FSI French - when to move on?

[kimmitt]

Hi all

I'm currently working through a number of resources, including FSI French and I wanted to get some advice from someone who has worked with it.

I'm on module 9 and the practice drills for 'object pronouns' is huge - in full, it's nearly an hour of drills. I've not been able to do it all in one go - I divided it up into two 30 minute files. I've been through them a few times and, although I'm getting most of the answers right, I'm not yet at 100%. Should I keep going until my responses are perfect? Or move on to the next exercise when I'm at, say, 90%?

Some of the errors are (I think) caused by the audio quality - e.g. hearing a 'les' as a 'le' when there are no other contextual clues in the sentence and responding on that basis. But even if I strip those errors out, I'm still not quite getting everything.

Thanks all

[Language patzer]

This is a very interesting question.

I have only just started with the FSI french basic course. Although I really like it, its sheer volume is scary. I also wonder the same as you. I am asking myself if I should change courses before it's too late!

Yes, how do you deal with all that volume of information?

[iguanamon]

Should I keep going until my responses are perfect? Or move on to the next exercise when I'm at, say, 90%?

I'll preface this with I have not done FSI French, nor am I learning French. I have worked through two DLI Basic Courses with plenty of drills. The drills are there to reinforce your learning. They give you more exposure and repetition, which is lacking in other courses. The main thing is not getting bogged down and stopping your progress. My advice, do the best you can. Don't worry about 100%. If you get 90-95% correct, move on. You will see this stuff again throughout the course. As long as you keep going after having sufficiently mastered each unit, you'll be ok. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

[willcouchman]

I second what Iguanamon said.

I spent a long time studying Arabic with Wallace Erwin's 'basic course in Iraqi Arabic' which is very similar to an FSI course. I spent so much time trying to 'overlearn' and restudy the same material until I got it perfect that I ended up frequently grinding to a halt over tricky bits, and would run out of momentum and then stop.

I recently switched to a different course (and admittedly more Assimil-esque methodology) that encourages moving on and moving forward as long as you are getting the majority right, as words and concepts will be repeated. In a matter of weeks with this new method, I've made more progress than I did in several years of periodic practice with the FSI style (which I adore by the way) as with the latter I didn't keep moving on.

If you're getting 90% right on something, move on - keep the momentum up!

Will

[jmar257]

Should I keep going until my responses are perfect? Or move on to the next exercise when I'm at, say, 90%?

I'll preface this with I have not done FSI French, nor am I learning French. I have worked through two DLI Basic Courses with plenty of drills. The drills are there to reinforce your learning. They give you more exposure and repetition, which is lacking in other courses. The main thing is not getting bogged down and stopping your progress. My advice, do the best you can. Don't worry about 100%. If you get 90-95% correct, move on. You will see this stuff again throughout the course. As long as you keep going after having sufficiently mastered each unit, you'll be ok. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Exactly what I came to say (having done FSI Spanish myself, and starting French Basic soon). I was actually thinking "Don't let perfect be the enemy of good" before I saw it in your post. I know for me if I were to stress and try to get it perfect that over time I would grow to not look forward to doing the lessons and the course would become a slog. That isn't to say I never revisited sections, or that as soon as it becomes work I give up (because then I'd never do FSI in the first place), but there's a balance to be struck. Wanting to be so perfect that you never actually get through the course defeats the purpose to me. This is a hobby for me and I want it to be enjoyable overall while still making progress, so if I'm getting too stressed over it I know I'm doing something wrong.