Reaction to the learning experience
I'm through the 5th lesson on Level 1 so far. I started several months ago, went through a lesson a day for four days, and then got distracted by work. Like Sonia, I am the one who started my business, and I am always busy because of it. But recently, I found the red box again and had a friend inspire me to keep going. So I went to Lesson 5, which is a review (and where I left off), and was very pleased (and surprised) to discover how much I remembered from the first 4 lessons, and also was pleased to make two important learning discoveries during the review.
I don't have perfect understanding or pronunciation yet, but it is definitely impressive to me what I do understand. The biggest issues I seem to be having are being able to form the words and sentences I would speak (recalling the words), and proper pronunciation. But yesterday, while I was out, the bartender brought me unsweetened tea, and I just automatically said, "Das ist Tee ohne Zucker. Ich möchte Tee mit Zucker!" without thinking about it. (I'm pretty sure that's how it would be said correctly.) At that moment, I was really surprised and taken aback by the fact that I had just done that. Even though I was in a restaurant where I was probably the only person who knew a lick of German. The bartender certainly wasn't having any of it. But for me, it was thrilling to have been able to do even that simple thing, especially without really thinking about it.
I went through some French, Latin and Spanish in elementary, middle and high school, and the experience was painful and mostly a waste of time. I got it in my head that learning a language was dry, boring and generally something I was terrible with. I learned to expect it to be hard, to be boring, to be frustrating, and to be embarrassed to try to say anything. So when I decided I needed to learn a new language, I wanted to find the way that was going to work best for me to at least get off the ground so I could really learn. I got a copy of Rosetta as my first move, and it was fun at first, but quickly returned me to the frustrations I remembered from school. So I went online and after much research, settled on Fluenz.
It genuinely surprises me how much fun it is to learn with this system. I find myself frustrated sometimes simply because I can't do more lessons in one day, but I know that going too fast will result in not really retaining it, so I restrict myself to one lesson a day. Somehow, it's not even unpleasant to do the parts that challenge me most.
So far so good though. I'm really enjoying this, and even if it's frustrating me to try to pronounce some of these sounds properly and consistently. But I can see and feel myself advancing, surprisingly quickly, and it makes me feel like my accomplishments are spurring me on to keep going. I can see that this is going to work for me. Can't wait to do the next lesson.
To the Fluenz team: good work coming up with this methodology.
Status:
Open Dec 08, 2012 - 04:23 AM
German, German > Culture