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The Assimil Experiment: Registration

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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
99 messages over 13 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 1 ... 12 13 Next >>
kanewai
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
justpaste.it/kanewai
Joined 4671 days ago

1386 posts - 3054 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese
Studies: Italian, Spanish

 
 Message 1 of 99
01 October 2012 at 9:30pm | IP Logged 
Can Assimil really get you to a B1 in six months, or have you speaking "easily, fluently, and naturally?" How are you even supposed to use it? What are the best and worst courses? Does it even work???

HTLAL is about to answer (or try to answer) these questions, and more!

The Assimil Experiment will be a group effort, starting in November, where HTLAL members will work their way through an Assimil course in a new language, and report back their findings.   

It's not a challenge, and there are no rules per se; however, the more in-synch we are, the more useful the results will be. There is a Planning Thread with a discussion on how to run the experiment. The consensus is to use the following guidelines:

1. Start anytime in November,
   Estimated finish time: four to six months

2. Be a beginner in the language.
   (ideally, no experience; maximum less than 100 hours study, or low A2)

3. Follow the Assimil "method" of a passive wave followed by an active wave
   (there are numerous interpretations of this; see the Planning Thread for ideas)

4. Don't use outside courses!
   (Exceptions have been proposed for Anki, writing courses for non-Western scripts, and reference books)

5. Log back here regularly!
   I'll open an Assimil Experiment Group Log November 1



I'd like to keep this thread clean, and just use it keep track of participants and their chosen language. We'll keep the Planning Thread open for discussion and questions.



copy and paste (if you like):

Course:

Estimated Start Date:

Prior experience with this language:

Any outside resources you might use:

Why you chose this language:

Personal Predictions:

as of October 8:

Le Grec ancien - Kanewai
Le Breton sans peine - tarvos
Le Vietnamien sans peine - Bao
Le Hindi sans peine - Yuhakko
Le Tamoul sans peine - seldnar
Le Russe, 2008 edition - Goindol
Le Nouveau Russe sans peine - Expugnator (might switch to Italian base)
Le Suedois sans peine - Cavesa
Le Persan sans peine - Tadeo
L'Egyptien - BartoG

Norwegisch ohne Mühe - Serpent
Italienisch ohne Mühe heute - Mani
Ungarisch ohne Mühe (Hungarian) - nuriayasmin70

El Catalán sin Esfuerzo - Flarioca
El Francés sin Esfuerzo - July

French With Ease - pfn123, melkior79, slidemasterx
Chinese With Ease (Vol 1 and 2) - sabotai
Italian with Ease - Kugel, songlines (may do German instead)
Cantonese - Jeff Lindqvist
Russian with Ease (2011 edition) - Slothrop

O Novo Francês Sem Custo - fabriciocarraro


Edited by kanewai on 08 October 2012 at 9:58pm

10 persons have voted this message useful



kanewai
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
justpaste.it/kanewai
Joined 4671 days ago

1386 posts - 3054 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese
Studies: Italian, Spanish

 
 Message 2 of 99
01 October 2012 at 9:32pm | IP Logged 
Course: Le Grec ancien

Estimated Start Date: November 15

Prior experience with this language: None

Any outside resources you might use: I have a 1950's-era "Teach Yourself Ancient Greek" I found at a used bookstore. I might use this as a reference if I can't understand the French explanations in Assimil. I also have a good friend who knows Ancient Greek, and I'll be hitting him up.

Why you chose this language: I love the old epics, and think it would be amazing to one day read them in their original.

Personal predictions: I think this is going to be very hard ... and that I will probably have to do another beginner's course again after Assimil. I'm hoping that I can move on to some of the guided parallel text readers for Plato and Homer.

Other languages I'll do informally: (thanks for the idea, Serpent!) I'll give Español perfeccionamiento a shot once I finish with their basic Spanish course, probably in December or January.

Edited by kanewai on 02 October 2012 at 2:22am

1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6379 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 3 of 99
01 October 2012 at 11:54pm | IP Logged 
Course: Norwegisch ohne Mühe

Estimated Start Date: November 1

Prior experience with this language: music, tweets, some knowledge of Danish, some contact with Swedish in Finland. I scored zero when I tried the Dialang placement test a couple of months ago - now I could score more because my Danish has improved :)

Any outside resources you might use: music, tweets, more contact with Swedish and especially Danish

Why you chose this language: Because I like it and to improve my understanding of the Scandinavian languages as a whole. And because I've been able to find an Assimil course :-)

Personal predictions: I'd only do the passive wave if it wasn't for the rules. I'd be more than satisfied with just a better passive understanding.

