|
 |
Assimil German with Ease | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7103 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 9 of 18 10 November 2010 at 9:25am | IP Logged | ||
I think you've just decribed the Passive Wave. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7103 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 10 of 18 10 November 2010 at 9:39am | IP Logged | ||
Steven, Well, I have a slight confession to make. I actually do the Active Wave like this: 1. Cover the L2 text and try to reconstruct it a sentence at a time from the L1. 2. After you have finished each sentence, uncover the L2 text and carefully correct any errors you have made. 3. On completing 1 & 2, read the lesson as a whole, repeating each sentence once. If you have the recordings, listen to them carefully. 4. Go back to 1 and repeat until there are no errors. Assimil is, I find, a course you can (and almost certainly will) adapt to suit. I've only had the Dutch course about six months, so the explicit (and actual) nature of the instructions were something new. By that time, I already had an Assimil method that I was happy with. For everyone new to Assimil, I think it's always worth starting with a recommended forumula. Alberto thinks the Dutch Passive Wave instructions are overly complicated - he's possibly right. However, they're relatively easy to follow and they have the advantage that they are, at least, thorough. Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Frieza Triglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5353 days ago 102 posts - 137 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German | Message 11 of 18 10 November 2010 at 1:10pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Just adding my two cents: personally and regardless of Assimil's instuctions, during the passive wave, I'll listen to the lesson at least two or three times before reading the text, and barring words/phrases I cannot comprehend I will not pay that much attention to the translation (but then again I'm not a beginner).
By the way, it seems like an English version of L'Allemand may be not that far away. I contacted Assimil last week and asked them whether there were plans to release an English and/or Portuguese version of their new German course (L'Allemand), and while they replied that they did not plan to publish a new version of their German course for Portuguese sepakers, they told me that they'd email me once the new English version was out. Edited by Frieza on 10 November 2010 at 1:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Desacrator48 Groupie United States Joined 5308 days ago 93 posts - 127 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 12 of 18 11 November 2010 at 1:34am | IP Logged | ||
|
In response to Frieza's post, can someone tell me why it is so hard for Assimil to put out with an English base books for two of the most in demand languages: Russian and Portuguese?
Obviously it is about cost and demand, and if there is a demand for it, what about the costs? If the recordings for the Assimil is the most expensive, wouldn't you already have that available because there is only say Russian and Portuguese on the recordings for languages of all bases? So the lessons are already constructed for the book, and you just need a translator to translate from French into English the lessons, text notes, and exercises for each lesson that already exist for Le Russe and Le Portuguese. I don't think it would take that long to translate even one lesson a day by one Assimil employee who knows French and English. Is there something I don't get about Assimil's reluctance for these two languages that I would surely be interested in in the future? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Frieza Triglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5353 days ago 102 posts - 137 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German | Message 13 of 18 30 November 2010 at 5:02pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I suppose it also depends a lot on the proximity between the source language and the target language.
For instance, 'L'Espagnol' has already got a Portuguese-based version ('O Espanhol'), yet it's still not available in English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Frieza Triglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5353 days ago 102 posts - 137 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German | Message 14 of 18 25 February 2011 at 8:03pm | IP Logged | ||
|
So, I have now been with Assimil German with Ease (and Langenscheidt German Basic Vocabulary) for 54 days and so far I quite like it.
There are a few things I'm not happy with, notably the dated ortography and language (Fräulein used quite often in the dialogues comes to mind). Since Assimil has not released the 2004 edition for non-French speakers, they could at least have revised their old text. Since I am unable to have a version with up-to-date German on my own language, I've already got my hands on the French version of "L'Allemand" and I hope to do it after I'm done with the 1986 edition. Unfortunately, for now I just don't have the time to continue with DW's "Deutsch Interaktiv" together with Assimil and the Langenscheidt book as I had planned. Maybe I'll be able to do it once I'll be exclusively on the active phase of Assimil. As for the method, I am kind of following the instructions but not completely. I'm basically doing what I feel suits me best I'm taking about 1h30 to complete a lesson passively, divided into three 30-minute blocks, with short (1/2 minutes) breaks within each block. First part 1. Listen to the whole lesson twice; 2. Listen while reading the German text (including exercises); 3. Listen while reading the base language text (listen to the exercises and think of what their translation is or might be); 4. Read each phrase out loud and check its translation; 5. Read the entire text out loud on one go; 6. Listen to the whole lesson again; 7. Listen to each phrase, pause the recording and repeat it; 8. Listen to each full sentence, pause the recording and repeat it. Second part (a couple of hours later) 1. Read each phrase and check the translation; 2. Read the text and carefully read each note as they appear; 3. Read the text and go through the notes; 4. Read the text and identify new vocabulary. Third part (about 1 hour later) 1. Listen to the whole lesson; 2. Listen to the lesson and read along out loud; 3. Do the exercises (both orally and in writing); 4. Study the exercises; 5. Read the dialogue one final time; 6. Role-play: take one "character" in the dialogue and speak his/her lines while muting his/her parts, repeat for the other "character". This sounds dull I know but I honestly don't feel like I've beaten the 'ease' out of Assimil. If I do more than suggested during passive phase, that has certainly not been the case during active phase, which has taken me about 10 minutes including tiny breaks between steps. 1. Try to translate orally into German from base language; 2. Do it a second time; 3. Listen to the lesson; 4. Listen to the lesson (dialogue + exercises) while reading the German text; 5. Try to translate again 6. Read the dialogue out loud. So far, I haven't felt like writing on active phase. I may do it when I'm exclusively on active phase though, also because by then the dialogues will have much longer and more complex sentences, so writing may help. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cammela Tetraglot Newbie Senegal Joined 5053 days ago 28 posts - 31 votes Speaks: French*, ItalianC2, Spanish, GermanB2 | Message 15 of 18 25 February 2011 at 11:09pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I prefer the 2004 version, because it contains more grammar. Edited by Cammela on 25 February 2011 at 11:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Frieza Triglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5353 days ago 102 posts - 137 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German | Message 16 of 18 30 May 2011 at 6:21pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I've browsed through my 2004 version and it's got much better illustrations, a 2-colour layout, much larger letters, etc.
The main problem that I seem to have with Assimil is that when I am supposed to be only listening, I don't seem to be able to focus, my mind starts wandering elsewhere. A personal issue I guess. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
