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Making Assimil More Fun | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| 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 1 of 18 04 July 2013 at 2:40am | IP Logged |
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At the moment I'm finding my motivation to do Assimil each day dwindling a bit. Part of me is considering dropping it for L-R, which I find more fun, but I'm not always sure about how much I actually learn when I do L-R. As it seems like I pick up a few random words, and I assume I'm reinforcing everything else, but I'm not always sure.
But I don't really like the idea of abandoning a course completely, I worry it might slow down my progress if I realize later I'm not advancing. And I enjoy content created specifically for learners that slowly gets more complex each time. At the moment, I'm doing something similar to Prof Arguelles's method. I shadow 1 new lesson each day and review 10 previous ones, looking at L2 more for lessons I've reviewed a lot, and L1 more for newer lessons. I'm wondering if it might be okay to go through Assimil more quickly if I'm using it in addition to other learning methods. I'm not looking for a quick fix, I realize absorbing language takes time, I just wonder if doing the material faster, then going back and reviewing it as needed might be more fun. For example I think it might be fun to try a routine like... 1) Do 10 Assimil lessons a day, 5 new, 5 review 2) When the course is completed, do the big blind shadow walk that Prof Arguelles mentions. 3) Take a break and LR an entire book 4) Repeat as needed until I can blind shadow the entire course without any help. Would a method like this work, or do you think mastering each lesson before moving on to the later stuff is an important part of using Assimil. IE: If I speed through the lessons will I forget too much when I go back to review the course? Or will it be okay so long as I keep studying the language every day? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| berabero89 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4644 days ago 101 posts - 137 votes Speaks: English, Amharic* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, French | Message 2 of 18 04 July 2013 at 3:25am | IP Logged |
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Even doing 5 new a day would wear me out quick (if its past the first 20 lessons or so,
depending on the course), let alone reviewing also. Just slow down and do it in smaller increments. As for using other courses, I've found that when I start to get "tired" of one course, it helps to use other courses. Even if it was the most enjoyable course in the world, I really do think that for anything, having multiple sources of information helps as different sources tend to explain things from different angles and the similarity of content helps reinforce what you've learned. In fact, I'm pretty sure I remember Professor Arguelles recommending using 6 or 7 language courses (which I don't really have the time or energy for). 5 persons have 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 3 of 18 04 July 2013 at 12:43pm | IP Logged |
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berabero's thought is a very good one. I wouldn't go as far as the 6 or 7 courses which prof Arguelles might have recommended somewhere, but using 2 or 3 well chosen ones and changing between them might help you. It helps me.
I would be careful about speeing up and reviewing this way. Of course, everyone needs to review but sometimes, it does become boring. Especially when you enjoy the juicy parts on your first go and come back to deal with the routine. L-R should give you much more than you expect, including better listening comprehension, absorbing some grammar in situ and so on. If you want to complement your studies with it, it surely won't hurt. At which lesson of Assimil are you? I think the courses tend to have one or more difficulty rises out of the blue. Perhaps you are now struggling with one? Reinforcing your knowledge somewhere else might help you feel more secure about it and less bored. 3 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 4 of 18 04 July 2013 at 3:31pm | IP Logged |
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I guess then my question, is what's a good systematic way to use Assimil when switching between other programs? Would you just stop use something else, and come back where you left off, or start over?
When studying Cantonese, which has no Assimil, I enjoy going through a course til I got frustrated, then starting a new course, and coming back to my old one later to find I could get much farther in it much easier. With Assimil, I don't think I've ever been frustrated by the difficulty, since I find the learning curve a lot more comfortable than other courses. I'm at about Lesson 40 right now with French. I just think I get bored by the slow absorption routine, and constantly reviewing the same content. I guess if I was sticking to the 1 lesson routine I could cut down on my review time, but then I'd feel more pressure to learn everything by heart immediately. I generally feel more comfortable learning gradually from a wide range of content. I like the idea of racing through the Assimil Course and once I feel completely lost, backtracking to a more comfortable place and seeing how much further I get on a second pass. Or maybe to break away from the routine and recycling of the same material, but still follow the 1 lesson a day rule. I could set 1 new lessons each day as my only requirement, then give myself the choice to do additional skimming ahead or reviewing behind depending on what I felt like. Edited by YnEoS on 04 July 2013 at 3:33pm 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 5 of 18 04 July 2013 at 3:36pm | IP Logged |
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If you switch like: a day (up to a week) with resource one, than R2, than back to R1, you don't need to restart at all. If you switch for a few months, than it depends.
