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French With Ease For Learning Other Langs | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| MichaelM204351 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5231 days ago 151 posts - 173 votes  Speaks: English*, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish | Message 1 of 19 25 February 2012 at 7:13pm | IP Logged |
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I tried to find the answer to this question in the archives, but couldn't. There are
several languages which I would like to learn and/or perfect(such as Hebrew, Modern Greek, Arabic, Swahili, etc.). Unfortunately, Assimil does not have an English version of these programs. I was curious to know whether working through French With Ease and maybe Using French would be enough to be able to use the French base for those languages? I am not looking to be fluent in French, I just need to be able to read it well enough to work through these other programs. Any thoughts? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6339 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 2 of 19 25 February 2012 at 8:40pm | IP Logged |
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Often the sounds used in the transliteration will make less sense if you are not French or have an understanding of French. For example, in the L'Arabe sans Peine the transliteration uses 'ou' for what would be a 'u' in English and 'ou' would be a long vowel. Some confusion can come from that.
The notes, the explanation can be quite complex, so you'll have to be careful with that too. I personally would not recommend using a French to X method unless you have a level that is a bit better than what you get from just following an Assimil French method. You don't need to be fluent, just be aware that there is some difficulty if you just finish "with ease". On the other hand it is also a great way to reinforce the French. Unless you really want to learn French, you are actually creating 2 steps to the languages you want to work on. Is French of interest to you? Edited by zenmonkey on 25 February 2012 at 8:41pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| MichaelM204351 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5231 days ago 151 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish | Message 3 of 19 25 February 2012 at 8:55pm | IP Logged |
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French is definitely a language that is on my list to learn. However, if materials for
the other languages were plentiful, French would probably be pushed to the distant future. Ultimately, I wish to learn multiple languages and I would love to use the Assimil programs as my starting point to get to that goal. Therefore, I was thinking it may be wise to at least have a thorough reading knowledge of French. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6339 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 4 of 19 25 February 2012 at 9:39pm | IP Logged |
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Then with that in mind, do go for it. But you'll need to understand that the French words for grammar are different than those of English and will need to put on your "French hat" at times.
Like many people here, I'm doing some of that in using L3 material for L4 -- I just bought workbooks in German for Arabic. There are several thread on this idea of two for the price of one or half-off learning. You might want to check those out. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| MichaelM204351 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5231 days ago 151 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish | Message 5 of 19 25 February 2012 at 11:19pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks! I appreciate it...
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5929 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 6 of 19 25 February 2012 at 11:27pm | IP Logged |
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Another thing that you should be aware of is that Assimil likes to throw in lots of colloquial expressions, idioms, and jokes into both the dialogues and the explanations, so if you don't have a handle on those in French, it could be quite frustrating. Also, you will have to be at least somewhat familiar with France and French culture in general, as most of the cultural explanations simply compare things in the target country with how they are in France. Edited by ellasevia on 25 February 2012 at 11:28pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| koba Heptaglot Senior Member AustriaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5655 days ago 118 posts - 201 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, French | Message 7 of 19 26 February 2012 at 12:04am | IP Logged |
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Honestly, I started studying French for this same purpose. Assimil is my favorite
method and I wanted to take advantage of other courses they only offer in French, so for a person who already knows English, Portuguese and Spanish I thought it wouldn't be a big deal, so I started studying it. Well, indeed, it wasn't so hard for me and I managed to master the French structure and the vocabulary quite fast. It's been already 5 months, I've been studying French on and off and I can already read/study in French, it's both very rewarding and pleasant. I have to admit in the beginning I wasn't really fond of the language but with time it just grew immensely in me to the point that it's probably my favorite Romance language at the moment. But at the end, I think you should really consider if it's worth to learn it just to have access to the other Assimil books. Learning a new language is very exhausting and it takes time. Moreover, you won't learn a language if you don't enjoy the process of learning. Edited by koba on 26 February 2012 at 12:06am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| MichaelM204351 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5231 days ago 151 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish | Message 8 of 19 26 February 2012 at 12:25am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the advice...
If I do end up doing this, it will probably be next year. This year, I am working on perfecting my Biblical/Rabbinic Hebrew, working through Spanish With Ease, and getting married. So, I have plenty of time to think about it, but I wanted some advice from people who are much more experienced in language learning... ;o) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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