Re: Jeffers' German, French and Hindi
Posted: Fri May 22, 2020 11:56 am
One good result of the Super Challenge is that I'm feeling the need to do more formal study in all three of my languages alongside all of the reading/watching/listening I've been doing. E.g. work on one of my textbooks or workbooks. However, I don't really want to just "dabble" because in my experience, doing the odd lesson here or there does not produce the same effect as using a resource consistently for a period of time (even as little as a week). So I'd like to pick a primary resource to use a bit every day, which could be supplemented by other resources on an ad hoc basis. However, I think I can only do this properly with one of my languages at a time.
I thought I would lay out my options so that I could see them all together and make a good choice. My intention would be to do grammar work on one language for at least 2 weeks, after which I may continue with the same or switch to one of the others.
Hindi
Assimil Hindi is an obvious choice here. I'm about halfway through, and gained a lot from using it as an advanced beginner/lower intermediate.
Teach Yourself Hindi by Rupert Snell would be another good option. Quite a good textbook and could fit the need more closely as I'm looking for a grammatical resource to support all the reading/watching/listening. I've gotten to chapter 12 or 13 of 18, and I've always meant to get it finished one day!
German
Assimil is my go to option for German as well. I've made good progress since January and would like to see it through.
Teach Yourself-- I have both Teach Yourself Beginner's German and Teach Yourself German. Maybe one of these would do the job of being a more grammar focused study alongside my Super Challenge.
Michel Thomas-- I have the full original course: Basic, Advanced, Vocabulary. I worked through the basic course 10-12 years ago, but never got into the advanced course. I could do a quick review of the basic course and then work carefully through the advanced one.
French
I have many viable choices here:
Assimil In May I started a review of French basics using the old 1950s French Without Toil, getting up to about chapter 20. It was quite good to do, but the grammar notes are incredibly brief so that wouldn't serve my current purpose. I've been considering doing a thorough review of New French with Ease, including doing an active wave at the right time. I could also just start up with Using French, but maybe not right away because what I really want is a review of the basics.
Hugo French in 3 Months is an excellent book which covers the basics quite thoroughly. When I was last using it I stopped in the middle of week 9 out of 12. At the time I was making Anki cards of all of the example sentences from week 7 onward. I definitely want to finish this some time and then move on to the advanced book.
Grammaire progressive du français (niveau intermédiaire). Despite being intermediate, it starts with beginner topics such as conjugations and adjective agreements. No doubt this is an excellent and thorough resource.
Kwiziq is something I signed up for years ago, and then tried again once a month ago. A lot of French learners on this forum really like it. The downside is that you really have to pay for a membership to get much out of it, since the free version only gives 10 free quizzes per month and I could see using that up in a couple of days. What I really like about it is that it focuses very firmly on specific skills and testing those skills. It will then recommend lessons based on your weaknesses rather than make you keep doing things you're good at.
So there it is, all laid out. I've decided to start with French, and that for the next couple of days I will give Kwiziq a good try. If I like it enough, I will consider buying a 3 months subscription (which doesn't stop me taking breaks for my other two languages).
EDIT: in part, my decision is based on the positive reviews of Kwiziq from this thread: https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=14608.
I thought I would lay out my options so that I could see them all together and make a good choice. My intention would be to do grammar work on one language for at least 2 weeks, after which I may continue with the same or switch to one of the others.
Hindi
Assimil Hindi is an obvious choice here. I'm about halfway through, and gained a lot from using it as an advanced beginner/lower intermediate.
Teach Yourself Hindi by Rupert Snell would be another good option. Quite a good textbook and could fit the need more closely as I'm looking for a grammatical resource to support all the reading/watching/listening. I've gotten to chapter 12 or 13 of 18, and I've always meant to get it finished one day!
German
Assimil is my go to option for German as well. I've made good progress since January and would like to see it through.
Teach Yourself-- I have both Teach Yourself Beginner's German and Teach Yourself German. Maybe one of these would do the job of being a more grammar focused study alongside my Super Challenge.
Michel Thomas-- I have the full original course: Basic, Advanced, Vocabulary. I worked through the basic course 10-12 years ago, but never got into the advanced course. I could do a quick review of the basic course and then work carefully through the advanced one.
French
I have many viable choices here:
Assimil In May I started a review of French basics using the old 1950s French Without Toil, getting up to about chapter 20. It was quite good to do, but the grammar notes are incredibly brief so that wouldn't serve my current purpose. I've been considering doing a thorough review of New French with Ease, including doing an active wave at the right time. I could also just start up with Using French, but maybe not right away because what I really want is a review of the basics.
Hugo French in 3 Months is an excellent book which covers the basics quite thoroughly. When I was last using it I stopped in the middle of week 9 out of 12. At the time I was making Anki cards of all of the example sentences from week 7 onward. I definitely want to finish this some time and then move on to the advanced book.
Grammaire progressive du français (niveau intermédiaire). Despite being intermediate, it starts with beginner topics such as conjugations and adjective agreements. No doubt this is an excellent and thorough resource.
Kwiziq is something I signed up for years ago, and then tried again once a month ago. A lot of French learners on this forum really like it. The downside is that you really have to pay for a membership to get much out of it, since the free version only gives 10 free quizzes per month and I could see using that up in a couple of days. What I really like about it is that it focuses very firmly on specific skills and testing those skills. It will then recommend lessons based on your weaknesses rather than make you keep doing things you're good at.
So there it is, all laid out. I've decided to start with French, and that for the next couple of days I will give Kwiziq a good try. If I like it enough, I will consider buying a 3 months subscription (which doesn't stop me taking breaks for my other two languages).
EDIT: in part, my decision is based on the positive reviews of Kwiziq from this thread: https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=14608.