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Has anyone ever failed with Assimil? | ||
Tags: Discouragement from learning | Assimil | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5948 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 9 of 24 20 January 2012 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | ||
The course Using Spanish is out of print. A language bookstore I frequent still has some copies. I did about a third of "Perfectionnement Espagnol" before dropping it for other materials. I ended up learning more French than Spanish, as Spanish is my stronger language, and I found I was mostly reverse translating. My Spanish also enabled me to see how bad the English translations were. I'm not surprised it was withdrawn from publication. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4686 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 10 of 24 20 January 2012 at 6:48pm | IP Logged | ||
I found the vocabulary too limited in Pimsleur, so for me it's definitely an "A1" course. But I also think the boundaries between A1 and A2 (and B1 and B2) seem open to interpretation. At least on here! As for Assimil, I'll be 2 weeks in a francophone countries this Spring, so I'll find out. Although I'm using multiple materials, so it's hard to isolate any one and assess its impact. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4927 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 11 of 24 20 January 2012 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | ||
I'd further qualify that with which Pimsleur courses. I only have experience with the 30-lesson courses. They won't get you to a "solid A2". A solid A1, yes, maybe even a very weak A2, but I don't think they'll get you to a solid A2. The 90-lessons courses may get you further though. As I said, I only have experience with the shorter courses. R. == 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5362 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 12 of 24 20 January 2012 at 8:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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I did the Deutsche Welle placement test after I finished all 100 lessons of Pimsleur German and the Michel Thomas Foundation course and I got 96%, which put me in the A2.1 range.
The difficulty with the proposition that Pimsleur makes one a 'solid' A2 is that there are not enough words in Pimsleur's 500 or so words to do that. You need to have an active vocabulary of about 1000 to get through A2. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Opensecret Triglot Newbie United States Joined 4489 days ago 20 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Russian, Mandarin | Message 13 of 24 21 January 2012 at 12:48am | IP Logged | ||
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I've used a lot of texts to study multiple languages, and the two Assimil texts I've used (Le nouveau russe sans peine, Le chinois sans peine tome 2) are two of my favorites. I've never used Assimil to start a language -- except for Latin and French which I did in school, every other language I've started with Pimsleur, and gone thru all three levels. But after getting started with Pimsleur, I look for a text. What I like most about the Assimil is that translation is always right there with the text. This is particularly helpful with Chinese, where some texts leave you trying to hunt down a character based on stroke count (because you don't know its pronunciation). But when I compare Assimil Russian to another Russian text I've used where the translations are poor and a lot of the vocabulary isn't in the glossary, Assimil wins handily. Edited by Opensecret on 21 January 2012 at 7:16am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5105 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 14 of 24 21 January 2012 at 3:14pm | IP Logged | ||
If Deutsche Welle's placement test is the same as Goethe's, then A2.1 does not mean you're A2. A2.1 means "the 1st of 4 preparation classes for the A2 exam". You take the A2 exam after completing the class A2.4. Beginners take A1.1 and of course beginners aren't "weak A1s". If you get A2.1 in your placement test, it means you barely passed the A1 level. If you get A2.4, it means you passed the A1 level with flying colours, but are still not yet A2. The placement test is a placement-into-class test, not a placement-into-level test. Edited by smallwhite on 21 January 2012 at 3:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5362 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 15 of 24 21 January 2012 at 5:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Although Deutsche Welle's table doesn't go A2.1-4 but A2.1 and A2.2, your point was the point I was trying to make - Pimsleur takes you just past A1 if you do all three levels of it, but not into solid A2 territory.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| IansDad Newbie United States Joined 5511 days ago 28 posts - 41 votes Studies: French, English | Message 16 of 24 21 January 2012 at 7:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Don't wait for the active phase, start now!
I did the whole course (Spanish) and Linguaphone Spanish (1970's version) doing only the passive wave thinking more input is better--but it wasn't. My ability to produce any output was depressingly low. I just started French with Ease and quickly began the active phase (like Luca'a method) and so far, has been very rewarding as far as production is concerned AND I believe helps in my retention of vocabulary. I see no reason to wait. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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