My concerns about FSI course...

[stranger0546]

nin2 hao3! (don't ask how stupid writing that made me feel)

Hello, I am probably the newest member here. So greetings from Finland, to everyone.

I have been thinking about starting to use the FSI method for studying chinese, but I do have a few concerns, and I woould be more than grateful to get some feedback.

First of all, since I wanted to have a little peak at the way the FSI works, I checked the finnish courses (that being my first learned language...), and it was just amazing. I mean it was so utterly and completely stupid it just made my day I mean I actually spotted some pretty wicked sentence patterns considering word orders and other practical points that - even though they are valid and grammatically correct - you wouldn't catch anyone on this side of the asylum fences saying things like that (and I should know, I've been on the both sides ;). Plus they really sound monotonous when talking. I know finnish language is pretty monotonous, but I never thought it would be THAT monotonous

Thus my questions; is the FSI chinese course also that outdated? How practical the course would be if I applied the sentence patterns from it directly to my speach? If the course is very outdated, wouldn't it actually be quite dangerous (it could quite easily encode into your brains sentence patterns that are practically just plain wrong, wouldn't it...)?

And also how good is the pronunciation, I do assume that they are native speakers speaking... But do they sound like they are believable, or is it like something you would expect to hear from a person who had been isolated in pitch black room for eight+ years with the only outside interference being receiving lunch?

Thank you for your time,

Now I must go for my daily walking routine... Hopefully someone has answered by the time I get back

(sorry if this was double posted... got some problems with my computer at the moment...)

[DrZero]

I have no idea ... I tried a lesson or two of FSI Mandarin, but it was so boring I quit. But I did want to say, I liked your reference to a person sitting in a dark room for eight years ... it sounded an awfully lot like a reference to Papillion ...