80Percent wrote:I'm currently learning using a few materials and think each has an important place in my learning but i'm definitely running into an issue b/c of my multiple sources, mainly that i have competing materials and only so much time in a week.
For example.
I'm using a textbook (Integrated Chinese) and going along systematically. 1 page at at time, doing all the exercises, doing my own exercises and trying to internalize the grammar points one by one. New vocab and grammar points every page. I need to learn them obviously, in order to move through. I consider my textbook to be my main resource and try to give it priority.
But I also use ChinesePod to help with my listening. Which means more new vocabulary that i need to learn to understand the lesson. (I do 1-2 of these a week). And of course, since i'm A1, a lot of the grammar and vocab is new, so that means more grammar points, phrases, etc to learn there too. There's some overlap, but not really.
Then i have my apps that i use during downtime and of course, different grammar points and vocabulary. Not too big a deal, but i do find the testing apps helpful and don't want to lose those either.
I try to do my textbook and Chinese pod on different days. Any tips on how to use multiple sources without getting inundated?
(bonus question: Where the heck do i put Pimsleur in all this?!)
If I do use more than one resource concurrently
*, I stick to using resources that don't overlap that well allowing me to work on different areas, but all still at the appropriate level of difficulty so that I have a good chance at making progress without getting unduly frustrated. I also cap the resources in concurrent use for a language at three (with four being exceptional) because it forces me to cycle through them within 10 days. If I had more than three resources in the rotation for a given language, then I'd end up going about 2 or 3 weeks between times when using each resource (even 10 days between sessions seems long, but for the last several years I've been studying or working on from 2 to 4 languages concurrently and so I have to do some work with a language for about 45 minutes every day or two to keep the pace, vacations excepted. However I'm not as disciplined as Expugnator who keeps a log of the time spent each day on his languages. I just pick up my stuff and go for as long as I can, whether I'm on the couch or bus). This also means that I rarely use other resources such as Pimsleur (too expensive, and too dumbed-down for me compared to DLI Headstart or the first level of an old basic course from FSI) or online courses/videos (too easy to get distracted) when I want to "learn" in my old-fashioned, offline way because of time contraints and/or urge not to go too long between sessions using a resource.
For German, I'm currently using:
1)
Main textbook: Geschäftliche Begegnungen B1+ - conventional textbook focused on business German with lots of writing and reading exercises and a CD with recordings of a few listening exercises
2)
Secondary textbook: Menschen im Beruf - Bewerbungstraining A2+/B1 - somewhat specialized textbook focused on basic German useful when applying for a job with lots of exercises (albeit some are meant for a class) and a CD with recordings of a few exercises
3)
Special resource: Hallo! Wortschatztraining für Deutsch als Zweitsprache B1 - specialized textbook of exercises to build vocabulary including some audio-based ones
I can also draw on several dictionaries (English <> German, and German-only) and Hammer's reference manual on grammar, but as reference material these don't count for me as "resources".
With the main textbook I expect this resource to meet my demands to increase my knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, as well as improve my overall skill level. The secondary textbook is just that, and it has to be distinct enough from the main textbook so that I don't get bored while using it. In this case, the focus on German for a specific area of business (i.e. applying for a job, writing CVs and cover letters, talking about your experience, abilities and/or professional intentions/plans) keeps my mind going. The main textbook tackles business German in general, and only parts of a couple of chapters deal with job-hunting. The special resource comes into play here because I feel very much that my active word stock is far smaller than it should be. It's distinct from the other resources not just in content, but also in approach (i.e. it's a drill-book for German vocabulary from many spheres rather than a textbook of business German). As a bonus, a set of exercises in the drill-book is short, and I can finish one within half an hour. I can't say the same about working on a sub-section in the other two books, but that's OK.
The only characteristics that these resources share are that they're at somewhat similar levels of difficulty (A2+ to B1+), and that they're in German only.
