Voted Best Answer
Oct 31, 2011 - 05:16 PM
Hi Jonathan. You say that you finish a lesson a day. So how many minutes/hours does it take you to complete a lesson? I'm doing the French program and found the early sessions to be pretty easy - able to finish within 1.5 to 2 hours each (not counting time for Flashcards). My progress started to slow as I moved further into the program. By the time I got to level 3, I found that not only was it was taking me 3-5 hours to finish a single lesson, but I was beginning to discover that I didn't remember the details of some of the things covered in the earlier lessons. So I went back and repeated 90 lessons. I'm just starting Level 4 and don't expect that I'll complete too many more lessons in under 3 hours.
Another reason why it's taking me longer to do the lessons is because I've made it a point now to challenge myself to memorize the dialog in each lesson and to be able to understand(hear) it completely while skipping through it very quickly and without subtitles. My focus the first time through the program was to do the exercises in the lesson exactly as they were presented to me by the program. This really helped develop my reading and writing skills. But I eventually discovered that my listening skills were significantly lagging and for me, the whole point of learning a new language is to be able to communicate verbally with others. So I've significantly changed the way I approach each lesson now, and place an emphasis on listening and speaking skills.
All of that said, I think everyone has a different experience with language learning. If you think you're able to do a lesson a day and feel like you're getting the material, I wouldn't worry about it. Enjoy the program.
Another reason why it's taking me longer to do the lessons is because I've made it a point now to challenge myself to memorize the dialog in each lesson and to be able to understand(hear) it completely while skipping through it very quickly and without subtitles. My focus the first time through the program was to do the exercises in the lesson exactly as they were presented to me by the program. This really helped develop my reading and writing skills. But I eventually discovered that my listening skills were significantly lagging and for me, the whole point of learning a new language is to be able to communicate verbally with others. So I've significantly changed the way I approach each lesson now, and place an emphasis on listening and speaking skills.
All of that said, I think everyone has a different experience with language learning. If you think you're able to do a lesson a day and feel like you're getting the material, I wouldn't worry about it. Enjoy the program.