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Assimil Experiment Group Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Flarioca Heptaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5880 days ago 635 posts - 816 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, Esperanto, French, EnglishC2, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Catalan, Mandarin | Message 273 of 344 22 February 2013 at 12:43pm | IP Logged | ||
You're welcome! I'm quite sure that this experiment has already been very useful. I've read all messages and we've sure learned a lot about this method, which is certainly among the best available, although for some specific languages there might be better options. Besides, we shouldn't blame Assimil about our strict methodology. We all know that people are different and language learning clearly depends on how far a given target differs from your native and known languages. On the other hand, if we've allowed any approach from the very beginning, this experiment wouldn't be as interesting. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 274 of 344 26 February 2013 at 9:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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duplicate Edited by kanewai on 26 February 2013 at 9:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 275 of 344 26 February 2013 at 9:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Le Grec Ancien
I stalled out again at lesson 67 - I just could not get past it, or untangle it. There were too many verb tenses to "assimilate," and I can only recognize first person present tense, and the future-infinitive. I'm going to spend some time again doing the chapters on present and future tense verbs with my old Teach Yourself, and then come back to Assimil. I feel like I need a stronger base to work from. My previous block happened around lesson 35. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JSBR_C Newbie United States Joined 4313 days ago 19 posts - 38 votes Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 276 of 344 27 February 2013 at 2:06am | IP Logged | ||
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Chinese With Ease
Passive: 70-77 Active: 21-28 Everything continues fine. Errors during active translations are more numerous, but then the dialogues are longer so this is not surprising. I did my first Skype session with a native speaker in China. That was hard and I struggled a lot, but I suppose that is also not surprising. I also spoke to several strangers on different occasions. Where I work we have a small handful of Chinese people. Two Chinese walked into our coffee room and I've been waiting for an opportunity to spring some Chinese at a time like this. So they are talking amongst themselves and I can't understand them, but one is mixing coffee with cream and sugar and there's a pause in their conversation and I say "Ni xihuan tang he niu nai gen ni de kafei ma?" (You like sugar and milk with your coffee?) They were stunned. "You speak Chinese? Who is teaching you, etc?" Very complimentary about my pronunciation, kind of happy to see a guy like me learning their language. I look nothing like somebody that would be speaking Chinese. Blonde hair, blue eyes, tall. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. That's what it's all about for me. Interacting with people. So I'm kind of pleased. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5379 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 277 of 344 01 March 2013 at 2:54am | IP Logged | ||
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Assimil Roumain
Passive: 88 Active: 34 I've decided to implement a grading system for myself in order to have an idea of how the active phase is going. Initially, I removed a point for every mistake (only one per word though) divided by the total number of words, but I think it's more appropriate to remove a point only when I can't find the right word at all, and half a point when there is a mistake in the word (wrong letter or ending). With this grading system, I got 140.5/164 for lesson 33, ie. 85.7%. I think that's ok. I do feel like this is sinking in, and was even doing a fair bit of self-talk on the way home today, despite my dismal vocabulary. I started reading a book called Stand Alone Romanian and I could really see how scattered Assimil is in comparison. Of course, Assimil is not a grammar book, but for something as simple as the definite article, they present a nice, clean table where you can see right away what's what. Maybe it's a matter of learning style, but I much prefer to see the whole thing and get a good overview of the grammar first. I might just set Assimil aside for a few days in order to read more of that grammar manual. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5379 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 278 of 344 04 March 2013 at 3:07am | IP Logged | ||
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I can't believe no one else has posted here in several days...
I'm now at lessons 36/89. In lesson 34 (35 was a review), I got 89.8% (with the grading system I explained in post 277 above). I've slowed down, but it's because I've been reading other sources and writing on Lang- 8. I do feel that some of what was initially a big hodgepodge is starting to make sense and be less entangled, but I wouldn't go so far as to thank Assimil for that. I'm not losing interest, and I wouldn't thank Assimil for that either. As I commented on my Tandem Log (if I dare capitalize), no program like Assimil can explain or present things clearly enough for someone to understand it all -- only a certain amount of self-directed production will allow that information to sink in properly. In other words, I suspect those will turn out to have been the most successful with Assimil will be those who have ventured away from it or who have supplemented it with self-talk, written production or conversation attempts. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| JSBR_C Newbie United States Joined 4313 days ago 19 posts - 38 votes Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 279 of 344 05 March 2013 at 3:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Chinese With Ease
Passive: 78-84 Active: 29-35 I'm about 3 months in and this program is advertised as making you comfortable with the language in 3 months, conversational in 6. Has it achieved that? "Comfortable" is a fairly vague word, so I guess I can't say this has not been achieved. I can construct many different expressions in my head if I need to. Listening to native speakers is still near impossible for me. I'm lost very quickly even though they try to speak simply. Reaching a conversational level still seems like it will be a stretch. Progress continues though so I'm not complaining. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JSBR_C Newbie United States Joined 4313 days ago 19 posts - 38 votes Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 280 of 344 06 March 2013 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Is it just you and me left Arekkusu? Where is Marishka? I like to read Marishka's updates. Perhaps people are dropping off because this is a tough segment of the process. When you are doing the later passive lessons you have to spend a good amount of time. The new passive lesson is tough. You're translating active material that is getting complex. This is perhaps the tough period. Are we losing people?
I've read that the Chinese series is a little less complex than typical. I did lesson 87 today. Only 5 new words, and that includes the words in the notes. In the early lessons it was more typical to see 15-20. So I guess for me it's not especially difficult at this stage. The active translations are more work, but the passive isn't bad. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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