Glossika method

[cutegigi]

aww.. missed the discount code. Hopefully there will be a new one soon

[JustinJJ]

I'm interested in the 'triangulation' product from Glossika. Has anyone had any luck ordering a Mandarin+Cantonese set? They only have a few langages listed on that part of the website, but I presume they already have the audio as the 1000 sentences for all languages they sell are probably the same/similar.

[Lanchong]

On the main page of the website, the list of courses in progress shows "ZS Chinese Simplified" on the list. I wonder if that refers to a course with mainland vocab/pronunciation?

Has anyone had any luck ordering a Mandarin+Cantonese set?

The website says Cantonese is not available yet.

[OneEye]

On the main page of the website, the list of courses in progress shows "ZS Chinese Simplified" on the list. I wonder if that refers to a course with mainland vocab/pronunciation?

 

He said on Facebook recently that they're working on a simplified course with mainland pronunciation and usage. Smart move.

[Yadang]

In the instructions, it mentions that for learning the new sentences, you should look them over, listen to them once, and then do dictation... What is the value of doing dictation? Earlier in this thread, hedwards mentioned that "dictation is always a good idea." but I didn't see anything else on the subject...

[imron]

It helps with production.  By listening to what you've heard and then trying to write it down without any other aids, you'll build very solid skills.

[Yadang]

Do you mean you'll be able to produce writing faster and more accurately? Or do you mean the act of hearing something and writing it down from memory will help with something else?

[imron]

It will help in general with speaking too because it will ingrain that pattern in your memory much more deeply than if you had just spoken it out loud.

[ChTTay]

How long do you reckon it takes to produce one of these?

 

I was about to finally bite the bullet and buy the package ... but really I'd much prefer a mainland version.

 

I feel I need something like this sooner rather than later though.

[Yadang]

If you go to the website and scroll down far enough, you should get to "New Language Release Progress Report". It looks like right now the status of "ZS Chinese" is "Update Editing" and the bar is at 80/100. (100% is released, I think)

[Snuggles]

Is that what ZS is? Mainland Mandarin?

[querido]

Ha HAA! Cantonese-English on pre-launch sale now! Its current state is at "Preparing to Record 30" (out of 100 I think).

 

I bought it but, oops, I'm not certain that they will send me the partial product now. But it does say the links "will be sent within 24 hours". I'll let you know.

 

To Snuggles: Yes, and simplified.

 

EDIT: No download until the product is complete. :-( Well, I got the pre-launch price. :-)

[hedwards]

@imron, Glossika is great for developing listening skills, but it's rather poor for actual production skills. You learn to speak 3000 sentences and the program itself doesn't intend to include the sort of concentrated drilling that you'd need to properly develop production skills. There's a huge difference between choosing the sentence that's closes to what you want to say and making a substitution versus actual improvisation that's required for proper production.

 

It's still a course that I like, but I think you're way overselling the benefit for production skills.

[Yadang]

 

You learn to speak 3000 sentences and the program itself doesn't intend to include the sort of concentrated drilling that you'd need to properly develop production skills.

Well, the GMS method does instruct that you record yourself and listen to the recordings to try to correct them... I think that's got to do something, even though you're not a native speaker listening to it, you can still tell a lot I think.

 

 

There's a huge difference between choosing the sentence that's closes to what you want to say and making a substitution versus actual improvisation that's required for proper production.

 

 

In the intro, it talks about how the sentences are developed with substitution drills in mind, thereby teaching you not only 3000 sentences, but in doing so, trying to create a framework of different patterns upon which you can use and manipulate in your everyday speech. At least that was how I understood it... Doesn't this do a lot for production?

 

 

the program itself doesn't intend to include the sort of concentrated drilling that you'd need to properly develop production skills... It's still a course that I like, but I think you're way overselling the benefit for production skills.

If you have other suggestions of courses or ways that focus on production skills, I'd be very interested in hearing them as well.

[imron]

but it's rather poor for actual production skills.

I'm not sure how you are using it, however I have found the opposite to be true (note Glossika has many different products available and I'm talking about the GMS daily life and business products).  The level of concentrated drilling you do is also up to you.

 

If you are drilling to the point where you can record yourself saying each sentence smoothly and correctly after the first listen and without any stumbling, coupled with dictation to the point where you can hear a sentence, pause the recording, and then write it down in its entirety without needing to stop and think, then I think you'll find it builds production skills quite well (or at least I find that).

 

 

 

I think that's got to do something, even though you're not a native speaker listening to it, you can still tell a lot I think.

It does and I've been recommending recording yourself as way to improve your speaking for years.

[ChTTay]

...come on mainland edition!!!

[Crush]

I'm excited to hear there's a mainland edition in the works, i'm still working through the "Taiwan" edition but would gladly switch over to the mainland course. I ordered the Catalan course a month or so ago and they said it'd be ready in September, so i hopefully that won't be too long, either.

[hedwards]

@Yadang, imron, you could do that with any language program that includes a book. It's not something that Glossika is focused on, the main strength from the system is having a huge number of sentences available for transcription. You learn a ton of vocab in context and a default way of expressing things as well as a target to develop listening skills.

 

Production wise, you have to go way beyond what they're providing. I wouldn't personally consider you to still be using their method at that point. Additionally the book doesn't include a glossary, leaving the reader to create their own word lists for the substitutions.

 

As far as production language programs go, I have yet to see one that did a really good job beyond the very basics. The main reason being that production skills are basically impossible to judge without somebody being there to listen. If you're at a stage where parroting back stock phrases is still challenging, then there's programs for that, but if you're putting in the effort it shouldn't take too long before that's not enough. I'd personally recommend either investing the money from a program or class into one on one tutoring/teaching or engaging in a language exchange.

 

That being said, Glossika is a good source of material to use for developing production skills, but they don't really give you much to work with if you haven't studied language instruction.

[etm001]

 

 

He said on Facebook recently that they're working on a simplified course with mainland pronunciation and usage. Smart move.

Part of me feels that they should offer a discount to the early adopters who purchased the initial Mandarin/English package, which uses a native Taiwanese speaker, etc. Does anyone feel the same?

 

For what it's worth, I'm perfectly fine with the Taiwan-based version, but I wouldn't mind seeing how much (or little) the mainland-based package will differ from it.

[JustinJJ]

I think that for people out of Taiwan, the mainland version would be more useful, I can't bring myself to say the Taiwanese version of 和.

I think there would be a market for having packages with accents e.g. Beijing accent.

 

Last night I was in a sichuan restuarant in Sydney and on the next table a 老外 spoke perfect, lightning fast Beijing mandarin, the best Chinese I have ever heard a foreigner speak. My girlfriend (half Beijing Chinese) asked me to start a conversation with her to find out if she was born in Beijing (according to my girlfriend this lady's Chinese was clearly much more native than the celebrity foreigners e.g. 大山，朱力安, etc).

 

It turns out she learnt from university, had lived in Beijing over ten years and I'm guessing she's been using Chinese for 3 decades now. She said the key for her was to constantly talk to Beijing people. Perhaps in the absense of this, having glossika materials recording in a Beijing accent could be useful for training accents (other than the Taiwanese accent).