Your Advice about this German Study Plan, Bitte?!

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Le Baron
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Re: Your Advice about this German Study Plan, Bitte?!

Postby Le Baron » Fri Jun 03, 2022 2:17 pm

Yet Teach Yourself also uses English as the base language right? Or are there other versions? In any case I'd agree that anyone learning can best use resources that employ their native language if possible or those that use a simplified version of the target language to teach.

I admit I hadn't considered whether or not Pimsleur is also produced for the target languages and base languages other than English. It's not something I swear by as a course, but it was useful for German. I did a lot of my German learning using Dutch language materials as the base language, but also some English, as well as stuff entirely in the TL in Germany.

I also started using French-Dutch materials when I lived in the south of Belgium, that was what was given to me, Though I found the jump between them absurd when it felt more natural to go between English-Dutch. So I got the Hugo course.
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german2k01
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Re: Your Advice about this German Study Plan, Bitte?!

Postby german2k01 » Sat Jun 04, 2022 3:23 pm

Le Baron,

Did you also attend a formal course in Germany if my memory serves me right? I think it was in Köln? What was your level when you attended such a course and at what level did you keep attending classes in German?
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Re: Your Advice about this German Study Plan, Bitte?!

Postby Le Baron » Sat Jun 04, 2022 11:56 pm

german2k01 wrote:Le Baron,

Did you also attend a formal course in Germany if my memory serves me right? I think it was in Köln? What was your level when you attended such a course and at what level did you keep attending classes in German?

I could do passably basic German. Not long chats, but normal stuff like going to the shops, catching the bus, asking/answering basic queries and talking a bit. I went and sat an intake examination (much like one I also did for Dutch) and then they put me into a group which started halfway through what I'd estimate to be A2/B1 sort of class. I was in that for about 3 weeks to a month, then I shifted into an upper intermediate class with a smaller group and stayed there for about 3 months, until I sat the four exams.

No-one actually talked about CEFR levels there, they were never mentioned. It seems to be only in the last 15 or so years that they're more widely employed as a measure. By far the most valuable part was being guided and urged in oral output.
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Re: Your Advice about this German Study Plan, Bitte?!

Postby german2k01 » Sun Jun 05, 2022 11:59 am

I was in that for about 3 weeks to a month, then I shifted into an upper intermediate class with a smaller group and stayed there for about 3 months, until I sat the four exams.


Did your teacher encourage you to join that upper intermediate class? or was it your decision?
What other activities did you do apart from attending formal classes? Did you do homework or read books ?
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Re: Your Advice about this German Study Plan, Bitte?!

Postby Le Baron » Sun Jun 05, 2022 1:53 pm

german2k01 wrote:Did your teacher encourage you to join that upper intermediate class? or was it your decision?
What other activities did you do apart from attending formal classes? Did you do homework or read books ?

Automatically moved to that class with a few others. I suppose the first class was to gauge everyone's current abilities. Though we all actually learned stuff.

Even before going there I was reading various books. Including those deliberately made for adult learners, from the library. Any attempted 'ordinary' novels or non-fiction, I opened the book and looked for those with larger print and nice spacing. Some young adult books, or compiled 'readers'. Anything. None of it 'intensive' reading or Listen-Read or any of these things discussed here. Just getting the book, reading it the best I could and then getting another. I'd done two self-study courses before having classes: Hugo and a Prisma course, and was already forcing myself to interact in public. I'm not afraid of making language mistakes in public.
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Re: Your Advice about this German Study Plan, Bitte?!

Postby german2k01 » Sun Jun 05, 2022 2:36 pm

Since you were reading books I believe that you had better passive skills than active ones so I presume you did not do well on the grammar or written parts during your entrance exam so you were put in A2/B1 level.

Just a side question - did you interact a lot with your teacher? or just showed up in a class, listened to the teacher, did the exercises diligently, and left for home? Did you do anything extraordinary in order to derive benefits from attending such language classes?
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Re: Your Advice about this German Study Plan, Bitte?!

Postby Le Baron » Sun Jun 05, 2022 3:21 pm

german2k01 wrote:Since you were reading books I believe that you had better passive skills than active ones so I presume you did not do well on the grammar or written parts during your entrance exam so you were put in A2/B1 level.

I don't know how that can be answered. Grammar was actually the least problematic part of the intake exam. I already worked on this in self-study. It was a written exam plus a short oral assessment. I scored 78% on the written without even preparing anything. It was oral production that was lacking and this wasn't necessarily vocab or grammar knowledge, just lack of 'graded' interaction. By which I mean being able to interact without always being thrown into the very deep end. Lack of interaction in general where you get the chance to get comfortable with use in real situations.
german2k01 wrote:Just a side question - did you interact a lot with your teacher? or just showed up in a class, listened to the teacher, did the exercises diligently, and left for home? Did you do anything extraordinary in order to derive benefits from attending such language classes?

You can't not interact with the teacher. These were interactive lessons where every student was addressed regarding the topics we were covering. Also it often turned into classroom discussions among students, managed by the instructor. So this was oral discussion of grammar points, oral discussion of words and points of culture, idioms, and trailing off into just general discussion. There was one short written test a week, plus written homework for pretty much every day. I attended 4-5 days a week in the evening. I also spent time in their computer labs on the language courses on the computers, with tutors walking about who could be consulted. Plus we often went to a pool or snooker hall or for a drink, so it wasn't just turning up, sitting there like a drone and listening to someone talk, then going home.
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Re: Your Advice about this German Study Plan, Bitte?!

Postby german2k01 » Sun Jun 05, 2022 6:11 pm

It seems to me like you were there a long time ago. So how did you review newly encountered vocabulary in German when there was no srs software like Anki and such? Old fashioned paper flashcards?
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Re: Your Advice about this German Study Plan, Bitte?!

Postby Le Baron » Sun Jun 05, 2022 6:35 pm

german2k01 wrote:It seems to me like you were there a long time ago. So how did you review newly encountered vocabulary in German when there was no srs software like Anki and such? Old fashioned paper flashcards?

If 17 years is a long time ago, yes. I've never used flashcards until very recently with Anki. There are plenty people on this site who learned languages without Anki or flashcards.
I used a limited number of paper ones once in the past to help memorise the Esperanto question words. For several languages, as I've mentioned before, I've used the simple, low-tech process of reading books/listening and noting down words in an exercise book, which I then review. Also using the old school way of covering up one side with a piece of card. You learn words by reading/hearing them, then looking (some of them) them up and then reading/hearing them again. And most of all by using them. Repetition.
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Re: Your Advice about this German Study Plan, Bitte?!

Postby german2k01 » Sun Jun 05, 2022 6:57 pm

Did your spoken fluency improve over the course of months when you were attending classes? Did you notice any noticeable improvement?
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