Answers
Oct 05, 2015 - 09:48 AM
Hey Bill, did you do all 5 Disks? Did you have to do anymore foundation work after you finished Fluenz?
Oct 05, 2015 - 11:09 AM
Congratulations to you Bill and your success with the Fluenz program! We love to hear stories like yours. Thanks so much for sharing and enjoy your time in Cuenca.
Oct 07, 2015 - 04:04 PM
@warriorfan808 - I'm not Bill, but having gone through the Spanish (LA) program myself, I wouldn't say that there was any additional foundation-level material they should have covered; the subjunctive and conditionals are important, but those are more of an intermediate topic.
I would say though that supporting activities are very helpful during and after the program. Sonia occasionally recommends additional materials in the session-ending videos, but the more you can manage the better. Studying a language will only get you so far; the things that we associate with fluency, like a good accent or automaticity (the ability to use the language without much conscious thought) come from lots and lots of practice.
While doing Level 2, I started trying to read the news and short fiction in Spanish; BBC Mundo, 20 Minutos, Readlang, and Lingua.ly are all good resources. At first I relied heavily on the pictures and an online translator, but I got a little better each time. I also listened to more Latin music and watched Spanish-language television, again with limited but gradually improving comprehension. In the later levels, I added language exchanges on italki, Lang-8, and HelloTalk, and I did a lot of reading, starting with children's books like "Charlie y la fábrica de chocolate". There is certainly some room for dedicated study beyond the program -- I spend about 10 minutes a day on vocab flashcards -- but researchers like Paul Nation would suggest that the bulk of your time be spent using the language.
I would say though that supporting activities are very helpful during and after the program. Sonia occasionally recommends additional materials in the session-ending videos, but the more you can manage the better. Studying a language will only get you so far; the things that we associate with fluency, like a good accent or automaticity (the ability to use the language without much conscious thought) come from lots and lots of practice.
While doing Level 2, I started trying to read the news and short fiction in Spanish; BBC Mundo, 20 Minutos, Readlang, and Lingua.ly are all good resources. At first I relied heavily on the pictures and an online translator, but I got a little better each time. I also listened to more Latin music and watched Spanish-language television, again with limited but gradually improving comprehension. In the later levels, I added language exchanges on italki, Lang-8, and HelloTalk, and I did a lot of reading, starting with children's books like "Charlie y la fábrica de chocolate". There is certainly some room for dedicated study beyond the program -- I spend about 10 minutes a day on vocab flashcards -- but researchers like Paul Nation would suggest that the bulk of your time be spent using the language.