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How to best study an Assimil lesson? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| mike789 Newbie United States Joined 6361 days ago 39 posts - 51 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 1 of 19 11 May 2009 at 4:56am | IP Logged | ||
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I've read thru the forum a bit and haven't found quite what I'm looking for. I hope this thread isn't used to debate whether or not Assimil works. Plenty of other threads with that. My question to those who have found Assimil useful is to ask how they study each lesson.
I'm in the passive phase right now. What I've been doing so far is first listening to the lesson while reading the lesson so I know how the words are supposed to sound, then read thru the lesson a few times so I can try to learn the words (the audio plunges along, so I've found it better to read and have time to ponder each word), then listen to the audio while reading a few times, listening to the audio only a few times and making sure I mostly understand it, and finally a read-thru where I say the text out loud. How does this compare to what those who feel they have successfully used the program have done? One specific question that I have is how to study the vocabulary. In each sentence (I'm studying Italian) there are conjugated verbs. Do you to try learn the verb in its conjugated form (eg. "sento" means "I hear") which means you have to eventually learn 6 words for each tense? Or do you look up the word, find the infinitive, and learn that -- expecting that when you hear "sento" you'll realize its a conjugated form of "sentire"? Edited by mike789 on 11 May 2009 at 10:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 6028 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 2 of 19 11 May 2009 at 5:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Mike,
Learn the verbs, and learn the rules to conjugate them. If you do get stuck, with irregulars and what not, then look them up, note that it is an irregular conjugation of whatever verb it is and move on. Learn to recognise the verbs for what they are early on, and it will save you time down the road. I use assimil pretty much the way you do. Reading through it, and puzzling it out. Then audio. I pretty much just do all the exercises and everything in one go. When I get to lesson 50 I'll go back through and brush up on the stuff i skipped over but I'm not too fussed. Just use it how you think works best for you. Thom. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7180 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 3 of 19 11 May 2009 at 10:51am | IP Logged | ||
Here is how I use Assimil. I play the new lesson and read it while I listen. I read the notes and explanations for the lesson. I play the audio and read until I can understand what I read and hear. I don't memorise vocabulary or grammar. I read it and take note of what it says so I will recognise what is happening. I don't worry about mastering a lesson before I move on to the next. So long as I can understand the lesson fairly well. Then, with each new lesson I review the last few lessons so I catch up on what I might have forgotten. When I get the chance I play the audio for the past few weeks' lessons and keep reviewing them. I check out the meaning of any word I might have forgotten. I don't think I ever spend more than a total of half an hour on a new lesson any day. I break up my study time for each lesson into three or four sessions throughout the day. Each session lasts from between five to ten minutes. I have my lessons recorded onto my mp3 player so I can review them while I am walking, waiting to be served, waiting for a meal, or any other "lost" time. I note anything I don't understand in a lesson about a week away so I can look at the difficulty again and see if it has resolved itself. If not, I write it again in another lesson about a week away but now I take steps to find the answer, either by asking someone or checking out a grammar book or dictionary. I don't learn verb forms. I note them and I find I learn them through use in the normal lessons. That is usually sufficient. After a month or so I look for other ways to practise what I have already learnt. I buy newspapers, go to websites in the language, or find someone I can talk with to practise my skills. I don't use flash cards. I try to think in the language while I read and listen. I try not to translate. I find I am inclined to translate at the beginning of a lesson but, because the lessons are recorded entirely in the target language, it is easy to think in the language as you listen. Also, because the lessons are short, it is easy to review a month's study at a time. I wish you success with your study. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mike789 Newbie United States Joined 6361 days ago 39 posts - 51 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 4 of 19 21 May 2009 at 10:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the advice! I have 2 more questions.