If the slow pace is what you dislike, than I think supplementing Assimil with something might be good. Such as doing your daily lesson and than covering the grammar and vocab elsewhere, which will widen and deepen your knowledge of it and surely will add the challenge you are looking for. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| lingoleng Senior Member Germany Joined 5300 days ago 605 posts - 1290 votes | Message 6 of 18 04 July 2013 at 4:19pm | IP Logged |
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I don't understand. You study 6, 7 languages at beginner level(!). You are 40 days into it, at the very beginning. If it bores you now I don't see much hope. And how do you want to handle more than one lesson a day in 7 languages? Isn't it much too much, anyway? You want to do five lessons a day in seven languages? That's impressive, to say the least. I recommend some patience and realistic expectations. Edited by lingoleng on 04 July 2013 at 4:30pm 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 7 of 18 04 July 2013 at 5:19pm | IP Logged |
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My intention was not to make this topic too much about my personal routine, but about alternative methods of using Assimil that might be helpful to anyone. But if justification is required I'll try and make it quick so we can move on with it.
Firstly, when I undertook my language learning, the rule I made to myself is I would put French and Cantonese before everything else, and if I had the time and energy after studying French and Cantonese each day, I would add on other languages. So far I've stuck to this since I began in late March(I've been using Assimil for 40 days, but I've been using other materials like Pimsleur and Michel Thomas earlier). I have no expectations about maintaining 6 or 7 languages, I'm simply trying it to explore my own limits, again on the condition that it never interferes with my primary studies of French and Cantonese. Secondly, I'm also in the middle of figuring out a new routine that will be more career oriented, and I'm not really sure how many languages of study that will involve. At the moment I'm only studying French, Cantonese, and Russian. And when I made this topic I was mainly thinking of my French routine. I'm quite happy with my Cantonese and Russian studies at the moment. Thirdly, I'm only experience fatigue particularly related to using French Assimil, not French overall. I have to force myself to use Assimil for 30 minutes, but when I do L-R I can study for 40-60 minutes quite easily. My inquiry is directed at possibly using French Assimil in different ways to make it more interesting. At the moment I'm just trying to settle on a good base routine for my core languages, then if I feel so motivated I'll start adding on additional languages to my program. Also I'm not thinking of using these alternate routine for every language I study. I was only thinking of it for French, because I have so many French resources at my disposal. For a language like Hindi, Turkish or Indonesian, I would spend a lot more time and concentration on Assimil because it's one of the few resources available to me in those languages, so I don't have the luxury of jumping around as much. Anyways if you want to continue to interrogate my personal routine, I think my language log would be a more appropriate place to do so. If no one else minds I'd like to focus in this topic on discussing alternative methods of using Assimil in conjunction with other resources. Rather than trying to critique my entire language routine. Edited by YnEoS on 04 July 2013 at 5:22pm 3 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 8 of 18 04 July 2013 at 6:04pm | IP Logged |
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I think it's overlearning and overkill what you are doing. I tend to stick to the
standard Assimil repertoire because I find it the most useful way of doing it - without shadowing, but with repeating aloud during the first 30-40 lessons or so if there's nobody around or if the spirit takes hold of me (I don't like shadowing). Assimil lessons are fairly short and can be covered in 30-60 minutes. I tend more towards 30 or even 25, sometimes it is more if the language is not reminiscent of something else I have studied, sometimes it is less if I use it in conjunction with another textbook or if the language is structured along similar lines as another one of my known languages. Keep in mind that Prof. Arguelles lived (lives?) an almost monastic life and had hours to devote to his study. For most of us, such intense study wouldn't just exhaust us, it would bore us silly. I personally couldn't stand the thought of shadowing the same Assimil lessons over and over again, and I have a good tolerance for repetition. I don't think Assimil is meant to be used in such an intensive way, although if you can do the Arguelles thing, that is good. However, for me, that method lacks some practicality. I learn languages to be able to speak them, so I supplement Assimil with extensive speaking and writing practice, which is what I need to succeed. The method Assimil suggests is sufficient and adequate in my view - however, if the learning curve is too steep, it is worth going back a few times. If the language is not being reinforced through repetition, I recommend SRS or wordlists as a vocabulary memorisation technique. Assimil is essentially a bilingual reader. I also find that with languages I already know fairly well (such as Romanian), eventually the French translation only becomes necessary to elucidate those particular words I am not familiar with. I have also experienced that the last 10,15 lessons or so were becoming very easy to listen to. In Breton it was the opposite, so it may have to do with familiarity, the sound of the language, practice, I don't know. Edited by tarvos on 04 July 2013 at 6:07pm 6 persons have voted this message useful |
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