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Will assimil with ease be too easy? | ||
Tags: Assimil | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| vogue Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4260 days ago 109 posts - 181 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian | Message 1 of 8 07 July 2013 at 4:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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At what level does Assimil with Ease stop being level appropriate? I am considering getting Italian with Ease (1999),
but I fear it may just be too simple or the amount of material that isn't too simple will be too small to justify the purpose. On online tests I am usually ranked as a B1. In real life I can go out with Italians and enjoy the night if they make allowances for my language learning - I.E talk slower and not use complex vocabulary. I know the first several lessons are material I'm very comfortable with, but I wonder if I could benefit from halfway through or whether I should move onto a more advanced assimil course - I simply don't know! Has anyone had experience starting with assimil after some exposure to the language? Edited by vogue on 07 July 2013 at 4:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5381 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 2 of 8 07 July 2013 at 4:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think you certainly could still make much use out of Assimil. To do a regular passive wave from the start would probably not do much for you. Similarly, the audio from the first third or half of the book would probably be too easy/slow to shadow or get a ton of use out of. However, doing it actively (translating from English to Italian) would probably be a pretty good and rewarding exercise as would using the last half of the audio for listening experience.
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| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6445 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 3 of 8 07 July 2013 at 5:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I started Assimil Italian after I was already B2. It helped clear up a lot of errors I was making.
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| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5015 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 4 of 8 07 July 2013 at 6:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you are around B1, than don't look at the first few lessons, look at some of the last ones. Those will tell you more.
I find useful stuff in Assimil French and I am B2+, but of course less than had I started with it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| BartoG Diglot Senior Member United States confession Joined 5453 days ago 292 posts - 818 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Latin, Uzbek | Message 5 of 8 07 July 2013 at 6:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It depends on where and how you learned your Italian. Assimil is geared for letting you think in the language and use the language colloquially. In my experience, you can string together sentences with school grammar and guess at what people are saying to you by keyword recognition without really having the ability to use the language colloquially - that's exactly where I was when I arrived in France after a couple years in high school and university. However, after I'd been in France for about a month, it seemed like everything I knew academically metamorphosed into real French from use and I got Pratique du Francais, not beginner Assimil.
If you are not going to be in Italy for a decent interval any time soon, I would get the beginner book and work through it quickly, just to hear a lot of Italian rolling around in your head before you hit the next course. But if you have the opportunity to spend some time in Italy, you're better off getting the next book and trying to drop what you're learning into conversation. It will give you new things to say and listen for and enable your friends to talk to you like another Italophone, not a language learner. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| vogue Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4260 days ago 109 posts - 181 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian | Message 6 of 8 07 July 2013 at 9:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
I really want to look at the later lessons to see what kind of material is covered before purchasing but there doesn't seem to be a place to do that. Though I could certainly take some out of assimil, I don't know if I want to spend the money on this book if the next book is better. However, it does seem B1 people have gotten benefit so that's good.
I'm self taught, through books, flashcards, movies/tv, and conversation. I currently live in Italy - and as mentioned go out with Italians and only talk in Italian. They do use slang, but talk slowly and clarify if I don't understand. I can have phone conversations in Italian fairly well (i.e can make plans, chat, and talk about when someone will be back home, where they went, etc). My primary weakness is producing sentences cleanly and accurately, I think. So perhaps starting with the active phase maybe helpful. Edited by vogue on 07 July 2013 at 9:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6157 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 7 of 8 08 July 2013 at 3:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you speak Spanish, and your Italian is at B1, you don't need to use a course with any English. I'd recommend looking at some all Italian courses by Alma Edizioni. My Italian is only around A2, but it's easy enough to understand their B2 material. I've used Assimil Italian with Ease. The course would have some benefits if you start with the active wave. Note that Assimil tends to use unusual, humorous and odd situations in each lesson, which can make some translations challenging.
[Aside - It's taken numerous attempts before I could post this. Forum performance is very very poor at the moment.] Edited by DaraghM on 08 July 2013 at 3:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5172 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 8 of 8 08 July 2013 at 11:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you can get to Perfectionnement Italien, then it's appropriate to start with Italian with Ease. Just do it quickly. That's what I did with Assimil French: I had already had classes for almos two years, so I went quickly through Assimil French with Ease just to level things up, content-wise and method-wise, before I proceeded to Using French. I would just read listen to the grouo of six lessons one after another, pausing when I found some new words or phrasings.
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