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Spanish with ease - Not so easy | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| neonshaker Newbie Spain Joined 4152 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Studies: English* | Message 1 of 7 20 October 2013 at 6:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi guys,
I have read through hundreds of previous forum posts about the Assimil method without finding an answer to my question. So here goes I have been working through Assimil Spanish with ease and quite frankly have been blown away by how much I like it. The early second phase lessons have been going well also with me being able to easily translate back. However I recently got to about lesson 60 and suddenly there was a massive jump, I struggle to understand without looking at the written Spanish and the texts seem twice as long with lots of new vocabulary (even the book acknowledges this) With this in mind I was wondering about how to continue, do I: a) Plough through with a lesson a day even if my understanding seems sketchy b) Slow it down and try to work on one lesson over 2 days. I would say my language schedule is pretty intense considering the time I have available due to the fact my schedule consists of working thorugh the new lesson, doing the exercises, translating the lesson from Spanish to English and THEN going back and tranlsating an earlier lessons for the active wave. All of this leaves me really drained by the end of a long day at work. Sorry for the wall of text. Any help would be appreciated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 2 of 7 20 October 2013 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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I suggest you continue to do one per day even if you are missing a lot of material. If I remember correctly, there are only about 10-12 of those long lessons. They will start to get shorter again fairly soon. Also, when you get to those lessons on the second phase they will be much easier and you will be able to spend much more time on them because you won't have a new passive lesson to learn.
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 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5530 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 7 20 October 2013 at 7:38pm | IP Logged | ||
When I saw the title of your post, I immediately thought, "I bet somebody just hit lesson 60." I've never done the course, obviously, but lots of other people here have struggled with these particular chapters. In general, you don't need to wring every drop of knowledge out of an Assimil course. If something's important, they'll repeat it. And if it's important at your level, then you'll run into it all the time in native material, and which point you can just look it up. (By definition, something which you never run into again wasn't actually important.) So if you want to push ahead to chapter 70 or so, and then decide if it's worth redoing these lessons, I'd guess you'd be fine. If, on the other hand, you find these lessons really interesting, you could certainly spend two days on each of them. Personally, I've had good luck with pushing on, because Assimil courses usually get easier again after a sudden jump, and because I like the nice, steady rhythm of a lesson per day. Edited by emk on 20 October 2013 at 7:39pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| neonshaker Newbie Spain Joined 4152 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Studies: English* | Message 4 of 7 20 October 2013 at 8:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the advice guys.
I was a little concerned because just felt that I wasn't getting anything out of the lessons at that point so wasn't sure about just continuing. It's also slightly trickier because I don't do exactly as the Assimil instructions have suggested. I follow the instructions as normal but even from lesson 1 at the end of the lesson I will listen to the recording and type it out in English (my native language) and then the following day translate it back to Spanish. Now in the earlier stages this was fine but now in the second wave I just do not have the time to take in a new lesson (especially those that are now more challenging), translate it to English then translate a previous lesson back to Spanish in the second wave and then do it all again the next day with the added step of the previous day's lesson. I was getting a lot of joy out of translating back and forth earlier on but with the added difficulty level it seems I am trying to do too much. Does this sound too intensive to you guys now that I am in the second wave? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4705 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 5 of 7 20 October 2013 at 8:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't do anything resembling overlearning. It's just a waste of time. I've used the
methods exactly as they stated, maybe using some extra vocab retention techniques here and there (Anki or wordlists) but eventually it's just a way to get you acquainted with the language. The languages I speak the best aren't the ones I've used Assimil with, but the ones I've used the Assimil basics in conversation for. Russian, Romanian, Breton - I use these languages (Hebrew somewhat less, and I've not finished that course). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5020 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 7 21 October 2013 at 1:25am | IP Logged | ||
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Option A all the way. Just push on through and don't worry about a thing. I think a lot of people don't get as much as they could out of Assimil because they over analyse things and start to mess with the method.
The best advice I could give is to treat the standard 1 active and 1 passive lesson a day as your baseline, non- negotiable study for the day. Never skip a day, and don't worry if you don't understand everything, or even anything. I also liked to split my lessons up a bit, and do some first thing in the morning, some at lunchtime, and some right before bed. This way it becomes as much a routine as brushing your teeth. After you have done that, you can always do extra, supplemental things with the material. I used to regularly read through old lessons in spare moments or listen to old dialogs. The important thing is just to keep exposing yourself to the material. Another strategy is to make note of difficult lessons and just come back to them whenever you have a few spare moments. If you need some inspiration, try and dig out some of fanatics old posts. I believe he successfully learned a number of languages adopting a very casual approach with Assimil. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| neonshaker Newbie Spain Joined 4152 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Studies: English* | Message 7 of 7 21 October 2013 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for all the advice. Ploughing on through it is then. Lets see if I can face Baldomero and his problems this time round!
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