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Assimil versus US language programs | ||
Tags: Learner type | Platiquemos | Pimsleur | Reading | Language Program | FSI | Assimil | Accent | Book | Grammar | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 7033 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish | Message 129 of 184 11 February 2006 at 3:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ah ok, so those are books designed for beginners.
I just looked at the urls. Have you ever bought something from amazone? Is that a safe place to use your creditcard?? Maybe I'd better order it in a local bookstore. The price ain't a problem I see, that's good. Thanks for the tip! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6942 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 130 of 184 11 February 2006 at 4:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Amazon is definitely a reputable company, which is widely used in the US. It has European branches, amazon.co.uk, amazon.fr, and amazon.de.
What I am not sure is whether it will be cheaper for you to order from the US or the UK site, where the books will cost more, but the shipping may be less. You can figure it out by proceeding with the transaction at each of the two sites as if you were really going to buy, i.e., set up your account (which will be valid for all the amazon sites), fill out your address, the credit card info, etc., but don't press the final confirmation button for the transaction. You can compare the totals (books + various shipping options) from the US and UK sites using the currency converter at XE.com, and then make your best choice, also taking into account the projected delivery dates. P.S. By the way, if you would like to have a concise intermediate reference grammar (without exercises or drills - just explanations), this very short and inexpensive book may be a good choice. Edited by frenkeld on 11 February 2006 at 10:32pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 7033 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish | Message 131 of 184 12 February 2006 at 3:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Seems like a nice book.
I like the simple samples at one of the first pages. That's what I want, simple examples without grammar jargon :) Thanks for the tips. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Eidolio Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 6860 days ago 159 posts - 164 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Dutch*, Flemish*, French, English, Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, Greek | Message 132 of 184 14 February 2006 at 2:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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I learnt Italian the Assimil way and I wasn't entirely satisfied with the method. I prefer methods who offer more grammar. I think that, if you're good at applying grammatical rules, learning a language goes much quicklier if you just learn the set of rules.
In my Assimil book I really had to search for the conjugations in different sentences. But I must admit that it's a good method for learning vocabulary - you just think about the story and you remember the words :-) Anyway, I want more grammatical, philological and etymological stuff in language courses than is offered in Assimil. Is Pimsleur/something else any better and how much does this cost? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 7033 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish | Message 133 of 184 14 February 2006 at 2:37pm | IP Logged | ||
If you want more grammar than Pimsleur is not for you. Pimsleur is (mainly) audio only and Assimil has more grammar I think. Pimsleur has taught me a few simple rules and the rest is a matter of getting used to what is correct (word order for instance). It is rather costly. I got mine rather cheap, secondhand. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7103 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 134 of 184 14 February 2006 at 4:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Stefanie, Pimsleur is more basic than Assimil and likely won't teach a whole lot if you've covered Assimil.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7182 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 135 of 184 16 February 2006 at 7:56am | IP Logged | ||
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As someone who has used both the Pimsleur and FSI methods I'm actually starting to regret that I didn't learn using Assimil instead. I have listened to some of the recordings for Assimil Chinese and it seems to teach a lot of vocabulary. I'm getting more and more convinced that the best way to develop a good accent is to listen a lot. This is especially true if you have poor mimicking ability. The general opinion on this site seems to be that after doing Pimsleur you will have perfect pronounciation. I don't agree with that. After doing Pimsleur you will be very good at pronouncing the sentences taught by Pimsleur but not necessarily have a perfect accent when producing your own sentences. Furthermore the Assimil dialouges seem more fun than the FSI ones. At least when it comes to the Standard chinese course. The Standard Chinese FSI course also teaches tons of vocabulary of questionable usefulness. I am starting to believe that neither Pimsleur nor FSI give you enough exposure to the target language to develop a native like accent. At least for Standard chinese there is lots of English on the tapes which is also the case with Pimsleur. If we are to attempt to mimick the way kids learn languages I think the best method would be to first listen to Assimil without repeating anything, just let the sound of the language sink into your brain. Then for fun you could do a volume of Pimsleur just to get some speaking practice. If you are poor at mimicking accents it would not be a good idea to listen to Pimsleur, since every time you mimick a sentence you are listening to your own poor rendition instead of the correct version. This time would be much better spent listening to Assimil recordings. You don't get better intonation just by speaking , you get better intonation by internalizing the intonation patterns of the language as spoken by native speakers. This in my view is best done by listening.
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| Eidolio Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 6860 days ago 159 posts - 164 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Dutch*, Flemish*, French, English, Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, Greek | Message 136 of 184 16 February 2006 at 4:36pm | IP Logged | ||
ow, so Pimsleur isn't really what I'm looking for... That's disappointing... I really need clear grammar to compare the structure of the language which the one of other languages. If I get this I'll learn faster because I'll be able to explain the grammar.
Entrenchment is indeed important. I must admit that Assimil really is a good method to get a nice accent. I used to go to bed with a walkman to listen to the Assimil-tapes (which are completely Italian) without really being focused - I just listened to the sound of the sentences. This helped me a lot, except for the rolling "r" sound, I just know that's hopeless. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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