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German - advice for A1-A2 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4523 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes  Studies: German | Message 33 of 42 12 November 2014 at 11:13am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I have just been looking on Amazon at the different Assimil courses for German, and am a bit confused.
Which is the correct course to start with? ASSIMIL - German with ease (Lehrbuch + 4 Audio-CDs): German course for English speakers - Deutschkurs für Englischsprechende ASSiMiL Deutsch ohne Mühe heute für Ausländer / Assimil German with ease: Deutschkurs in englischer Sprache, Lehrbuch mit 4 Audio-CD's (Niveau A1 - B2) (Assimil Method Books Do most of the courses come with both textbook and CDs? Or do you need to buy these separately? Edited by patrickwilken on 12 November 2014 at 11:15am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4072 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 34 of 42 12 November 2014 at 1:28pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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One is just a newer reprinting.
The 22 eur one is ohne CD, the expensive one is with CD. My advice for getting to A2/B1: --Assimil --Hugo German in 3 months for picking up the grammar, and the soul of German. --Additionally, if funds allow, Begegnungen A1/A2. Fully German textbook, includes solutions, good text, good audio, very good exposure to vokab. They also come with German-english glossar (sold separately). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4523 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 35 of 42 12 November 2014 at 1:47pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
What are the advantages of Assimil over Hugo? I take it Hugo does grammar better, but I am not sure what Assimil does better than Hugo. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4899 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 36 of 42 12 November 2014 at 2:22pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Although I haven't used either for German, I think I can be pretty sure in say, everything other than grammar and exercises. Assimil has much more of the actual language than Hugo: more texts and more audio. Regarding Assimil, there is supposed to be a new version of the German course coming out, written from an English base (rather than a translation of the French book). The release date keeps getting pushed back though. Another suggestion for a paid course which is good for teaching grammar would be the Teach Yourself series. If the goal is to get to using native materials, don't neglect the value of graded readers + CDs. For example: Felix und Theo Edited by Jeffers on 12 November 2014 at 2:25pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4072 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 37 of 42 12 November 2014 at 2:56pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I agree with Jeffers. In addition: The importance of the audio repetition of Assimil should not be underestimated. It teaches you to speak in a German rhythm, and makes you absorb the language unconciously. Hugo takes an active approach, explaining grammar more thorougly, however there just isnt enough practice. Assimil and Hugo complement each other very nicely. Edited by Gemuse on 12 November 2014 at 2:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4523 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 38 of 42 12 November 2014 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
How long do the courses last at a reasonable rate? And how much vocabulary do you learn from Assimil? Is it easy to make SRS cards? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4072 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 39 of 42 12 November 2014 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Assimil has 100 lessons, assuming a quite comfortable pace of 1 lesson in two days, it should be doable in 200 days. Hugo should really be rolled into the main assimil work - it is very condensed, and it would be a mistake to work exclusively with Hugo for an extended period of time. The last 3-4 lessons are super condensed, and serve better as a reference/brief overview.
Regarding vokab and SRS, this I don't know. EDIT: For A2 vokab, Goethe inst has published a list, with example German sentences. I have posted it earlier here as a seperate thread. Edited by Gemuse on 12 November 2014 at 3:15pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4899 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 40 of 42 12 November 2014 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Hugo theoretically should take 3 months and Assimil should theoretically take 1 day per lesson (I'm not sure how many the German course has). However, most mortals will take at least twice that long, and even more if they are doing other courses/study at the same time. This takes into account missed days, and the fact that a student will probably hit a wall at some point and need to back up a few lessons. People do make SRS cards for Assimil, but I never felt the need. I passively understand all of the vocabulary from Assimil French just because I did a lot of review listening of the lessons. That's one of the things that's great about Assimil: most courses have a pretty large vocabulary (e.g. around 2500), and by the time you've done the course as recommended you will have a decent grasp of most of them. EDIT: I very much second Gemuse's point about Hugo being very condensed. I can't imagine working at their pace and not becoming a gibbering wreck. Here's another suggestion: one week doing a half an hour of Assimil every day, the other week doing a half an hour of Hugo every day (or FSI or TY German). Any spare time over the half hour could be used on SRS, easy native material, or the DW material such as their courses, the vocab podcasts, slowly spoken news, or one of their courses. One more free resource which can be good for getting the student ready for native material is http://slowgerman.com/. Edited by Jeffers on 12 November 2014 at 4:28pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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