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Minimum amount of time using Assimil? | ||
Tags: Time to learn | Assimil | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| yuriFromRoma Groupie Italy Joined 4713 days ago 48 posts - 69 votes  Speaks: Italian* Studies: English, Russian | Message 17 of 21 08 April 2012 at 1:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Actually, it helps A LOT. Thanks for this insightful post!! I agree with you 100%. :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Betjeman Groupie Germany Joined 6143 days ago 85 posts - 204 votes Speaks: German* | Message 18 of 21 18 April 2012 at 7:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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I firmly believe that language learning is about long term motivation, not record time cramming, and I
sometimes wonder how many of the ambitious would-be polyglots on this site give up prematurely after only a few months of drudgery. I know the temptation though, and I admit all the more readily that each of my attempts to get to level X in Y weeks ended in a fiasco. Remember, it takes a child about five years in a target language environment, so to speak, to internalize basic grammar, a few thousand words of vocabulary and the most important concepts of conversation in its mother tongue. If you manage to achieve the same results within a year, this is a major improvement. To my knowledge, even FSI courses don't claim to teach more than partial fluency within six to twelve months of very intensive study. As for Assimil, the amount of time you have to spend on a single lesson greatly varies between courses. When I began to study 'Schwedisch ohne Muehe' a few years ago, I had literally zero proficiency in Swedish. Since the course offers rather long and rich conversations and a steep learning curve, it often took me two to three, sometimes four days of study (1-2 hours each) to get to the point where I felt I was ready to go on. I was very happy with the results though. Other Assimil courses, especially newer ones, seem to be more beginner-friendly, although not as comprehensive. If you have no other pressing obligations (such as an occupation), you might consider to tackle 2-3 lessons a day during the first wave. But be warned that any rash progress will result in half- digested input which will cause you trouble later on. It's not a race, it's a journey. Take your time and enjoy it! But then again, perhaps I'm just less gifted than you are. 15 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Enrico Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 3745 days ago 162 posts - 207 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Italian, Spanish, French | Message 19 of 21 27 August 2014 at 6:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have mentioned this quote in another thread about how many Assimil lessons should one do per day.
The quote from Spanish Without Toil: "If you are in a hurry, learn two lessons a day, by studying half an hour morning and evening, and in addition reading over during your spare time." 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Goindol Senior Member United States Joined 6074 days ago 165 posts - 203 votes | Message 20 of 21 06 February 2015 at 9:57pm | IP Logged | ||
This has certainly been true for me. I raced through Assimil's Using French in about 10 days and Business French in 7. I probably covered 7-8 lessons a day. While I was able to achieve near-perfect mastery of the material in terms of aural comprehension and the ability to translate the sentences both ways, much of the material also evaporated over the next year. It's good to know that I can pick up a language in a hurry if I need to, but that's hardly an ideal way to learn. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6582 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 21 of 21 07 February 2015 at 9:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Hey, thread revival! This suits me, since I've been doing 7 lessons of Assimil German a day for the past week (meaning I'll start at lesson 50 today). But my Assimil routine isn't the one recommended by the company.
I listen through the audio while reading the translation. Then I listen again while reading the German. Then I read through the German, compare with the translations, and read the explanatory notes. Then I shadow the lesson a few times. If it's a bit tricky, I might first shadow whilst reading the German, then I shadow on my own, walking around in my apartment and "acting out" the dialogs (waving your hands is important!). I don't do the exercises, except for listening to the tape and reading the translation of the first exercise, just like I do with the dialog. I don't do the active wave. I think it's far, far too early to start actively producing language. I can't even watch a movie yet! I don't stop studying the lessons. Once a lesson is finished, I put it in my "studied" playlist. During the day, I'll listen to the playlist on the bus, while doing the dishes, while taking a walk, before falling asleep, etc. I also often shadow a few lessons randomly from the playlist. I think it's a waste of a good lesson to just listen to it once. A lesson is where I want it to be when I can chorus it rather than just shadow it, i.e. I can say the lines as they are said, because I know exactly what's coming. By the time I'm finished with the course I'll often have played most lessons 50 or more times. Oh, except the first six lessons. You know, the one's with the slow audio. A while into the course I'll delete them from my "studied" playlist. With Portuguese, I also added all new words to my SRS deck, but I've stopped doing this in favor of a more "holistic" approach. I fell I'm getting closer and closer to Prof. Arguelles' study methods as I learn more languages. This is probably not a coincidence. Finally, I can keep this pace with German because it's a language closely related to my native one (Swedish), and also related to another one I know well (English). I could never keep this pace up with Czech. It takes me a lot more time to get comfortable with the Czech lessons, and that language needs more time to "mature" in my head. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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