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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 49 of 191 07 July 2007 at 5:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yes, how far will New French with Ease take me after completing the course? Now how far will Using French take me? Are all the tenses covered in New French with Ease or is Using French a must to master French and become fluent?
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| reltuk Groupie United States Joined 6819 days ago 75 posts - 110 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 50 of 191 07 July 2007 at 5:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
A quick search found an old post in an old thread that addresses this issue. From that post:
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| The Law Newbie United States Joined 6378 days ago 31 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* | Message 51 of 191 07 July 2007 at 6:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
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So I guess I'll have a pretty good grasp of French after With Ease and then I'll be pretty much fluent after Using French?
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| reltuk Groupie United States Joined 6819 days ago 75 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 52 of 191 07 July 2007 at 7:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
Assuming that you mastered both courses, and that the above statement is correct, you would have a vocabulary of between 5000 and 7000 words, and have a familiarity with most of the grammatical structures and all of the verb tenses of French. Given the nature of Assimil courses, you would also have a repertoire of idiomatic expressions and cultural trivia at your disposal. "Pretty much fluent" is a partly vague term, and people have different standards for fluency. You can find many posts on these forums discussing different people's conceptions of the term. I would guess that mastery of "New French with Ease" would put you around level B1 in the CEF, and mastery of "Using French" would put you around C1, excluding field specialization and the likes. The CEF is the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, "a common basis for the elaboration of language syllabuses, curriculum guidelines, examinations, textbooks, etc. across Europe." It includes different levels to describe language mastery, with criteria for evaluating understanding, speaking and writing skills along a matrix judging range, accuracy, and fluency, interaction and coherence. On the global scale (rating all of the skills in aggregate), the two above mentioned grades are described as: B1: Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst traveling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. C1: Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognize implicit meaning. Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organizational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices. I think "New French with Ease" would actually leave you around B1+ and "Using French" would actually leave you around C1-. I encourage anyone with dissenting opinions or experiences to weigh in, since I've never actually evaluated the scope of how far an Assimil course takes someone when it is the sole means of their learning a language (outside of native exposure, of course, which these predicted levels are predicated on you pursuing independently). More information about the CEF can be found on wikipedia. Edited by reltuk on 07 July 2007 at 9:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tpiz Diglot Groupie United States cvillepayne.blogspot Joined 6367 days ago 77 posts - 79 votes Studies: Portuguese, English*, French Studies: Mandarin, Japanese | Message 53 of 191 07 July 2007 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Currently I am using the Assimil Japanese course, and I've asked a couple questions here earlier, but I haven't really met anyone who learned Japanese through this method, and if they did, how'd they do it? The reason I am asking for this specifically is because Japanese is unlike the romance languages where we already understand, to a certain extent, all the parts of speech and the writing, so the only thing necessary is to learn the vocabulary, conjugations, etc. whereas a language like Japanese is unlike any romance language and you need to learn "more" to understand the language. Did anyone usiing assimil japanese memorize or just listen, repeat aloud, and continue to the next exercise?
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| FSI Senior Member United States Joined 6362 days ago 550 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English* | Message 54 of 191 07 July 2007 at 7:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
If you were to commit the entire courses to heart, yes. Very few people are willing to repeat courses hundreds of times to reach these results, however. One or two sweeps will not bring you to fluency. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| The Law Newbie United States Joined 6378 days ago 31 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* | Message 55 of 191 07 July 2007 at 8:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for all the information!
Now for a question that I forgot to mention... How do you pronounce Assimil?
I do each lesson thoroughly, and at every 7th lesson I repeat the past seven by going through the audio and rereading the passages. I don't memorize the passages though. Edited by The Law on 07 July 2007 at 8:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7149 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 56 of 191 07 July 2007 at 8:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
uh-see-MEEL 1 person has voted this message useful |
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