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Assimil Japanese

  Tags: Assimil | Japanese
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25 messages over 4 pages: 1 24  Next >>
wetnose
Groupie
United States
Joined 7006 days ago

90 posts - 98 votes 
Studies: Mandarin, English*
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 17 of 25
29 May 2007 at 3:58pm | IP Logged 
you have it? Amazon still has volume 1 [with CDs] listed as in limbo..

I believe Assimil has tried to teach character writing with Chinese before.
1 person has voted this message useful



awake
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6664 days ago

406 posts - 438 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Esperanto, Spanish

 
 Message 18 of 25
29 May 2007 at 8:40pm | IP Logged 
I have the first volume, which is the first 49 lessons. The second volume
just shipped to me so I should have it in a few days.

The introduction is significantly longer compared to other Assimil
Courses I have (Spanish and Esperanto). It's devoted mostly to
pronunciation issues. It also has a nice discussion of the katakana/
hiragana systems, and a tiny bit about kanji.

The actual course seems like a typical Assimil course (though I've only
skimmed through a few of the actual lessons). The lessons have both
japanese script (including kanji) and romanji on the left hand page and
english on the right hand page. The text is all very legible.   The Kanji
have furigana over them as a pronunciation guide.

Of course, I won't be able to judge how effective it is until I get into it (My
plan is to do intensive Spanish study until Dec then evaluate if I'm
advanced enough to move on to Japanese then...hopefully I will be).   
However, my first impression is that it is a very nice course.   It's also a
nice bank of sentences for use with the sentence method. Probably that's
how I'll use it....both in the traditional Assimil way, and also by entering
all the sentences into my flashcard program.

orion wrote:
@awake- Have you looked at the Assimil Japanese yet? I
know you said you were mostly studying Spanish, but if you are like me
you could not resist opening your new Japanese course.

If you have examined it, what do you think of it?

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orion
Senior Member
United States
Joined 7049 days ago

622 posts - 678 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Russian

 
 Message 19 of 25
29 May 2007 at 11:00pm | IP Logged 
Thanks for your evaluation. Sounds great!
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sheetz
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6405 days ago

270 posts - 356 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, French, Mandarin

 
 Message 20 of 25
10 June 2007 at 4:18pm | IP Logged 
I just started learning Japanese recently and I plan on using Japanese with Ease. Can anyone tell me if Writing Japanese with Ease is worth getting?
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GoddessCarlie
Newbie
Australia
goddesscarlie.com
Joined 6365 days ago

21 posts - 21 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 21 of 25
26 July 2007 at 6:37am | IP Logged 
Hi Sheetz. I decided to order the Writing Japanese with Ease book because... why not! I thought I'd give it a go, see if it had anything good in there. The books are currently coming towards me from Amazon, but Amazon usually takes its time to get to Australia, so it may take a month. When it gets here, I'll let you all know what it has in there and what I think.
1 person has voted this message useful



Biene
Diglot
Groupie
Germany
Joined 6250 days ago

71 posts - 73 votes 
2 sounds
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: Dutch, Japanese

 
 Message 22 of 25
11 March 2008 at 8:28am | IP Logged 
How good are the Japanese with Ease 1 + 2 courses (German or English)?

I'm quite sure that there are a few people here on the forum that have successfully worked with these courses. Unfortunately neither here nor on amazon did I find useful reviews. Both courses (books with audio-CDs) are not really cheap, so I'd like to know the opinion of people who have used them before I make a final decision.

I had a look at the German Assimil course 1 and was quite repelled by the amount of romaji that is been used. I had expected that there would be only in the first few lessons with romaji and than nil, but I seem to be wrong. So the questions that I'd like to ask are:

1. How useful did you find the courses?

2. What did you find to be the major pros and cons of these courses?

3. When I'd finish both courses, where would that leave me in terms of the amount of vocabulary known and the understanding of grammar?

4. Would it be advisable to get a good grammar book to accompany the courses, so that one can look up things that one doesn't understand from the courses themself? And if so, could you please recommend a good grammar book, which is suitable for a non linguist?

I haven't made my mind up about buying another Assimil course (I'm currently working through the French 1), but if the romaji is the only major con, I could use a black text marker or Tippex to get rid of the romaji-lines.

Thanks for your help
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kealist
Senior Member
United States
kealist.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6264 days ago

111 posts - 124 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Uyghur, Mandarin, Shanghainese

 
 Message 23 of 25
11 March 2008 at 11:34am | IP Logged 
Biene wrote:
How good are the Japanese with Ease 1 + 2 courses (German or English)?

I'm quite sure that there are a few people here on the forum that have successfully worked with these courses. Unfortunately neither here nor on amazon did I find useful reviews. Both courses (books with audio-CDs) are not really cheap, so I'd like to know the opinion of people who have used them before I make a final decision.

I had a look at the German Assimil course 1 and was quite repelled by the amount of romaji that is been used. I had expected that there would be only in the first few lessons with romaji and than nil, but I seem to be wrong. So the questions that I'd like to ask are:


I am working through them now, and I find them both useful and interesting. My background before I started was one year of college level Japanese using the Nakama text. I like the pace of Assimil because it moves quickly and you just get used to seeing different verb forms.   I am over halfway done with the course. I am also very annoyed at the romanji, and surprisingly it is in all the lessons until maybe the last fifteen. I use a wooden coffee stirrer / popsicle stick to cover up the romanji as I go through.   I had tried to ask people what kind of ink would be good to cover it up, but I could never find an answer and never wanted to experiment.


Biene wrote:

4. Would it be advisable to get a good grammar book to accompany the courses, so that one can look up things that one doesn't understand from the courses themself? And if so, could you please recommend a good grammar book, which is suitable for a non linguist?


I've not used a grammar, but the grammar is so similar to the turkic language I've studied that I've not really needed deeper explanation than what is in the text. I believe there are good grammars on the web: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/

I would recommend them.
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zorglub
Pentaglot
Senior Member
France
Joined 7028 days ago

441 posts - 504 votes 
1 sounds
Speaks: French*, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: German, Arabic (Written), Turkish, Mandarin

 
 Message 24 of 25
11 March 2008 at 9:13pm | IP Logged 
wetnose wrote:
$50 each? I'm elated!


Ah? 8 euros ? Cheap !


1 person has voted this message useful



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