Wednesday, October 13, 2004, 11:20 GMT
first of all, great site. it's very inspiring to read about successful language learners and their proven methods.
i'm just starting to attempt german seriously. i have supermemo, bi and monolingual dictionaries, several 'easy reader' books from beginner to advanced, the first german rosetta stone set, and the first set of pimsleur tapes.
i'm very interested in the methods discussed on this site, particularly when it comes to reading books and adding items to supermemo. i just have a few questions about how i might start along this path as a beginner. this site, and the info regarding supermemo in particular, seems to assume a basic knowledge of the target language. i'm after some opinions on how i should start building that base. for example, should i start reading my easy reader books (starting from the beginner ones, of course) and look up every single word i come across that i'm unfamiliar with? obviously, as a beginner, i'm going to be looking up almost every word. it will be time consuming, but i have no problem doing it if that's an ok way to start building up that basic knowledge which supermemo can then reinforce for me. secondly, should i start using 'sentence-items' right away? the examples of sentence-items i've read usually contain an interesting phrase or word usage that would be more appropriate for an intermediate learner. how would i effectively use sentence-items when i'm just starting out? i was thinking that it might be better to start adding 'definition-word' items with example sentences in the answer field. but i'm not sure. that's why i would like some advice.
thanks.
i'm just starting to attempt german seriously. i have supermemo, bi and monolingual dictionaries, several 'easy reader' books from beginner to advanced, the first german rosetta stone set, and the first set of pimsleur tapes.
i'm very interested in the methods discussed on this site, particularly when it comes to reading books and adding items to supermemo. i just have a few questions about how i might start along this path as a beginner. this site, and the info regarding supermemo in particular, seems to assume a basic knowledge of the target language. i'm after some opinions on how i should start building that base. for example, should i start reading my easy reader books (starting from the beginner ones, of course) and look up every single word i come across that i'm unfamiliar with? obviously, as a beginner, i'm going to be looking up almost every word. it will be time consuming, but i have no problem doing it if that's an ok way to start building up that basic knowledge which supermemo can then reinforce for me. secondly, should i start using 'sentence-items' right away? the examples of sentence-items i've read usually contain an interesting phrase or word usage that would be more appropriate for an intermediate learner. how would i effectively use sentence-items when i'm just starting out? i was thinking that it might be better to start adding 'definition-word' items with example sentences in the answer field. but i'm not sure. that's why i would like some advice.
thanks.