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Best German Courses/Books? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| tomsawyer Senior Member Aruba Joined 5083 days ago 103 posts - 141 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: GermanB1, French, Russian | Message 9 of 10 04 November 2010 at 11:16pm | IP Logged |
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Old Chemist wrote:
Has anyone else tried this? It's about te most effective method I've found Yes, have finished the Assimil German without Toil a few months ago now. I haven't seen the new one, but the old one is excellent. There are a few words and themes which are slightly dated (in one chapter, he finds out that his tailor hasn't brought his new suit, and calls him a rogue). If you're not a fan of the Teach Yourself series, you might not enjoy the standard textbook approach all up, and that's fine. If you get a chance, have a search around on this forum for L-R, Scriptorium and Shadowing, particularly posts by ProfArguelles. They're interesting for a read, and you might find they suit your style. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 6942 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 10 of 10 05 November 2010 at 1:49am | IP Logged |
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I have written in many places on this forum that I used Assimil to learn German. I started from zero knowledge and found Assimil German Without Toil easy to use and I was able to engage in simple conversations after around six to eight weeks.
Assimil was the only learning program I used but I did practice with German friends and German magazines and other written material. I travelled to Germany after around six months of study and found I got by quite well. I went to the local library and borrowed some German books, including a mathematics book I had enjoyed in English. That filled in a mathematical vocabulary. I also studied electronics books in the library, making plenty of notes, and that gave me a technical vocabulary. I found Assimil perfect for the job. I learnt one lesson a day and took two days for lessons I found difficult at the end of the course. I see no need to do a preliminary course before starting Assimil. It begins with a supposition of zero knowledge. The language is sufficiently similar to English to make study relatively easy. I spent no more than a half hour on most days. I never memorised a lesson or vocabulary but used the course more or less as they suggest. My first task with Ericsson was to translate an English language laboratory technical manual into German, with the help of an excellent dictionary and a German engineer. I explained to him in German what the manual was saying and he put my explanation into acceptable German. It was very hard work and I used to go home mentally exhausted but my German improved very quickly. I ended up doing public speaking in Germany and I taught English for a year in a middle school. Most of my time in Germany was designing and working with language laboratories - a dream job. Assimil is the only course I have used for German but I have obviously read other material about the language and studied other languages using textbooks in German. I like programs where the audio is all in the target language. I was able to play the German audio to revise what I had learnt and found I not only understood it but I was thinking in German. I wish you success with your efforts. 10 persons have voted this message useful |
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