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Best Program to Learn Catalan? | ||
Tags: Catalan | Language Program | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5456 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 9 of 16 21 February 2010 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Cainntear is probably right about Assimil.
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| dagreatone2009 Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5398 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Esperanto, Catalan | Message 10 of 16 21 February 2010 at 9:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hmmm I will consider that as well Cainntear, thanks a ton for the information, you guys
are extremely helpful. I really appreciate it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| davidwelsh Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5532 days ago 141 posts - 307 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, Norwegian, Esperanto, Swedish, Danish, French Studies: Polish, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Mandarin | Message 11 of 16 11 March 2010 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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There's a thread about resources for Catalan here.
I've used the website parla.cat, which I'd definitely recommend. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| zorglub Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 7003 days ago 441 posts - 504 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (Written), Turkish, Mandarin | Message 12 of 16 12 March 2010 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think if you are to study in Barcelona, you'd better determine first wether your lectures and courses will be in Catalan or Castillan. I heard many or most courses are in Catalan. Las time I was there in 2008, i chatted with a man who told me they were realising using Catalan in their university was a problem. Their graduates had difficulties since they had been using a technical language used only in Catalunya (how the heck do you spell it in English? )
So maybe they will consider teaching in Spanish ? If Catalan is not mandatory for your courses, my advice is : learn Spanish. You'll kill 10 birds with one stone. You could even return to the USA speaking the new national language. All Catalans or close speak Spanish, and while they are proud and may stick to Catalan when talking to non-Catalan Spanyards (I know I'm writing something blasphematous here) they are of course very friendly to foreigners speaking Spanish, in my experience. Only when you're done with Spanish should you consider Catalan. But not with a Spanish to Catalan course IMHO. They are 2 quite close languages and this may confuse you. The two Assimil Catalan courses probably share the same audio track. I don't know wether it is Catalan as spoken in Spain (blasphematous) or that spoken in France which sounds a bit different to me. Hopefully this is the southern dialect the one that really is spoken. So if as a good American, you are bilingual (chuckles) in Fre,nch and English Assimil Le catalan is what you need. But if your courses will be in Catalan, Catalan is your priority. As other members stated above, Assimil Spanish to Catalan or Frecnh to Catalan will be a waste of time if you're not already good at speaking those languages. By the way , my daughter studied 6 months in Madrid and did well, her Spanish level was already excellent.But she knew 2 English speaking students who had difficulties in their studies because of their poor Spanish. Don't imagine you learn just by immersion. You 've got many a fish to fry when you're there. Immersion works great when you have an initial high level, it's much longuer otherwise, and your studies will require time. One more word: I've written this in an assertive style, but I should have been more humble, these are opinions, not certainties Good luck ! Why not Madrid ? Edited for incorrect English. Edited by zorglub on 12 March 2010 at 11:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5456 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 13 of 16 13 March 2010 at 12:06am | IP Logged | |||||
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Spanish is indeed useful, both in Barcelona and in the rest of Catalonia. While many Catalans do prefer to speak
in Catalan, they generally don't expect foreigners to speak it. Even those who hate Spain and everything Spanish seem tolerant towards foreigners who speak Castilian only. There are also many "immigrants" in Barcelona from other parts of Spain. Most of them don't speak Catalan. I would advice you to learn at least Spanish to a decent level. If your lectures are in Catalan, then you must also learn Catalan. Even if your lectures are not in Catalan, knowing a little Catalan is not a bad idea. Not understanding Catalan is a handicap in Catalonia; especially in rural areas. I'm not so sure that the two Assimil courses share the same audio. The Spanish one has been around since the seventies. The French one is quite new, I think. The Spanish has 70 lessons, the French 100. Both are based on Central Catalan, i.e. the Catalan of Barcelona. If anybody here has compared the two Assimil Catalan courses, I would like to know how similar or different they are. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kerateo Triglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5649 days ago 112 posts - 180 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English, French Studies: Italian | Message 14 of 16 13 March 2010 at 12:55am | IP Logged | |||||
the french and the Spanish versions have the same authors, I think the french version is just the Spanish with steroids, but I'd also would like to hear from someone who has seen them. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| zorglub Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 7003 days ago 441 posts - 504 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (Written), Turkish, Mandarin | Message 15 of 16 13 March 2010 at 1:18am | IP Logged | |||||
Well I'd say that if one has 70 and the other 100 lessons the audio track is likely different. I could not find any sample anywhere. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Breogan Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie Spain Joined 5919 days ago 42 posts - 48 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Galician*, French, English Studies: German, Russian, Arabic (classical) | Message 16 of 16 13 March 2010 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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"Le catalan sans peine" / "El catalán sin esfuerzo" is the previous version and has 77 audio lessons. It's still the only one available for Spanish speakers, and yes, it's from the 70's. Along with the Serbo-croatian was the only 70's version still being published. (I bought this method, printed in 2007, but it's the 1972 version) :)
"Le catalan" has been recently released (a couple of years), just for French speakers until the present time. It has 100 lessons as you can see on their web. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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