stmc2 Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6061 days ago 45 posts - 58 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German
| Message 1 of 15 04 December 2010 at 2:14pm | IP Logged |
Hello all,
This is my first post on this forum and I would like to share a tecunique that i am using with my Assimil German with Ease course.
I completed the first wave and then started the second wave. I found this to be a very good system until I reached a certain point. This point was when I was doing the second wave in the second half of the book. I felt that I was making progress but the vital grammar and vocab from the earlier lessons was still not solid enough. So I invented the third wave, this is as follows.
1) Do the normal second wave process for lesson 51
2) Go back to lesson one again. This time you copy the dialogue into a notebook. You then make detailed grammar notes from the lesson .
3) Attempt to write as many of your own sentences as you can from the dialogue and the grammar in this lesson. From only lesson one, the number will be limited.
And then the next day,
1) Do the normal second wave process for lesson 52
2) Go back to lesson two and do the same notetaking.
3) Write as many sentences as you can from this lesson
THIS IS WHERE I STARTED TO MAKE A GREAT DEAL OF PROGRESS
4) Mix the grammar from lesson one and two with the vocab from lesson one and two to make new sentences. Use your imagination to write as many as possible.
You then continue with this process, mixing the grammar from your new lesson with various previous grammar points and vocab. This has the effect of bringing the vocab and grammar togther into an integrated whole. Reinforcing a very solid foundation.
When you get on to later lessons, you can experiment with mixing the grammar from lessons say 18, 25, 32 with the vocan from lesson 46 etc. This is great for further review and the use of your imagination.
I hope that this information is of use to people out there who want to take their assimil book further.
So, how about a fourth wave? When you have done the second wave for lesson 100 and the third wave for lesson 51, would you say you are done? Or could anything more be gained from the early lessons?
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Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5821 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh
| Message 2 of 15 04 December 2010 at 2:23pm | IP Logged |
I have a slight problem with this....
"Attempt to write as many of your own sentences as you can from the dialogue and the grammar in this lesson."
The sentences that come out of this... won't they be a little, well, pointless? Why am I writing them? It feels like I would be losing any meaning and focusing purely on structure, and that sounds a little boring....
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Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5375 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 3 of 15 04 December 2010 at 2:42pm | IP Logged |
I find with the second wave that I often have to stick to one lesson for a while until I get perfect in terms of vocabulary and grammar - while i'm doing that I randomly do the second wave again from the lessons before. This is why I don't bother with cumbersome SRS typing - I have the book, it fits in my pocket - and I can review whenever I like.
despite all the speed freaks (and all power to you) on this board, I think an Assimil course takes me over a year to fully digest.
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stmc2 Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6061 days ago 45 posts - 58 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German
| Message 4 of 15 04 December 2010 at 3:14pm | IP Logged |
I find that the purpose of what you are writing is to be able to pluck words out of sentences that you have already internalised. I find that I have so many sentences in my mind but find it tricky to access the individual words winthin. My knowledge of German is very frgmented and I dind that this system brings it together more. It also activates your imagination. this may appear boring but that's up to the individual/
I also agrre that there is so much in an assimil book that a year is giving it the respect it deserves.
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Lucas Pentaglot Groupie Switzerland Joined 4977 days ago 85 posts - 130 votes Speaks: French*, English, German, Italian, Russian Studies: Mandarin
| Message 5 of 15 04 December 2010 at 4:07pm | IP Logged |
I'm on my fifth wave on "le chinois sans peine" and I still can't translate properly most
of the phrases because of the chinese syntax, wich is very far from the indoeuropean
syntax!
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stmc2 Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6061 days ago 45 posts - 58 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German
| Message 6 of 15 04 December 2010 at 4:17pm | IP Logged |
Maybe you could try learning to read/write Chinese with the James Heisig book. Then you could write out each dialogue easily and may help.
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Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6913 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French
| Message 7 of 15 05 December 2010 at 1:22am | IP Logged |
Cainntear wrote:
The sentences that come out of this... won't they be a little, well, pointless? Why am I writing them? It feels like I would be losing any meaning and focusing purely on structure, and that sounds a little boring.... |
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If I've understood the OP correctly, they'll be no more pointless than the sentences in the Assimil dialogues themselves. I'm assuming he's attempting to use what's been covered in the Assimil lessons to construct "original" sentences - i.e. to reinforce both vocab and structure without relying on the course to repeat words or idioms previously introduced. I've done something similar myself as a means of practising what I've learnt but not in any formalised way.
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Faraday Senior Member United States Joined 5928 days ago 129 posts - 256 votes Speaks: German*
| Message 8 of 15 05 December 2010 at 1:37am | IP Logged |
There are more productive uses of one's time than to go over a course more than twice, at least consecutively. After
the first or second pass of Assimil, it's time to expose oneself broadly to the new language. Revisiting Assimil in a
context of such exposure will help solidify the material.
With language, in a very real sense, quantity is quality at times.
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