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Has anyone ever failed with Assimil? | ||
Tags: Discouragement from learning | Assimil | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4767 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes  Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 24 19 January 2012 at 6:19pm | IP Logged |
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Has anyone, who more or less followed the instructions, and completed a full Assimil "at Ease" course ever considered the method a failure?
I know many people dislike Assimil and quit, but I wonder if anyone has soldiered on to the end, and not learned enough to justify the time. Making people quit means the course has failed these people in a different way, but does it eventually work for those who keep plugging away? I doubt that everyone reaches B2, but did everybody who completed the course think it was worth it? I'm currently enjoying the the easy, low pressure pace of Assimil, but I'm getting frustrated waiting for the Active phase to come around. steve Edited by sfuqua on 19 January 2012 at 6:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5347 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 2 of 24 19 January 2012 at 6:46pm | IP Logged |
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Assimil gives you the material but you must choose how to use them. I for example don't do the "active phase". For me the time is better spent working through additional manuals and texts rather than repeating what I have already read.
Some Assimil titles are better than others, and some languages lend themselves better to the methodology and pace used by Assimil, but as long as you understand that no single manual or method will produce "success" when learning a language, you can profit from what each of them has to offer. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6231 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 3 of 24 19 January 2012 at 11:53pm | IP Logged |
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My French is pretty poor so I haven't been able to make it through a complete French edition so I suppose that is a failure. - I wish they would translate more of them into English.
Aside from that I would say if you get through all 100 lessons you should be at least B1 if not B2! ( I also don't do the active phase!) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LatinoBoy84 Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5577 days ago 443 posts - 603 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Latvian | Message 4 of 24 20 January 2012 at 5:08am | IP Logged |
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I don't do the active phase, but I do copy all the lessons in the TL by hand. Usually
twice... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| seldnar Senior Member United States Joined 7134 days ago 189 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, French, Greek | Message 5 of 24 20 January 2012 at 6:28am | IP Logged |
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Nothing says you have to wait for the active phase to come around; start doing the
active wave now. Go back to chapter one, read the English and then say it in your target language. I personally would also follow Luca's method that he outlined on the Women Learning Thai blog. I know there are people who don't like Assimil, in fact this site was founded because of a dislike of Assimil, but many people not only like it but strongly recommend it (the site founder was even won over, if I recall correctly). There are a fair number of postings by some pretty accomplished linguists who think the program is worthwhile-- that is, they feel that Assimil delivers,--and they have used it for more learning more than one language. And, there are also some by learners who felt underwhelmed. I recommend doing a "G search" under this forum's search options. Good luck 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 6 of 24 20 January 2012 at 10:40am | IP Logged |
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I completed Spanish with Ease passive wave, and about half the active wave. As I was also using other resources at the time, I subsequently discovered my difficulties with the active wave were due to translation problems on Assimil's part. Their follow on course, Using Spanish, was notorious on this forum for dire translations. I subsequently picked up a copy of the French version of Using Spanish, "Perfectionnement Espagnol". It has none of the translations problems that the English based material has.
Another problem I have with Assimil is the odd situations they sometimes use in each lesson. This issue meant I abandoned their Hungarian with Ease about half way through. I've also used their New French with Ease which is the best of the three. However, their use of wacky situations made vocabulary harder to remember. If I was using Assimil again, I'd only used their French based products. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4891 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 7 of 24 20 January 2012 at 11:41am | IP Logged |
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I'm finishing up French with Ease right now. I did it by the book, and have about 30
lessons to go in the Active Phase. I think it's a solid system. I did use other materials (Pimsleur, then FSI), but I am happy with the results. I do not feel that I am "B-1" level; however, I do feel that I am ready to make the jump to a B-1 level and that I just need some real-life experience. And I fully intend to use Assimil for other languages in which I'm aiming for fluency. Assimil is clearly aiming for the B-level, and skips over any attempt at giving you A- level survival skills. Unlike, say, Pimsleur, which is entirely focused on getting you to a solid A-1 level. So when I tried to use Assimil Spanish to cram for a trip to Mexico I failed. It was the wrong course for that. side note: I didn't even know there was a "Using Spanish" - I thought I would need to switch to "Perfectionnement Espagnol" when I move back to Spanish. Which I might, if I feel my French is ready. How was this course for you? note 2: don't rush it. If you have extra time, or want more, add in something else - a podcast, another course, French movies. Do the course at it's own pace. I'm feeling that same urge - I want to finish With Ease already! - but I've learned from experience that it's better just keep at it, slow and steady. Edited by kanewai on 20 January 2012 at 11:44am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| atama warui Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 4703 days ago 594 posts - 985 votes Speaks: German*, English, Japanese | Message 8 of 24 20 January 2012 at 2:47pm | IP Logged |
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Pimsleur takes you further than A1. After you finished it, it'll be a solid A2, if you actually did it as intended.
However, B1 to B2 is a huge gap, so which of the two could you achieve with Assimil? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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