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Other series similar to Assimil? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6967 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes  20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 9 of 15 12 April 2012 at 9:30pm | IP Logged | ||
The best that I've used that also satisfies the condition of all audio in the target language is the series Język polski dla cudzoziemców published by Universitas in Kraków. Namely: Cześć, jak się masz? I. Spotykamy się w Polsce (A1) Cześć, jak się masz? II Spotkajmy się w Europie (A2) Z polskim na Ty. Podręcznik do nauki języka polskiego (B1) Kiedyś wrócisz tu... Gdzie nadwiślański brzeg. A Polish Language Textbook for Intermediate, cz. I (B2) Kiedyś wrócisz tu... By szukać swoich dróg i gwiazd, cz. II (C1) N.B. I've used an older edition of Cześć, jak się masz? when it came as one volume but it's largely the same as the current edition that's divided in two. I've also finished Z polskim na Ty and am currently working through Kiedyś wrócisz tu... Gdzie nadwiślański brzeg, cz. I with the intention of moving on to Kiedyś wrócisz tu... By szukać swoich dróg i gwiazd, cz. II afterwards. There are also useful supplements and readers in the series (e.g. Czas na czasownik (B2), Celuję w C2. Zbiór zadań do egzaminu certyfikatowego z języka polskiego jako obcego na poziomie C2) While I found these to be the best of their type for Polish, I must admit that the degree to which a course limits use of the intermediary language is negatively related to the course's utility as a self-contained unit for the independent user. A DIY course that has minimal or no content in the intermediary language tends to be highly frustrating for the user as he/she would face the farcial situation of receiving almost everything if not everything in the target language that he/she is trying to learn from scratch. In fact this kind of material is more likely to be meant for the classroom as the learner would then have an instructor to clarify things about the target language in the intermediary language. Therefore it pays for the serious learner these days to look beyond the big-name publishers and their greasy marketing departments for the valuable resources for their target language. Edited by Chung on 12 April 2012 at 10:30pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| yuriFromRoma Groupie Italy Joined 4524 days ago 48 posts - 69 votes Speaks: Italian* Studies: English, Russian | Message 10 of 15 12 April 2012 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | ||
I think that's just because Assimil is a French company, and so their (main) target market is France, and/or maybe they simply think the effort isn't worth the cost/investment! That being said, as you said English is hugely spoken all over the world, so it would be nice to have as many as possible resources promptly available in English, but yet I don't think it is something that Assimil HAS to do... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4977 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 11 of 15 13 April 2012 at 1:32am | IP Logged | ||
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Méthode 90 is very similar to Assimil. I actually like it better for Chinese.
Langues pour tous - 40 leçons is also similar though less complete. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5018 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 12 of 15 13 April 2012 at 9:42am | IP Logged | ||
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I had a flick through Streetwise French, a course on slang and colloquial language, a
while ago. It seemed very similar to Assimil - parallel dialogues in French and English, with notes and explanations, and audio recordings of the French. I've heard of Streetwise books for other languages too so I assume they're the same. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 13 of 15 13 April 2012 at 12:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Chung has highlighted that the best courses are by single language publishers. I've found an old thread where we mention them. Many of these courses have audio entirely in the target language.
Best Single Language Publications 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6967 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 14 of 15 13 April 2012 at 8:27pm | IP Logged | ||
It'd be wise for me to clarify this impression even though it appears to be largely accurate. As a rule of thumb, the series of language courses issued by big-name publishers aren't the best of the type. Those that are very good seem to be matched or exceeded by something outside the brand-name series. However this is an understandable outcome since big-name publishers can easily survive by taking a mass-marketing approach on producing "frothy" language courses letting their marketing and design departments dupe the crowd with glossy covers, cute pictures and promises of the course's unrivalled effectiveness. On the other publishing houses affiliated with universities are more interested in producing very good material even if these courses effectively form series too (e.g. Indiana University's Slavica Publishers, Jagiellonian University's Universitas, The Finnish Union of University Lecturers' Finn Lectura) than imprints of large publishing/media companies such as Informa plc (ultimate owner of Routledge including "Colloquial"), Lagardère Group (ultimate owner of Hodder & Stoughton including "Teach Yourself") or Bertelsmann AG (ultimate owner of Random House Inc. which publishes "Living Language" and "Spoken World"). This isn't to say that I haven't found any mass-marketed course that's just as good if not better than something that's from a smaller publisher or not part of a series. One example is "Teach Yourself Estonian" which is what I would recommend over other hard-copied Estonian courses for beginners. In addition, some of the old courses from the Linguaphone Group are regarded highly and seem to me would blow away many of the current beginners' courses in foreign languages. I've also seen one dud from these independent or unaffiliated language courses. "Easy Way to Latvian" is disappointing (to the point where I've gladly replaced it with "Colloquial Latvian" and "Teach Yourself Latvian") since the recordings contain an inordinate amount of English with the narrator (the author?) reading or paraphrasing the notes on grammar. Thus there's a lot less Latvian on the 6 CDs than I had expected while the book contains fewer exercises than I had expected. The biggest redeeming quality is that the author wrote quite clear notes on grammar in the first place. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4447 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 15 of 15 16 April 2012 at 3:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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I noticed the mention of monolingual courses. Does anyone know of any for Italian and/or German? I went to Daragh's link and did not see any. I already have without toil for German.
Thanks. Edited by sillygoose1 on 16 April 2012 at 3:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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