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Using German based Assimil programs | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| leroc Senior Member United States Joined 4313 days ago 114 posts - 167 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 1 of 8 11 February 2014 at 1:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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I want to use the norwegisch ohne Mühe program but I don't know German at all. Is it still useful, and what are peoples experiences with doing something similar to this? Would translating the German through Google and writing notes be worth the time to be able to actually use the program?
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| drygramul Tetraglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4470 days ago 165 posts - 269 votes Speaks: Persian, Italian*, EnglishC2, GermanB2 Studies: French, Polish | Message 2 of 8 11 February 2014 at 1:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I thought about doing the same for the advanced French courses, although my French is rather poor.
So, to answer your question, you could do that, but I honestly don't understand the point of translating the German part. Just translate the Norwegian part. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4523 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 3 of 8 11 February 2014 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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You can use it once you are at the B1 level or so (passively) to fill some gaps (that's
what I did with Danish and now do with Swedish). It would be more like intensive reading though. What use are parallel texts if you can't understand any of the languages? You could still google translate the comments and the grammar units, but using automatic translations of the German texts in order to understand Norwegian - sounds like a bad idea. I feel like Assimil is better used at later stages anyway because of the many typos you wouldn't spot as a beginner. At least in those German based books, there are quite many of them. Edited by daegga on 11 February 2014 at 1:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| leroc Senior Member United States Joined 4313 days ago 114 posts - 167 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 4 of 8 11 February 2014 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | ||
I was thinking about translating the German side because the Google algorithim for translating German would be stronger and have a better translation then the Norwegian one. Honestly, I have about an A2 level, so I could probably just read the Norwegian side with a dictionary and fill it in Edited by leroc on 11 February 2014 at 2:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| drygramul Tetraglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4470 days ago 165 posts - 269 votes Speaks: Persian, Italian*, EnglishC2, GermanB2 Studies: French, Polish | Message 5 of 8 11 February 2014 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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I understand, but it still looks a lot of trouble if you don't have an interest in German, with the risk of delaying your learning.
In addition, Google translator would probably make a difference in just a couple of instances. What you would lose in those instances you'd probably make more for with your A2 head-start in the first 30 or more lessons (if the Norwegian course follows the standard of the other ones). EDIT ### The translation are more literal at the beginning of the course, and you have more idioms toward the end, with a higher risk of errors. ### BTW, I am not even sure that Google translator would fare better from German to English than from Norwegian to English. For instance, the syntax of a North Germanic language looks less prone to translation errors than the one of a West Germanic language, although that would just be speculation on my part. Edited by drygramul on 11 February 2014 at 10:37pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4709 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 8 11 February 2014 at 11:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Use it if you could read a novel in the language without having to look up a word every
page. Only then do I find using L2 for L3 materials useful, or when the languages are so similar that half of it is an exercise in copy/paste. The only languages I have used as a base are Dutch, English and French, and these three constitute the three languages of the countries I have lived in. I have a textbook in Russian, but I also have an English one (for BCMS) and in this case it is only useful because Russian is also Slavic (and the fact I do understand the grammar explanations). Edited by tarvos on 11 February 2014 at 11:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5011 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 7 of 8 12 February 2014 at 10:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's true that it is beneficial to know the source language but sometimes you just can't choose the base language that much.
You can surely use it but a bit differently. If I were to do such a thing (using a base language I am not strong at by far or even not knowing it), I'd do it this way: 1.I'd use Assimil as one of two main sources. The other one could be either a traditional course or rather a grammar book, to help me translate the Norwegian part. 2.I'd use a good quality dictionary to translate the Norwegian part. An online dictionary would be perfect as those are free and can be used quickly. You can easily find recommendations. 3. I wouldn't bother translating the German part at all. 4. I would avoid Google Translate at all costs. It is a tool for getting the gist of a foreign text, not for presenting you with real translation. It is not just imprecise, it is very often just plain wrong and more complicated to decipher than the original text with a dictionary. 5. Audio is Target language only, which is awesome. No change needed. 6. Rather than translate the German parts, I'd search the grammar and other points in a grammar book or you can often find explanations (and always examples) by simple googling of the word or sentence. 7.As you later stated you are an A2 already, than why are you even considering juggling the German part anyhow? You should be able (and would have no other choice than) to use any monolingual course to progress deeper in the intermediate lair. Assimil can be a nice set of easy text + audio, which isn't that easy to find for smaller languages, no German interference needed. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4717 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 8 of 8 13 February 2014 at 12:53am | IP Logged | ||
True for long sentences, but for single words I think it's a great resource, especially (or only) when English is at one of the ends. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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