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Assimil French Courses for Fluency | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| vikramkr Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5849 days ago 248 posts - 326 votes  Speaks: English*, Portuguese | Message 1 of 8 01 March 2010 at 3:25am | IP Logged | ||
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I am currently using Assimil's New French with Ease course. Upon completing it, I plan on completing Assimil's
Using French course. Presumably at this point, I will be fluent in French, so my question is this: would it be worthwhile to complete the Business French course afterwards, as well? Edited by vikramkr on 01 March 2010 at 3:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5457 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 2 of 8 01 March 2010 at 3:33am | IP Logged | ||
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If you've reached complete fluency, then no. If you're already fluent, you're time will
be better spent reviewing French business related literature. However, if you're unable to make sense of native business related literature, Assimil's Business French course would be a good idea. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5449 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 3 of 8 01 March 2010 at 8:57am | IP Logged | ||
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Ouch! You asked a thorny question, because "fluency" is a loose term. There have been many thread on here trying to pin it down, and in the end there is little consensus and people tend to agree to disagree,
Turning to the Assimil books: I studied both the French With Ease and Using French courses pretty intensively a few years back when I was living in Luxembourg. As a result, I was able to handle simple situations. Since I needed to sit in on business meetings I also bought and studied Assimil Business French, and it covered a lot of material in neither of the two other books. Still, having finished all three Assimil books my French was only at "survival level". That is, I could certainly get by, but it was still only the beginning. After another two years in Luxembourg, talking every day in French, watching TV, reading papers, and so on, my French was substantially better. I suppose it was close to fluent by then (in that I could talk about most things one way or another) but there still remained a massive amount to learn. In summary, the Assimil courses are a springboard that will take you to a basic level of fluency so that you can "get by". You will need an immense amount of continual study and immersion to build on that basic survival level. The Business French book you mention may be a useful "next step", with many more steps still ahead of you. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| microsnout TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Canada microsnout.wordpress Joined 5251 days ago 277 posts - 553 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 4 of 8 01 March 2010 at 5:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would have to agree with Splog here. After those first two courses you will likely still be far from fluent by most
peoples definition. Rather than doing a third Assimil, I think it would be best to dive into materials for native French speakers like books, movies, and above all interacting with native speakers.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vikramkr Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5849 days ago 248 posts - 326 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese | Message 5 of 8 01 March 2010 at 9:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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When I said mentioned that I would be fluent after the two courses, I was assuming basic fluency (as opposed to
advanced fluency). Is this a reasonable conclusion? Indeed, I have seen varied opinions on both Assimil and fluency in this forum; some views back my conclusion and others don't. I suppose Business French would be a good idea. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6226 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 6 of 8 01 March 2010 at 9:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've used French with Ease and Using French, and I think the biggest problem you'll face when you're done with them is a relatively small vocabulary. Not to say the courses don't teach a lot of words; they do. But when you're done, you'll still have a vocabulary of three or four thousand words (just my estimate after using them, I've not done a word count). That's a good base, but you'll still be reaching for all sorts of basic words that the courses just don't teach.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kerateo Triglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5426 days ago 112 posts - 180 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English, French Studies: Italian | Message 7 of 8 01 March 2010 at 9:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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you should try french without toil between new french with ease and using french, just a thought.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| reltuk Groupie United States Joined 6596 days ago 75 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 8 of 8 01 March 2010 at 9:59pm | IP Logged | ||
There's a lot of debate about words like fluency on these forums. Sometimes they do more to hinder the conversation than they do to help it along. The purpose of almost any beginner language course should get you to the point where you're consuming native language materials. For a language like French there are a very large amount of native materials available in most parts of the world and language exchange partners are relatively easy to find. So, depending on your expected uses of the language, French with Ease and Using French should be plenty good to get you into the fruitful language exchange/watching tv/listening to radio/reading newspapers and novels stage. If you actually want to do business in France then its possible that the Business French would have relevant cultural and linguistic usage information which you would find helpful even after completing Using French. But it's not going to help with fluency as much as just using the language as much as possible with native materials will. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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