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Question -- Time per Unit

PostPosted: April 26th, 2010, 1:49 pm
by sfishman
Hey Guys,
First, thanks to the organizers for this amazing site. This is becoming indispensable resource for me, as I'm learning Hebrew using the FSI Hebrew Basic course. I'm currently on unit 1.1, however :D .
My question is how long should I spend on each Basic Conversation? I have spent around 2 hours reading and rereading and listening. I still can't say the whole thing without pause from memory. Should I keep going with the Basic Convo or should I move on to the next? What is the general timeframe for one of them? How about a whole unit?

Thanks,
Sam

Re: Question -- Time per Unit

PostPosted: April 27th, 2010, 4:34 pm
by VagabondPilgrim
The standard method at FSI is what is called "over-learning". In other words, you drill over and over again until your response is automatic.

Having said that, don't be afraid to adapt the course to your needs. For instance, I have often been guilty of moving through a set of units a little faster than was intended, but with the intention of going back over them again later to "cement" them in my mind. It helps me with motivation because I often find that some areas that were particularly troublesome to me come much easier after I've been away from them for awhile.

Hope that helps,
-VP

Re: Question -- Time per Unit

PostPosted: April 27th, 2010, 7:57 pm
by sfishman
Thanks for your response. So basically what I'm getting is that 3 or 4 hours for a Basic Conversation is totally normal. It makes perfect sense -- if you actually want to speak to others like you would in English, your responses NEED to be automatic.

Thanks again for the site, its one of my favorites.