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Michel Thomas, Assimil or Pimsleur? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| michaelmichael Senior Member Canada Joined 5285 days ago 167 posts - 202 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 9 of 37 26 July 2010 at 4:56am | IP Logged | |||||
I've almost completed MT advance for french, 1 cd away, I've done 30 lessons of pimsleur and only 2 lessons of assimil. here's my take MT teaches you the grammar and the creative aspect of the language. Basically intellectual assembly. So given enough time, you can construct very complicated sentence that you have never encountered before. Unfortunately you probably won't have the speed to speak fluently, nor the vocabulary to understand everything. Also to get the most out of it, you can't really listen to it while doing something else, you must always hit the pause button before the answer, and while the beginner cds may have enough time to say it first without pause, it's much more crammed in the advance cds. Pimsleur is awesome, because of the clarity of the speech, the built in pauses (pauses so you don't have to manually pause), the proper spaced repetition and the convenience. I've notice that a common complaint against pimsleur is how repetitive it can be, but i find using the grammar that MT taught me, i can construct the sentence before first exposure. What I'm trying to say is that MT will make repetition more fun because you are trying to apply what you learned rapidly. It is also known that adult learners who over analyze can sometimes have trouble learning a language. It will bother them sometimes if they can't explain a construct or if they believe that something is wrong. With a MT background, you have the knowledge to convince yourself that it's right. I bought an IPOD armband, and go to the gym with it. I find i can concentrate perfectly with the language instruction while running, however; I find it a bit harder to to say the sentence before the speaker when weight lifting (i start to just repeat after them). To get the most out of it, you have to say the phrase before the speaker, without the pause button. So ya, pausing with MT for grammar, but no pausing with pimsleur for speed and automatization. Since you can take it anywhere, waiting in line, doing chores, errands, whatever, you can rack up the raw hours needed for confidence and fluency. I don't have enough experience with assimil. As an initial impression it seems a bit sporadic for acquiring the grammar, but better than the other 2 for vocabulary and reading (well reading i guess is a given, no text in the other 2). Edited by michaelmichael on 26 July 2010 at 7:22pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5593 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 10 of 37 26 July 2010 at 10:56am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'd agree with the above - MT teaches you to monitor your constructions very precisely - he focuses on taking as much time as you need to work out the correct grammatical and lexical construction. This is at once a benefit of the MT approach and a drawback. On one hand you are internalising the rules of the language quite rapidly so as to allow for creativity, but on the other you are thinking too slowly to be able to actually communicate in a live situation. I find that restricting yourself to the gaps in Pimsleur and other such methods such as the TY 'Conversation' and 'Phone' CDs help train some of that excessive monitoring away and thus speed up actual communication. That's why I personally do MT first and then Pimsleur.
I should add, as is commonly said here - check your public library - the MT courses and Pimsleur are often available for borrowing without the £$£$£$£ that are charged for these courses commercially. Edited by Elexi on 26 July 2010 at 5:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lakkhamu Diglot Groupie Turkey Joined 5272 days ago 63 posts - 65 votes Speaks: English, Turkish* Studies: Latin, German, Russian | Message 11 of 37 26 July 2010 at 4:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I know, I can acquire most languages provided by Pimsleur and possibly all those provided by MT from my School Library. So, you advise me to use both of them in conjunction?
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| Ericounet Senior Member France yojik.euRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5463 days ago 157 posts - 414 votes Studies: English, German, Russian | Message 12 of 37 26 July 2010 at 4:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
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hi,
use all of them: and add grammatical books, TV series, short novels, audio books, comics: everything which gives to you a contact with the language; sometimes, you'll be bored with assimil (or another), so use another method one or two weeks, and take assimil again. I found DLI Russian very very good, systematic, and in deep. Eric! ----- 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7049 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 13 of 37 27 July 2010 at 1:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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For a language I have absolutely no experience with, I like to start with Pimsleur, then do MT or Assimil, if available in English base. Pimsleur can be very boring, and the other "students" in MT can be quite annoying. I like Assimil because it includes written material in the target language, as well as grammatical explanations.
If you speak French, the Assimil offerings are fantastic. The English-based Assimil programs are good, but there are many more available for Francophones (for instance there is no English-based program for Turkish). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| johntm93 Senior Member United States Joined 5355 days ago 587 posts - 746 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 14 of 37 27 July 2010 at 3:47am | IP Logged | |||||
And it is amazing how many courses Assimil has in the French base (I know this is because they are a French company, but still). I think they have quite a bit for German speakers (Deutschophones? Germanophones?), too.
Edited by johntm93 on 27 July 2010 at 3:50am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Adrean TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member France adrean83.wordpress.c Joined 6196 days ago 348 posts - 411 votes Speaks: FrenchC1 | Message 15 of 37 28 July 2010 at 1:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Just want to say a little about the students in the MT courses. I remember going over 2 or 3 foundation MT courses with little to no background. I can smile about it now but at the time it was terrible. I suffered with the students and did backflips in my brain. MT really got my brain working. I didn't think that the students were especially dim, in fact their errors soothed my pain. I'm talking about the very first run through.
Now after years of French, at almost a fluent level I no longer have to think before belting out a response. I go back and listen a little to MT foundation French to understand his method and I have trouble believing I had difficulty with this. At the time it was very normal though. Don't be so hard on the students! Go and do a foundation course in a language you are completely unfamiliar with and see if you can do better! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| johntm93 Senior Member United States Joined 5355 days ago 587 posts - 746 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 16 of 37 28 July 2010 at 6:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
1 person has voted this message useful |
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