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What constitutes an Assimil program?

  Tags: Assimil | Spanish
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
35 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5  Next >>
Cainntear
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 Message 17 of 35
16 August 2010 at 1:08pm | IP Logged 
daveyboy wrote:
The Assimil with the audio really
sticks in the mind if done with a good amount of repetitions, but if you put the
phrases into a flashcard program and practice them [ every day ] then there is NO
chance of you forgetting them.

Part of the point of Assimil is to learn the underlying structure, not to memorise phrases....
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zekecoma
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 Message 18 of 35
16 August 2010 at 7:26pm | IP Logged 
Also aren't the phrases Colloquial and not a word by word translation either?
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Cainntear
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 Message 19 of 35
16 August 2010 at 8:09pm | IP Logged 
zekecoma wrote:
Also aren't the phrases Colloquial and not a word by word translation either?
They introduce all phrases with both a native-language equivalent and a literal translation. The literal translations are only dropped after the phrase has been seen several times.
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josht
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 Message 20 of 35
16 August 2010 at 8:43pm | IP Logged 
Cainntear wrote:
zekecoma wrote:
Also aren't the phrases Colloquial and not a word by word translation either?
They introduce all phrases with both a native-language equivalent and a literal translation. The literal translations are only dropped after the phrase has been seen several times.


This is true for most of the courses, but in some of the later lessons of New French with Ease, they simply drop the literal translations altogether, even if the expression hasn't been seen before. I absolutely hated this. Okay, this French sentence means roughly this, but what does each word actually mean?

Edited by josht on 16 August 2010 at 8:43pm
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JimC
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 Message 21 of 35
17 September 2010 at 2:33pm | IP Logged 
JimC wrote:
I’m a few days in to Assimil and I’m enjoying it. However it does seem to me that it is a bit “all over the place” It doesn’t follow any logical progression through the language. The very first lesson contained the phrase “Tenia ganas de verte”. This phrase uses a past tense, a personal pronoun, an infinitive and a phrase that is not a literal translation.

Fortunately, I am not a beginner, and this phrase didn’t cause me any problems, however it might have done if I was. My thought is that Assimil looks to be a great course, and very suited to my level of learning, but I can see how I might have struggled if I was a complete beginner.

Are the “holes” that Assimil seems to leave filled in later in the course? For example, will I be introduced to tener, ganar and ver as separate verbs and find out how they came together to form “Tenia ganas de verte”

Perhaps I am getting too hung up with grammar. I like the idea of learning by assimilation, but perhaps I am so accustomed to learning the “old fashioned way” with grammar rules and tables of conjugations.   



I notice that nobody was able to give a response to my post above. I would appreciate if anyone was in a position to do so now.

So, I am now on lesson 36. I feel that I am picking up quite a bit, but certainly not everything. When I listen to the audio for the first time each day, I struggle to get the meaning from it. Even with several listens it is not clear.

In the notes it says something like “don’t worry if you haven’t understood everything” however I am worrying a little. Should I spend a bit more time each day than the 30 minutes or should I just have faith that I am indeed assimilating and it will come together as I do more and progress to the active phase.

Jim
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OneEye
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 Message 22 of 35
22 September 2010 at 2:54am | IP Logged 
JimC wrote:
Perhaps I am getting too hung up with grammar. I like the idea of learning by assimilation, but perhaps I am so accustomed to learning the “old fashioned way” with grammar rules and tables of conjugations.


That says it. If you had never been told that past tense should come after learning present tense, would it make any difference to you? Grammar, in my opinion, is best at explaining what you already know, not at teaching the language. Learn how it works first, then why.
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JimC
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 Message 23 of 35
22 September 2010 at 10:49am | IP Logged 
OneEye wrote:
JimC wrote:
Perhaps I am getting too hung up with grammar. I like the idea of learning by assimilation, but perhaps I am so accustomed to learning the “old fashioned way” with grammar rules and tables of conjugations.


That says it. If you had never been told that past tense should come after learning present tense, would it make any difference to you? Grammar, in my opinion, is best at explaining what you already know, not at teaching the language. Learn how it works first, then why.


Absolutely, I have no desire to learn grammar for it's own sake. I am more than happy to be picking up the ability to use Spanish. If I learned to use the language I would be happy if I never learned any grammar rules.

If people are able to, could thet address the particular queries that I mentionned above, about the fact that I am not sure that I am picking up everything as I go along.

Thanks

Jim
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daveyboy
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 Message 24 of 35
22 September 2010 at 10:54am | IP Logged 
Cainntear wrote:
daveyboy wrote:
The Assimil with the audio really
sticks in the mind if done with a good amount of repetitions, but if you put the
phrases into a flashcard program and practice them [ every day ] then there is NO
chance of you forgetting them.

Part of the point of Assimil is to learn the underlying structure, not to memorise
phrases....


Yes that's true Cainntear, you will learn the underlying structures which is great, but
what happens when one gets to that point in the book and has to go back to the start to
translate..? [ without looking at the Spanish ] and really struggles to translate the
phrases..?

The Assimil books are a good way to teach languages, and the instructions on how to use
them should be followed, but I think by adding other methods, like putting the phrases
in to flash cards just makes the learning better and faster.

After a week or so of using the Assimil Spanish with ease, and putting the phrases in
the flash cards I was actually using some of the phrases in conversations, now I can
turn to most pages early in the book and translate them without thinking at all. It's
because of the flash cards.

By adding the flash card method it has really pushed my Spanish to a better level, it
works for me so I will stick with it.

Cheers mate.


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