Assimil Third Wave? Or Fourth? (Language Programs, Books & Tapes) Language Learning Forum

Assimil Third Wave? Or Fourth?
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Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes

15 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

fanatic
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Message 9 of 15

05 December 2010 at 7:26am | IP Logged

Faraday wrote:

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.

I agree. Read books and watch movies in your target language. Read newspapers on the net. Visit websites in the language. Read other textbooks. Speak to people in the language every chance you get.

Read Assimil lessons while you are doing this and you will find you will get more from Assimil's explanations as you actually use the language.

Don't make it hard work.
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stmc2
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Message 10 of 15

05 December 2010 at 11:14am | IP Logged

I agree with what you say but I still find that I need to get the vocab and grammar more solidly moulded in my mind. I have attempted to go through DW news etc and have felt so lost that I needed to go back to the book.

I confidently feel that after I have been through this note taking and sentaence creation phase, the Assimil book will become the perfect reference book to start exploring native material. Only a couple of weeks to go I think.

i will start another thread asking for advice on decent German TV dramas or films.
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jeff_lindqvist
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Message 11 of 15

05 December 2010 at 12:11pm | IP Logged

Lucas wrote:

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!

Same here. Maybe I haven't had the right focus at the time, maybe Chinese isn't the language for me (God forbid), maybe the method doesn't work for me - for Chinese.
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newyorkeric
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Message 12 of 15

05 December 2010 at 3:03pm | IP Logged

jeff_lindqvist wrote:

Lucas wrote:

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!

Same here. Maybe I haven't had the right focus at the time, maybe Chinese isn't the language for me (God forbid), maybe the method doesn't work for me - for Chinese.

I find Chinese With Ease difficult even before the active wave. I have to listen to lessons dozens of times and still sometimes have trouble. I still think the course is good, it's just that Chinese is inherently difficult.

Edited by newyorkeric on 05 December 2010 at 3:04pm
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jeff_lindqvist
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Message 13 of 15

05 December 2010 at 4:23pm | IP Logged

That, I agree with - Chinese is one of the most difficult things (if not the most difficult) I've studied so far.

Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 07 December 2010 at 12:22am
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stmc2
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Message 14 of 15

06 December 2010 at 8:32pm | IP Logged

I have a big interest in Chinese and may invest in the first volume next year. I have got myself to a decent level of Japanese, so i know that such a difficult language is possible. I think that Chinese would be more difficult than japanese though in some respects. This being the infamous tones and prounciation.
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Lucas
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Message 15 of 15

07 December 2010 at 9:52am | IP Logged

stmc2 wrote:

I have a big interest in Chinese and may invest in the first volume next
year. I have got myself to a decent level of Japanese, so i know that such a difficult
language is possible. I think that Chinese would be more difficult than japanese though
in some respects. This being the infamous tones and prounciation.

I'm afraid chinese is going to be harder for you than for us, and not only because of the
tone and prononciation: you'll have to forget all the kanji you've learned and learn the
hanzi prononciation!
Good luck then!
:)

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