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Does Assimil work?

  Tags: Assimil
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
21 messages over 3 pages: 1 2
drp9341
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4910 days ago

115 posts - 217 votes 
Speaks: Italian, English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 17 of 21
27 April 2012 at 2:43pm | IP Logged 
Assimil really works especially if you try and USE the new material from every lesson.

I would do assimil every lesson, and then afterwords try and take that vocab and use it in speech in front of my
Camera and to be honest, within about 3 months and doing it 15mins a day I went from understanding almost 0
TV to being able to get about 50-60% of the news, and being able to read most articles with the help of a
dictionary.
I only am at level 57 but I can honestly say I feel like I've learned A LOT.
(^that was for French, but as you all can see I also speak other Romance languages so I might have been able to
get more just through exposure)

I also used it for Mandarin and got to lesson 27 that was IT. And I learned a lot about the structure of the
language and such and made it 10x easier to learn Vocab. I learned more from 27 lessons and a native speaker
over 1 month than 4 months of "Elementary Chinese 1"

So I STRONGLY reccomend Assimil, although if you need a language fast... it may not be sufficient.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Jeffers
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4907 days ago

2151 posts - 3960 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German

 
 Message 18 of 21
29 April 2012 at 11:07pm | IP Logged 
I think one of the reasons Assimil is so popular, and successful, is that it is interesting and varied enough to keep you going. The fact that you work on one lesson per day means you don't get hung up on a lesson for ages and ages until you drop the whole course.

Having said that, I used Assimil faithfully and daily until lesson 54, when I went on holiday for a week. I tried to keep it up sporadically while travelling, but gave it up and I haven't done a daily lesson since about 3 weeks ago, although I have reviewed the audio several times. I'm not worried, because I will pick it up again for the 6 week challenge starting this Tuesday, and get back to the one lesson per day pattern. I've discovered that the important thing with Assimil is to get a daily habit in place, and let the momentum sweep you along. And I thank God for whoever invented the 6wc!!
2 persons have voted this message useful



Ericounet
Senior Member
France
yojik.euRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5433 days ago

157 posts - 414 votes 
Studies: English, German, Russian

 
 Message 19 of 21
30 April 2012 at 9:57am | IP Logged 
Hi,

I got many assimil books (Russian English and German mostly, old and new ones).

They are nice but, you don't get automatism:

when you repeat 1000 times : я иду в школу , на завод etc... you don't have to think about it again. Most people don't like drills,but you cannot speak if you have to think too much before saying a phrase. (yes, thinking before speaking can be useful :) ...)

So, mixing the assimil way with DLI way works better for me: DLI provides 80 pages on every notion and add some vocabulary in the same time. Pefect for me.

There is also a phase when you have to havilly practice : listening, speaking (very easy to get used to a voice and not understanding another voice : it's what happens to me: I understand very well my wife (speaking Russian), but it's for me far more difficult to understand another voice.),writting, translating ...

(Listening the news can be really stressing .. they speak so fast.)

That's not possible when only learning 30 mn or 1 hour per day. The best way would be to spend time in the country.

So assimil, yes, but not enough. (only my thought, of course)

Eric

1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6595 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 20 of 21
30 April 2012 at 12:41pm | IP Logged 
Ericounet wrote:
They are nice but, you don't get automatism:

when you repeat 1000 times : я иду в школу , на завод etc... you don't have to think about it again.
Try shadowing :-)
1 person has voted this message useful



liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 6227 days ago

693 posts - 1328 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 21 of 21
30 April 2012 at 3:35pm | IP Logged 
I agree with the members above that Assimil is (with a few exceptions) a great method but there is no way it will get
the learner to a "B2" level ... IF is is used in isolation!

I think if a 100 unit Assimil couse is combined with other methods (such as active TV watching/ radio listening,
conversing daily with natives etc..) a B2 could be possible. Look at Octoglot's post. I'd call that B2!   I don't know,
however, of any method that can do this by itself, not even Assimil.


2 persons have voted this message useful



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