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Assimil Japanese for Upper Beginner? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Lexii Senior Member United States Joined 5061 days ago 162 posts - 194 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 1 of 5 16 September 2010 at 2:10pm | IP Logged |
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I've been toying with the idea of starting Assimil Japanese but I'm not sure if it will be appropriate for me. I have a few questions I hope you can help me with.
I consider myself an Upper Beginner. I've been doing self-study for about 6 months. I am comfortable with kana, I have a sight-reading vocabulary of about 500 words (including their kanji) and I have a beginner's grasp of grammar and sentence structure. Given all that: 1) Would Assimil be too elementary for me at this point? Would it be all review? I can adequately review with the materials I already have. 2) If you recommend Assimil for me at my level, should I start at the beginning or go straight to Active Phase? 3) If you recommend Assimil for me, should I start with Volume 1 or Volume 2? My local library is very small and does not have Assimil Japanese. My local Big Bookstore is also very small and does not carry Assimil Japanese. Youtube videos weren't as helpful as I hoped they would be. That's why I'm asking here. With this wonderful community of self-learners, I'm sure I can get some solid advice. My biggest concern is, I'm going to be in The Big City tomorrow, so if you recommend Assimil for me, I would love to be able to pick it up while I'm there. Thanks for your input! Edited by Lexii on 16 September 2010 at 2:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lexii Senior Member United States Joined 5061 days ago 162 posts - 194 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 3 of 5 16 September 2010 at 3:31pm | IP Logged |
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Goodness, if that's from the mid-point of Volume 1, it looks like Volume 1 has a lot to teach me. While I can pick out many of the words, I can't read the passage. Even with the help of Rikaichan, it was difficult (and I'm still not sure I really understood what was written). I'd be delighted if I could read something like that after only working halfway through Volume 1.
I'm also glad to see there is kanji. One of the things I worried about was whether Assimil incorporated kanji into its lessons. Thank you, paranday! Very helpful! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6788 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 4 of 5 17 September 2010 at 3:16am | IP Logged |
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I studied German for 4 years in high school and 2 years in college (all academic-only, so that's probably equivalent to about 6 months of serious self-study...) and I had the same question recently. I went ahead and bought German with Ease, my first Assimil program. For the first 15 lessons or so, I could understand the dialogues right away and there wasn't very much new vocabulary, so I got through them in a few days. But I still felt like I benefited from them because I was able to internalize 'chunks' and phrases which I can now recall easily without having to stop and think about grammar. By the early Lesson 20s the program was caught up to my level and I couldn't do more than a dialogue per day. Considering that 80% of the program is challenging material suited to my level, I'd say it was a good investment! I'm sure you won't find it 'too easy'. I don't recommend starting from the middle because the lessons build upon one another, and as I said, you can still get something out of the beginning 'easy' lessons.
Good luck! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Lexii Senior Member United States Joined 5061 days ago 162 posts - 194 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 5 of 5 18 September 2010 at 11:05pm | IP Logged |
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Lucky Charms, thank you for your post! Between you and paranday, I made my decision (get Assimil, yay!). I'd planned to respond to this thread to tell you that I'd gotten it while in the Big City and to tell you how much I'm enjoying it.
Alas, I came home empty-handed. I couldn't find Assimil anywhere. I'll be ordering it tonight, though! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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