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Assimil a load of rubbish?? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Kleberson Diglot Senior Member Great Britain Joined 6227 days ago 166 posts - 168 votes  Speaks: English*, Portuguese Studies: Italian, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 25 of 92 08 April 2009 at 4:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yes, I tried the Assimil way getting upto lesson 57. Then I decided, after having such poor results, to drill the entire course using an SRS.
I actually feel bad now for saying the course is a load of rubbish, I think I'm just frustrated. Maybe it is my method that is to blame. My argument is that if after having drilled the course to the point where I can seriously get nearly all of the individual sentences correct, how can people that put less effort than this say it has made them next to fluent? Regards 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jimmymac Senior Member United Kingdom strange-lands.com/le Joined 5962 days ago 276 posts - 362 votes Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, French | Message 26 of 92 08 April 2009 at 4:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
Maybe it is the way in which you use the information. I believe that some people may memorize sentence after sentence without thinking a great deal about the language and how it can be manipulated; they end up being able to repeat exactly what they have learnt rote but are not as intuitive or flexible with the language as someone who has thought a great deal about it or is an experienced learning. Edited by Jimmymac on 08 April 2009 at 4:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fredmf Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6272 days ago 43 posts - 51 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish | Message 27 of 92 08 April 2009 at 5:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
I agree -- well, I'd temper it by saying that I found this to be true for me. I came to this conclusion after using both of Assimil's French courses quite a bit. In my experience, it fostered a certain amount of passive learning that didn't seem to translate directly to activation (I feel that the "active phase" is the weakest part of the course). Furthermore, I didn't find "shadowing" very useful as a means of activating the language, either. It wasn't until I started to use active techniques that forced me to come up with language on my own that I (a) discovered what words I needed, (b) what constructions, tenses, etc., were giving me trouble, and (c) how to really make the language sink into my subconscious, and thereby helped my comprehension of spoken/written French. So while I wouldn't toss off the course as rubbish, I would say that for me, it had both its uses and its limitations. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Juan M. Senior Member Colombia Joined 5708 days ago 460 posts - 597 votes | Message 28 of 92 08 April 2009 at 6:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
One cannot really be "wrong" about these things, as there is more than a single approach to learning languages. Besides, that one needs to work through several distinct resources, manuals and methods, to at some point take a careful look at grammar, and finally to immerse yourself in the target language's letters and sounds is perfectly sensible and profitable advice, and one is bound to do better by following it than by doing the opposite. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Juan M. Senior Member Colombia Joined 5708 days ago 460 posts - 597 votes | Message 29 of 92 08 April 2009 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
I don't mean to become enmeshed in this polemic, but I find the above statement to be untenable. No doubt you may have mastered the basic forms and elementary vocabulary of a language from an Assimil course, but any meaningful interpretation of the word 'fluency' would lie hopelessly beyond the reach of any 500 page manual. Assimil is just a good first step. Much, much more work will be required before one can claim to be 'fluent' in a language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6484 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English | Message 30 of 92 08 April 2009 at 8:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
Maybe they are gifted people or maybe they are lying. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6484 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English | Message 31 of 92 08 April 2009 at 8:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
I have used the two Assimil courses to learn English (Inglés sin esfuerzo e Inglés sin perfeccionamiento). I listened both courses around 100 times and I introduced almost 1,000 Assimil sentences into my SRS. I know what I am talking about. Assimil is just a good first step. Much, much more work will be required before one can claim to be 'fluent' in a language. I agree. Assimil is only other method. We need much more than Assimil to get "fluency". We need lot of real, native audio and a lot of production is unavoidable as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6718 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 32 of 92 08 April 2009 at 8:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well, if you use Assimil as your only/primary method whilst being immersed in the country for a while (as I believe fanatic did/was) it may be difficult to say which of the two factors played the main part. From my own experience, Assimil has proven to provide the best content: entertaining, stimulating, interesting and what not. Use it as a phrase book and you will get nowhere. Use it in every way you can, and you will learn a lot. Everybody have their own definitions of the word "fluency", and while mine (and others) is something like about being able to "get by in everyday situations without too much difficulty", yours obviously isn't. Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 08 April 2009 at 8:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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