FSI (Barron's): Foreign Language Learning Series Reviews

Alexander Arguelles presents a series of video reviews and demonstrations of those foreign language learning series that he has found most useful in his own studies. For further information about the series, please refer to http://www.foreignlanguageexpertise.com/

Category:

Education

Tags:

• polyglottery
• polyglots
• foreign
• language
• learning
• FSI
• Foreign
• Service
• Institute
• Barron's
• Mastering

[daconmiked]

One more question about fsi , Do these books , old ones , also teach grammer and wrting and reading and do these old one's you've displayed come with audio cassttee ? Thank you so much and nothing but the best for you .

[ProfASAr]

@daconmiked Generally, yes they do teach grammar, but each course is different, and some are far more systematic than others. They are all in the public domain and can be downloaded, with audio, from fsi-language-courses . org

[Jonzwelet]

Are the Barron's courses exactly the same as the original FSI courses?

[ProfASAr]

All the Barron's books I have ever seen have been exact reproductions of the government manuals, just reduced to a usefully portable size, and in price as well. I believe they may have added cultural information, in English, on some of the recordings.

[redcav97]

From a current FSI employee:

1. FSI abandoned the old courses and their accompanying methodology years ago. Many language sections use modern commercial texts in their place.

2. The courses were written principally for training Foreign Service Officers, although they were surely used for other purposes.

3. The language used in all of the courses is outdated and in many cases inappropriate or even offensive. Be careful which lines you practice!

4. Don't pay for them if you don't have to!

[MissLadyboy007]

I downloaded several languages and the look very good and highly detailed. I didn't download any tapes as considering the source and the time they were made those tapes are probably full of CIA subliminal message: 'Commies are all Godless automatons' , and 'Capitalism is the only way'. and 'I love America and will do everything my country asks of me.' lol

[watsonjennifer]

If Barron's is basically the same as the original, why don't people just use the original? Is there a disadvantage? I was going to use Barron's from a friend but they only have 11/12 CDs so perhaps I should just stick to the original FSI website.

[peterjojo32]

I downloaded several kind of foreign language learner but this one is very much helpful and great tool to learn fast...very good presentation style...keep it up..Thanks for this service and support.

[leeantony]

@USStateSponTerrorism ¿Dónde está la farmacia? is totally correct in Spanish. One can also say it the other way. Both are common and neither is better than the other. 

[Marceki111]

I actually got 40 CDs for the Portuguese courses (23 for Level 1 and 17 for Level 2)

[bergulometro]

does anyone have an idea how many words a FSI course can teach you? I mean, I know that average Assimil courses can teach you up to 2000/3000 words (which I consider as a good basis), would a FSI course allow you to learn more or less words than that? thanks!

[Marceki111]

Yes, I *am* actually going to use the Programmatic Portuguese course as designed (being drilled by the CDs in this case because Multilingual Books transferred tapes to CDs)

15 CDs for Level 1 + 17 CDs for Level 2 = 32 CDs.

[SalvadorianThunder]

@USStateSponTerrorism In latin american spanish all those sentences you mentioned are ok.

[christopheclugston]

@Jonzwelet Barrons doesn't put out the full courses. For more information I did a vid about FSI speak like a diplomat

[surrected4526]

The FSI French Phonology suits me perfectly. The drills are necessarily effective given my particular learning style. What may be boring to many, is rather meditative and refreshing to me. In fact, I find that my pronunciation has improved significantly, and that my recall is astounding.