For Italian, I'm currently using:
1)
Main textbook: Italian Demystified** - conventional textbook with some exercises, decent notes on grammar, and some audio (which I don't use very much because of better alternatives below)
2)
Secondary textbook: BBC Talk Italian 2*** - something like a hybrid of a phrasebook and textbook for beginners with very short explanations of grammar and small amounts of touristy vocabulary taught per chapter but the relatively generous amount of audio in Italian contains a lot of exercises in listening comprehension.
3)
Special resource: DLI Headstart Italian - audio-heavy crash course to compensate for the relative lack of guided speaking practice I get with the preceding two books.
I can also draw on a couple of dictionaries (English <> Italian) and the grammar manuals "Soluzioni! A Practical Guide to Italian Grammar" and "Berlitz Italian Grammar Handbook" yet as reference material this doesn't count for me as "resources".
I expect again that using the main textbook will help the most in building my grasp of grammar and a stock of basic vocabulary. I found out early on though that
Italian Demystified was a little short on exercises despite having good explanations of grammar. I used
Painless Italian by the same author, and apart from compelling me to spend more time on Italian, I did find it helpful to have two main textbooks.
Painless Italian is marketed to beginners like
Italian Demystified but has a lot more writing exercises and is meant for teenagers as opposed to adults like the latter. Despite my occasional annoyance at the somewhat chatty explanations of grammar and content suitable for a pre-teen in
Painless Italian, I got a lot out of it since the extra exercises reinforced the content of
Italian Demystified.
BBC Talk Italian 2 as the secondary textbook keeps my interest especially because it allows me to develop my listening comprehension skills, which is not the focus of my other resources. The chapters are also short enough that I can finish one in about 45 minutes, and so get some sense of accomplishment as I move along with it. Lastly,
DLI Headstart Italian gets me used to hearing and speaking simple Italian, and a good way to pass the time on the commute to work (each lesson lasts about half an hour ranging from listening to and repeating sentences in the short dialogues to doing substitution, transformation or translation drills based on that dialogue).
Like the German material, the only characteristics that these Italian resources share are that they're at almost the same level of difficulty (up to CEFR A2), and they use English as the intermediary language.
*(by "resource" I mean actual stuff with lessons or exercises as I ALWAYS start learning a language with at least one actual course/textbook (and supplements such as a workbook and/or audio, if included) and at least one "medium" dictionary (one with about 50,000 headwords/entries give or take between the target language and an intermediary one))
**I had been using
Painless Italian concurrently until I completed it several weeks ago.
***I finished
BBC Talk Italian 1 several weeks ago.
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My current work with German and Italian reflects quite ideal conditions showing not just confidence in my learning techniques, but how the languages' popularity intrinsic to their comprising part of the FIGS-bloc means that I have a decent chance of finding resources that suit me. With other languages there're no such advantages. An extreme example is when I was learning Northern Saami from scratch like how I've been doing the same with Italian. Then my main textbook was the Finnish edition of the
Davvin series, and my only dictionary was one for Finnish<>Northern Saami. There wasn't anything comparable for Northern Saami like
BBC Talk or
DLI Headstart to let me practice listening to or speaking basic Northern Saami respectively, nor could I reinforce what I was learning with
Davvin with another course or consult any reliable reference material for the language beyond that dictionary of Finnish <> Northern Saami. On the plus side, I at least had the CDs accompanying
Davvin. Beyond all of that, I was learning with material published in Finnish - an intermediary language in which I wasn't (and still am not) especially strong.
When it comes to the other languages that I've studied, I've never had it as good as with German and Italian (excepting perhaps Korean). It's true that there's more material for English-speakers to learn Turkish, Polish or Finnish, as examples, compared to Northern Saami, but the embarrassingly large amount of resources available for German and Italian makes it easy to devise a workable learning plan for those languages (just guard against getting more resources than you can handle!), not to mention find something that's specific to learners' needs and/or interests. In particular, I've never seen anything comparable to my textbooks/courses for business German in languages outside the bubbles of FIGS or CJK (i.e.
Chinese/Mandarin,
Japanese,
Korean).