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kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4890 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish
| Message 1 of 99 01 October 2012 at 9:30pm | IP Logged |
Can Assimil really get you to a B1 in six months, or have you speaking "easily, fluently, and naturally?" How are you even supposed to use it? What are the best and worst courses? Does it even work???
HTLAL is about to answer (or try to answer) these questions, and more!
The Assimil Experiment will be a group effort, starting in November, where HTLAL members will work their way through an Assimil course in a new language, and report back their findings.
It's not a challenge, and there are no rules per se; however, the more in-synch we are, the more useful the results will be. There is a Planning Thread with a discussion on how to run the experiment. The consensus is to use the following guidelines:
1. Start anytime in November,
Estimated finish time: four to six months
2. Be a beginner in the language.
(ideally, no experience; maximum less than 100 hours study, or low A2)
3. Follow the Assimil "method" of a passive wave followed by an active wave
(there are numerous interpretations of this; see the Planning Thread for ideas)
4. Don't use outside courses!
(Exceptions have been proposed for Anki, writing courses for non-Western scripts, and reference books)
5. Log back here regularly!
I'll open an Assimil Experiment Group Log November 1
I'd like to keep this thread clean, and just use it keep track of participants and their chosen language. We'll keep the Planning Thread open for discussion and questions.
copy and paste (if you like):
Course:
Estimated Start Date:
Prior experience with this language:
Any outside resources you might use:
Why you chose this language:
Personal Predictions:
as of October 8:
Le Grec ancien - Kanewai
Le Breton sans peine - tarvos
Le Vietnamien sans peine - Bao
Le Hindi sans peine - Yuhakko
Le Tamoul sans peine - seldnar
Le Russe, 2008 edition - Goindol
Le Nouveau Russe sans peine - Expugnator (might switch to Italian base)
Le Suedois sans peine - Cavesa
Le Persan sans peine - Tadeo
L'Egyptien - BartoG
Norwegisch ohne Mühe - Serpent
Italienisch ohne Mühe heute - Mani
Ungarisch ohne Mühe (Hungarian) - nuriayasmin70
El Catalán sin Esfuerzo - Flarioca
El Francés sin Esfuerzo - July
French With Ease - pfn123, melkior79, slidemasterx
Chinese With Ease (Vol 1 and 2) - sabotai
Italian with Ease - Kugel, songlines (may do German instead)
Cantonese - Jeff Lindqvist
Russian with Ease (2011 edition) - Slothrop
O Novo Francês Sem Custo - fabriciocarraro
Edited by kanewai on 08 October 2012 at 9:58pm
10 persons have voted this message useful
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4890 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish
| Message 2 of 99 01 October 2012 at 9:32pm | IP Logged |
Course: Le Grec ancien
Estimated Start Date: November 15
Prior experience with this language: None
Any outside resources you might use: I have a 1950's-era "Teach Yourself Ancient Greek" I found at a used bookstore. I might use this as a reference if I can't understand the French explanations in Assimil. I also have a good friend who knows Ancient Greek, and I'll be hitting him up.
Why you chose this language: I love the old epics, and think it would be amazing to one day read them in their original.
Personal predictions: I think this is going to be very hard ... and that I will probably have to do another beginner's course again after Assimil. I'm hoping that I can move on to some of the guided parallel text readers for Plato and Homer.
Other languages I'll do informally: (thanks for the idea, Serpent!) I'll give Español perfeccionamiento a shot once I finish with their basic Spanish course, probably in December or January.
Edited by kanewai on 02 October 2012 at 2:22am
1 person has voted this message useful
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 3 of 99 01 October 2012 at 11:54pm | IP Logged |
Course: Norwegisch ohne Mühe
Estimated Start Date: November 1
Prior experience with this language: music, tweets, some knowledge of Danish, some contact with Swedish in Finland. I scored zero when I tried the Dialang placement test a couple of months ago - now I could score more because my Danish has improved :)
Any outside resources you might use: music, tweets, more contact with Swedish and especially Danish
Why you chose this language: Because I like it and to improve my understanding of the Scandinavian languages as a whole. And because I've been able to find an Assimil course :-)
Personal predictions: I'd only do the passive wave if it wasn't for the rules. I'd be more than satisfied with just a better passive understanding.
Other Assimil courses I'll do informally: Romanian, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan.