First, what is the purpose of the Exercises section? It seems like a continuation of the regular lesson, just in smaller print. and on the tape they announce the section, then just read it like the first section. Am I supposed to be doing something different with it? So far I've just been treating them the same as the regular dialogue. Second, I wonder if I'm not a good Assimil learner. The course says it should take 30 minutes a day, so do the earlier posts in this thread. I'd worked thru Pimsleur before so at the start most of the vocabulary wasn't too hard; I thought "this is great!". But now I'm farther on (lesson 17) and don't have that happy feeling anymore. Shows me the comparative dearth of vocabulary in Pimsleur, I suppose. But after the 30 minutes of study that it sounds like people put in, how much should I retain? If I hear the word in Italian I can recognize it, but I feel like I have almost no ability to go the other way. Is this ok or should I spend more time on each lesson, make flashcards, etc? Edited by mike789 on 22 May 2009 at 1:02am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5943 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 5 of 19 22 May 2009 at 12:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Here's how I use Assimil, more or less (I'm very much a I'll-do-this-however-I-please kind of language learner though, and enjoy a rather messy learning style with most things):
Once I'm past the first couple of lessons and more or less comfortable with pronunciation, I'll read through the lesson, without listening to the audio, as well as reading all the notes, reading the whole text out loud of course. I'll make sure I understand things to the degree I think I can at this point, based on previous lessons, but sometimes Assimil will introduce things you won't really 'get' until the revision lesson so I'll just read and try to take it in and give my brain a chance to work it out. Also, I'll go through the exercises, but might cheat a bit at this point, since I'll be going over it again before I move on anyway. Then listen through the audio while reading the text alongside. If there's anything I don't understand that I think I should, I'll have a closer look, but mostly I just breeze through this :-) ...on purpose. Then I'll do this with 6 lessons until I get to a revision lesson. At that point, I will re-read the notes the revision lesson recommends from previous lessons, as well as reading through the revision lesson itself and most of the times things click into place at this point. But I still haven't moved my bookmark from the last revision lesson... Then start again from where my bookmark's at, that is, the 1st lesson after the revision lesson before the one I just read. I'll play the audio, stop it at the notes, read the notes, then carry on with just the audio. Whenever I stop at a note I'll usually read the section leading up to it out loud, to make sure I've corrected details in pronunciation (or I might do it all before or after listening to the audio), then let the audio continue playing until the next note, stop, read the note, read that part of the text out loud... Until I get to the exercises. At this point I should be able to get those right. Once I'm done with all this, I will consider myself 'done' with that lesson, and move my bookmark. I will usually do 1-2-3 lessons a day during the first round, then all 6 in the same day for the second round. Then, of course, read the revision lesson (minus the recommended notes, which I will have just read anyway) again. Rinse and repeat. Works for me... To try to answer your questions, as I see it: 1) I think the exercises are just so you see if you can understand what they're saying. Just consider them repetition and if you understand what they're trying to say then it's all good and you've grasped the most significant part of the lesson's vocab. 2) Assimil doesn't expect you to produce anything yet. Wait till you get to the 'second wave' before you start measuring this and you'll see you've learned tons. It worked really well with Hungarian, I've only just reached the second wave with Italian but based on Hungarian I'm confident that their method is a good one and you'll see this work out beautifully once you get there. Trust them, they know what they're doing :-) Oh, and as far as I'm concerned, flashcards are the devil's work. I know some people dig them and all the best to them, but the times I've used them the only thing I've achieved is boredom and loss of interest in the language, however much I may have loved it when I started. Yes, both feet firmly planted in the in-context camp... Liz 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7180 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 6 of 19 22 May 2009 at 2:02am | IP Logged | ||
The purpose of the exercises is to give you the vocabulary and points of the lesson in a different context. They are not drills. So far as remembering vocabulary, you don't have to remember it all. The words don't need to be in your active vocabulary. This is passive learning, remember. You only need to be able to recognise the words in context at this stage. Repetition will put the words into your active vocabulary. I made this mistake when I first used Assimil. You only need to understand what you read and hear in the first passive wave. By the time you reach the second (active) wave the words will already be in your active vocabulary. Forget about flashcards. You don't need them. Just push your way through the passive stage, do a new lesson each day, even if you feel you haven't completely mastered yesterday's lesson, and you will find you make very fast progress. And, it will be enjoyable. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| JS-1 Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6017 days ago 144 posts - 166 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), German, Japanese, Ancient Egyptian, Arabic (Written) | Message 7 of 19 22 May 2009 at 9:33am | IP Logged | ||
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I tend to ignore the exercises at the end of each lesson at first. It's difficult to
judge listening comprehension when going over a lesson that has already been studied, so it's good to keep something in reserve. When doing the second wave, I use the exercises to see if I can understand something I haven't heard before. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6586 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 8 of 19 22 May 2009 at 10:00pm | IP Logged | ||
I sort of agree. Forget about the cards at first, unless you are learning Chinese - these will help out with the character learning. I use cards in Assimil German for the second pass to assure that I am creating the correct texts L1 to L2. Edited by zenmonkey on 22 May 2009 at 10:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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