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New German Assimil Book | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4715 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 17 of 25 19 November 2014 at 4:54am | IP Logged | |||||
Would you mind taking a picture or scanning the table of contents to share? I have the audio already and am awaiting the book's arrival. The audio tracks all say "L'Allemand 001" with the CD #. I'd like to edit them all to have the German title for each lesson before the book arrives and I start using it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arnaud25 Diglot Senior Member France Joined 3846 days ago 129 posts - 235 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Russian | Message 18 of 25 19 November 2014 at 5:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
I sent a pm Edited by Arnaud25 on 19 November 2014 at 5:56pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4715 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 19 of 25 20 November 2014 at 12:08am | IP Logged | |||||
Received. Thank you very much for your assistance! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5569 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 20 of 25 20 November 2014 at 11:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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I received my copy of the English version from Assimil today. I have already done the
French version, and, as I stated elsewhere, I think it is an excellent course. In fact, I prefer to all other Assimil German courses. It follows the modern Assimil policy of covering CEFR topics and starting off more gently than earlier versions. As a result, it does not cover the same amount of material as German Without Toil. It probably covers the same as German With Ease, although the language is much fresher. Here is a short summary of my initial thoughts of the English translation - but bear in mind I only received this an hour ago. The lessons are exactly the same as the French 2004 version. This is clearly necessary to match the recordings. The notes faithfully follow the French base, but not slavishly. The translator has added additional notes where the English requires it - normally to explain an idiomatic or grammatical construction that French readers wouldn't have trouble with. So, for example, the French version of Lesson 47 has 8 notes, while the English version has 9 notes. The additional note is an explanation of the reflexive verb sich gedulden and how it is placed in German word order. In addition, the translator has re-written notes to better fit English grammatical explanations - e.g. the German genitive case is explained by its parallel with the Anglo-Saxon "'s", rather than by attempting to slavishly translate the French explanation. The French version has 693 pages, the English 702 pages, the lessons in the French version take up 581 pages and in the English 564 pages. As there are more notes in the English translation, the fewer pages seem to be because the English translation (or perhaps language?) is more concise than the French. On a random count, the English notes are generally a line shorter than the French. However, nothing is missing from the English notes compared to the French version. In addition the grammatical summary at the back of the English version has been type- set so that it is more pleasant to look at - the result is that the tables are bigger and take up more room. The translation has been done by Dr Kerstin Pfeiffer, who is lecturer in German at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh. While I have not read in depth to see if there are any mistakes, I was struck by the fluency of the translation compared to the rather clumsy translations provided in the English version of German With Ease/Deutsch ohne Mühe heute. The translation follows the newer French Assimil practice of rendering idiomatic constructions literally by placing them in brackets in the parallel English text - e.g. 'Wir müssen jetzt aussteigen und zu Fuß weitergehen' is rendered as 'We have to get off now and continue on foot (on foot further-go)'. So all in all, my initial view is that the translation of the 2004 L'Allemand is a success. I think I will do the course again, just for fun! Edited by Elexi on 20 November 2014 at 11:37pm 8 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4715 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 21 of 25 20 November 2014 at 11:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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First estimated day of delivery for my book is tomorrow.....you have me excited hoping it
arrives! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3911 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 22 of 25 08 December 2014 at 1:52am | IP Logged | |||||
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Does anyone know if I get it New from Amazon if it comes with the CDs? I figure it should, but it doesn't say anything about the CDs being included
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 4056 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 23 of 25 08 December 2014 at 4:27am | IP Logged | |||||
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soclydeza85,
In my experience, Amazon is not always clear as to whether or not a language course includes the audio recordings. At times, the difference pricing might be an indicator. For the ASSIMIL courses, one can expect to pay 100+ $US for a package that includes the book and the recordilngs, whereas the book is often sold at less than half this amount. Having said all of that, in this particular case, when I searched Amazon.com for "Assimil German", I recovered the following page Amazon.com Assimil German Listings which puts a lie to everything that I just wrote. Nevertheless, when in doubt, I request clarification by Email ... same goes for the independent booksellers that offer their wares through Amazon, EBay, Alibris, et al. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4086 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 24 of 25 08 December 2014 at 5:07am | IP Logged | |||||
ISBNs. Check must you. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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