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Assimil

 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
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jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6696 days ago

4250 posts - 5710 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 113 of 278
11 May 2008 at 10:14am | IP Logged 
fictitous wrote:
What about the active wave? I'm concerned about having to translate from English to the target language. I'd be curious to hear your success stories.


I have found the first lessons to be easier to translate back into the target language (almost word-for-word) while the later have been more difficult. Perhaps I should have worked a little harder. However, Assimil is one of those courses/methods I could really go through a few times for pure enjoyment (the content is good and funny).

dancc wrote:
Does anyone know why the "using French" and "using Spanish" cost 3 times more than the "with ease" books + cds?


No idea, here in Sweden you can get them for roughly the same price (~€35 las time I checked).

Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 11 May 2008 at 10:15am

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ficticius
Pro Member
United States
Joined 5894 days ago

23 posts - 24 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: German
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 Message 114 of 278
12 May 2008 at 1:17pm | IP Logged 
Thanks everyone. My plan is to get to lesson 50 and start the active wave and hope for the best.

I guess I should allow myself more time during the active phase.

I'd love to hear more personal experiences with Assimil and German with Ease, especially from someone who struggled through the active phase and made it to the end. Can you now speak your target language?
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jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6696 days ago

4250 posts - 5710 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 115 of 278
12 May 2008 at 3:48pm | IP Logged 
It is more difficult to get the longer sentences 100% right, and sometimes the shorter ones fool you - it can be other but perfectly valid options such as "mein Name ist..." instead of "ich heiße...".

As for your question, yes, I can speak German but not at the level I think I would have been at, had I studied harder/focused on German only/et.c. But I have spoken German in Germany with people who barely spoke (let alone understood) a word of English, and managed to get by.

Fanatic, on the other hand, got to a more satisfying level with Assimil (although fully immersed in Germany, and for a longer period than my occasional weekends).

Ficticius, keep us posted about your breakthroughs, milestones et.c.!
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Baryon
Newbie
United Kingdom
corfizz.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5828 days ago

16 posts - 16 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 116 of 278
15 May 2008 at 4:46pm | IP Logged 
Assimil claims to have courses available in 65 languages. However, its website, which seems to be down at the
moment - perhaps this is why - only allows me to select a small number of the most popular languages from its
catalogue. I am also unable to find anywhere to buy courses for most languages from UK sites. I don't know exactly
what language I want yet, but I can't even find Norwegian or Swedish, let alone Tamil or Vietnamese. Where is the
best place to get them from, then? And I apologise if I have missed something very obvious.
1 person has voted this message useful





jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6696 days ago

4250 posts - 5710 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 117 of 278
15 May 2008 at 4:57pm | IP Logged 
Here is what they offer in French (based on "...sans peine"):

Alsatian, Arabic, Armenian, Breton, Bulgarian, Chinese, Corsican, Creole, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Farsi, Finnish, German, Greek (Ancient), Greek (Modern), Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Norwegian, Occitan, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croat, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese.
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bushwick
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 6031 days ago

407 posts - 443 votes 
Speaks: German, Croatian*, English, Dutch
Studies: French, Japanese

 
 Message 118 of 278
15 May 2008 at 5:02pm | IP Logged 
Baryon wrote:
Assimil claims to have courses available in 65 languages. However, its website, which seems to be down at the
moment - perhaps this is why - only allows me to select a small number of the most popular languages from its
catalogue. I am also unable to find anywhere to buy courses for most languages from UK sites. I don't know exactly
what language I want yet, but I can't even find Norwegian or Swedish, let alone Tamil or Vietnamese. Where is the
best place to get them from, then? And I apologise if I have missed something very obvious.

its because most of the courses assimil offers are in french.
try selecting french as your language and you'll see.
1 person has voted this message useful



Baryon
Newbie
United Kingdom
corfizz.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5828 days ago

16 posts - 16 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 119 of 278
15 May 2008 at 5:17pm | IP Logged 
bushwick wrote:

its because most of the courses assimil offers are in french.
try selecting french as your language and you'll see.

Indeed you are right. I could have sworn I'd tried that, but, never mind. Now I understand why Professor Arguelles
recommends focusing on fluency in French and German before other languages. I think I'd still feel more
comfortable learning a new language in my native language, though, especially if it were a very difficult language.
Thanks.
1 person has voted this message useful



pitwo
Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5946 days ago

103 posts - 121 votes 
Speaks: French*, English

 
 Message 120 of 278
15 May 2008 at 11:44pm | IP Logged 
I really really like "Le nouvel Allemand sans peine".
The course is so well made that it's a lot of fun just going through lessons!
I'm at lesson 26 and can understand a lot of the language already.
To give a concrete example, I was listening a movie the other day and most sentences made total sense to me; I had already seen the skeleton of these sentences, all that changed was the vocab and meaning. Assimil just does such a great job at exposing you to the "core" of the language.

Of course you still have to supplement Assimil with a lot of reading and listening..
That being said, I only really gave the German course a honest try so I don't know if the other ones are good. I know the japanese one is somewhat weak at the beginning (romaji.. ugh :X).
See fanatic's post on page 14 if you haven't, excellent stuff.


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