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Assimil Experiment Group Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Vārds Bilingual Diglot Newbie Latvia Joined 4912 days ago 24 posts - 41 votes Speaks: Russian*, Latvian* Studies: German | Message 313 of 344 22 April 2013 at 8:57pm | IP Logged |
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Le "Assimil Experiment" est mort, vive le "Assimil Experiment" ! :)
So after reaching Active Wave in "French with ease" (for Russian speakers) I felt like I hit a brick wall, I just couldn't complete even first "active" lesson, maybe because I took "Passive Wave" too passive. I decided to take a break for a couple of weeks. After those couple of weeks I think I did only 3 days and then just stopped to do any lessons, it was taking too much time (30..50 minutes Passive lesson and ~1h Active lesson). So I quit Experiment on 57th passive lesson and (I think) 5th active lesson. Two months later... I decided to restart my Assimil Experiment. This time I was going to learn L3 (French) via L2 (German). So I ordered "Französisch ohne Mühe" from Amazon and restarted my experiment. Französisch ohne Mühe Leçon 01-22 It's been 2 weeks since I (re)started Assimil Experiment, and I'm currently in passive wave. I'm surprised how much i still remember, pronunciation looks a lot easier (I think it's because "Pronunciation Help" in German version is much more logical than in Russian version), and as this time I'm far behind (compared to others participants) I don't feel any pressure to keep the pace - if I feel like I don't want to do any lesson, I'm not doing. I think it is better this way than trying to rush through lesson just to keep count (as I tried to do last time and failed). Edited by Vārds on 22 April 2013 at 9:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4717 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 314 of 344 23 April 2013 at 12:13am | IP Logged |
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O Novo Francês Sem Esforço - Leçons 50-56:
Another review lesson went by! That was fast! This was my first active wave for real ever, but it went much better and easier than I expected. The passive block was much easier than the last one, my listening comprehension was close to 80-90% already at the first time, and new useful words were presented in a very natural way, most of which I could get by the context, which I think it's ideal. The active wave was a piece of cake. I go most of it right at the first time, the only thing I'd forgotten about was the partitive preposition (f.e.: "Donnez-moi du fromage"). The review lesson was easy as well, not much to say about it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| JSBR_C Newbie United States Joined 4317 days ago 19 posts - 38 votes Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 315 of 344 27 April 2013 at 2:17am | IP Logged |
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Today I did 83 active on Chinese. I had made a lot of mistakes when I did 82 yesterday, so I re-did that one.
This makes me realize I may just want to do the whole thing actively once again. Probably doing a few in a day. I have to say the process really is fairly painless. You might expect that when you get to the later lessons and you are translating actively you'll struggle a lot. I'm making mistakes, but it isn't as bad as I thought it would be. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4717 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 316 of 344 29 April 2013 at 9:28pm | IP Logged |
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O Novo Francês Sem Esforço - Leçons 57-63:
Another fast block and a review lesson went by! The active wave is going easier than I expected. It always takes me less than 15 minutes, and until now I didn't have any problem. I didn't forget any words in this block. The passive block was a little harder and less funny, but still nice and easy to follow. My listening comprehension was close to 70% this time, getting to 90% in one of the lessons and 50% in another one. The review lesson was easy, but useful, now explaining in more details about the verbs "falloir" and how to use the expression "il faut...". 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4709 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 317 of 344 30 April 2013 at 12:38am | IP Logged |
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Il faut que is a poster boy for the subjunctive. It's like all neon lights flash when you
use il faut. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Marishka Newbie United States Joined 5250 days ago 25 posts - 56 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Dutch | Message 318 of 344 04 May 2013 at 10:52pm | IP Logged |
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Dutch With Ease Final Update
It's taken six months, but I have finally reached the Assimil Experiment finish line. "What a long, strange trip it's been..." So how did I do? Am I fluent in Dutch? NOT. EVEN. CLOSE. But Assimil did give me a good foundation to build on. I learned enough from it to be able to read a children's book. I can also understand some of the conversations in Dutch films. As soon as I finished Dutch With Ease, I made a beeline for the other Dutch courses that I got for Christmas. These courses all seem incredibly easy after having completed the Assimil course. I just finished the Teach Yourself conversation course Speak Dutch With Confidence, and it was a piece of cake. If the A2 label on Speak Dutch With Confidence is correct, I am at a very comfortable A2 level. What I appreciated most about Dutch With Ease were the sentence structure drills. These drills get you playing with the language and putting together your own sentences from the very beginning. Even the limited vocabulary of the first lesson translated into 48 different sentences in the drills. I wish Assimil would include these drills in all their courses. Learners could take them or leave them, but it would be nice to have that option. I also appreciated the large number of idiomatic expressions included in Dutch With Ease. At first, idioms were sprinkled lightly into the dialogues, but toward the end of the book, the sprinkles became a deluge. I couldn't take it all in! It's too much for this beginner, but after I complete a few more Dutch courses, I'll return to Dutch With Ease and mine it for the idioms. My biggest criticism of Dutch With Ease is that much of the subject matter bored me to tears. I thought that French With Ease and Spanish With Ease were both far more interesting than Dutch With Ease. One thing that I missed having in Dutch With Ease is the "vocabulary finder" that is included in French With Ease. This is a French/English and English/French index where you can look up any word to see where it is located in the dialogues and notes. It would be wonderful if Assimil would include this type of vocabulary index in all of their courses. I'm glad I did the experiment, but I'll never again use Assimil as a sole course for learning a language. Assimil will always be a part of my language learning toolkit, but I'll go back to my old ways and start with a Michel Thomas foundation course, then do Pimsleur courses and the passive wave of Assimil at the same time, and follow that with something like a complete Teach Yourself course. That kind of variety keeps me more interested and engaged in the learning process. Thanks to Kanewai for starting this experiment. Good luck to those of you who are still hanging in there with it. I wish you all much success! 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| jasoninchina Senior Member China Joined 5233 days ago 221 posts - 306 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Italian | Message 319 of 344 05 May 2013 at 7:06am | IP Logged |
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I think we're all eager to read about everyone's six month reviews. Keep 'em coming!
@Marishka. Can you tell us more about your routine with Assimil. Did you keep up with it daily over the last six months? Also, it seems like you're saying a basic in the language would be beneficial before starting Assimil. Is that right? Which aspects of the language do you feel are necessary to have mastered before starting? Basic grammar, pronunciation? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4717 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 320 of 344 07 May 2013 at 9:29pm | IP Logged |
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O Novo Francês Sem Esforço - Leçons 64-70:
So another block went by! This was the first active wave which gave me some trouble to remember certain words and expressions, such as "tant pis", "piège", "ça vous va" and "daube de bouef". The passive block was very nice and interesting. Two useful lessons about the human body, one about he history of Gustave Eiffel, and the others were easy. My listening comprehension varied a lot between the lessons, I even got to 100% in 2 of them =) But also 50% in another. The review lesson was nice, almost an active phase, since I had to translate a text into French. They also explained about the passé composé with "être" (I already knew all about it) and some relative pronouns like "où" and "dont" (this one seems important, must remember). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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