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Pimsleur or Assimil for French? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| MichaelM204351 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5449 days ago 151 posts - 173 votes  Speaks: English*, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish | Message 9 of 28 21 April 2011 at 3:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Wait... We're puting Pimsleur on the same level as Assimil? I like Pimsleur to a degree, but if one is wishing to learn a language to fluency, I would definitely recommend Assimil over Pimsleur. I used Pimsleur for beginning Hebrew and I liked it, but it didn't do a whole lot for me other than give me acceptable pronunciation and a basic vocabulary. At the end of Pimsleur, you'd maybe have around 500 words. At the end of French with ease, you'd have around 2,000 words...
In addition to these reasons, Pimsleur has much less audio once you take out the English and all of the pauses. Assimil is only in the target language and does not contain the awkward pauses that Pimsleur does. Anyway, these are just my two cents. I recognize that different people have different learning styles and different goals, but if it was me, I would for sure go with Assimil. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| cntrational Triglot Groupie India Joined 5132 days ago 49 posts - 66 votes Speaks: Hindi, Telugu, English* Studies: French | Message 10 of 28 21 April 2011 at 12:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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The main criticism against Michel Thomas is that his pronunciation is terrible. Which it is. I'd still recommend it, but rely on Assimil for pronunciation.
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| JPike1028 Triglot Senior Member United States piketransitions Joined 5402 days ago 297 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Portuguese, Czech | Message 11 of 28 21 April 2011 at 12:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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I personally use Assimil and the French in Action videos that a simple search will bring up for free. If you have acess to a library that does ILL (being in the US, that shouldn't be difficult) I would take out all of the Pimsleur, all of the Michel Thomas (which I like better than Pimsleur) and the Assimil. Once you get all of that audio you can then go buy the corresponding book (this is what I did for Assimil). No sense in spending money if you don't have to. I acquire most of my materials through ILL. My issue with Pimsleur is that it teaches the same thing regardless of the language (granted I've only done the first 30 lessons), but I would never pay full price for what is esentially an audio phrasebook. My hierarchy for French materials would be this:
1.) Assimil 2.) French in Action 3.) Michel Thomas 4.) Pimsleur 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| jazzboy.bebop Senior Member Norway norwegianthroughnove Joined 5423 days ago 439 posts - 800 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian | Message 12 of 28 21 April 2011 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | ||
Where did you get the figure of only 70 lessons for Assimil? In the most modern course, New French With Ease, there are 113 lessons. Bear in mind though that every 7th lesson is a review lesson of the previous six lessons with perhaps a few additional phrases. As previously said you definitely get much more content with Assimil learning around 2000 words compared to around 500-600 with Pimsleur. New French With Ease has good audio as well, though it is relatively slow, especially at first but is very clear and is a good basis for pronunciation. In terms of the amount of content and quality of content, there really is no contest. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6016 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 13 of 28 21 April 2011 at 3:28pm | IP Logged | ||
Nonononono. Paul Noble bought a Michel Thomas CD course and listened to it. As someone else pointed out to me (randomreview, maybe?), he also used to hang about on the Michel Thomas fan forum. He probably learned more from me than from Michel Thomas, because I seem to remember him missing the point from time to time. Thomas was probably already dead by the time Noble listened to his CDs.... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tbone Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4996 days ago 92 posts - 132 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 14 of 28 21 April 2011 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hence the 'supposedly'. Anyways, the point was that you get the same method while avoiding the horrendous
accent. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6016 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 15 of 28 21 April 2011 at 5:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's not quite the same, and looking at the contents page of the course it's a lot slower and longer.
Noble has tried to include dialogues and scenarios, but that means he covers less grammar. As much as I like Assimil, when it comes to complicated grammar points, some just aren't covered completely and the explanations can sometimes be slightly confusing. If you're going to do the full MT in a week or two then move straight onto Assimil, you won't pick up MT's accent. But you will get quite deep into how French verbs work, which (I think) makes it the perfect companion for Assimil. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Shenandoah Newbie United States Joined 5032 days ago 30 posts - 59 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 16 of 28 21 April 2011 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have both Pimsleur and Assimil in the materials I'm using for French. I agree with everyone else about getting Pimsleur from the library. It's not worth paying for it.
Personally, I don't find Pimsleur helpful for anything beyond pronunciation. It makes some attempt at teaching simple grammar, but I find it so confusing I have to use other resources to explain it. So now I just keep it well behind my level in other materials, so it's all a review and practice. I like Assimil, but am still up in the air about how useful it'll be in the big picture - however, I do find it much better than Pimsleur. Keep in mind that there is an advanced Assimil book if you want more lessons after the first one, although from what I've read around here you should be able to start using native resources for studying once you get through the first book. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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