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Assimil Swedish -- worth it? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4289 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 9 of 22 28 February 2014 at 3:54am | IP Logged | ||
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I purchased
Le Suédois Sans Peine from amazon.fr for €22,43 (seulement le livre), because the CD's and mp3 with book cost something like €69, which is too much for me right now. I am however on Unit 12 of FSI Swedish (since starting FSI in September 2013). Is the FSI audio a reasonable substitute for using the Assimil book alone? I ordered the Assimil 2011 printed version (688 pages). Also is it paperback or hardback? I bought years ago when I was in Gent the Assimil Dutch that has its original publication for 1989 and is paperback. Edited by 1e4e6 on 28 February 2014 at 9:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 10 of 22 28 February 2014 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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| Antanas Tetraglot Groupie Lithuania Joined 4811 days ago 91 posts - 172 votes Speaks: Lithuanian*, English, Russian, German Studies: FrenchB1, Spanish | Message 11 of 22 28 February 2014 at 4:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have both French (two-volume) and German based (one-volume) editions. I went through the German one.
I think it is the one to choose if your knowledge German and French are on the same level. I was really amazed how close German and Swedish are. And the more you use that book the more you learn how to notice the affinities between Swedish and German words. For instance, how to recognize "Bedeutung" in "betydelse" and vice versa. On the other hand, one-volume German edition has one flaw: neither the stressed syllables nor the type of stress are indicated in the text of translation exercises. Since Swedish is a tonal language, this is a very important and sad omission. The French edition does not suffer from this drawback. (It's ironic though that in Le suedois, which is a completely new course published a couple of years ago, translation exercises are without stress marks.) Maybe the older two-volume German edition is better in this regard but I have not had an opportunity to see it in flesh. Edited by Antanas on 28 February 2014 at 4:29pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4289 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 12 of 22 28 February 2014 at 10:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Had your German version a hardback cover then? The only Assimils that I have are from the
1980s with a paperback cover. The Amazon description shows that is weighs slightly more than half a kilo, which sounds quite heavy for a book that is 17 x 12 cm, but I suppose since it has 688 pages. Anyway, the audio with mp3 and CDs with book is 69,90€, whilst the book alone is 22,43€, so the book alone is less than one-third the whole combination. I cannot afford anything more than the book alone, how is using the book alone with some other audio source? Also my native language is English, not French, but I have no problems with using French as a base language. I cannot do that with German, however, so I ordered the French one. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4908 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 13 of 22 01 March 2014 at 12:39am | IP Logged | ||
For me, the audio is absolutely necessary. Buying an assimil course without the audio would be like buying a car without tyres. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4289 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 14 of 22 01 March 2014 at 1:28am | IP Logged | ||
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I would wish to use the audio concurrently with the book, but it is too expensive for me
since the audios and book are three times more than just the book alone. That was why I was thinking of using the FSI for audio since it is available. I also used the 1989 Assimil Dutch years ago, and it has instructions on how to use the book without the audio cassettes. 22,43€ to 66,41€ for the audio included is quite a gap. I think that a picture of someone's 2011 Le Suédois looked like a hardback, but my eyes are not the best so I am unsure. Edited by 1e4e6 on 01 March 2014 at 1:29am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4714 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 15 of 22 01 March 2014 at 1:42am | IP Logged | ||
I second that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5346 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 16 of 22 01 March 2014 at 2:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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I share Jeffers and fabriciocarraro’s opinion about the importance of the audio component in Assimil courses, but I realize that sometimes money can be a problem.
That’s why I’d like to remind you that there may be a legal free option: try your local library. Sure, Swedish is not as popular as Spanish or French as a foreign language that people want to learn, but you can never know what you can find in your library (or what they can get you through an interlibrary loan) until you check it out. Maybe you won’t find Assimil, but some other course or textbook which may be useful anyway. And since I think audio in your target language is never too much, why don’t you take a look at the linkograpy on Team Asgard’s log? Lycka till! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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