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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6949 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 1 of 18 18 March 2006 at 9:05am | IP Logged | ||
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I noticed there is an updated Italian course offered by Assimil, called simply "L'Italien". Unlike their new Spanish course "L'Espagnol", which has the same author as "Spanish with Ease", the new Italian course has a new author. They also emphasize that "L'Italien" is "entièrement réactualisée" in bold letters on the corresponding web page.
I had an impression that some participants in this forum, administrator included, had mixed feelings about "L'Italien sans peine". If anyone has tried the new version, and especially if anyone had a chance to compare the old and the new, I would appreciate knowing how deficient the old course was (if at all), and how much of an improvement the new version is - I am trying to decide whether to buy "Italian with Ease" or bite the bullet on the new one with the textbook so far only available in French. Edited by frenkeld on 18 March 2006 at 10:44am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7152 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 18 18 March 2006 at 5:49pm | IP Logged | ||
I have L'Italien sans peine and I haven't found any deficiencies. I am quite pleased with it. I can't compare it with the new Italian courses as I haven't seen them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6949 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 3 of 18 20 March 2006 at 1:00am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the info.
While I can't help still being curious about the changes in the new edition, it sounds like the old one would work. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6949 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 4 of 18 16 May 2006 at 11:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've used Assimil Italian for about a month now, and am on lesson 59. I very much like its good coverage of conversational Italian - even if I didn't want the recordings, the book might have been worth it anyway because of this.
However, the slow speech is starting to get on my nerves. Were it not for this shortcoming, I feel Assimil Italian could've been almost a one-stop solution at least for those who know another Romance language, but with this slow recording speed I am no longer so sure. It won't kill me, since I've been trying to listen to RAI podcasts and watch Italian movies as well, but it does take away a good deal from the course in my view. Perhaps this slow speed does make sense for those who don't know another Romance language, but the course was developed with French speakers in mind, so I am not sure what the reationale behind the slow speech really is. I can't but wonder what the speed is in the new, so far untranslated, version of the course. What are people's experiences with slow speech in Assimil courses for other languages? Does it help learning, so it should be accepted stoically? Does it detract from it? Edited by frenkeld on 16 May 2006 at 11:47pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7152 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 5 of 18 16 May 2006 at 11:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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The speech is quite normal on Assimil Italian Without Toil once you get through the first week of lessons. Because you couldn't fit so much audio on records they were recorded at quite a good pace, then they slowed down to record them on cassettes and included all of the exercises (all with the Without Toil series) and now they seem to have slowed it all down on the Language With Ease series.
That is unfortunate. Audacity Clean Speech can automatically remove gaps in the speech where you are supposed to repeat what is said. I don't know if you can speed up the speech without the recording sounding like the chipmonks. There must be a program somewhere. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6949 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 6 of 18 17 May 2006 at 12:59am | IP Logged | ||
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fanatic,
I've just tried the 1.3 beta version of Audacity, which incorporates Clean Speech. I found that the "Effect" menu has "Change Pitch", "Change Speed", and "Change Tempo" choices. "Change Speed" changes both pitch and tempo, but it is just the pitch change which makes "chipmunk" voices. However, "Change Tempo" just changes speed withouth changing the pitch of the voice, so the voices sound as before, just faster! First I did "Project"->"Stereo to Mono". After that, knocking out the gaps with "Truncate Silence" (I had to up the threshold level a bit to make the speech continous) and then applying "Change Tempo" did the trick. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. If anyone has tips on how to do batch processing with Audacity, I'd be most grateful. Edited by frenkeld on 17 May 2006 at 12:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| braveb Senior Member United States languageprograms.blo Joined 7203 days ago 264 posts - 263 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 7 of 18 17 May 2006 at 9:35am | IP Logged | ||
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I wonder why Linguaphone never had this problem with slow speech.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6949 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 8 of 18 17 May 2006 at 11:54am | IP Logged | ||
I've never seen a Linguaphone course, so I can't compare. It might make pedagogical sense to slow things down a bit - my trying to learn Italian after Spanish is clearly not a very "clean" experiement. I received "Le Hindi sans Peine" a couple of days ago, so I'll soon know if slow speech is an issue for a language one starts from scratch. I've experimented some more with Audacity 1.3beta, and it seems to offer reasonable amount of control to generate recordings at the right level of challenge. One has to take the time to play with two independent parameters, the minimum length of the pauses one leaves when knocking out the silent periods, and the tempo of the recording, including the possiblity of chaning just one or the other. (Also remember that if you shorten the intervals first, and then change tempo, they will get further reduced in duration.) For the exercises, which are slower yet than the dialogs, it may make sense to perform separate adjustments. This is also possible, since one can apply the operations to a selection, not just to the whole track. Edited by frenkeld on 19 May 2006 at 2:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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