Re: Guyome's log [LAD, LAT, MAN, OCC, PER, YID]
Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2020 6:30 pm
Persian
- Assimil lessons 43-51
- DLI lessons 1-4.
After shifting from two Assimil lessons a day to only one, I felt I needed something to fill the empty slot. The trick was to find something that would give me more practice with things I already know but wouldn't burden me with too many new vocabulary items. In the end, I went for the DLI course because it fits the bill and that's what I was planning on using after Assimil anyway. I'm not rushing throught it though, even if the material is very easy. Assimil remains my main course and DLI is there to offer more practice on the days I feel like it. There's also the fact that DLI makes me work with the informal pronunciation, which is sort of new to me, so no need to hurry.
Before that, I had looked into other courses (FSI, Persian of Iran Today,...) but DLI seems to be best suited to my preferences.
Pros
- short lessons
- not too much vocab at once
- plenty of repetition
- audio (20 min/lesson)
- comprehensive (100 lessons + a Reader)
- informal pronunciation (but one section uses formal, so the student gets both)
Cons
- no active drills
- no audio for lessons 1-18
- quality of the scans and audio is ok but not great
- small Persian font
- only one voice (even for Q&A) so it may be a bit monotonous.
I'm not too bothered by the last three items of the list. In the same way, the lack of audio for lessons 1-18 is not too much of a problem since there is a companion volume with phonetic transcription for lessons 1-38. So, it seems that the pros largely outweigh the cons and that, on paper, DLI has exactly what I look for in a course (small steps, plenty of repetition). It remains to be seen how well these endearing qualities will translate into actual learning.
A typical lesson (19-...) is made of the following sections:
1) Perception Drill (introduces new grammar through sentences)
2) Dialogue and its translation (10 Q&A)
3) Grammar explanations
4) Grammar Drills (70 sentences)
5) Reading & Questions (8/10 lines followed by 10 questions)
6) Homework
7) Vocabulary (15/25 words)
The Dialogue, Grammar drills, and Vocabulary are recorded in the informal pronunciation; the Reading is recorded in the formal pronunciation.
Lessons 1-18 are organised differently: Dialogue, Recombination, Drill Blocks, Questions. I guess they were conceived as a gentle introduction to the language, with a lot of time dedicated to pronunciation matters. There is no Grammar section, probably because there is very little grammar taught in these lessons (present tense, pronouns, possession,...). If the sentences are not enough to figure things out, there are short explanations in the companion volume.
So far so good. DLI is giving me some extra practice when I want it and there's only a couple of words I don't know in each lesson. I have 12 Assimil lessons left to reach what I chose as my last lesson (63), so the "plan" is to be done with them and DLI 1-18 around the same time. This way, DLI lessons with audio will replace Assimil in my schedule.
As far as I can see, the DLI books are not available for download at Yojik or Livelingua but they can be found at archive.org (here).
- Assimil lessons 43-51
- DLI lessons 1-4.
After shifting from two Assimil lessons a day to only one, I felt I needed something to fill the empty slot. The trick was to find something that would give me more practice with things I already know but wouldn't burden me with too many new vocabulary items. In the end, I went for the DLI course because it fits the bill and that's what I was planning on using after Assimil anyway. I'm not rushing throught it though, even if the material is very easy. Assimil remains my main course and DLI is there to offer more practice on the days I feel like it. There's also the fact that DLI makes me work with the informal pronunciation, which is sort of new to me, so no need to hurry.
Before that, I had looked into other courses (FSI, Persian of Iran Today,...) but DLI seems to be best suited to my preferences.
Pros
- short lessons
- not too much vocab at once
- plenty of repetition
- audio (20 min/lesson)
- comprehensive (100 lessons + a Reader)
- informal pronunciation (but one section uses formal, so the student gets both)
Cons
- no active drills
- no audio for lessons 1-18
- quality of the scans and audio is ok but not great
- small Persian font
- only one voice (even for Q&A) so it may be a bit monotonous.
I'm not too bothered by the last three items of the list. In the same way, the lack of audio for lessons 1-18 is not too much of a problem since there is a companion volume with phonetic transcription for lessons 1-38. So, it seems that the pros largely outweigh the cons and that, on paper, DLI has exactly what I look for in a course (small steps, plenty of repetition). It remains to be seen how well these endearing qualities will translate into actual learning.
A typical lesson (19-...) is made of the following sections:
1) Perception Drill (introduces new grammar through sentences)
2) Dialogue and its translation (10 Q&A)
3) Grammar explanations
4) Grammar Drills (70 sentences)
5) Reading & Questions (8/10 lines followed by 10 questions)
6) Homework
7) Vocabulary (15/25 words)
The Dialogue, Grammar drills, and Vocabulary are recorded in the informal pronunciation; the Reading is recorded in the formal pronunciation.
Lessons 1-18 are organised differently: Dialogue, Recombination, Drill Blocks, Questions. I guess they were conceived as a gentle introduction to the language, with a lot of time dedicated to pronunciation matters. There is no Grammar section, probably because there is very little grammar taught in these lessons (present tense, pronouns, possession,...). If the sentences are not enough to figure things out, there are short explanations in the companion volume.
So far so good. DLI is giving me some extra practice when I want it and there's only a couple of words I don't know in each lesson. I have 12 Assimil lessons left to reach what I chose as my last lesson (63), so the "plan" is to be done with them and DLI 1-18 around the same time. This way, DLI lessons with audio will replace Assimil in my schedule.
As far as I can see, the DLI books are not available for download at Yojik or Livelingua but they can be found at archive.org (here).