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Moses McCormick’s technique for Assimil

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kimmitt
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United Kingdom
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 Message 1 of 18
23 November 2011 at 2:04pm | IP Logged 
Where can I find a description of his technique for using Assimil?

I've seen it mentioned on here and described in passing but can't find a description of what it actually involves.

Edited by Fasulye on 23 November 2011 at 3:18pm

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JimC
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 Message 2 of 18
23 November 2011 at 2:13pm | IP Logged 
There is refernce to it here
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=29857&PN=1&TPN=1

Jim
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Michael K.
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 Message 3 of 18
23 November 2011 at 2:22pm | IP Logged 
One of his videos: (there's a better one below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXiD8JiQNOA

He describes his Assimil method in detail while giving a description of his then recent studies.

He's a forum member here, so he might even stop in this thread and answer himself. If you have any questions the best way to reach him is through YouTube.

ETA:

This is the better video, where he describes his method in the most depth and compares Assimil and Teach Yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK9cX9QFnJ0

Edited by Michael K. on 23 November 2011 at 2:34pm

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Jeffers
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 Message 4 of 18
26 November 2011 at 10:20pm | IP Logged 
The videos were interesting, but it was an awful lot of listening to get a simple method. From what I could get, he listens to three lessons, and writes them out, all of which takes him 30 minutes. For some reason, he calls the sheets he writes the dialogues on "Deutschmarks", and once he has 7 Deutschmarks "banked", he can move on to the next three lessons. He doesn't say what he does with the exercises.

I haven't read anyone on these forums mention writing the lessons out, but it seems to be a good idea. I think I'll try it. I would think writing out the exercises and fill in the blanks would be useful as well.
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Michael K.
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 Message 5 of 18
27 November 2011 at 6:38pm | IP Logged 
Sorry, I should have written the times where he mentions his method, or I should have just written the method out.

As far as the exercises go, I wrote them out in the beginning, but stopped after a little while. I usually just ignore the fill in the blank exercises, especially in the beginning since there's usually only one word missing. Once you get past the first few weeks the fill in the blanks are usually pretty good and I can see value in doing them.

I want to see if Moses makes any changes once he gets further along in the courses. Around lesson 60-70 in Assimil Spanish, it took me about 20 minutes to just write out one lesson. I'd say in the beginning it's OK to write out the dialogs, since almost everything will probably be new to you, but once you get further along only write out the new constructions and vocabulary to save time.

I think writing out the dialogs is good since it helps you remember the lesson better. I'm surprised no one else thought of it, too.
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slucido
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 Message 6 of 18
27 November 2011 at 7:39pm | IP Logged 
Michael K. wrote:


I think writing out the dialogs is good since it helps you remember the lesson better. I'm surprised no one else thought of it, too.


There is nothing new under the sun.

Prof. Arguelles wrote every Assimil lesson over and over. Sometimes one hundred times.
Other people in this forum wrote them too. Some people use the first letter technique to learn those lessons by heart.







Edited by slucido on 27 November 2011 at 7:40pm

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dbag
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 Message 7 of 18
27 November 2011 at 11:00pm | IP Logged 
I wrote out several lessons when I did Spanish with Ease. I think it may be a good idea very occasionally, but otherwise is a very inefficient use of study time.
The costs outweighed the benefits, in my opinion, which might be something you want to think about.

It is definetly worth experimenting though.

Edited by dbag on 27 November 2011 at 11:04pm

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slucido
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 Message 8 of 18
27 November 2011 at 11:13pm | IP Logged 
You can check this old thread about Assimil:

http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=22&PN=0&TPN=1

This is the quote:

ProfArguelles wrote:
...

I assume that most people participating in this forum will be aware that it is important to figure out their own learning style and to take control of the learning process by modifying any program they use. The same is true of Assimil. The instructions provided at the beginning of each book are adequate, but you need to tailor them to suit you. How do I do this? First and foremost, I edit the tapes by getting rid of all the gaps so that I obtain at least two hours of solid and continuous narrative in the target language only. I then shadow this tape repeatedly until I begin to grow familiar with the pronunciation and intonation, and until I have figured out as much as I can of what is being said on my own. Then I turn to the book and shadow while reading the teaching language so that I understand globally what I have been saying. Slowly I switch to shadowing while reading the target language so that I learn to read it. Each day I go through the notes of several lessons to catch the fine points. When I have done them all, I then write or type out the target language lessons in their entirety, sometimes several times . In other words, I thoroughly internalize the contents of both books and tapes. I know that I am "done" when I can successfully "play" the advanced lessons through my brain while I am taking a shower. Depending on the difficulty of the lesson,
I might have to listen to the tapes hundreds of times, and likewise repeatedly review the book. However, by taking a chunk of the language like this and peeling it layer by layer like an onion so that you come to ever greater understanding of how it works, this rarely grows boring, and when it does, I am advanced enough to move on. With "easy" languages, I can then generally cope fully with both texts and all sorts of conversation, with "difficult" languages I then go through systematic grammatical exercises and begin reading primers.






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