Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

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Finny
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby Finny » Thu Aug 25, 2016 1:25 am

Speaking of exceptionally rapid language learners, let's not forget this guy...

At the risk of belaboring the obvious in commenting on his amazing sense of language(s), I offer the following small incident, which reflects not only his abilities, but also his attitude about his own talents. Several years ago, I attended a workshop in Trondheim, Norway at which Ken was an invited speaker. He stepped off the plane speaking Norwegian, having read a teach-yourself-Norwegian paperback during the flight. (He had, by the way, correctly identified several errors in the book, words for which the stress mark had been placed over the wrong syllable.) With his usual humility, Ken dismissed his accomplishment--which very much impressed the rest of us--by explaining why it had been so easy for him to pick up Norwegian: he had once spent a week in Denmark.
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s_allard
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby s_allard » Thu Aug 25, 2016 6:18 am

Just a little note here about learning materials for Spanish. There must be literally a dozen publishing houses that specialize in textbooks and learning materials for adults. The great thing is that this material is keyed to the CEFR levels, unlike most teach-yourself stuff. I even found a method that designed for one-on-one private adult classes at the B2-B1 level:

https://www.difusion.com/catalogo/metodos/adultos/de-tu-a-tu
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby garyb » Thu Aug 25, 2016 4:41 pm

garyb wrote:A few weeks I came across a site, through a Facebook ad, that offered online tutoring in Spanish and French with a monthly subscription model: you pay $150 per month and you can take unlimited lessons. Sounds expensive, but if you were doing a few lessons per week it could well work out cheaper than iTalki. Plus they claimed that the tutors were hand-picked, as opposed to the iTalki system where anybody can teach, which in theory at least means you have more chance of finding competent and reliable tutors. It seemed ideal for situations like this where somebody wants to do intense work over a short period with a clear goal, at least if it lives up to the marketing.

Unfortunately I can't find it any more or remember the name: either it's disappeared or their SEO isn't any good. Maybe someone else knows?


In case anybody is wondering, I came across the site again: Rype. The pricing has changed a bit since last time I looked. I find their marketing a bit hard to trust, but the idea is good.
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby LadyGrey1986 » Thu Aug 25, 2016 10:25 pm

I think this article makes a lot of good points:

http://www.speakinglatino.com/why-you-w ... -for-free/
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Corrections welcome in any language :)

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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby Seneca » Fri Aug 26, 2016 7:45 am

Cainntear wrote:
Stefan wrote:The point I was trying to make is that you spend a lot of hours (I believe MT is about 21 hours) listening and afterwards I wasn't sure what I really knew. I felt like I lacked the fundamental grammar tables that you can get from any textbook at a glance. It's been a few years since I went through the course so it's possible that my memory is clouded by the frustration I felt at the time.

That's the interesting thing -- it teaches you a lot, but doesn't do it in as conscious a way as most courses. There's something reassuring about explicit grammar tables, because it's a thing you can point at and say "I know that," but there's a big difference between being able to describe a language point and being able to use it. Thomas goes straight for the latter, and if you're used to being able to list "what I know" then you're going to be uncomfortable with it.

Cainntear, you seem to be a big proponent of the Michel Thomas method, or at least the original versions made by the man himself. I had a few questions for you.

1) Have you looked at the Language Transfer Spanish course, and how do you think it stacks up to the MT one?

2) What is your general approach to how a language newbie should learn a language? Maybe I have just missed it, but I've never seen your full-on approach to how you'd suggest someone learning Spanish, for example, should go about it.
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby Marais » Wed Aug 31, 2016 11:24 am

I think it's impossible.

If it was me in your situation, i would defer for a year. Then it will be easy.

You need time to let your head assimilate and process the language, and it's not possible to get to B1 in that amount of time, not unless you can blag the test anyway. Or unless you can get to the country and spend 8+ hours a day with native speakers. Then you can do it.

You can learn to read Spanish in 3 months, you could learn passable spoken skills in 3 months, but there's no way you can do that and hear the language at native spoken speed unless you're an experienced language learner and/or have very closely related languages already.

I think even the FSI/DLI people (smart people, selected on successful aptitude testing) take 6 months of full time (8+ hours a day) study with a native speaker speaking only the target language to get to B2/C1. And some of them fail to make the grade.

Just take the extra year and it will be a doddle with 4+ hours a day of study.

As i think i've said before on here, i know a girl who got plonked in Spanish school, in Spain as a kid, and was functionally fluent in 6 months. But she spent 12+ hours a day speaking nothing but Spanish with her Spanish friends and it still took her 2/3 months to become comfortable with what she was hearing.
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby Cavesa » Wed Aug 31, 2016 12:44 pm

Marais wrote:You can learn to read Spanish in 3 months, you could learn passable spoken skills in 3 months, but there's no way you can do that and hear the language at native spoken speed unless you're an experienced language learner and/or have very closely related languages already.


