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Old Assimil - is it obsolete? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5583 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 57 of 66 10 June 2010 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | ||
I need to call/email them and ask them about advanced German and an English based Brazilian Portuguese and Russian course. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6444 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 58 of 66 10 June 2010 at 9:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Datsunking1: If their response resembles past responses, the answer will be that they're not making any of those, as the demand simply isn't there. I think Russian, in particular, was shot down due to there not being enough interest.
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| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5583 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 59 of 66 12 June 2010 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | ||
Ugh. :( I figured an advanced German course would be really useful 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6444 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 60 of 66 12 June 2010 at 5:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Potentially useful, yes, but as I said, there's just not much demand for it in the English speaking world. You'll note that the vast majority of language resources are targeted at beginners, for the simple fact that most people never get beyond that stage. Thus, courses aimed at beginners are where the money is at for language learning publishers.
Also, if you finish German without Toil / German with Ease, as long as you have a decent grammar book and dictionary, you're more than prepared to start learning from native materials. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pythonbyte Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5926 days ago 26 posts - 28 votes Studies: French, German | Message 61 of 66 12 June 2010 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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I had an email saying the English based Russian course was in production and set for release spring 2011. Assimil are quite flakey when it actually comes to releasing a course so I don't expect it to materialise. Edited by pythonbyte on 12 June 2010 at 10:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4709 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 62 of 66 07 February 2012 at 5:26am | IP Logged | ||
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pythonbyte, I think it is safe to say, this did not come to fruition! I for one would be
the first one to shell out for a Russian Assimil with an English base! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Betjeman Groupie Germany Joined 6141 days ago 85 posts - 204 votes Speaks: German* | Message 63 of 66 09 February 2012 at 2:01pm | IP Logged | ||
Being German myself, I find this judgement to be a bit harsh. The spelling reform (which took place several DECADES after German Without Toil was published) does not change as many things as you seem to assume. Many Germans (writers especially) still ignore ALL the new rules, and many more get away with just making a few minor changes to their old habits. A lot of the new spellings are optional anyway, and on the whole the reform has had the unpleasant side effect that nobody really cares about spelling anymore. What seems to be of much more concern to me is the rather old-fashioned (though charming) style of language used in the book, and - at least in my edition - the complete absence of "Du", the familiar form of address. Even children are addressed "Sie", which was surely not common even in the 1950s. But apart from that, there's no doubt that Monsieur Chérel (or whoever wrote the book) had a good ear for colloquial phrases, and a surprising amount of these - and even the proverbs given from time to time - are still valid today. Nonetheless, the newer German With Ease contains more current German and less errors. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5563 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 64 of 66 09 February 2012 at 5:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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' the newer German With Ease contains more current German and less
errors.' Have you read the English base version? There is almost an error per page and, whilst the translator appears to have been able to translate from German to English relatively well, it was done with no sensibility for the fact that s/he was a translating a language course aimed at beginners. As a result, the translation fails to capture some of the idiomatic construction that, say, New French With Ease (which, admittedly is written by a native English speaker) has. I have finished all three beginner courses: Without Toil, With Ease and L'Allemand in the French base. In my opinion L'Allemand is the best of the three in terms of its construction as a beginners' language course - it teaches you useful German from lesson 1, but it goes into far less depth than the other two. I would say that despite its quaint outdated language, I learnt the most from Without Toil. The spelling issues didn't bother me one bit. Edited by Elexi on 09 February 2012 at 5:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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