|
 |
What constitutes an Assimil program? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| JimC Senior Member United Kingdom tinyurl.com/aberdeen Joined 5386 days ago 199 posts - 317 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 35 28 July 2010 at 5:27pm | IP Logged | ||
|
After reading a bit on here, I feel that Assimil might help with my Spanish learning. However, there seems to be quite a variety of products out there.
Could someone please tell me what a complete Assimil Spanish course might look like and in what order should I follow the various parts of the course. Thanks Jim Edited by JimC on 28 July 2010 at 5:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5292 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 2 of 35 28 July 2010 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Each Assimil course typically consists of one book + audio. The book and audio can either be bought together as
one package or separately. The beginner courses are usually called "Assimil xxx with Ease" or "Assimil New xxx with Ease". Older beginner courses are called "Assimil xxx without Toil". The advanced courses are called "Assimil Using xxx". http://www.assimil.com/ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| idiomasaur Diglot Groupie United Kingdom youtube.com/user/idi Joined 5340 days ago 45 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 3 of 35 28 July 2010 at 6:02pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Hey Jim, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spanish-Ease-Assimil-Method-
Books/dp/2700510704/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=128033288 4&sr=8-1 this is what the Assimil Spanish looks like, I would definitely recommend it! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| johntm93 Senior Member United States Joined 5166 days ago 587 posts - 746 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 4 of 35 28 July 2010 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Use Amazon to buy them, it's cheaper, and for the most part try and get the older ones (Without toil). Avoid the Arabic one, I've heard it's terrible.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LatinoBoy84 Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5414 days ago 443 posts - 603 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Latvian | Message 5 of 35 29 July 2010 at 1:13am | IP Logged | ||
|
An alternative is also Linguaphone which uses a similar approach. Used copies are
usually fairly cheap to pick up on Amazon/Ebay. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| psy88 Senior Member United States Joined 5430 days ago 469 posts - 882 votes Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French | Message 6 of 35 29 July 2010 at 1:28am | IP Logged | ||
|
FYI, the books ( or at least the one for the French course) contains little dialogs plus cartoons, both of which I find amusing and entertaining.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JimC Senior Member United Kingdom tinyurl.com/aberdeen Joined 5386 days ago 199 posts - 317 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 35 29 July 2010 at 1:36pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Thanks for the responses. Ordered my Spanish with Ease today
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| johntm93 Senior Member United States Joined 5166 days ago 587 posts - 746 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 8 of 35 29 July 2010 at 7:29pm | IP Logged | ||
In case you need to know how to use it (you probably will, the instructions aren't the best in most editions) here's something I typed up from the Dutch with Ease instructions and with some quotes from forum members here talking about how they use it (can't remember who posted them, sorry): How to use Assimil from the Dutch With Ease edition. Replace Dutch with your target language and English with the book's base language. Book + audio: 1. Listen to the text with the book closed. It does not matter if you do not understand what is said. You will gain a general impression of the sounds, hearing the pronunciation without being influenced by the spelling. 2. Listen to the recording a second time while looking at the English translation. 3. Read the Dutch text aloud (with the aid of the phonetic transcription if necessary). Be sure you understand the meaning of each sentence, comparing it with the translation as required. 4. Now read the Dutch text again, but this time without looking at the translation. 5. Listen to the recording twice, once while looking at the English translation, and once while looking at the Dutch text. 6. Listen to the recording again with the book closed. At this point you should understand what is being said. 7. Listen to the recording once more. Stop the machine after each sentence, and try to repeat it aloud. 8. Carefully read the comments several times. Examine the Dutch sentences beign explained. These notes are very important. 9. Read the exercises. Repeat each sentence several times. The exercises review material from the current lesson and from preceding lessons. If you have forgotten certain words, consult the English translation. 10. Examine the examples of sentence structure. They show how words and phrases are combined in Dutch, which is not always the same as in English. Without audio: 1. Read the first Dutch sentence and compare it word for word the the phonetic transcription. 2. Examine the English translation. Then read the Dutch sentence again. 3. Read the Dutch sentence aloud several times. Then try to repeat it without consulting the book. 4. Follow the same procedure for each sentence. 5. When finished, read the entire Dutch text again, and carefully examine the comments. 6. Read the Dutch text once more. You should now be able to understand it without consulting the translation. 7. Read the exercises. Repeat each sentence several times. The exercises review material from the current lesson and from preceding lessons. If you have forgotten certain words, consult the English translation. 8. Examine the examples of sentence structure. They show how words and phrases are combined in Dutch, which is not always the same as in English. For me, I also read aloud along with the audio - be it shadowing or echoing. I also use the dialogs as a dictation exercise - I type up the dialog. I listen to a sentence, pause the audio and type it up in a text file. It helps with writing and spelling and it helps "internalise" the material. I do this in the passive rather than the active wave. In fact, these steps are no different than those I use for the basic courses. Is this enough? It works for me. I also have a rolling playlist of "revision" dialogs which I begin with Lesson 8. Come the arrival of Lesson 8, I listen again to Lesson 1 - doing that I soon know what I don't know. With Lesson 9, I add Lesson 2 to the revision list. So, it runs like this: Lesson 8 - Revise 1 Lesson 9 - Revise 2 Lesson 10 - Revise 3 Lesson 11 - Revise 4 Lesson 12 - Revise 5 Lesson 13 - Revise 6 Lesson 14 - Revise 7 (just revised once after doing Lesson 14) Lesson 14, I re-read the notes from Lesson 7. Then starting with Lesson 15, Lesson 1 drops off the list and Lesson 8 comes in, Lesson 16, Lesson 2 goes and Lesson 9 comes in etc. There's a rolling list of dialogs. If you find you have a problem with a lesson in the revision list - a word or a construction - do a quick re-read of the relevant section in the book. No more than that is required because the problem lesson will be revisited a few times before it "disappears". You can do exactly the same with the Active Wave as well. Note: To reiterate - this is just my general Assimil approach rather than specific to the "Using" courses. The key on assimil is WRITE the lesson too, not just heard it. I have studied German, Japanese and French with Assimil, and if you write the lessons after hearing and reading em till you understand it, it works. And the 2ยบ wave its important to, so, what you have incorporated in "rules" will pass to be incorparated by the intuition, its just a mental process. Assimil books owns Also do some google searches and check out threads on here, there are tons of threads on how to use Assimil, and tons of ways to use it. I use it pretty closely to what's recommended above (with audio), but I changed it after a few lessons to suit me. 11 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