Other Assimil courses I'll do informally: Romanian, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan.
2 persons have voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4489 days ago

5310 posts - 9399 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans
Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish

 
 Message 4 of 99
02 October 2012 at 12:44am | IP Logged 

Course: Le Breton sans Peine

Estimated Start Date: As soon as I finish FSI Swedish,
which will be five weeks from now. I suppose that makes it the beginning of November. I
am planning it to be like November 5th, but it may depend on when I actually finish (if
it's earlier I might start earlier)

November 5th for now.

Prior experience with this language: Seen it on a few
road signs in Bretagne, France, and leafed through my grammar. That's it.

Any outside resources you might use: I have a dictionary
and a grammar just in case. I might use wordlists for vocabulary purposes.

Why you chose this language: Because it's an obscure
language in an obscure family that I want to know more about. And also because I am
sure nobody's taking on Breton.

Personal predictions: I'll learn a lot and do just fine. Like with everything.

Edited by tarvos on 02 October 2012 at 12:46am

4 persons have voted this message useful



Bao
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5
Joined 5548 days ago

2256 posts - 4046 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 5 of 99
02 October 2012 at 1:02am | IP Logged 
Course: Le vietnamien sans peine

Estimated Start Date: November 1st is fine

Prior experience with this language: None at all

Any outside resources you might use: FSI for tone drills. And I'll try to use opportunities (Vietnamese coworker from today on~) where I see them.

Why you chose this language: ... somehow I ended up buying the course, when I was down and needed something to look forward to. And I really need something that has no practical use at all for me to wind down.
2 persons have voted this message useful



yuhakko
Tetraglot
Senior Member
FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4414 days ago

414 posts - 582 votes 
Speaks: French*, EnglishB2, EnglishC2, Spanish, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Norwegian, Mandarin

 
 Message 6 of 99
02 October 2012 at 1:55am | IP Logged 
Course: Le Hindi sans peine

Estimated Start Date: around the start of November. I guess 1st

Prior experience with this language: none at all; heard it here and there only for
short periods

Any outside resources you might use: A friend who can speak hindi perfectly but can
write

Why you chose this language: Out of pure curiosity. And because as I have no special
attraction to that language; I know I won't (at least at the begining) go search for
more.

Personal predictions: It's going to be quite hard to follow well as I have other
languages that I consider as more important for now (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and
because I'll also have the new Assimil Bahasa Indonesia, that I'll start as soon as I
get.

Other Assimil courses I'll do informally: As said just above : Bahasa Indonesia. Maybe
Norvegian too

Edited by yuhakko on 02 October 2012 at 1:55am

3 persons have voted this message useful



Flarioca
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 5664 days ago

635 posts - 816 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Esperanto, French, EnglishC2, Spanish, German, Italian
Studies: Catalan, Mandarin

 
 Message 7 of 99
02 October 2012 at 1:55am | IP Logged 
Course: El Catalán sin Esfuerzo

Estimated Start Date: November 15

Prior experience with this language: None, but I'm a native Portuguese speaker, who knows some Spanish, French, Italian and a little bit of Latin.

Any outside resources you might use: After the end of the passive phase, I'll start to read and listen other material. Edit: In the active phase, I'll also use a dictionary and a grammar.

Why you chose this language: I would like to know something about all major Romance languages. Besides, maybe Català will become the main language of a new european country, a beautiful one, with a great soccer team (second only to my Flamengo), wonderful beaches, nice and fun people. That's enough.

Personal predictions: I really hope to be a B2+ at reading and listening after this experiment, and a B1- at speaking and writing. I hope to visit Barcelona in the near future and use whatever I'll learn.

Other languages I'll do: I'll stop "studying" German, but will continue to read and listen a lot in this language. I'll also study Italian grammar and write something/sometimes in the Italian group of Lang-8.



Edited by Flarioca on 06 October 2012 at 3:18pm

3 persons have voted this message useful



seldnar
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6914 days ago

189 posts - 287 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Mandarin, French, Greek

 
 Message 8 of 99
02 October 2012 at 2:20am | IP Logged 
Course: Le Tamoul sans peine

Estimated Start Date: November 1st

Prior experience with this language: None.

Any outside resources you might use: Perhaps some help for the script. Although
I've glanced at the Assimil course and it appears that they do a nice, slow
introduction
of the script that would be just fine.

Why you chose this language: The script is pretty. :-)

Personal Prediction I expect I'll probably be around an A2 and in a position to
take part in a meaningful language exchange with a native speaker.

edited: because I forgot to include the personal prediction.

Edited by seldnar on 02 October 2012 at 7:44am



2 persons have voted this message useful



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