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Assimil versus US language programs | ||
Tags: Learner type | Platiquemos | Pimsleur | Reading | Language Program | FSI | Assimil | Accent | Book | Grammar | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6943 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 113 of 184 08 February 2006 at 3:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
tuffy: How do you find your conversational Spanish as you are nearing the end of Pimsleur? Also, have you used any printed and/or "authentic" audio materials at all, like grammar textbooks or workbooks, dictionaries, readers, simplified or not, newspapers, textbooks, novels, TV, movies, radio, etc? I am going to get mauled for this, but if you find that you can actually use comfortably what you've learned in Pimsleur, and you understand speech at this level of knowledge pretty well, maybe another long audio course is not what you need next, if speed is really an issue? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Farley Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7092 days ago 681 posts - 739 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanB1, French Studies: Spanish | Message 114 of 184 08 February 2006 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
I have seen a number of posts that advocated using Pimsleur first and then Assimil second. If you have the base structure for speaking, then try Assimil to add vocabulary. I think a Spanish girlfriend would take care of the rest. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Farley Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7092 days ago 681 posts - 739 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanB1, French Studies: Spanish | Message 115 of 184 08 February 2006 at 4:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
I briefly tried that but quickly gave it up. I reasoned the 30 minutes I spent on note cards would be better spent listening to lessons. In a way, the book itself is a note card system all by itself.
I was able to tear through the passive wave of Assimil French in less than 4 months but got stuck on the active wave with the pronunciation. I think Assimil works well to the extent that you can repeat the dialogs. I had to resort to Pimsleur to kick start my speaking. If you count my high school Latin, French is my 3rd language (maybe 4th of 5th if you count the small amount of Swedish and Spanish phrases I know), but otherwise my 2nd for the purposes of speaking. I think you may have a point. Edited by Farley on 08 February 2006 at 4:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7146 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 116 of 184 08 February 2006 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
My brother has got audio books of Harry Potter in Hebrew. He says there is a large selection of audio books that are available. He ordered his direct from Israel. He says there is a large difference in price so do a search first to compare prices. He gave me two websites connected to his source but they are both in Hebrew. http://www.ybook.co.il http://www.booksintheattic.co.il I did a search on Google and came across plenty by searching "Harry Potter Hebrew audio." If you don't like Harry Potter you will find plenty of other books offered. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7146 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 117 of 184 08 February 2006 at 7:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
I studied for about ten to fifteen minutes in the first block where I would read and listen to the new lesson, playing the audio through two or maybe three times and checking the notes and translation. I would usually play the preceding two or three lessons so I would do each lesson a minimum of five or six times, counting the weekly revisions. It only takes about ten minutes to play four lessons or more with the old programs. Then I would read it through in a couple of 5-minute chunks through the day, maybe over a cup of coffee, then play the audio through once again at night. This is much easier than having to take a 30-minute break to do a Pimsleur lesson unless you are driving. When I was doing two lessons per day I would still spend about the same amount of time, maybe fractionally longer, so long as I could take in the new words and the notes. On each seventh day when there are no new words or audio lesson, I would play the last week's or two weeks' lessons and read the explanations. With the active stage I would add the translation back and do the extra exercises. Sometimes toward the end I would take two days to complete a lesson, as I felt I wasn't keeping up. I didn't worry about that as I didn't have a strict deadline. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7104 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 119 of 184 09 February 2006 at 1:07am | IP Logged | |||||
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The US version of the Amazon has horrible pricing for some of the courses. Look as Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr for better deals.
Interestingly I purchased German with Ease from the US website, however due to a "delay" I haven't received it yet. Even if Amazon.com offers an Assimil course for a decent price, you might have to wait quite some time to receive it. Edited by Sir Nigel on 09 February 2006 at 1:10am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7146 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 120 of 184 09 February 2006 at 1:28am | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, the second level has the same number of tapes or CDs as the first level. I bought the French based advanced German but, because I was living in Germany, I didn't bother with the tapes as I was hearning spoken German most of the day anyway. Otherwise, with another language I probably would buy the audio as well. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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