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Assimill frustration...is it just me? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| bryanpeabody Groupie United States Joined 4986 days ago 48 posts - 79 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 19 15 August 2014 at 3:21am | IP Logged |
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Hello all,
After going through MT Spanish and Pimsleur Spanish a couple of times, I decided to take the advice on this forum and give Assimil Spanish with Ease a try. I've gotten to lesson 22 and I'm finding it really frustrating. For instance, the first 10 lessons or so weren't very challenging. Somewhere between 10 and 22, I'm noticing that the translations seem bad. For instance, in lesson 19: "Eso hay que celebrarlo" is translated as "We must celebrate that (It is necessary to celebrate it)". To me, based on other courses, I would translate it as...One must celebrate it. Certainly "We" and "necessary" aren't there. It seems the translations are more of a "it sort of means this". Also, things don't seem to be explained very well. For instance, "Cuando hayas terminado" pops up in one lesson. There is a note on this that hayas is the present subjuctive tense but that is about the extent of the explanation, with the promise to come back to this many times in the future. Which doesn't help much with this lesson :) Since there is an overwhelming positive feeling for Assimil here, am I doing something wrong in using the course? In general, this is what I do for each lesson... 1. Listen to the audio, book closed. 2. Listen to the audio, while following the Spanish. 3. Listen to the audio again, speaking along with the audio. (Sometimes 2 or 3 times until I feel good about it) 4. Write out the Spanish. 5. Translate the English back to Spanish (this helps me remember). 6. Do the 4 or 5 exercises. If I get these right and can understand 80% of the audio book closed, I move on. In general, I don't feel like I'm learning a whole lot. Some vocab, some new tenses, although I'm not 100% sure I could use them outside of the book (ie, speaking with someone). So...is this normal? If so, at what point in the book do things tend to "click"? Thanks much. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4255 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 2 of 19 15 August 2014 at 3:43am | IP Logged |
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The Assimil method overall is generally well liked, but the specific quality of individual courses can vary pretty widely and some specific courses are universally disliked. I haven't personally used any of their Spanish courses, but I think I remember hearing about bad translations on at least one of them.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7206 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 3 of 19 15 August 2014 at 11:34am | IP Logged |
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Using Spanish, the advanced course is the one with terrible translations.
For the original poster, I suggest, just keep going. Try to make it fun. Don't worry so much. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 4 of 19 15 August 2014 at 4:31pm | IP Logged |
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I tried a few Assimils (and I am going to retake and finish one or two in the last quarter of this year) and I must admit I put the Spanish one aside as I didn't like it. I found the dialogues less interesting than in th others (I like German and Swedish) and I didn't particularily like the audio but I do not think it is a bad Assimil. It is just that we have various learning styles that we need to make those compatible with the good ways to use a resource.
I personally think you are torturing yourself with the lessons instead of learning them with ease. I understand your desire to know things clearly, to have precise explanations and to learn to use things actively right away. But that is not exactly how an Assimil should be used, not unless you enjoy such a difficult process as the one you are putting yourself through. My suggestion on a solution: 1.Take it easier on Assimil. Listening with a closed book and thatn the opened one is a good thing. And just as great is to just put the lesons in an mp3 player and do the largest part of your listening on the go. I have good experience with listening to the lesson (usually having read it already) once, twice or even three times during the day, whenever I have time. 2.Think whether you prefer to speak with the audio, to use shadowing or to simply repeat after the audio. For exemple, prof Arguelles is athe master of shadowing and recommends it very strongly. I tried repeatedly and failed miserably. I prefer to repeat after the audio however, and it works for me. Try whether you don't need the same approach. 3.Don't write everything out unless you find it interesting or helping your progres. Instead, you might wanna try writing down just an interesting sentence or two, puting vocabulary in an SRS or whatever else you find beneficial to your learning. 4.The back translation (en to es) is usually meant for the active wave but do whatever you find helpful. You igh want to add a little bit more practice like creating your own sentences with substitution etc. 5. If you are frustrated by the explanations and lack ofpractice to put the language to active use immediately, get a second source to go with Assimil. For exemple a grammar book with exemples and exercises. Get something like Gramática del uso or what is the name and just find out any point you are unsure about or with which you don't want to wait until another lesson. Or get another and more traditional course and work with two main resources, that is what many learners (including myself) do. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 5 of 19 15 August 2014 at 4:39pm | IP Logged |
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Sorry about so many typoes and mistakes, I've alredy cleared a lot of them but the forums are extra slow in my browser today and it is a pain to write and rewrite
1 person has 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 6 of 19 15 August 2014 at 4:49pm | IP Logged |
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If you're going to go the translation route, think more broadly about concepts and not
words. It's the concept Assimil tries to get across with the translation, not so much the exact wording. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3908 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 7 of 19 15 August 2014 at 10:23pm | IP Logged |
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You seem to be using Assimil correctly (everyone has their own method), but I think you're thinking about it the wrong way. You seem to be trying to walk away from every lesson having mastered the content. The passive wave is all about familiarizing yourself with the language: getting used to hearing it and reading it and gradually picking up on the concepts. I believe the grammar notes are meant more to make you aware of certain grammatical aspects of the language, as the explanations are a bit too vague for real mastery, but over time you will gain an intuitive sense of using them since you will see them used so much. Keep going with it and maybe in 10 or so lessons, go back to the lesson that you are currently on; you will find it makes more sense since you will have become more exposed to the concepts. I would get yourself a good grammar book and, when there is a concept that Assimil doesn't explain very well, look into it more in depth. Later on, when you start delving into the active wave(s) you will get more practice with actually using what you learned.
As far as the translations go, I do agree that they can sometimes be a problem. I used the German version and sometimes I don't even know what exactly they mean in English (maybe they are using a British English idiomatic expression I'm not familiar with or maybe it's just a crude translation from the original French edition, I don't know). Main point: Assimil is great for familiarizing yourself with the language, so don't sweat it if you don't understand 100% of each lesson. It does lack in the speaking department, but that's why I would recommend complementing it with another audio program meant for that (I know there are a ton of them for Spanish). Edited by soclydeza85 on 15 August 2014 at 10:27pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Enrico Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 3746 days ago 162 posts - 207 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Italian, Spanish, French | Message 8 of 19 03 September 2014 at 1:47am | IP Logged |
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I would also suggest to go thru the course with ease and keep going. I also have Assimil audio in my phone and
review them from time to time. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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