk up the hills and take the bus only when they stay at sea level. In fact most of the time I simply walk because it's quicker and it's a small town anyway.
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Re: How to study on public transportation

Postby lingopear » Sun Apr 30, 2017 11:03 pm

I 2nd the suggestion to mumble along quietly to Pimsleur / MT - that is what I do. If I take grammar / text books on the bus or metro - especially for rare languages - people here in LA people tend to find that interesting and start talking to me about what language that is, why I am studying it etc. and at the end of the day I get nothing done. Audio is much more discrete.
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Re: How to study on public transportation

Postby jeffers » Mon May 01, 2017 11:38 am

Madrox wrote:(I assume Assimil and FSI will require similar vocal repetitions).


FSI does require vocal repetitions, but Assimil does not. If you are happy to read while on transport, Assimil would be perfect. If you have the official mp3 version of the Assimil audio, the files have the text built into them, so you can view lyrics while listening on your phone. I find this really useful for reviewing lessons while on the go. You could review your Assimil lessons without even having the book.


aokoye wrote: Another logical option would be listening to audio from places like Deutsche Welle.

If you're learning German, you really should check out Deutsche Welle http://www.dw.com/en/learn-german/s-2469. There are lots of audio things to work on, all rated by level. They have several audio courses which have rather gentle learning curves, but are interesting enough to keep you listening.

I really enjoyed Radio D (http://www.dw.com/en/learn-german/radio-d-teil-1/s-9672). It doesn't teach a lot each episode, but you get to hear native German speakers from the start and it focuses on teaching you how to listen to contextual clues to aid understanding. The stories follow reporters chasing stories around Germany, so you hear regional accents and learn about culture. It is for rank beginners, but it is good for review and interesting enough to keep you from getting bored. There are PDFs for the lessons, but these are generally unnecessary.

Deutsch – warum nicht? (http://www.dw.com/en/learn-german/deutsch-warum-nicht/s-2548) is a similar set of mainly-audio courses. The story is less interesting than Radio D but the lesson topics are more explicit. The PDFs have a few exercises on them and some brief grammar notes, so they are useful but this is another course which would easily be done simply by listening.


Beyond Deutsche Welle, there are a couple podcasts I know of which are aimed at beginners, but entirely in German. Slow German http://slowgerman.com/ is one good option which is free. The reading is fairly slow and clear, and the transcript is available online. Another one is Andrea erzählt http://www.podclub.ch/sendungen/andrea-erzaehlt-d on the podclub.ch site. This is aimed at students bridging A2-B1, but probably good to listen to from early levels. Again the transcript is available online, with the added feature of automatically highlighting the sentence which is being read. Podclub also has an awesome free app from which you can listen/read to any of their podcasts. If you want to listen to any on the go, you can choose to download particular episodes so they work offline. Like their website, the transcript scrolls automatically as the audio plays, and the sentence being spoken is highlighted.
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Re: How to study on public transportation

Postby IronMike » Mon May 01, 2017 3:00 pm

I do this every (work) day. I read or L-R in the mornings where there is more room in the metro cars. Unfortunately, most evenings the metro is so crowded I can't hold a book, in which case I listen to news or Glossika in whatever language I'm studying at the time.

The walk to/from the metro I listen to foreign language news or Glossika.
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Re: How to study on public transportation

Postby YtownPolyglot » Thu May 04, 2017 6:19 pm

If you don't want someone to take the seat next to you, use Pimsleur and other language materials on a bus or train.
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Re: How to study on public transportation

Postby Random Review » Tue May 09, 2017 4:54 pm

blaurebell wrote:
tarvos wrote:I have this problem too, but I also am able to do work on trains. Which is why I infinitely prefer train journeys to bus journeys over longer distances.


Same here, but only on slow and medium speed trains. A fast train like a German ICE has some sort of tilting technology that makes me sick even without reading. It's worse depending on the terrain, so I can basically only take ICEs in the north of Germany without feeling sick :roll: The worst of the worst are couch journeys in mountain terrain though, like the only connection between here and the next airport :? Landing at that airport is fun anyway, because of the combination of small planes and mountain winds, perfect preparation for the following coach journey, yikes! At that point I can forget even the listening ...! I hate flying!


I know this is just a typo, but the image (especially in the context of talking about motion sickness) tickled me. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: How to study on public transportation

Postby blaurebell » Wed May 10, 2017 3:23 pm

Random Review wrote:I know this is just a typo, but the image (especially in the context of talking about motion sickness) tickled me.


LOL :lol: I certainly missed that one! And couch journeys into mountain terrain are the best ...no motion sickness while travelling via book :D
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