I wonder about the efficacy of something like using FSI Spanish Basic/Platiquemos in its entirety. It is a fairly substantial undertaking. Wouldn't the average student be better off doing something like using the following two resources then taking the plunge: http://www.languagetransfer.org/#!courses/c56v www.amazon.com/Spanish-Reading-A-Self-Instructional-Course/dp/0764103334/ref= This way one is forced to practice speaking (I must confess I have not used the language transfer course but am told it functions similarly to Michel Thomas, just with better pronunciation) and learns to read with a vocab level of around 2,000 words. Then start with reading real, simple books like the Harry Potter series in Spanish and reading/writing/Skyping with a penpal from online! Then the big programs that are free such as FSI can be used to fix specific problems (drilling on a particular topic you always get wrong or something). Any thoughts on why a longer, more in-depth course might be better to stick with for a longer period? I chose Spanish and these sources as a random example. Something like using Margarita Madrigal's Magic Keys to Spanish + Learn Spanish Like Crazy would also be a pairing idea. Or just using something like Karavanova's Survival Russian + something to learn vocab from for Russian, etc.... Basically, do we use too much in terms of study program emphasis as a whole?
Welcome to the forum. Take a look at the Spanish resources thread in the Language Resources forum. Intro type courses before main courses are listed there, including LSLC.
Welcome invictus! I tend to agree with you. I wrote a generic language learning plan here. In it, the earlier steps tend to be smallish. Eventually a full grammar course is recommended, but that's after a base is established.
I worked through FSI Spanish all the way up to lesson 48. (Then I came home from 6 weeks in Spain, tried to pick up where I left off, and found it actually physically painful. Ha!) For me, FSI Spanish was something that I did in addition to using a variety of resources - not instead of. I don't think you'll find a lot of people on this forum who advocate in-depth courses to the exclusion of everything else. FSI Spanish (which, for me, was "free" Spanish that I got while walking the dog) + language exchanges + novels + Destinos + Notes in Spanish + music + ??? helped me advance at a satisfactory rate. Doing only FSI would have been awful. But if I hadn't done it at all, then I wouldn't have reached automaticity with verbs and pronouns as soon as I did. Communication is the goal. FSI - and all other resources - are tools that help me get there.
I liked FSI spanish even though it's a grind because when you finally get through the excercises correctly, there a real feeling of "I got this". The main thing I felt I was lacking at the end was vocab. I needed allot more vocab. I didn't start from zero though. I think I had gone through a teach yourself and the first 8 lessons of pimsluer. And high school if that counts.
