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Destinos and Assimil Spanish with Ease

  Tags: Assimil | Spanish
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
erinserb
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 Message 1 of 8
10 April 2013 at 7:49pm | IP Logged 
In another post/subject, I asked about the more advanced Assimil Using Spanish.

My question is, I have both resources Destinos and Assimil Spanish with Ease. For beginners, can these two resources be used together successfully? They are both at the basic level.



Edited by erinserb on 10 April 2013 at 7:51pm

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tarvos
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 Message 2 of 8
10 April 2013 at 7:58pm | IP Logged 
Why couldn't they?
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dbag
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 Message 3 of 8
10 April 2013 at 9:12pm | IP Logged 
Of course. Although I wouldn't say that "with ease" is at a basic level. In fact there are very, very few courses which will teach you anywhere near the amount of Spanish as can be found in that little book.
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iguanamon
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 Message 4 of 8
10 April 2013 at 9:17pm | IP Logged 
erinserb wrote:
...My question is, I have both resources Destinos and Assimil Spanish with Ease. For beginners, can these two resources be used together successfully? They are both at the basic level.


Yes. That's a good combination. Using more than one resource helps with synergy. Seeing a word and hearing it spoken in one place and then seeing/hearing it somewhere else makes it more "sticky" in my mind. As a beginner, you're not going to understand native material for a while, but you should still make an effort to get exposure to the real language as natives speak it and at native speed as well. Try listening to music, lyrics are easily found online- for Spanish: (X Song title)+"letra", or you could try Lyrics Training. There are a plethora of websites and resources for Spanish available. Choosing a couple and working with them intensively is a good way to go about learning. Don't be afraid to mix things up when/if you need to and don't focus exclusively on a course(s). Sooner or later you're going to have to use the language (listening, reading or speaking and writing). I find it's best to do that sooner rather than later.
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Paco
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 Message 5 of 8
11 April 2013 at 12:28am | IP Logged 
From my brief encounter and a few weeks of studies with Assimil and other manuals, I
would suggest otherwise, that you may consider going through Assimil swiftly first, and
turning to other manuals by then.

On one hand, there are certainly good grounds for doing two manuals of the same level
simultaneously. After you "learn" from one, you probably can "review and revise" with
the other, so that you consolidate what you have learnt, hence facilitating your
studies.

On the other, I am more inclined to finish Assimil first and foremost. I concur with
dbag that Assimil is a good little book which offers much and not only basic materials.
As such, I think it can also be used as an overview of the language which gives you a
real taste of it. Indeed, going through any one manual swiftly first allows you to
explore the language as much as you can and help you build the necessary mental
framework to properly internalise the materials you learn, particularly one so
comprehensive like Assimil. Afterwards, you may continue with other manuals while
reviewing the Assimil course. In this way, you will have gone through the comprehensive
Assimil twice; during the second time you should start internalising the manual,
instead of hacking your way through it. And this may be true for your second manual as
well.

A point of note: I am not referring to the two waves suggested for using Assimil. I
have my own way to utilise the process. But the principle remains the same, that the
first time is more of an overview, while the second should be in-depth studies and
internalising.

Edited by Paco on 11 April 2013 at 1:33am

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James29
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 Message 6 of 8
11 April 2013 at 2:54am | IP Logged 
I tried Destinos when I was pretty close to a total beginner and quit it after about three episodes. I then started it again when I was about half way through Assimil and really enjoyed it much more because I could actually understand much of it. Destinos can certainly be done as a beginner, but in order to actually enjoy it and get the most out of it I'd recommend having some basic foundation in the language.
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Gala
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 Message 7 of 8
11 April 2013 at 3:48am | IP Logged 
If you have time, I think using the whole Destinos program (the textbook and 2
workbooks in addition to the videos) would be a great addition to Assimil, as it would
give the more explicit and in-depth grammar instruction that Assimil lacks. Of course,
that may be what you were referring to in the first place, but there is a tendency for
people to talk about the videos alone as if they were the whole program. They're
definitely not.

The books can be found quite cheap online. Some (maybe 10-15%) of the many exercises in
the books require the audio, which can be found free "out there." I think there's a
link to it on an old thread here, in fact.

EDIT: Using the books solves the problem that James 29 refers to in the post above
mine. The textbook is designed to help beginners understand the videos, as well as to
teach vocabulary and provide graded reading material, and the workbooks teach all the
grammar.

Edited by Gala on 11 April 2013 at 5:27pm

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Gala
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 Message 8 of 8
05 May 2013 at 2:38am | IP Logged 
Gala wrote:
If you have time, I think using the whole Destinos program (the textbook
and 2 workbooks in addition to the videos) would be a great addition to Assimil, as it
would give the more explicit and in-depth grammar instruction that Assimil lacks. Of
course, that may be what you were referring to in the first place, but there is a
tendency for people to talk about the videos alone as if they were the whole program.
They're definitely not.

The books can be found quite cheap online. Some (maybe 10-15%) of the many exercises in
the books require the audio, which can be found free "out there." I think there's a
link to it on an old thread here, in fact.

EDIT: Using the books solves the problem that James 29 refers to in the post above
mine. The textbook is designed to help beginners understand the videos, as well as to
teach vocabulary and provide graded reading material, and the workbooks teach all the
grammar.


I've discovered that what I wrote above about the audio being needed for only 10-15% of
the exercises in the books is dramatically untrue for the 1st edition text and
workbooks, which I just bought for my mom. Most of the exercises in these require the
audio. Thankfully, the audio edition they require is the one that is available free
"out there." What I wrote may only apply to the 2nd edition of the alternate ed., which
is what I used.

No editing buttons were showing on my original post (maybe they go away when posts
aren't very recent?) so I had to post this instead of editing.







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