ianeire Newbie Ireland Joined 5465 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 17 of 33 03 January 2010 at 12:04pm | IP Logged |
hello,
would i be better to go through an Assimil Spainish before a Plaqueimos course?
And if i start with the Assimil which ive noticed that the old versions(are supposed to be the best?) are very hard to find now...so do the new versions 'with ease' work just as well too.?
thanks
Ian
Edited by ianeire on 03 January 2010 at 12:07pm
1 person has voted this message useful
|
slidemasterx Pentaglot Newbie Philippines Joined 5883 days ago 37 posts - 42 votes Speaks: English, Tagalog, Cebuano*, Spanish, DutchC1 Studies: Portuguese, French
| Message 18 of 33 03 January 2010 at 12:08pm | IP Logged |
I just finished the new version of 'with ease' a couple of days ago but I'm still halfway through the active phase and I can handle chatting with a Spanish speaker for 3 hours so I guess the book is working.
6 persons have voted this message useful
|
ianeire Newbie Ireland Joined 5465 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 19 of 33 04 January 2010 at 1:13pm | IP Logged |
Thanks for that,
next questions:Is it true that in Assimil Using Spanish for advanced level is only in the Spanish language?
Does this pose any problems if one has already finsihed the Assimil with ease volume 1?
why is'nt the Using Spanish not in English?It ths does create problems then what would i move onto after the Assimil with ease?
Ian
Edited by ianeire on 04 January 2010 at 6:09pm
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Luigi Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6938 days ago 113 posts - 135 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, Russian
| Message 20 of 33 04 January 2010 at 5:36pm | IP Logged |
Ianeire,
the text of Assimil's Using Spanish is bilingual, just like the first volume "Assimil with ease": dialogues in target language and translations/explanations in English.
Best regards
Luigi
1 person has voted this message useful
|
slidemasterx Pentaglot Newbie Philippines Joined 5883 days ago 37 posts - 42 votes Speaks: English, Tagalog, Cebuano*, Spanish, DutchC1 Studies: Portuguese, French
| Message 21 of 33 04 January 2010 at 6:05pm | IP Logged |
It's just the same as Assimil with ease. Spanish on the left and English on the right. It's just a continuation of the 'with ease'. The translation however is not too good. If you do a search for 'Using Spanish' you will find 2 topics about that.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
ianeire Newbie Ireland Joined 5465 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 22 of 33 04 January 2010 at 6:19pm | IP Logged |
Thanks again,
The reason I was asking is that when I was looking for them on the Assimil website they showed target languages for English speakers and target languages for french speakers...hence the confusion and as you know some texts in target languages are written only in that language...the idea being full immersion i think
Ian
1 person has voted this message useful
|
magictom123 Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5591 days ago 272 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French
| Message 23 of 33 04 January 2010 at 9:10pm | IP Logged |
I have a quick question regarding Assimil. I'm using Assimil Italian with ease. I am only on undicesima
lezione and I feel it is going quite well. But...I was wondering, people that have reached a degree of fluency
using Assimil, at what point did you begin to 'think' in target language. I see people say that Assimil is great
for this and listening comprehension, which I am sure it is/will be for me. However, so far, I am only getting
glimpses of this. Last night I was reviewing the last few lessons and having a bit of an imaginary
conversation with myself. I was amazed that I was starting to manipulate the assimil sentences to form my
own whilst thinking in the target language - in this case Italian. However, maybe because I am tired today
but when I tried today it just wouldn't happen.
Therefore, I was hoping for some tips or advice. Maybe I am just too early into the course to have begun
thinking in Italian. Is this something that quickly develops once you reach the active phase or did those o of
you that have had success with assimil start thinking in your target language (albeit it in small
chunks) right
from that start.
One thing I have found to help is when I use mental images to associate the words rather than quickly
running a translation of an Italian sentence to English through my head to gain an understanding. As I said,
I had some success last night but it is a constant battle because the English words are always trying to
jump into my head and it is difficult for me to block them. So, does anyone have any suggestions to aid this
process (other than the conversations in your head thing which I'm already doing).
Thanks in advance and sorry for any typos but I am ony
mobile and the poor keyboard is confused with typing in multiple languages.
Tom
1 person has voted this message useful
|
magictom123 Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5591 days ago 272 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French
| Message 24 of 33 04 January 2010 at 9:51pm | IP Logged |
Right, I am back on my laptop now.
OK, I will try and clear up what I am doing at the moment. I am currently doing pretty
much what assimil recommends with the added extra that because I am not at work at the
moment throughout the day I can review lessons and listen numerous times to the audio.
I have also tried shadowing the audio and as from yesterday this method seemed to
suddenly fall into place. Maybe it was the fact that as I have been reviewing a few
previous lessons before I move onto the next one the audio was becoming clear. Anyway,
I have noticed a dramatic leap in pronunciation and intonation which I would not have
expected in such a short space of time since beginning to use Assimil.
Anyway, when in the previous posts I mentioned attaching a mental image to a word. I
did not mean so in the sense of Rosetta Stone (which I tried once and hated by the way)
but rather, I imagine a scene as I am saying the words to block out the English and to
try and associate the words with the scene I am imagining. For example, with something
simple like 'Benvenuto a casa mia' I imagine standing at my front door with my arm out
wide pointing into the house and directing the two friends in as the two friends stand
at the open door. This is really helping me at the moment and I was wondering what
people thought of this technique. I know everyone is different but I was wondering if
the successful Assimil students amongst us has employed this technique and I would be
interested to hear of any alternative approaches.
1 person has voted this message useful
|