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Assimil Swedish -- worth it? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Paco Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 4275 days ago 145 posts - 251 votes  Speaks: Cantonese* | Message 17 of 22 01 March 2014 at 3:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It may be of your interest to note that 2 tomes do not mean that you have to do more to
learn Swedish than other languages; the second volume is of the Advanced level though it is not advertised as such, according to Prof Arguelles. Edited by Paco on 01 March 2014 at 3:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Antanas Tetraglot Groupie Lithuania Joined 4810 days ago 91 posts - 172 votes Speaks: Lithuanian*, English, Russian, German Studies: FrenchB1, Spanish | Message 18 of 22 01 March 2014 at 4:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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@1e4e6
I guess that almost all German-based Assimil books are hardbacks. That is the case with Spanish elementary, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish, Modern Greek, Latin. Dutch and Polish, on the other hand, are paperbacks. But they are with ribbons and their covers are bigger than their pages, so they are, so to speak, not as much paperback as the current French-based editions. I'm not sure if you realize that the book you claim to have ordered is another course (Le suedois) which has nothing to do with the German-based edition. It is far less substantial than the older one (Le suedois sans peine). On the other hand, it provides a little bit more cultural notes. And I would say, there are more Swedish idioms in it than in the earlier edition. But I'm not sure if that is that important for a beginner. I have not had an opportunity to listen to the whole audio of Le suedois, but it seems that the recordings are closer to the standard (Stockholm) pronunciation than those of Le suedois sans peine, where at least two speakers (of eight, I guess) have a very distinct accent (a Scanian male and a female I could not identify). This kind of variety is good on the long run but can be discouraging for someone who is just starting. Actually, I adore that Scanian accent (dialect/language), but, unfortunately, I was not able to find anything like that on Swedish radio. By the way, there is also a Dutch-based edition of the first volume of Le suedois sans peine. Dutch might be even closer to Swedish than German because it was not affected by the so-called High German Sound Shift. So, you could see, for instance, that Swedish verb "tala" (to speak) has something to do with Dutch noun "taal". "Strax" is both written and has the same meaning in both languages. [EDIT: Oops, it is "straks" in Dutch.] Unfortunately, the second volume was never published. It would have been fun to find out if there is a practically useful "Germanic continuum" from Dutch to Swedish. Edited by Antanas on 02 March 2014 at 1:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4288 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 19 of 22 01 March 2014 at 10:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
But there is no Dutch 2011 version of the one that I ordered, Le Suédois. Since you have both, are both hardcover? Again, I know about the audio, but it is more about financial barriers, otherwise I would have purchased it.
I understand and agree that the ideal situation is to purchase botht he book and the audio tapes, but still the book alone can be used, albeit not the most ideal--as I said, my 1989 Dutch Assimil with Ease has directions on how to use the book without the audio cassette tapes, so I infer therefrom that it is plausible. However, from the Assimil Le Suédois website can one see that the book alone is 24,90€; the book with audio set sums to 69,90€, which is approximately three times greater than the book alone. Therefore had I intentions of using free audio sources such as FSI and some of those links in that Swedish audio sources link that you have provided. I have used ASsimil Dutch with Ease with no cassette tapes, and it was good anyway, since I already used other audio sources with other books/courses, just not the Assimil cassettes. I would wish to purchase the cassettes for Le Suédois, but unfortunately right now, food, water, and electricity could use the extra ~45€. Tack så mycket för linkarna. Edited by 1e4e6 on 02 March 2014 at 2:38am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4705 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 20 of 22 02 March 2014 at 11:56am | IP Logged | |||||
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No, the Dutch Assimil of Swedish is the old version (hence also why I went for the free
FSI instead back in the day.) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Antanas Tetraglot Groupie Lithuania Joined 4810 days ago 91 posts - 172 votes Speaks: Lithuanian*, English, Russian, German Studies: FrenchB1, Spanish | Message 21 of 22 02 March 2014 at 2:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
You and Tarvos are both right. There is no Dutch 2011 version. I don't have a copy of Zweeds zonder moeite but I saw one in a bookstore. It is a semi-hardback in the sense I described in the message above. May I ask why is that important? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4288 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 22 of 22 28 May 2014 at 5:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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If anyone has Le Suédois Sans Peine: Tome II, where did you purchase it? I insofar
see no available copies of this title, not that Tome I was easier to find, but I only have the 2011 version, Le Suédois. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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