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Digital assimil | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5009 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes  Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 1 of 12 29 January 2014 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Luk's thread made me look at the assimil website after a longer while and I found something potentially awesome. Digital versions of some assimils. I read through the related blog posts and user reviews and watched the 7 minutes long video. I don't think anyone has posted info about this on htlal before, so here it is (sorry if I missed a thread and spam with a new one). Sorry about not including links, I already closed the tables but it isn't hard to find the sources on the assimil website and blog, eventually on youtube directly.
These appear to be the pros and cons: +6 most important French based assimil sans peine courses in digital form (anglais, espagnol, italien, allemand, russe and one I can't remember now but they are 6) + some of the advanced ones as well +whole courses included, no dumbed down versions we are used to when it comes to digitalized courses. the same structure, content and exercises +well thought out lay out and use of the digital tools. easy audio use, you can record yourself and compare, you can fill out the blanks right away or write in the translation. +user friendly. good looking without the design being at the expense of functionality. +available both for windows and mac users +the price is lower (45 euros if I remember correctly) and you pay no outrageous delivery fees on the top of that. actually the main reason why I'd consider buying such a product. -as usual, the honest buyers are being crippled by stupid anti-piracy stuff and therefore at a disadvantage in comparison with users of the pirated versions (which will appear on the internet. the question is when, not if) -you can only use the assimil for a limited amount of time which is not yet specified. three years from the day assimil stops supporting and updating the product. so, you have at least three years. but you can't buy assimil for a language you plan to learn in five years or to review years later -you cannot resell the product -the rules about how many computers can it be on are a bit unclear, so assimil had to enlighten the users in the comments. it appears you can have your assimil installed at more computers but you can only have one activated at a time. i'd need to read the longs posts again (and not in the middle of the night) to be sure but i think they didn't mean it as "you can be logged on at one at a time" but something like "you need to desactivate somehow one to activate another" so good bye mobility for people who use several computers at various places and not a laptop. -the rules mentioned in the point above make it quite complicated (and by the copyright washed brains probably illegal) for several members of the family to use the same copy of Assimil. Imagine you'd need to buy a separate paper copy for each member of the family interested, isn't it weird? My conclusion: The product itself appears to be exactly what such a thing should be like! Functional, user friendly with full value of the content. And without delivery fees and the need to wait for your copy to arrive on the top of that, which is awesome. However, I don't want to support a publisher who penalizes and criminalizes the honest paying customers. They claim to be still working on usability and the rules (at least their wording so that normal users could understand the licence) but they have clearly decided to join the mass of companies so paranoid of the copies to use all the copyright machinery to drive away the people who actually want to pay. If they at least facilitate the use on several machines or even by several family members (I think my small sister may be an assimil fan in just a year or two actually), I'll be happy to buy a legal copy. Depends on your values. If your primary concern is just the product itself and not the rules, which is a valid point of view of course, it is surely a product worth considering. Edited by Cavesa on 29 January 2014 at 3:52pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5865 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 2 of 12 29 January 2014 at 9:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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It does sound really cool. Unfortunately it seems like a pirated version would be much more convenient than a purchased version: portable, usable by more than one person, no need to deactivate, etc.
EDIT: I just wanted to add that it's also not their first experience in "anti-piracy". Ironically, had they gone on their anti-piracy rampage earlier i probably would have never heard of or purchased an Assimil course. It really is a shame, since the courses do seem well-made. But i don't much care to pay to be prevented from using a course. I wonder what cool things they could've developed while they were working on the anti-piracy protection? Edited by Crush on 29 January 2014 at 9:38pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5009 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 3 of 12 29 January 2014 at 9:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, if I hadn't downloaded a pirated Assimil, I would never even consider buying it. This way, I am just waiting till I find a good offer (at least reasonable delivery fees). I don't need any right now but I'd like to get a few, especially for the languages with less resources.
