jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6912 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map
| Message 65 of 191 11 July 2007 at 2:03pm | IP Logged |
I haven't yet finished even a "with ease" course but according to those who have, the courses teach you a lot - possibly comparable to FSI as regards vocabulary and grammar. Of course one has to make the language fluent oneself. Use it or lose it. High intermediate is pretty good for (roughly) $35 dollars (and 60-70 hours).
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Zorndyke Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6961 days ago 374 posts - 382 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Czech
| Message 66 of 191 11 July 2007 at 2:04pm | IP Logged |
I don't think Assimil will take you that far at all. Even if the grammar and typical constructions of the language were sufficiently explained, it has just not enough vocabulary for intermediate.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6912 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map
| Message 67 of 191 11 July 2007 at 2:20pm | IP Logged |
How many words would that be, according to you (or other sources)? People here have different ideas about basic fluency, fluency, intermediate et.c.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Zorndyke Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6961 days ago 374 posts - 382 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Czech
| Message 68 of 191 11 July 2007 at 2:49pm | IP Logged |
Since I know that I simply don't have the discipline to repeat the lessons so often that the words would stick by pure repetition, I wrote them all down to a flashcard program, including idioms. The course I use is Niederländisch ohne Mühe, 84 lessons.
I ended up with less than 1500 cards. Many of them contain more than one word so the course has probably 2000+ words and idioms.
Therefore I think I know 99,9% of all the course's vocabulary. Despite this, I still have to look up 2-5 words per sentence in an advanced text with rather long sentences.
Edited by Zorndyke on 11 July 2007 at 2:59pm
1 person has voted this message useful
|
tpiz Diglot Groupie United States cvillepayne.blogspot Joined 6367 days ago 77 posts - 79 votes Studies: Portuguese, English*, French Studies: Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 69 of 191 11 July 2007 at 4:14pm | IP Logged |
Zorndyke wrote:
Since I know that I simply don't have the discipline to repeat the lessons so often that the words would stick by pure repetition, I wrote them all down to a flashcard program, including idioms. The course I use is Niederländisch ohne Mühe, 84 lessons.
I ended up with less than 1500 cards. Many of them contain more than one word so the course has probably 2000+ words and idioms.
Therefore I think I know 99,9% of all the course's vocabulary. Despite this, I still have to look up 2-5 words per sentence in an advanced text with rather long sentences. |
|
|
I've read alot about that and when alot of people think that when you just memorize words on flashcards and don't put them to work(writing and speaking), it's very easy to forget because you don't really "use" the word, and instead, you are just forcing your mind to remember a word and it can hurt you further down the road, since you can't "think" in the language and this is how you end up speaking very slowly in a language, because you have to think up each word instead of them coming out naturally. I have the same problem a little bit, and speaking the language(either with a penpal or whatever) can help you with vocabulary because you are actually thinking of the word, writing it, and even reading it when you look over what you say.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Cage Diglot aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas Senior Member United States Joined 6627 days ago 382 posts - 393 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Portuguese
| Message 70 of 191 11 July 2007 at 5:07pm | IP Logged |
Yes I do believe you recieve a good bang for your buck on Assimil. Depending on what FSI course you are talking about, the Assimil version might take you just as far. In my opinion Spanish and French are FSI's best. The Spanish course includes 50+ hours of audio and 2000 pages of text teaching by most estimates I have heard maybe 3500 words. I have not heard any estimates on Assimil but I hardly think that even with both levels with just a few hours of audio is going to be even close to equivalent. Assimil is a lot of fun and does teach you quite a bit which I am experiencing with French. I think it makes a great supplement to FSI. I think like it or not FSI should be included in any program to bring you the farthest, of course depending on what FSI course you are talking about. I would pass on Italian though. Assimil will definitely outshine FSI on this one. On my French I am having the best of both worlds with Barron's mastering and Assimil.
Edited by Cage on 11 July 2007 at 5:10pm
1 person has voted this message useful
|
willcouchman Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6351 days ago 23 posts - 26 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Spanish
| Message 71 of 191 11 July 2007 at 5:28pm | IP Logged |
Just a quick question seeing as this is an assimil thread. On vol 2, such as
Using French, am I right in assuming that you no longer follow the
passive/active phase method?
It mentions nothing about it in the textbook, maybe they assumed that
people would already know the method?
Any help would be great.
Cheers guys,
Will.
P.S. As ridiculous as it is, I have been coming to this forum for a couple of
years, and only registered the other day! About time to make a first post.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6946 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German
| Message 72 of 191 11 July 2007 at 7:33pm | IP Logged |
Cage wrote:
The Spanish course includes 50+ hours of audio and 2000 pages of text teaching by most estimates I have heard maybe 3500 words. I have not heard any estimates on Assimil but I hardly think that even with both levels with just a few hours of audio is going to be even close to equivalent. |
|
|
The estimates I've seen for Assimil are 2000 to 2500 words in the first part, with the total rising to between 4000 and 5000 upon finishing the 2nd part.
A few hours of audio is enough - an audiobook lasting 3 hours can easily contain that many words.
1 person has voted this message useful
|