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Vocabulary learning in Assimil

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Solfrid Cristin
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 Message 1 of 15
23 February 2012 at 7:10pm | IP Logged 
Do you learn all the vocabulary and grammar of a lesson before you move on, or do you just work on it
until you understand it passively, and then move on, waiting for the active phase for translating? I ask
because normally when doing a language lesson I would learn all the vocabulary, and be able to translate
back and forth before I continued, but since there is this passive phase/ active phase thing, I am wondering
whether I could skip a bit lighter over each lesson, and hope that the active phase will make it easier to do
the words I am struggling with the first time over. What do the rest of you do?
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Arekkusu
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 Message 2 of 15
23 February 2012 at 8:06pm | IP Logged 
I'm now working with Assimil finnois, and it was my first time using Assimil. I first intended to go through the book only once, but it's so dense and there is so much useless vocabulary, that it's quite hard (and often useless) to learn it all. The explanations are not all that great either, so even if you stayed on the same lesson forever, you wouldn't necessarily get it anyway. So, I move on pretty quickly, and I go back to review earlier lessons, alternating between reviewing an older lesson or two, and doing a new one.

If I tell you to read all my lessons in a so-called passive wave, and then to read it all again in an active wave, I not only increase your chances of success (if you do as I say), but it also removes the need for me to create effective, well-thought-out lessons. The problem is that going through the whole book is also a lot less motivating, so I think a lot of people would just give up. I'm stuck within the confines of a time-limited challenge, otherwise, I don't think I'd continue with Assimil.
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Solfrid Cristin
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 Message 3 of 15
23 February 2012 at 8:31pm | IP Logged 
Lots of love coming your way right now!!! I was starting to think I was being dense. I much prefer thinking
that the book is dense. :-)
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emk
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 Message 4 of 15
23 February 2012 at 11:48pm | IP Logged 
You're way better at learning languages than I am, so I won't give you any
advice. :-) But I'm happy to share my own experiences.

When I did Assimil, I was terribly lazy about everything except listening and
translating. I made no effort to study vocabulary or grammar. I'm not even sure that I
did all the exercises at the end of the lessons. And it all worked out OK—I wound up
with the conversational skills of a toddler, which frankly seemed like a miracle.

But then, I had never learned a language before, and I had no idea what I was doing. I
just cranked through the book, one lesson at a time, and discovered HTLAL after
finishing the active wave. I didn't discover SRS until I was reading my first book, and
I needed to shore up my vocabulary.

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Serpent
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 Message 5 of 15
24 February 2012 at 12:37am | IP Logged 
Arekkusu wrote:
there is so much useless vocabulary
Really? In my opinion, the order might be a bit weird, but the vocabulary is all essential. I was at the intermediate level when I shadowed it and I already knew nearly all the words.
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Arekkusu
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 Message 6 of 15
24 February 2012 at 3:38am | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
Arekkusu wrote:
there is so much useless vocabulary
Really? In my opinion,
the order might be a bit weird, but the vocabulary is all essential. I was at the intermediate level when I
shadowed it and I already knew nearly all the words.

I've been studying for 3 weeks. What am I going to do with dill, handset, diplomatic corps, fur-lined, elk, and
centipede?

I haven't used any of those words in any language for AT LEAST a month. Have you? It's not that they'll
never be useful, but they certainly aren't useful to a beginner.
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DaraghM
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 Message 7 of 15
24 February 2012 at 10:42am | IP Logged 
Arekkusu wrote:

I've been studying for 3 weeks. What am I going to do with dill, handset, diplomatic corps, fur-lined, elk, and centipede?


I often ring the diplomatic corps on my handset, to see it they're coming to those trendy Helsinki bars that serve Elk and Centipede Martini with a hint of dill in a fur-lined glass. :-)
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Elexi
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 Message 8 of 15
24 February 2012 at 11:19am | IP Logged 
I personally think this is a problem with the older Assimil courses, or those modelled
on the older courses - where the words/scenarios are often used to fit the Cherelian
(?) humour of the publishing house. I found German With Ease to be very hard going
(but ultimately useful) for this reason - scenarios with lots of useless words and
idiomatic constructions from almost the start (not to mention the myriad of translation
errors) in situations I would never find myself in.

I have just finished going through the newest L'Allemand and was struck (when compared
with German With Ease) how the author had tried to include more 'real-life' scenarios
and useful language, even touristy language, from the beginning.

As to using Assimil - I tend to ignore the passive/active wave thingy and have a go at
translating almost from the start. After doing the passive wave instructions of
listening and repeating, I parse the first weeks' dialogues to infer the grammar so
that I can come back a week later and make a translation. From this I can see if I had
made the right connections the week before and whether I remembered the words/idioms in
the text. When I come across a word I don't known I glance at the text and say it out
loud a few times. I am too lazy and ill-disciplined to be bothered with cards or
entering words into Anki or such like.

This works for me because I also use post-it sticky tags to mark where I am - when I
get to the start of a new 7 day block of lessons I start at lesson 1 again and I do
this for about 6 complete waves of reading (so at lesson 36 I am also doing lessons 1,
8, 15, 22 and 29) - that way I have a kind of inbuilt SRS without the (for me) dreaded
cards/computer.

I have started doing this for most self teaching language courses as I have no memory
for grammar or vocabulary and tend to forget them pretty darn quick if I don't
continually revise them.   

Edited by Elexi on 24 February 2012 at 12:15pm



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