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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5207 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 65 of 329 07 January 2013 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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3. Some general Assimil-related remarks: I am mostly quite happy with Assimil. But I think that it would have been more enjoyable for me if I had started trying to "activate" things earlier (even if that isn't what Assimil wants you to do). Assimil gives you so many good example sentences, and introduces new patterns slowly enough, that it seems like extracting grammatical patterns from them (plus the grammar notes) for immediate usage would have been both useful and pretty simple, and I'm kind of wishing that I had done that. Maybe I'll do that with Norwegian and German if I study those next year. I don't know, we'll see how things shake out.[/QUOTE]
I agree completely - Assimil has so much useful conversational material in it that it's a shame that it seems to encourage just using it relatively passively and presents the active wave almost as an "extra" which you need only spend a few minutes on. I really think it merits more time and effort spent on activating all that great knowledge that it gives you. For Italian, I had good success with Luca's method, in which you start the active work earlier: one week after doing a lesson passively, you translate it into English, and the week after, you translate it back to the target language, like in the standard active wave. It helps a lot if you actually write or type your translation instead of just doing it in your head or aloud - it forces you to avoid any mental laziness and shortcuts, and think properly about the task. Even after that, I didn't retain everything, so I've been going through it again and putting sentences that aren't in my active knowledge into Anki for cloze exercises. I've been doing the same for my French Assiml books too, to try and get as much out of them as I can. If/when I work through another Assimil book, like for Spanish, I'll probably streamline that process by putting any sentences that I don't find completely easy into Anki as part of the active wave. This is just for the beginner-level books of course, since trying to learn them cover-to-cover is desirable; for the advanced ones, my approach now is to not do an active wave but just study select sentences that are actually useful to you. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4665 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 66 of 329 07 January 2013 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Yeah, I always write my translations out by hand now, also pronouncing them as I write them. I had read about Luca's method before, but had never tried it. Maybe I will try it out next time.
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 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5532 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 67 of 329 07 January 2013 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I really love these vocabulary lists that you post from Assimil, because I had definitely forgotten many of these words for years, and some of them I still don't know today. Let's try with today's list: un téléviseur: One of those weird words that gives me no trouble in context, but which I can't precisely define when I see it in a word list. (I would have said, "a TV, a display, or something like that.") Normally, I say la télé or la télévision. une redevance: I had to look it up. :-) enchaîner: I normally see this in the metaphorical sense of linking things up in a sequence. inédit: I would translate this as "unreleased" or (in practice) "previously unreleased". Assimil never tries to "protect" students from advanced vocabulary. They'll just throw in whatever makes the lesson interesting. This is excellent preparation for native materials.
The nice thing about Assimil is that it works either way. If you just sort of mindlessly soak in the passive wave and muddle through the active wave, you'll still wind up knowing quite a bit. (That's how I did NFWE.) But if you pay close attention to every verb form and detail of grammar, you'll learn even more. (That's what I did with Egyptian.) Oh, and since France Inter is on strike, here are some alternatives that I use: Europe 1, RFI Monde, France Info and Radio Courtoisie.
Absolutely. I did Assimil's New French with Ease, followed it up with maybe a dozen easy lessons from Using French, and then jumped straight into native materials. I think I spent a little bit of time trying to read Le Monde, and then jumped straight into La grande aventure de la langue française, which was a 528-page non-fiction book. I kept a 5mm mechanical pencil by my side, and drew a faint underline under any word I didn't know but which seemed interesting. (One of the few times I've ever written in a book.) Then every week or so, I'd go through and add any interesting words into my first, primitive SRS deck with L1->L2 and L2->L1 cards. It took me about 2 or 3 months of heavy reading to finish the book, but by the end, I was cruising right along and only underlining a handful of words per page. (That SRS deck was an enormous help for a month, and then an evil curse on my existence for the next two.) I really owe a lot of thanks to Assimil and New French With Ease. After I made it through the first 7 lessons, I literally walked around my house and picked up over $350 in crappy French courses, and donated them all to the library. Without Assimil, I'm quite sure that I wouldn't be able to speak to my wife in her native language, carry on casual conversations with my in-laws over wine, or understand my wife when she speaks to the children. All this because my wife saw an Assimil course in a Paris bookstore one day and said, "Those are really good courses. Do you want to buy one?" I said, "Well, I already own several, but if you think this one is going to make a difference…" 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4688 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 68 of 329 07 January 2013 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Absolutely...though I say why wait? Spurred on by the audacious idea of the Super Challenge, I started reading Harry Potter when I was still on the first couple of lessons in NFWE. It didn't make much sense at first, but it kept getting clearer and clearer over time. I've still got another 40 active wave lessons to go, but I've already read some 1500 pages in French, and it's been much more fun than doing nothing but textbook lessons, and done wonders for my passive vocabulary and grammatical intuition. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4688 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 69 of 329 07 January 2013 at 7:24pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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And I would probably never get rid of a language course...but I know what you mean. They may as well not exist,
for all you care. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4665 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 70 of 329 07 January 2013 at 7:50pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Great story! I tried Pimsleur, which I found pretty boring and also awkward (I thought it was maddening to be asked to imitate speech without being told *anything* about the phonology). I also bought a couple of grammar translation type books, but decided I needed something with audio to get the pronunciation down. I think I first heard about Assimil either at this forum or in one of Luca's videos. Anyway, it has definitely been the best thing yet for my French. Thanks for the radio recommendations, too. Edited by tastyonions on 07 January 2013 at 7:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4665 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 71 of 329 08 January 2013 at 2:55am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Does anyone here have experience with the Grammaire Progressive Du Français?: link
The Amazon reviews are mostly good, and I can remember someone recommending the Niveau Perfectionnement elsewhere, but I was curious if anyone had used the intermediate level book before. I thought it might be good after I finish Assimil NFWE, to clarify and tighten up my grasp of grammar. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5532 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 72 of 329 08 January 2013 at 4:11am | IP Logged | ||||||||
You can browse the table of contents and first several pages on Amazon.fr. It looks pretty reasonable, if maybe a bit easy for an "intermediate" book. There should be "See also" links for the other volumes in the series. I really do like Perfectionnement, now that I've had a few weeks to flip through it. When in doubt, err on the difficult side with this series; they seem to recapitulate a lot. My other recommendation is, of course, Essential French Grammar, which is nice if you want a really concise overview and want to spend $6. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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