My enthusiastic start calmed down a bit, since I have been busy with other things (such as translating my website Venla.info into Russian). I wished I could have reached a notable level in couple of months, but I haven't really studied anything for a month.
I have now listened trough the first 6 lessons if Pimsleur and first 2 cd's of Michel Thomas. I must say, that there's a big difference between those 2, and I strongly prefer Michel Thomas over Pimsleur. Pimsleur has lot's of basic vocabulary and phrases, but it's very mechanical. MT explains things more and gives you simple rules to understand things. For example, that the infinitive and plural are similar (for example "helpen" -> "Wij helpen"). I also had problems in the beginning, because Pimsleur used the formal "you" (u) and Michel Thomas the informal (je). I think the informal "je" here is more justified, since it's more widely used ( I think Dutch people are quite informal, just like Finn and Swede, and unlike French and German).
Pimsleur has this one formula developed by the inventor Paul Pimsleur. It was first used to teach French, and now it has been replicated to create identical study material for ~50 other languages. The method itself is quite ok, but like I said, it's very mechanical and it doesn't pay attention to the differences between languages (also, it haven't been culturally adjusted; I haven't listened the Arabic tapes, but suppose it doesn't have phrases like how to ask an Arabic woman if she want's to have beer or wine). I think Pimsleur is at it's best, when you use it as a drill. You can listen to the tapes when you wash the dishes.
I also tried Livemochas material. It's even more mechanical, and has many problems, since it's mostly user generated content. But's it's free and still a good way to practice vocabulary.
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti