MichaelM204351 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5520 days ago 151 posts - 173 votes  Speaks: English*, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish
| Message 9 of 19 26 February 2012 at 12:36am | IP Logged |
Well, I just saw that a several of the languages I want to learn have a German base. I
am by no means fluent in German, but I'm a heck of a lot closer to the goal with German
than with French. Hmm... We'll see.
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Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5085 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes     Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian
| Message 10 of 19 26 February 2012 at 9:27am | IP Logged |
Prof Arguelles, in his posts and videos, often advises people who intend to learn more
languages to start with the English, French and German as the combination of two or all
three gives you access to much more sources than if you have only one of them (even when
it is English). It not much of a difference when looking for popular language resources
but an enormous one as soon as you step outside of this group.
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aodhanc Diglot Groupie Iceland Joined 6336 days ago 92 posts - 130 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish
| Message 11 of 19 26 February 2012 at 9:59am | IP Logged |
Instead of going to the effort of learning a new language such as French (which you've
said is not a priority for you), would it not simply be easier to opt for another
language learning method other than Assimil?
I imagine there must be some other good language resources out there which offer courses
through English for your target languages of Hebrew, Arabic etc....?
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Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5085 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes     Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian
| Message 12 of 19 26 February 2012 at 12:01pm | IP Logged |
I understand him. There surely are good courses but not in the Assimil style and not
every course works the same for everyone.
I've heard Linguaphones are a bit similar and English based. Or, you can use the French
Assimil to some extent, at least aside of another and more classical course. The audios
have no base language, and the dialogues are still usable.
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MichaelM204351 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5520 days ago 151 posts - 173 votes  Speaks: English*, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish
| Message 13 of 19 26 February 2012 at 4:23pm | IP Logged |
There definitely are other great learning materials. However, options are very limited
when it comes to languages like Modern Greek, Swahili, etc. I do have several great
resources for Hebrew and a couple for Arabic. My Hebrew is pretty much to the point where
I just use native materials, but for the more obscure languages, I have very little and
can find very little. I love the Assimil method and would like to use it as my starting
point for the rest of the languages that I learn.
At this point, it's just a matter of timing. I want (more like need) to learn Spanish,
but I'm trying to decide if I should put Spanish on hold and work through German With
Ease and French With Ease at the same time.
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koba Heptaglot Senior Member AustriaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5944 days ago 118 posts - 201 votes   Speaks: Portuguese*, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, French
| Message 14 of 19 26 February 2012 at 4:43pm | IP Logged |
MichaelM204351 wrote:
At this point, it's just a matter of timing. I want (more like need) to learn Spanish,
but I'm trying to decide if I should put Spanish on hold and work through German With
Ease and French With Ease at the same time. |
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I think working on three languages at the same time isn't a good a idea, unless you
have a hell lot of free time. In reality though, most people who work or study don't
have time to do that efficiently. Since you have already started with German and
Spanish I suggest you to continue working on these until you feel more confident about
using them.
As someone suggested before, you could also profit using the old Linguaphone courses.
The audio is entirely in the target language and as you learn one foreign language, it
makes you easier to learn another one using the Linguaphone method, because the text
content is the same, just in a different language. Try to look for the courses in
German and Spanish.
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MichaelM204351 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5520 days ago 151 posts - 173 votes  Speaks: English*, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish
| Message 15 of 19 26 February 2012 at 5:27pm | IP Logged |
Sorry, my comment was misunderstood, I think. I would *never* attempt to learn three new
languages at once. I was simply trying to decide if I should replace Spanish with French
for the time being... However, I think I may take your advice and stick with German and
Spanish. Living in Texas, Spanish will be very useful and rewarding. I'll start French
once I hit a B2/C1 level in German.
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Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5641 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes     Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 16 of 19 26 February 2012 at 8:07pm | IP Logged |
koba wrote:
As someone suggested before, you could also profit using the old Linguaphone courses.
The audio is entirely in the target language and as you learn one foreign language, it
makes you easier to learn another one using the Linguaphone method, because the text
content is the same, just in a different language. Try to look for the courses in
German and Spanish. |
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I should point out (merely for the sake of accuracy) that when you say 'old'
Linguaphone you are referring to the courses from Linguaphone that were published in
either the 1920s (which are so out of date as to be useless) or the 1950s and not the
more commonly available 'old' ones from the 1970s onwards.
I have just gone through the French based Assimil L'Allemand and I own quite a few
French only Assimils. I would say that New French With Ease coupled with another solid
course (like Living Language Ultimate) and a basic grasp of French grammatical terms
are all you need. The more modern Assimils (the 'Collection Sans Peine' series that
has just the name of the language like L'Italien, L'Allemand, Le Latin etc) are simpler
and more directed to 'useful' language than the older series, so you need 'less' French
for them. You need a slightly higher level of French for the old series that was
Without Toil in English.
Edited by Elexi on 26 February 2012 at 8:11pm
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