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Advice needed for Assimil (Spanish) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| UKflyboy Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3945 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes | Message 1 of 8 27 February 2014 at 4:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi everyone.
I've been doing Assimil's Spanish with Ease, but find myself struggling a bit during the passive phase. I have been using the instructions for the Dutch course which have been printed here and elsewhere. By following the instructions, I do understand most of what is being said in each unit, which I understand to be the aim of the passive phase. But I do struggle when trying to repeat the sentences (unless I break them up), and usually get some of the missing word exercises wrong. I can't help but finish up each unit feeling like I didn't 'nail it'. Should I just continue as I am and hope that the magic of Assimil kicks in later down the line, or should I be repeating the units, or doing something else? Any advice is much appreciated! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4256 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 2 of 8 27 February 2014 at 5:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would say it depends on you're time and goals. I think if you continue as you are you will be surprised with how much you can retain with small bits of daily study. I've been experimenting with a more minimal routine with Romanian, and even though I leave most lessons feeling like I didn't really learn all the content, I still find short Romanian phrases slipping out of my mouth from time to time, which is quite astounding for the small amount of time I put into it each day.
That said, if you want to completely absorb all the content of the course, many learners find it quite useful to use more intensive study methods , and the original assimil courses frequently recommend reviewing old lessons 3-4 times and usually have many more exercises for helping content really sink in. Personally I like using blind shadowing and scriptorium when working through an assimil course with the intention of absorbing all the content really well. Blind shadowing (Playing audio and trying to speak over it as you hear it without the text) I find really useful because it helps me reinforce and absorb what I've sort of learned, and also highlights what I haven't. Sometimes I think I'll know a dialog better than I do after having just read the English translation, but when I blind shadow it the next day, the words I don't understand will really stand out. Scriptorium (reading a sentence, writing it out and pronouncing each letter as your write it, then reading what you wrote) helps with associating the sounds with the written words and helps learn spelling. It also has the benefit of slowing you down and getting you to think about sentences in more detail. I used to write out entire lessons, but over time I found it's much more beneficial for me to be selective about which sentences I want to write. If I tell myself I need to write out the whole lesson beforehand it will usually feel more like a chore , I'll tend to rush. I find the process of weighing each sentence and deciding how well I know the vocabulary and grammar in it helps a lot with remembering the content later. Sometimes I'll end up writing out the whole lesson anyways, but I find the fact I decided to write out each sentence individually before doing so, makes the whole process more enjoyable and I usually end up having analyzed the dialog in more detail and remembering things much better. Edited by YnEoS on 27 February 2014 at 5:21pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dmaddock1 Senior Member United States Joined 5435 days ago 174 posts - 426 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Esperanto, Latin, Ancient Greek | Message 3 of 8 27 February 2014 at 5:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello. I am into the second wave of Spanish with Ease right now. Don't sweat it. You aren't meant to get everything perfect all the time. It seems everyone here has their own slightly personalized approach to doing Assimil and you'll probably get every possible answer to this question. It's also been asked a lot, so you can find older responses with search.
My suggestion is to do whichever keeps you from giving up and that will depend on your personality. If you are frustrated and repeating units will make you feel better about your progress, then do that. If you are a more laid back guy, then just keep pushing forward. You will go back to all these lessons in the active wave anyway. Another approach is to review older lessons periodically. Say, always review the prior day's lesson before starting a new one, or the one from a week ago, etc. When I do the exercises, if I get one badly wrong I circle it in my notebook then try it again the next day as a review. Sometimes my "mistakes" are not real, but just different ways of saying the same thing (eg. "necesito" vs. "tengo que") or a slightly different tense ("he tenido" vs "tenía"). That's not much of a problem. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5911 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 4 of 8 27 February 2014 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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I haven't used Assimil Spanish so I can only answer based on the ones I've used (Hungarian With Ease and Italian With Ease) but they follow the same setup. I would say continue, do your best to understand the content - you don't need to repeat anything back yet - and if you get things wrong in the exercises then simply read the right answer and try to understand why it's correct (but don't kick yourself for getting it wrong) and move on. It seems like most Assimil courses work in such a way that those things that seem difficult now will seem obvious later.
You're in the passive phase and you really can allow yourself to keep things very passive for now by simply paying attention to the lesson, reading the notes, and having a go at the exercises. Don't worry about output until later. Obviously people use the course in different ways so do what you feel is right for you, but personally I've used Assimil enough to trust that they have a plan and things will become clearer later on :-) Liz 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7207 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 5 of 8 28 February 2014 at 1:04am | IP Logged | ||
I agree with all the advice given so far. At one point I tried playing Assimil sentences until I could shadow or repeat them perfectly, but it wasn't fun so I didn't continue doing that. Repeating the sentence while looking away from the book is also useful, but I would save that for a wave when doing so seems easy and pleasant. I'm a believer in "many waves make Assimil easy". That is, get what you can out of each lesson and don't sweat what slips through the cracks. Later waves will fill in the cracks. I believe this approach is what "without pain" or "with ease" is all about. I'm also a believer in reviewing previous lessons. This is an idea I picked up from Professor Arguelles. He described doing multiple waves working on about 10 lessons at a time. That is, play the recording for the 10 lessons. The one you are hearing for the first time you're just trying to understand while looking at the translation. The tenth day on that lesson will have you understanding the lesson with ease reading the Spanish. You may be shadowing the lesson, or that could come in another trip through the book. Looping through lessons this way really makes each day a little easier. Instead of intense focus on the lesson of the day, your picking up more each day from 10 lessons. You still move forward one lesson per day. One other thing I've done and found useful was listening and reading through the entire course. If you rip the CDs to mp3 and use Audacity to "truncate silence", you can get through the whole course in about 4 30 minute sessions. Later waves will make the things you struggle with now seem much easier. The beauty of Assimil is there are so many ways to use it. Edited by luke on 28 February 2014 at 1:06am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4667 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 6 of 8 28 February 2014 at 3:19am | IP Logged | ||
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I used Assimil for French and I'm using a similar system for Spanish. What I do is cycle the lessons:
Day 1: Lesson 1 Day 2: Lesson 2 Day 3: Lesson 3 Day 4: Lesson 4 Day 5: Lesson 5 Day 6: Lesson 6 Day 7: Lesson 7 Day 8: Lesson 1, 8 Day 9: Lesson 2, 9 ... Day 15: Lesson 1, 8, 15 Day 16: Lesson 2, 9, 16 ... Day 22: Lesson 1, 8, 15, 22 ...etc. This gets me a good solid review by repetition but also prevents it from getting too onerous (something inside me rebels against going through the exact same lesson multiple days in a row!). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| UKflyboy Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3945 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes | Message 7 of 8 28 February 2014 at 8:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wow. I'm overwhelmed by the helpfulness here - substantial posts packed with tips, methods, and encouragement.
Thank you all. :) I'm going to soldier on, having faith in Assimil's masterplan. But this thread has reminded me that the little Assimil book itself is a treasure chest. I don't need to get it perfect, I can return and revise whatever I need to in a number of different ways. You've certainly provided a resource I can come back to if I continue to struggle. Muchas gracias a todos! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4891 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 8 of 8 28 February 2014 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Don't sweat it! I did it using the same method as you, and I remember that Spanish with
Ease had a really difficult section around the middle that was rough to get through ... I think it was around 14 to 20 lessons long ... and then it eased up again. At some point you'll want to supplement Assimil with a plan to help with speaking. And as an aside: Spanish with Ease is the darkest, most outright Gothic Assimil ever. Be prepared for death, madness, obsession, and other good times. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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