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Assimil method | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6724 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 41 of 57 10 January 2007 at 2:37pm | IP Logged | ||
There is this well-known Chinese torture. You tie a man to a post and have a single drop of water fall on his head once an hour. After some number of drops, standing there for an hour just waiting for the next drop to fall drives the person crazy. This was more or less my feeling towards the end of just a single passive pass through Assimil Italian, at the rate of one lesson per day. I am also not sure how great the benefit was - I did learn some words and expressions from Assimil, but what I was learning from reading certainly overtook Assimil. I still bought Assimil German, but plan to use it in a very loose fashion, as just another collection of graded dialogs with recordings, perhaps even as just a reader at first. No more drops of water for me. P.S. Have you considered trying to perfect your Italian pronunciation with Pimsleur, now that you pretty much know the language anyway? Edited by frenkeld on 10 January 2007 at 2:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Roger Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6373 days ago 159 posts - 161 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Indonesian | Message 42 of 57 10 January 2007 at 2:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Do pimsleur have pronounciation courses? have you tried them if so what are they like?
As far as the storys go in assimil italian, it has to be one of the most boaring things ive read. I will continue assimil italian at the rate of only 4 lessons per week, while reading audio magazines and books etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6724 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 43 of 57 10 January 2007 at 2:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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I meant the regular Pimsleur Italian course. Even if one knows the contents, one can still try using it for pronunciation practice.
Edited by frenkeld on 10 January 2007 at 3:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Farley Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6873 days ago 681 posts - 739 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanB1, French Studies: Spanish | Message 44 of 57 10 January 2007 at 3:34pm | IP Logged | ||
Roger, If you are using Assimil German I would recommend the two following books to supplement your studies: German Made Simple German: How to Speak and Write It They are similar in format with dual language dialogs, but they have many additional exercises. Between the two of them they have all you need for conversational German, minus the audio. Assimil “German with Ease” mixes “news cast” German with conversational German. This is not a problem by itself, but if you are trying to master conversational German you may not want to actively master every German with Easy lesson. There is a big difference between the way Germans write and speak (Der Spiegel for example). Also I don’t think that “German with Ease” isolates enough sentence patterns for practice. Don’t get me wrong it is a great course you just need a something else. I think the two books above are better models for conversation and active practice, plus they are inexpensive. John 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Roger Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6373 days ago 159 posts - 161 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Indonesian | Message 45 of 57 10 January 2007 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for that Farley, those books look good. I also have the michel thomas begginer and advanced courses, which was how I started with italian, very good indeed.
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| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 6927 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 46 of 57 11 January 2007 at 6:12am | IP Logged | ||
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I can't believe how much everyone has complicated learning a language using Assimil.
Learning German with Assimil, I probably spent 20 to 30 minutes each day going through the course. I don't understand not being able to assimilate more than 4 lessons per week. The same with my special Italian course. I worked at it every day, never spending more than 30 minutes in total on any day, and was conversing with Italian friends (on a simple level) inside two weeks. As I write in my book, I ended up being table interpreter on an Italian ship and spoke well enough to manage in Italy. With Spanish, I found one lesson a day too slow at the beginning and did two lessons in a day many times during the first month. I had already learnt French though. Then I had my lessons on mp3s and spent more time playing the lessons through. I didn't worry about accent or pronunciation for the first month. I just sped my way through the lessons and concentrated on understanding all I read and heard. How did I do the active part of Assimil? I have trouble answering that because it varied. I would have other grammar books and I would read the grammar and do exercises. I would listen to the radio and watch television in the language. I would find people to speak with and read the news on the Internet in the language. I would discuss the language with people who were fluent or native speakers. I would also do the second wave of Assimil and check out queries I had written in the margin about difficulties I had with the lesson. They had usually been cleared up by this time. By the time I finished the first wave I was usually fluent enough to get by. Sometimes I admit I was lazy with written exercises but I found I was able to write reports in German and don't have much trouble writing letters. The only language where I would do some preliminary work before beginning Assimil would be (and was) Russian. I worked with courses from Russia that introduced you to the language more slowly. On the other hand, I had no trouble working immediately with Polish, although I did begin my Polish Studies with Mowimy po polsku. Neither the Russian nor the Polish courses were like FSI or with drills and repetition. They took you through a story or introduced you to people you would learn about all through the course.. As I have written elsewhere, they were friendly courses. Had I attempted to learn a language using Assimil the way some of you have described I would have given up early on and never completed it. I have been successful using Assimil the way they recommend. Some of you seem to really make hard work of it. Why not follow the maker's instructions? You can be fluent in just a few months. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Roger Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6373 days ago 159 posts - 161 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Indonesian | Message 47 of 57 11 January 2007 at 7:22am | IP Logged | ||
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Fanatic, I understand all the lessons grammar etc.. which only takes about 20-30 mins but stick with the lesson until my pronounciation is 100%. This usually takes hours and hours for me for some reason. Are you saying that one should not worry about the pronounciation, like leave it to the end or something? I get really tongue tied with romance language pronounciation. Maybe the reason you are so successful with assimil is because you have a natural gift for learning languages this way.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6690 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 48 of 57 11 January 2007 at 7:54am | IP Logged | ||
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Fanatic, I really like your inspiring posts about Assimil! Although I learn Russian with a lot of other material I'll try to do one lesson per day as well (or more if possible), in order to complete the course as intended (I remember you mentioning that you learned German in just over 60 hours, so why can't I)? :) Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 11 January 2007 at 7:55am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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