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Using Assimil without knowing French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| COF Senior Member United States Joined 5832 days ago 262 posts - 354 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 10 29 May 2012 at 12:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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My French is very basic, and while I can get the gist of a lot of things, my vocabulary is small and my grammatical knowledge is not brilliant.
Would it be possible to use a French Assimil course in conjunction with a dictionary and Google Translate or something like that? Obviously, I know it would be a much slower process than using Assimil in a language you're proficient in, but would it theoretically be possible? And more to the point, has anyone done this? Edited by COF on 29 May 2012 at 1:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jazzboy.bebop Senior Member Norway norwegianthroughnove Joined 5419 days ago 439 posts - 800 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian | Message 2 of 10 29 May 2012 at 1:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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Tried that myself with Le norvégien sans peine but it proved too much of a headache after a while. Some of the idioms I just could not decipher without the aid of either a French or Norwegian person. Sounds like our French levels are fairly similar.
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| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4689 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 3 of 10 29 May 2012 at 6:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, tough call, but I was considering this as well. I'm still working on French via Assimil, but I find that half the time I really only feel like I need the English half for a couple words here and there (explanations are useful sometimes, though).
But I have interest in using the Hebrew and Yiddish courses, which only exist in French base. Yiddish especially, I likely would already know the vast majority of the words used, at least passively, but Assimil would be nice for doing active waves to solidify more "idiomatic" (if you count YIVO-nish as real, idiomatic Yiddish) language. Similarly, I have some good passive Hebrew knowledge already, but no real active skills. Sorry, that really only raises more questions, I guess. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 4 of 10 29 May 2012 at 9:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm with jazzyboy on this... not worth the trouble.
I'll offer an alternative, though: Do another course (or two) first, such as Teach Yourself or Colloquial, then use just the audio from Assimil as more follow-up listening. Be aware, though, that Assimil's audio NEVER gets up to full conversational speed. At least that was the case with the Turkish course. R. == 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4689 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 5 of 10 29 May 2012 at 9:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think it would be fair to call the later parts of Assimil French "conversational speed," but it's not "fast" conversational speed. There also are lots of pauses in the audio that let you catch your breath, but I don't see any reason why this is a problem in instructional audio. In practicing, I tend to end up reviewing lessons by reading them at faster-than-tape speed anyhow.
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| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 6 of 10 29 May 2012 at 10:03pm | IP Logged | ||
Maybe I misread the original post (and I'm not alone, judging by the other responses). I understood his question to be whether it was worth it or not to use a French-based Assimil course to learn another language, not French. It's a fairly common question that comes up here on HTLAL, since Assimil offers many more languages taught with French than with any other language. R. == Edited by hrhenry on 29 May 2012 at 10:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4689 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 7 of 10 29 May 2012 at 10:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was just responding to your point about the speed of Assimil audio generally by noting that in at least one case, the audio is up to a relatively "normal" speed, but with dead air inserted, thus the speed of Turkish audio may be slower than what would be found in other courses.
I would expect that for the OP's purposes, slow audio is BETTER, not worse, of course. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 8 of 10 29 May 2012 at 10:15pm | IP Logged | ||
I actually disagree with this, *if* you take my alternative suggestion as an example. Once you've completed another course or two, there's absolutely no reason to have slow audio. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful |
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