pab Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 4195 days ago 8 posts - 11 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French
| Message 1 of 6 27 August 2013 at 12:10am | IP Logged |
Hello,
could you possibly help me to understand the logic in Spanish Assimils available here
in Poland going by the covers and publishing years?
There're four versions still available on the pubisher's website, all of them are
described as "with ease" (łatwo i przyjemnie).
1st
2009 589 pages
2nd 2009 592 pages
3rd 465
pages - 2001currently unavailable
4th 2013 468 pages; this one is the cheapest
Which one would you choose? Or (as I suppose) they all have the same content?
Edited by pab on 27 August 2013 at 12:41am
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Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5782 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German
| Message 2 of 6 03 September 2013 at 5:42am | IP Logged |
Since no one has provided a better answer, I'll say that there might be 2 different versions. The one dated
2001 will definitely be the old one, because the new one wan't published in French until 2004. The other
ones may or may not be the new one, it depends whether the new one has been translated into Polish yet
or not. They are both good courses and you can find audio for both (PM me if necessary), so get the
cheapest one.
So you can tell them apart once your book arrives, lesson 1 of the old one is called "Un encuentro" and
lesson 1 of the new one is called "un aperitivo".
Sorry I can't be more help. Best of luck.
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krotox Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5052 days ago 14 posts - 28 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2 Studies: Spanish
| Message 3 of 6 04 September 2013 at 1:15am | IP Logged |
All polish versions of Assimil ‘with ease’ (łatwo i przyjemnie) courses published by ‘nowela’ come with audio so there is no need to download anything extra.
There are 2 versions of Assimil Spanish available in Poland, so what you have actually found is:
1. The new course (also available now in French and Italian) + 1 x CD MP3 (French version)
2. The same course (the new one) but with 4 x CD Audio (French version)
3. Currently unavailable :)
4. The older version with 4 x CD Audio currently also available in English (English version )
I agree with Random review that they are both good courses but If you want my advice (I bought and completed both of them) – buy both of them, so let’s say:
1st
2009 589 pages
and
4th
2007 (not 2013) 468 pages
Start with the new one following the Assimil passive wave + active wave procedure, and then do the old one in whatever way it suits you best.
Edited by krotox on 04 September 2013 at 1:19am
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Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5782 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German
| Message 4 of 6 04 September 2013 at 4:23am | IP Logged |
Great answer (I don't think the OP could have hoped for better) and I agree totally that it's worth doing
both.
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BlaBla Triglot Groupie Spain Joined 4128 days ago 45 posts - 72 votes Speaks: German*, English, French Studies: Nepali, Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin
| Message 5 of 6 05 September 2013 at 9:46am | IP Logged |
I don't know anything about the versions available in Poland but there are three different
original versions (french):
- one from the thirties (112 units - 1. "Alberto va a Paris"),
- one that came out in the mid-eighties (109 units - 1."Un encuentro")
- and the new one from 2004 (100 units - 1."Un aperitivo").
Compared to the two older versions the newer one features more dialogues, shorter sentences
and an updated, modern vocabulary plus bi-directional index in the appendix and would be my
first choice if speaking the language were my primary objective.
As I mentioned somewhere else the course from the 80s sports quite a few oddities;
incredibly! long sentences, a critical amount (IMO) of not so common words and here and there
the language appears somewhat artifical or stelted; not exactly the kind of lingo you'd
expect in a beginners course or hear spoken anywhere. Even though I personally don't regret
the time I invested - I've learned a darn lot - I wouldn't quite recommend this version for a
start but rather those two alternatives, especially the new one.
I wholeheartedly second doing them all, one after the other, as they differ considerably in a
number of respects: vocabulary, idioms/fixed phrases, individual chapters vs. continous story
(old version), stylistically (prosaic, lyric, colloquial, artificial/stelted, ...) but
complement each other quite nicely and can provide you with a firm footing in Spanish.
Edited by BlaBla on 05 September 2013 at 1:41pm
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krotox Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5052 days ago 14 posts - 28 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2 Studies: Spanish
| Message 6 of 6 06 September 2013 at 12:42pm | IP Logged |
BlaBla wrote:
Compared to the two older versions the newer one features more dialogues, shorter sentences
and an updated, modern vocabulary plus bi-directional index in the appendix and would be my
first choice if speaking the language were my primary objective.
As I mentioned somewhere else the course from the 80s sports quite a few oddities;
incredibly! long sentences, a critical amount (IMO) of not so common words and here and there
the language appears somewhat artifical or stelted; not exactly the kind of lingo you'd
expect in a beginners course or hear spoken anywhere. Even though I personally don't regret
the time I invested - I've learned a darn lot - I wouldn't quite recommend this version for a
start but rather those two alternatives, especially the new one.
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I agree:)
That's why I advised the OP to start with the new one.
Edited by krotox on 06 September 2013 at 12:45pm
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