2 persons have voted this message useful
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 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 4 of 99 02 October 2012 at 12:44am | IP Logged |
Course: Le Breton sans Peine
Estimated Start Date: As soon as I finish FSI Swedish,
which will be five weeks from now. I suppose that makes it the beginning of November. I
am planning it to be like November 5th, but it may depend on when I actually finish (if
it's earlier I might start earlier)
November 5th for now.
Prior experience with this language: Seen it on a few
road signs in Bretagne, France, and leafed through my grammar. That's it.
Any outside resources you might use: I have a dictionary
and a grammar just in case. I might use wordlists for vocabulary purposes.
Why you chose this language: Because it's an obscure
language in an obscure family that I want to know more about. And also because I am
sure nobody's taking on Breton.
Personal predictions: I'll learn a lot and do just fine. Like with everything.
Edited by tarvos on 02 October 2012 at 12:46am
4 persons have voted this message useful
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5767 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin
| Message 5 of 99 02 October 2012 at 1:02am | IP Logged |
Course: Le vietnamien sans peine
Estimated Start Date: November 1st is fine
Prior experience with this language: None at all
Any outside resources you might use: FSI for tone drills. And I'll try to use opportunities (Vietnamese coworker from today on~) where I see them.
Why you chose this language: ... somehow I ended up buying the course, when I was down and needed something to look forward to. And I really need something that has no practical use at all for me to wind down.
2 persons have voted this message useful
| yuhakko Tetraglot Senior Member FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4633 days ago 414 posts - 582 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishB2, EnglishC2, Spanish, Japanese Studies: Korean, Norwegian, Mandarin
| Message 6 of 99 02 October 2012 at 1:55am | IP Logged |
Course: Le Hindi sans peine
Estimated Start Date: around the start of November. I guess 1st
Prior experience with this language: none at all; heard it here and there only for
short periods
Any outside resources you might use: A friend who can speak hindi perfectly but can
write
Why you chose this language: Out of pure curiosity. And because as I have no special
attraction to that language; I know I won't (at least at the begining) go search for
more.
Personal predictions: It's going to be quite hard to follow well as I have other
languages that I consider as more important for now (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and
because I'll also have the new Assimil Bahasa Indonesia, that I'll start as soon as I
get.
Other Assimil courses I'll do informally: As said just above : Bahasa Indonesia. Maybe
Norvegian too
Edited by yuhakko on 02 October 2012 at 1:55am
3 persons have voted this message useful
| Flarioca Heptaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5883 days ago 635 posts - 816 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Esperanto, French, EnglishC2, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Catalan, Mandarin
| Message 7 of 99 02 October 2012 at 1:55am | IP Logged |
Course: El Catalán sin Esfuerzo
Estimated Start Date: November 15
Prior experience with this language: None, but I'm a native Portuguese speaker, who knows some Spanish, French, Italian and a little bit of Latin.
Any outside resources you might use: After the end of the passive phase, I'll start to read and listen other material. Edit: In the active phase, I'll also use a dictionary and a grammar.
Why you chose this language: I would like to know something about all major Romance languages. Besides, maybe Català will become the main language of a new european country, a beautiful one, with a great soccer team (second only to my Flamengo), wonderful beaches, nice and fun people. That's enough.
Personal predictions: I really hope to be a B2+ at reading and listening after this experiment, and a B1- at speaking and writing. I hope to visit Barcelona in the near future and use whatever I'll learn.
Other languages I'll do: I'll stop "studying" German, but will continue to read and listen a lot in this language. I'll also study Italian grammar and write something/sometimes in the Italian group of Lang-8.
Edited by Flarioca on 06 October 2012 at 3:18pm
3 persons have voted this message useful
| seldnar Senior Member United States Joined 7133 days ago 189 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, French, Greek
| Message 8 of 99 02 October 2012 at 2:20am | IP Logged |
Course: Le Tamoul sans peine
Estimated Start Date: November 1st
Prior experience with this language: None.
Any outside resources you might use: Perhaps some help for the script. Although
I've glanced at the Assimil course and it appears that they do a nice, slow
introduction
of the script that would be just fine.
Why you chose this language: The script is pretty. :-)
Personal Prediction I expect I'll probably be around an A2 and in a position to
take part in a meaningful language exchange with a native speaker.
edited: because I forgot to include the personal prediction.
Edited by seldnar on 02 October 2012 at 7:44am
2 persons have voted this message useful
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