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FrancoRussianHebrew log-Renaissancemedi | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4663 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 33 of 51 26 January 2013 at 9:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Personally, I always try to get materials that are as up to date as possible. I figure I will probably sound odd enough to natives already without using words or expressions that fell out of use a few decades ago. :-) Edited by tastyonions on 26 January 2013 at 9:41pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4356 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 34 of 51 26 January 2013 at 9:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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How true! Odd in deed. Add the weird body language trying to explain whatever you failed to communicate verbally, and you have the picture of me speaking russian.
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| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4356 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 35 of 51 31 January 2013 at 12:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have changed the title of the log for several reasons.
As much as I had planned to do certain things with certain languages, I went through a period of adjusting and experimenting. After about a month and a half since I decided to start studying again, the situation is this: My main focus is German. So, I have a separate log for that. My plan for french was immersion, for russian full time study, and for hebrew nothing for now. However, now that I have settled in my schedule, the reality is a bit different. For french, a lot of tv, texts, plus MT. A lot of journal writing. Not systematic. For russian, MT without much writing. Just work on my speaking skills for now. For hebrew Pimsleur, without writing at all. I take turns with the languages, so that I don't allow myself to forget what I've learned. And that's it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4356 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 36 of 51 31 January 2013 at 4:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have finished the three first Pimsleur lessons for hebrew . Twice, just to be sure. It's a very beautiful language, and so similar to greek in pronounciation (but nothing else!).
I know I should be learning the alphabet as well, but I won't do that yet. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5393 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 37 of 51 02 February 2013 at 12:03am | IP Logged | ||
As far as Assimil goes, I believe the first courses were done in the 50s. It is generally agreed that the older courses are more solid than the newer courses. I have more than one version of the Polish, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and French, and I would say the older courses are, in general, much better. Unfortunately, Assimil has started to do what a lot of other publishers have done and has started to dumb things down. Edited by Kerrie on 02 February 2013 at 2:46am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4356 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 38 of 51 02 February 2013 at 8:13am | IP Logged | ||
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You are so right. The only problem is that one never knows which phrases are outdated. Thank heaven for this forum, one ca always get feedback on such things. I am using the German course from the 50s myself.
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| Kronos Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5259 days ago 186 posts - 452 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 39 of 51 02 February 2013 at 2:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Most of the first generation Assimil courses, written by A. Chérel, are originally from the 1930s and 40s, one or two are from the early 50s. It's the foreign language editions of these courses that came out one or two decades later, but the target language lesson texts themselves are older. Some of the earliest of these courses may have been updated later, but probably not too much.
L'allemand sans peine is from 1931, and there was a "nouvelle édition" about a decade later on which I guess the foreign versions like "German without Toil" were based. In one chapter of GwT there is mention of 'German script' which it said is still standard but gradually falling out of use. Since this sort of script was abandoned in 1941 the text of GwT must be still from that era, 1930s, or early 1940s at most. Same with other courses. In my 1980s copy of their wonderful old Dutch course one chapter is on war strategy, but it is all about WWI. The original version in French was first published in 1939, so I guess this is still the same one. In my 1990 copy of the old Portuguese course (1955, the last one A. Chérel wrote) one line in Lesson 2 reads: "Rio de Janeiro é a capital do Brazil.", and it's the same on the audio, so probably no change here either. Brasília became the new capital already in 1960, and "Brazil" must have been obsolete spelling even then. I would not be concerned about outdated language in the case of German. I have read through some chapters of German without Toil, and if you came to Germany after studying nothing else no one would raise an eyebrow. In my opinion it is still fresh enough even for getting straight into colloquial speech. Of course the language is not always identical to what one would use in real life situations, this may have a little bit to do with the age of the course as well, but I guess the main reason is that it is a textbook, and textbooks are never entirely colloquial, since texts for novices should not be too informal. No really, the old German course is not outdated. One esteemed member of this forum, username "fanatic", a polyglot from Australia, has mentioned in scores of posts how he learned the language from this very course, became fluent in German within months and even found a job as a technical translator in Germany, having to translate from English to German. All this is about current colloquial speech only. If you learn the language mainly in order to read and understand, the age should be even less of a concern. If you are unsure about any expressions you find in the course, just ask. The language of the texts is a little bit dusty in places, but no big deal really. Prof. Arguelles's opinion on the old Assmil courses is that they are very good, but still "had a rough feel" to them, and that it is the courses of the late 60s and 1970s that are truly outstanding. However, with few exceptions they didn't publish new versions of their old courses/languages then, focusing on different, less popular ones. His favorites are the courses for Catalan, Serbo-Croatian, Russian and Occitan, all from the 1970s. He mentioned this in various posts here on the forum. He also spoke highly of the 1960s Latin course, and in one of his shadowing videos used a copy of the 60s Modern Greek course for demonstrative purposes. I have both the 1950s/earlier and 1980s/later course for any of the more common languages I am interested in. I cannot judge which ones are really 'better'. If I learned in order to become quickly functional and communicate I would maybe start with the later ones in most cases, particulary because the audio material is more down-to-earth and sometimes easier to get. But the older ones are simply more interesting, entertaining, and tend to have much more content. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4356 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 40 of 51 03 February 2013 at 12:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for this answer, and for setting the record straight for German in particular. I will continue as planned then, without fear!
I also have three editions of russian assimil: 1951, 1971, modern. I like the 1971 a lot (I like the voices), but the modern course is nice too. As for 1951, it seems very close to the 1971 one, but the recordings are not so good. It's like a time capsule though. I was moved to think that those people went through WWII, and survived. I remember of grandparents and get all emotional. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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