eccodandini Newbie United States Joined 5526 days ago 21 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 1 of 11 14 July 2010 at 7:02am | IP Logged |
Hi everyone, I'd like to start learning Dutch and I've narrowed my options down to either the Assimil or the Linguaphone course. I've had two successes with Assimil and one not-so-success. It seems like there are a few duds among the generally good line, so I'm wondering if anyone who has used Assimil for Dutch can tell me if they found it to be a good program, and if they have used Linguaphone as well, if they would suggest it over the Assimil. Thanks much!
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fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7174 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 2 of 11 14 July 2010 at 7:56am | IP Logged |
I recommend the Assimil Dutch program. I have it and I like it. It is a lot cheaper than Linguaphone and I think it is easier to use. They are the two courses I would recommend for learning the language. I have a copy of the old Dutch Linguaphone but I haven't used it.
I had already learnt some Dutch on my own before beginning Assimil. I found it definitely got me used to sentence construction and using the language in the passive stage because I used to mix it with German. Assimil really helped there.
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Chris Heptaglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7149 days ago 287 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian
| Message 3 of 11 14 July 2010 at 8:20am | IP Logged |
What about Colloquial Dutch?
Out of interest there are two Linguaphone Dutch courses, the old style, and a newer one.
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Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5593 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 4 of 11 14 July 2010 at 1:57pm | IP Logged |
Both - If you can get the Linguaphone from a library or second hand, that is. The Assimil Dutch is one of Assimil's better courses but I would personally start with something a bit more forgiving like Colloquial. I did the Michel Thomas Method courses first and found them very useful alongside Colloquial as a starter course.
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vonbladet Newbie Netherlands Joined 5444 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 5 of 11 15 July 2010 at 8:33am | IP Logged |
I used Assimil Dutch (the French edition) when I started learning Dutch, and it was great.
I haven't used Linguaphone, or Colloquial or any other self-study books; the rest of the time I had Dutch textbooks as part of classes.
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flydream777 Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6519 days ago 77 posts - 102 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: German, Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Greek, Hungarian, Armenian, Irish, Italian
| Message 6 of 11 16 July 2010 at 3:30am | IP Logged |
Just curious, what was your "dud" Assimil course? I'm kind of overall disappointed with the new "Le Russe" but I'm not sure if I'd say dud. What was yours?
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Chris Heptaglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7149 days ago 287 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian
| Message 7 of 11 16 July 2010 at 12:13pm | IP Logged |
Don't underestimate 'Colloquial Dutch', or treat it as a 'starter course' as such. The recorded conversations make no concessions to the learner the way other courses do - they reflect the way Dutch people talk. I would imagine a complete beginner at language-learning would find it rather hard-going.
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eccodandini Newbie United States Joined 5526 days ago 21 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 8 of 11 16 July 2010 at 2:33pm | IP Logged |
flydream777 wrote:
Just curious, what was your "dud" Assimil course? I'm kind of overall disappointed with the new "Le Russe" but I'm not sure if I'd say dud. What was yours? |
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Arabic.
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