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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| The Law Newbie United States Joined 6378 days ago 31 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* | Message 25 of 191 03 July 2007 at 4:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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What level will I be at after completing New French with Ease? Would I be able to understand French TV/movies? How about after I complete Using French? Does New French with Ease just take a person to the intermediate level or is it anywhere near fluency (or does that require Using French)?
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| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6442 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 26 of 191 03 July 2007 at 5:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
I have this course as well. The dialogs are incredibly filled with Esperanto cliches. The voice acting is terrible - it has a very 'theatric' style, in a stereotypical Esperanto-course kind of way. I haven't found any other Esperanto course that has such voice acting to anywhere near the same degree. After merely passively listening to it for about two and a half hours, the next time I spoke to a friend of mine who speaks Esperanto, in Esperanto, his reaction was quite negative, as I'd picked up the intonation/etc; it's really the epitome of artificial-sounding Esperanto. It's hard to describe - but it's over the top, and frankly, it makes me cringe to listen to it. The dialog for the first lesson, roughly translated into English, is as follows: First Lesson: In front of the obelisk Oh! Pardon, miss! Not a big deal, mister. Eh! Behold! You're speaking in Esperanto! Yes! Hello! Yes! I can! Ah! Do you learn in a course? No, I learn by myself. Ooh! You already speak well! Exercises: I speak / you speak / Do you speak? / I don't speak / Do you try? / Yes, I try. / Don't you learn? / Ya, I learn by myself. / Don't you speak? / I don't speak well / Don't you try? / Yes ya, I try. / Don't you learn well? / Yes, I learn well. This is a far cry from the usual Assimil dialogs. The exercises resemble a pattern drill, and the dialog is quite inane, with no (intended) humor value whatsoever. I don't consider it to get significantly better as the course continues, either. It is the only Assimil course which I've bought which I have disliked. I actually find it next to unlistenable, which is unfortunate. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7224 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 27 of 191 03 July 2007 at 6:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
Volte, I just read your review of the Assimil Esperanto course. Is there anything redeemable about it? On the Amazon France site a positive review on the course regarding knowledge of Esperanto. If the dialogue is bad, the only positive I can think of is comprehending a bad accented speech. This is similar to a person new to a language and can't speak it well. This is too bad and it would have been nice if the dialogues were released with high quality speech, like the others. This just reminds me of the TY line and how the quality of the course varies from language to language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6442 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 28 of 191 03 July 2007 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
It has some redeeming qualities, however slight. I think it would be useful if you had absolutely no other way to get access to spoken Esperanto. It's not pronounced 'incorrectly', merely in an incredibly odd style - imagine an untalented actor hugely overacting for a part in English, with crazily exaggerated intonation, and you'll have an idea of it. To be entirely fair, this is much more pronounced on the first CD than on the 4th. Also, my random sampling of lessons suggests that it's rather simple Esperanto. I'm far from fluent, but I could understand lessons 74 and 97 (the last) without any effort.
The accent isn't so bad, really. It's somewhat French, but lightly, and it strikes me as acceptable. Esperanto doesn't have one normative standard accent. The intonation and rhythm are a larger problem; they're also probably slightly more important than the accent - but again, this is something which varies among Esperanto speakers. I've just listened to a few lessons from the 4th CD. They're still not as good as I expect from Assimil, but they're nowhere near as bad as the first lesson either. I wish this course were better; I really enjoy the other Assimil courses I have, and I haven't found a way of learning Esperanto which I like in the same way, or to the same degree, though some of lernu's courses are pretty decent. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7224 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 29 of 191 03 July 2007 at 10:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
When I read this, the immediate thing that came to mind was William Shatner. Coincidentally enough, Bill was also criticized along with the other actors/ actresses in the movie Incubus. The Esperanto spoken in the film was considered to be awful. Bill Shatner is more known by his broken English, whenever I see comedy skits about him.
Again William Shatner, as he grew up in Quebec, Canada. The French accent is there and noticable. Esperantists did not find his Esperanto pronunciation acceptable. The reference on Bill Shatner, for comparisons sake now gives me a better idea of the Esperanto Assimil dialogue. At least there is something redeemable about it, even if it is minor. I just hope there is a high standard for new Assimils that come out. Edited by alang on 03 July 2007 at 10:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cage Diglot aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas Senior Member United States Joined 6627 days ago 382 posts - 393 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 30 of 191 04 July 2007 at 3:11am | IP Logged | |||||
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Assimil is not going to make you fluent by any means. You will be very good in a very small part of the language. That is my take on French which is the only Assimil course i have experence with. It is a lot of fun. I remember when I finished Pimsleur Spanish and had a good time going through all three levels. I thought I was ready for a UN job. Of course Assimil will take you farther than Pimsleur.
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| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6668 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 31 of 191 04 July 2007 at 5:43am | IP Logged | |||||
They are no real-life dialogues, i.e. they're always placed in typical situations where you'd use Esperanto, for example John from London visits Chiara from Rome and (what joy!) they can communicate in Esperanto (I made up the names). After some lessons it gets really boring (especially since the characters don't change). I don't know about the recordings, I've never listened to them. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cage Diglot aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas Senior Member United States Joined 6627 days ago 382 posts - 393 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 32 of 191 04 July 2007 at 8:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't think you can fault the program for a pseudo language like esperanto.
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