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Tags: Shadowing | Polyglottery | Alexander Arguelles | Reading | Language Program | Learning Technique/Method | Assimil | Book | Grammar | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7203 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 153 of 278 05 August 2008 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | ||
The Using Spanish course is a good example of bad translations. What other Assimil courses should we be cautious of? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6444 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 154 of 278 06 August 2008 at 8:02am | IP Logged | ||
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I believe it's mentioned earlier in this thread (I've read it all once before, but didn't do so before posting this): Assimil's German with Ease has some really confusing translations to work with. I'm fairly advanced with my German, but I picked up the Assimil German simply because I love the French version so much. Skimming through the lessons, a lot of the English translations don't correspond at *all* to what the German is. It's also tricky because, in the interest of seeming natural, the Assimil lessons are chock full of particle words - which are often extremely difficult to translate.
There are some other negatives to the German course. I've found a couple of bits of French in the text, left over from translation to English. The grammar "appendix" at the end of the book, in comparison to the one in the French course, is practically nonexistant, something I find to be rather baffling; at least in my opinion, German grammar is more troublesome than French grammar, so a smaller appendix on the issue doesn't make much sense. Finally, the French course has an index of all of the words used, coupled with translations. The German course doesn't have this. Still a good course, but it's not nearly as good as the French. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ficticius Pro Member United States Joined 6105 days ago 23 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German Personal Language Map | Message 155 of 278 06 August 2008 at 9:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Does a list exist of all the words used in Assimil German? Is there a Using German or is that a myth?
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| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6437 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 156 of 278 06 August 2008 at 9:46am | IP Logged | ||
It's a myth - the course was never made. There is the equivalent for French speakers, including the recordings, but Assimil is not the publisher of an English book of that name. I spent a lot of time trying to track it down. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6444 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 157 of 278 06 August 2008 at 12:48pm | IP Logged | ||
Not unless someone has made one up, no; I've not seen one. As Volte points out, there is Perfectionnement Allemand, but not Using German. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 9xKx9-9xKx9 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5951 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes Speaks: Spanish | Message 158 of 278 10 August 2008 at 7:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Sorry to bump this up.
Would mastering a "with ease" assimil course take a learner to at least B1? Assuming they drilled the content home, so to speak. If someone were to complete the course, would they be able to go to the country of the language they learnt and get by comfortably? (P.S - If someone were to complete the "French with ease" course, would this give them the skills to learn other assimil taught languages through using the French editions?) ThankYou Edited by 9xKx9-9xKx9 on 10 August 2008 at 7:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6536 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 159 of 278 10 August 2008 at 8:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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That would probably be a no. It depends on how well you can master the lessons. If by mastering the course you mean understanding and parroting the lessons, then no, you wouldn't be able to speak it comfortably. The course does little in helping you construct your own thoughts and sentence structures. I suppose if you parsed the course like some text from ancient Rome, you could construe some kind of method on creating your own thoughts and sentences; but then you might as well just get a grammar and a text with accompanying audio, and do the same thing, parsing till the cows come home.
Assimil is still worthwhile; but when it's proclaimed to be some kind of miracle program, it seems gimmicky. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7144 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 160 of 278 10 August 2008 at 8:47pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, I learnt German with Assimil German Without Toil and travelled to Germany and worked there for six years. I got by quite well with my Assimil German. As I have written elsewhere, I lectured in German, did some simultaneous translating and wrote reports in German. My brother is currently in Germany (been there for two weeks) and gets by without difficulty in German, having only learnt from Assimil. My brother and I both had to learn technical German but, using what we had learnt with Assimil, this was not difficult. I use German and French based Assimil courses to learn other languages without difficulty. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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