You don't need to understand at the natural speed at level B1, or to really non-standard language. Actually, the listening tasks at this level are not supposed to be that hard. Ad for the purposes of the exam, there are usually several kinds of tasks that get used over and over and the preparatory books are a great lead in this area.

But still, it is possible to get such high listening skills in a month by the way, even with other skills at A1-A2, which is what I had done a few years ago before a student exchange. Listening won't be the main trouble, I'd say writing could be.

A year at 4 hours per day? Too much for a B1 goal, but I agree that 3 months is a very tight and hard deadline. The thing is the OP can't wait, obviously a huge opportunity arose, requiring getting the exam now, and he took it. I would say the ideal from zero to B1 would be a year at a leisure pace (not 4 hours per day), or half a year of rather intensive, yet still not entirely suicidal learning routine.

I am curious whether we'll here from the OP in November. I hope so.
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Marais
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby Marais » Wed Aug 31, 2016 1:10 pm

Cavesa wrote:
Marais wrote:You can learn to read Spanish in 3 months, you could learn passable spoken skills in 3 months, but there's no way you can do that and hear the language at native spoken speed unless you're an experienced language learner and/or have very closely related languages already.


You don't need to understand at the natural speed at level B1, or to really non-standard language. Actually, the listening tasks at this level are not supposed to be that hard. Ad for the purposes of the exam, there are usually several kinds of tasks that get used over and over and the preparatory books are a great lead in this area.

But still, it is possible to get such high listening skills in a month by the way, even with other skills at A1-A2, which is what I had done a few years ago before a student exchange. Listening won't be the main trouble, I'd say writing could be.

A year at 4 hours per day? Too much for a B1 goal, but I agree that 3 months is a very tight and hard deadline. The thing is the OP can't wait, obviously a huge opportunity arose, requiring getting the exam now, and he took it. I would say the ideal from zero to B1 would be a year at a leisure pace (not 4 hours per day), or half a year of rather intensive, yet still not entirely suicidal learning routine.

I am curious whether we'll here from the OP in November. I hope so.

Well ok, let's say you can pass the exam in 3 months, but you won't be 'real' B1 level. You might be certified but you still wouldn't be anything close to comfortable in the language.

As soon as you go on the street you will be bamboozled.

And i don't believe it's possible to get 'real' B1 listening in a month. Recorded, sterile, rehearsed, textbook conversations can be done in a month, but on very narrow topics like the time, taking the train and all that fake stuff. It's not possible. The brain needs time, and a month isn't long enough. Unless of course it's something like Spanish-Portuguese, Italian-Spanish or Norwegian-Swedish.

With the real language you still wouldn't cut it. Plenty of kids in the UK have A* GCSE/A-Level in a language and can't even order firewood over the phone, give directions or return an unwanted item in their TL in real life. FWIW, i think GCSE is A2/B1.

And if he needs the language for his degree i'm assuming he will come a cropper if he's only passed an exam and doesn't really know the language too well?
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s_allard
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby s_allard » Wed Aug 31, 2016 1:23 pm

As was explained earlier in the thread, it is certainly possible to achieve a B1 level in two or three months, if one is willing to put the effort and the MONEY into it. At the rate of around 190 euros an hour a teacher of German has a success rate of 97% for the B1 exam in two months. I would think it is even easier in Spanish. The goal here is to pass the exam, it's not to have long fascinating conversations with native speakers or read great literature in the language. I don't see big problem unless this learner is trying to do this all alone with the Michel Thomas method.
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby WalkingAlone13 » Wed Aug 31, 2016 1:35 pm

[/quote]
With the real language you still wouldn't cut it. Plenty of kids in the UK have A* GCSE/A-Level in a language and can't even order firewood over the phone, give directions or return an unwanted item in their TL in real life. FWIW, i think GCSE is A2/B1.

And if he needs the language for his degree i'm assuming he will come a cropper if he's only passed an exam and doesn't really know the language too well?[/quote]

Assuming this is delineating the UK, then although GCSE is approximated to be A2/B1 I believe it may it possibly measured differently. I was told that I had to be around the same level (at least GCSE) before taking German at university. I worked very hard over a couple of months, completing all of the Pimsleur courses, well, 1 - 4, I didn't have access to 5. I completed all of the Michel Thomas courses, I did as much as was possible of DW at the time, finished the audio courses available on DW. I spent 2 hours+ on Memrise every day, and by the time it came to being tested, I passed the entry requirements without much trouble.
I was still concerned as I figured things were only going to get harder, my course mates had completed a GCSE and some an A level in German. I was accepted but I knew I was going to be nowhere near their level. After starting my studies, it quickly became apparent that although everyone else had far more time behind them, it didn't necessarily mean they were actually A2/B1 by any means. In fact, throughout the year I was consistently within the top three scorers regarding my class.

I definitely believe it to be possible to make the entry requirements for the university if the OP is diligent enough, which from reading the first post, the enjoyment and the necessity level, is definitely visible.
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