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Critical Needs Languages For US Diplomats | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4713 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 9 of 25 05 February 2012 at 4:10am | IP Logged | ||
Wow, so just French with Ease would give someone enough of a base to use their other courses for other languages? That surprises me! Though, I guess if they are just teaching you the same things more-or-less in the first book, it makes sense. Plus, there will be presumably a lot fewer typos and goofy language since it is ultimately a French-based course, which is nice. Hmm, now you have me intrigued. I took 2 years of French in university (stopped about a year and a half ago) and I haven't looked at French since. I suppose that qualifies me as a false beginner, no? So maybe picking up that Assimil wouldn't be a bad investment. It isn't like it'd hurt me for Italian if I ever go back to that! Just curious, which of these did you use? http://www.amazon.com/New-French-Ease-Anthony-Bulger/dp/2700 502299/ref=sr_1_2? ie=UTF8&qid=1328410975&sr=8-2 http://www.amazon.com/French-Assimil-Method-Books--Cassette/ dp/2700513843/ref=sr_1_1? ie=UTF8&qid=1328410975&sr=8-1 Oddly enough, that first one is newer (it has the matching ISBN to the one straight from the Assimil site) but is only ~$20 rather than either 65 euros on the Assimil site or $50 for the older version on Amazon, haha. Or maybe that more expensive Amazon version really is with cassettes and that is why it is more? Either way, I kind of want to impulse buy that $20 French with Ease. That is a pretty hard to beat price. But, I will be patient and wait for feedback from others to make sure that version is legit, haha. Edited by ericblair on 05 February 2012 at 4:11am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5132 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 10 of 25 05 February 2012 at 4:24am | IP Logged | ||
As you noted, Assimil isn't available as an English source course. I had a chance to look at the French version, and had it not been in French, I think it would have been a great course. I wasn't willing to deal with translating from French though - Assimil is known for having some highly idiomatic expressions in their courses. I also got Linguaphone PDQ at the same time I got Pimsleur. Personally I thought Linguaphone was a crap course. Pimsleur was FAR better. Too bad Pimsleur doesn't have more levels for its Turkish course. But of the three courses you mention, if one will get you to an S-2 level, it's the FSI I-II courses. Yes, they're dry, but they cover a lot. I'm now using the Yeni Hitit series (completely Turkish-based, and they claim that completing all three volumes will get you to a high B2-low C1 on the CEFR scale. R. == Edited by hrhenry on 05 February 2012 at 4:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4713 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 11 of 25 05 February 2012 at 5:18am | IP Logged | ||
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I went to compare the list of languages from the opening post to the ones that are
available in the French base of Assimil: Arabic Chinese Hindi Russian Tamil Turkish The ones available with an English base: Arabic Chinese Now, I've been told the Arabic one in English is very poor but the recent French one is greatly improved. I think there are enough Russian resources that one would not need to learn French to pick up on the Russian (if we are assuming a learner's main goal is simply to get proficient enough in one of the languages list in the start of the thread). So, I guess it would just need to be known what the relative quality of the Assimil French-based courses for Hindi, Tamil, and Turkish are compared to the other resources available! I did find this handy reference, though: http://www.comoto.com/optimise/cv-help/cefr-compared-to-nort h-american-language- proficiency-standards According to that, ILR 2 = CEFR B1 So, maybe that helps clarify for people more familiar with the latter scale! Based on all the googling and other forum reading I've done since I started this, I am going to say that I think the following can be learned to the S-2/B1 level as a self- learner based on what resources are out there: Arabic (egyptian or modern standard) Chinese (mandarin) Hindi Russian Turkish Unless someone else wants to chime in in defense of resources for other languages, I will consider my query answered, haha. Edited by ericblair on 05 February 2012 at 5:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4891 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 12 of 25 05 February 2012 at 8:39am | IP Logged | ||
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The twenty bucks if for the book only! You'll want the audio too. I found the best
prices for this course on lang=French&media=All">Language Quest. For some reason the full Assimil is about $200 on Amazon. I don't know why. It's fifty bucks on Language Quest. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4713 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 13 of 25 05 February 2012 at 8:27pm | IP Logged | ||
Oh, damn. I decided to not get it (I always give myself a few hours cooling off period before making a purchase, haha), but I did send that link to my brother as he has been studying French and sounded interested. That really sucks they are so unclear on these things! The following version of the Italian is what I bought: http://www.amazon.com/Italian-Assimil-Language-Learning- Programs/dp/270051064X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328469965&sr= 8-1 And it has the audio with it! They really need to get this all sorted, haha. I actually was the one that uploaded the extra pictures showing the real product. Edit: to be fair, the Italian thing I bought does say Book & CD edition and the French one I linked does not. So I guess it is more on me to pay better attention :) Edited by ericblair on 05 February 2012 at 8:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6951 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 14 of 25 05 February 2012 at 8:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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There is "Le Persan Sans Peine" available for Farsi. It's only available with French as
the base. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4713 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 15 of 25 06 February 2012 at 2:21am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks, I missed that one! So, it seems from what a lot of people say in older threads, B1 is possible with Assimil. So, I'd update my list this way.: Languages one can definitely get to S-2/B1 with as English being their only study language: Arabic (egyptian or modern standard) Chinese (mandarin) Hindi Russian Turkish And, if someone knows French, then I'd add these (if we are going off the assumption those 2 are good quality and can actually get someone to the level listed): Persian Tamil Not too bad overall! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| seldnar Senior Member United States Joined 7134 days ago 189 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, French, Greek | Message 16 of 25 06 February 2012 at 2:25am | IP Logged | ||
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If you don't read the Amazon descriptions carefully its easy to order only the book or
only the audio. I was able to get three Assimil courses (French, Italian, and German) from Amazon for about 32 dollars each--new and complete (i.e., book and discs). The next best place I've seen is Book Depository where the Assimil courses go for about $88 a set but you do get free shipping which most people wouldn't get if they ordered from Amazon.fr or direct from Assimil. But you have to be careful reading Book Depository's descriptions too; sometimes they are only selling one or the other of the language materials. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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