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I feel like I am the only one! Assimil | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| sampier85 Newbie Canada Joined 4279 days ago 4 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 16 15 August 2012 at 2:30am | IP Logged |
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I feel like I am the only one who can not get through Assimil German with ease or without
toil. It has been 3 months I have been going through Assimil books (first 5 lessons), but can not understand why I can not get through it. The dialogues do not feel functional or situational to me. Do you know of any alternatives for learning German that use a similar conversational method yet focus on situational dialogues in that amount (like 90 dialogues). Would you mind suggesting any alternatives for me. I know I would probably get a lot of hate for saying such a thing, but I love the overall format, Just not situational… Thanks Sam 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5169 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 2 of 16 15 August 2012 at 3:17am | IP Logged |
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Living Language might be a good option for you. I like their Spanish material. They make three conversation/dialogue based programs that are similar to Assimil, but with more grammar, notes and discussion. The beginner one is Ultimate Beginner-Intermediate. Then they have two "advanced" programs; Beyond the Basics and Ultimate Advanced. Between the three programs there should be 80 dialogues that, on average, are quite a bit longer than the Assimil dialogues.
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| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5577 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 3 of 16 16 August 2012 at 2:44am | IP Logged |
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I've never found Assimil a struggle, but then I've never started with it. I always start
with Michel Thomas. His German course is his best course IMO. Why not give it a try and then go back to Assimil? 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4683 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 4 of 16 16 August 2012 at 2:56am | IP Logged |
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I've also liked Living Language, as well as Teach Yourself courses, in other languages.
I assume German would be the same quality. But I am confused by your post - you've only done five lessons in three months. That's not right! It's not a normal course where you need to learn each lesson before you move on. They suggest one lesson a day, without worrying about how much you retain. It's normal to feel a bit lost in the beginning, and it's normal for things to gel slowly. I'd say give it at least three weeks, studying each day, or up to 15 or 20 lessons, before you really decide. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5359 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 5 of 16 16 August 2012 at 4:31pm | IP Logged |
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The 1970s-current full Linguaphone course in German (i.e. not All Talk or PDQ) is like
Assimil to some extent but is more situational - if you can get it from ebay it is worth a look. Slightly off the topic, but in most Assimil courses I have done I must confess that I begin to wonder if stopping at the the active stage mark and consolidating the basics from somewhere else has more utility than ploughing on. Assimil often starts introducing quite a few idioms at lesson 50 or so, which is very useful in the long run, but if you want immediate functionality in language unnecessary at the 2 month stage. Assimil also covers most of a language's key grammar by lesson 50 in brief and stopping and doing something like Living Language Ultimate or Hugo provides consolidation and a deeper grasp of those concepts. I have never fully done the above - I tend to be a 1 course at a time type of person (if only for the fact that I don't have enough time to do more than one course at a time) and soldier on but the thought has crossed my mind that a stop-restart approach might be more efficient. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4803 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 6 of 16 16 August 2012 at 11:13pm | IP Logged |
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You may either need to stop worrying and just go on and assimilate (as kanewai advices)
or you need a bit different approach (add to your learning process copying the lessons in a notebook, shadowing, scriptorium, SRS,...) or you are just not a typical assimil person. For exemple, I use my Assimil German as a wonderful additional source. I learn the best with the traditional courses which teach larger chunks of grammar so I don't get lost. But it doesn't take away the qualities Assimil offers. The audio is really good (unlike in some other courses), the dialogues are nice and make pieces of language take root (it works, I remember a lot of the content when I need it). But I copy the lessons out, mark new vocab or grammar in different colours, use Memrise etc. Don't give up, there is always a way to get further. If you wish to use some more resources with Assimil, there are the classical Teach Yourself and Colloquial courses (can't give you references, I used different ones), there are grammar books (for exemple Basic German:grammar and exercises is really good for a beginner), there is FSI (but I prefer to use something newer as the main source, because of the ortograph reform), there are some class meant courses which can be easily used for self-study (Themen Aktuell is quite helpful), I've recently got a really nice Lernwortschatz Deutsch etc. There are plenty others. Just don't give up. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sampier85 Newbie Canada Joined 4279 days ago 4 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 16 17 August 2012 at 4:02am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for all your comments. I think I just need to go with asimilar and as you have
said make a decision by lesson 50. I think by then the decision would be more credible. As to your advice, I will give living language a try and use other sources. Thanks Cavesa, I will give this another try and persist. You are right, as much as some people try to minimize the importance of grammar, in highly inflected languages, you need to have that grammar grounding, to sound at least like an educated person. Making case errors is not the end of the world, but at some points a learner needs to get them right to feel motivated. Thanks Everyone! Has anyone also Heard of Je parle Allemand as a German resource? I opened another discussion for it but it has not gotten any response. Oh. to not forget. I wish there was an up to date FSI. to me drilling the cases is an amazing experience and maybe I try drilling Assimil to teach yourself. Cavesa...Memrise is awesome...you should open up a thread and let others know! Regards, Sam Edited by sampier85 on 17 August 2012 at 4:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 6940 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 8 of 16 17 August 2012 at 11:30am | IP Logged |
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You are certainly not using the course correctly if it has taken you three months to get through five lessons. It should have taken you five days.
You read the lesson and play the audio enough times that you can understand the lesson both by reading it and hearing it. You move on to the next lesson the following day. You do this for two months, replaying old lessons each day as well as the new lesson. I was holding simple conversations inside two months and was able to converse freely after five months and hold down a job in Germany. You have to use the course as it was intended to get value from it. 9 persons have voted this message useful |
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