We may see the day this whole industry adopts the views of authors like Gaiman and people making gog.com. However, the colaps of our civilization may come earlier, that's true. However, it is a huge step forward in the quality of the material. Most attempts I've seen so far followed the logic "let's make it shiny so we make a lot of money and let's not spend much thought on it because the customer is stupid and can go to hell". So far, I've seen dumbed down products not making much sense and not having much value that got just the good name of the publisher, made on real, paper and cd based, courses. I've seen toys adorned with big words like "interactive" or "immersive" while being basically just a bad srs with pictures. I've seen pitoyable attempts to sell scan of the textbook and workbook (without any option to write in or easily turn the related audio on) as something revolutionary and worth full price of the paper book (without the option to resell or share of course). There have been some great digital products and tools as well but those are usually based on something different then a full course and are good or even awesome at one or two things. They make fine supplements but not the base or central structure. Assimil is first of its kind, I think. Edited by Cavesa on 29 January 2014 at 9:58pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 4 of 12 30 January 2014 at 1:50am | IP Logged | ||
I've downloaded the German-based Norwegian course (and I'm still looking for Swedish ;S). For me the main downside was that it doesn't seem to support the passive wave: when I want to go to the next lesson, it always reminds me that I haven't done the exercises yet. Or am I supposed to do the fill-in-the-blanks ones but not translation? Anyway, there's no way to switch off the annoying reminder/to do no exercises at all during the passive wave.
Edited by Serpent on 30 January 2014 at 1:52am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4909 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 5 of 12 30 January 2014 at 8:15am | IP Logged | ||
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Serpent: In my understanding, the exercises are part of the passive wave.
Cavesa, I assume you mean the e-Method courses? I have been wishing for a while that they would just release the text in ebook formats. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4521 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 6 of 12 30 January 2014 at 10:32am | IP Logged | ||
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+available both for windows and mac users
Why is this a plus? Previously I've seen browser-based editions available through a subscription --> those where available everywhere and on every device with a browser, you just had to log in. Making it available for only 2 operating systems is a huge step back, especially in the days of special operating systems for tablets, smartphones, TVs, etc. By the way, is the online version still available? I can't find it... 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5009 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 7 of 12 30 January 2014 at 12:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, I mean the e-method. ebooks would have been awesome as well, even more for some of us in this case, but I just probably totally gave up on the hope of them being an official, legal alternative so I totally forgot about them.
Serpent, I always considered the exercises to be part of the passive wave. The active one is based on the translation from L1 to L2 so I don't think the exercises should be skipped. However, if the program doesn't let you choose for yourself to skip them, that is a huge minus in my opinion. Daegga, I understand your point of view but I don't entirely share it. I suppose I am not the only one who spends holidays far from internet a few times a year and should I just give up on using the core resource? And I am not a fan of the monthly subscriptions. I may be old fashioned but I find them to be an unfair trick and a way to take a lot of customers' rights from them by turning products into services. Even the option chosen by assimil for their learning method has a catch I mentioned-you can't use it till the end of your life. Yes, you could say "only two OS". And I wish there would be a version for Linux (or rather a lot more things you could run on Linux so that I could consider it as my next OS as I really don't want Windows 8 on my laptop in future) and a mobile one. However, it is possible that the applications for alternative devices, such as tablets and smartphones, are on the way. Assimil would be stupid not to (at least) consider them. Why I put 2 OS as a plus then: it's good it is not windows tied only, it's good the mac users aren't left out and it is a good sign more OS, including ios and android, could be coming in future. Jeffers, I'd really like the ebook formats. However, I guess that is even less likely to happen than Assimil releasing one or two for free or reprinting the old editions or me getting superpowers. Firstly, Assimil surely wants to keep selling the paper books so they won't make their own competition. And I guess they are paranoid their legal ebooks would just get shared, which may be likely if they adopted the same anti-paying-customer approach as with the e-methode. Edited by Cavesa on 30 January 2014 at 12:55pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 12 30 January 2014 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, it does let you skip the exercises. It just nags you every single time and basically any custom modifications of the method can be difficult to implement. I've just checked again and you can't look at the translation exercises during the passive wave either, even if you want to do them. It's also full-screen only and you can't do stuff in a different window while keeping it open. Oh and during your first listen you see only L2 text and you can't see the translation.
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