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Assimil Experiment Group Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| 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 121 of 344 04 December 2012 at 11:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
I guess you are a supporter of Atlético-MG, isn't it? :-))
I'm using the Spanish one. Indeed, I feel some interference while trying to read aloud. On the other hand, I would guess that the French-based course would also bring some sort of interference, no way out. My main reason to choose the Spanish-based was the claim that this is one of the best Assimil courses ever. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| oruixo13 Triglot Newbie Australia Joined 4201 days ago 33 posts - 35 votes Speaks: FrenchB2, Spanish*, EnglishC1 Studies: Mandarin | Message 122 of 344 05 December 2012 at 12:34am | IP Logged | |||||
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As I see that almost all of you are a bit sick of sticking to Assimil, I would like to
tell you a little story of mine that made my day. I was also tired of going through the lessons and decided that an exchange with some Mandarin native speaker would boost my confidence in the language and so I did. All the Chinese speakers I had the change to speak to were very kind as they slow down when talking with me and explain some cultural and special points and even encourage me with phrases like "Your Chinese is very good!!" or "You have a very good accent". My level of Chinese is between crap and absolute beginner, but, nonetheless, those kind words were just what I needed in that moment. Now I have renovated energies to commit to my studies. All that to say that maybe all you need is a little breath of fresh air before continuing with Assimil so that you don't burnout. Finished Lesson 25. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| FireViN Diglot Senior Member Brazil missaoitaliano.wordpRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5011 days ago 196 posts - 292 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2 Studies: Italian | Message 123 of 344 05 December 2012 at 1:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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So I finally started the challenge! I've been doing "O novo Italiano sem esforço" for a while (lesson 23), but since I'm not a beginner in the language, I decided to go for the experiment with French - O francês sem esforço (1972).
I started yesterday, since november was a really busy month with my finals and work. I'm now at lesson two. First, a few things on the book: "O francês sem esforço" seems to be "French Without Toil" adapted to Portuguese (and by the way, the Portuguese in this book is pretty outdated); it has 140 lessons (!), over 500 pages; the recordings I have aren't perfect, but I can't complain since its copyright is from 1958. Lesson 1 and 2 went smoothly. I'm not having problems with pronounciation yet and the actors are very good. I could actually picture the pompous french madame, with a very clear voice. For the sake of the experiment, I will only use Assimil for French, and will try to stick to it. Italian Without Toil was very very good, and if French is similar, I think I'll have a good time :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4470 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 126 of 344 05 December 2012 at 4:51am | IP Logged | |||||
I'm always excited to see someone studying Yiddish! Having come to it from knowing German, I recall going through all the same realizations you're describing...except I'm not sure I ever (consciously) learned the one above. Nevertheless, I'm fairly confident that I never say "den" in Yiddish, so maybe I just have been doing it automatically. I have no idea. Since nobody I know can correct my gender errors too well, and the living language of the Chasidim is drifting towards using "di" for almost everything anyways, I never went to the trouble of learning how to get my articles perfect in Yiddish (German is another story, of course). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ayrrom Senior Member United States Joined 4345 days ago 9 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 127 of 344 05 December 2012 at 4:58am | IP Logged | |||||
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Japanese with Ease Volume I
Lessons 15-21 I share the level of frustration with many or the previous posters. Hard to stick with only one method after "learning" from my previous experience with Spanish that I seem to do better with a multiple-prong approach. I have been busy with other projects, namely I had the opportunity to spend 2+ weeks with 2 native Spanish speakers who mainly conversed in Spanish with me. Couldn't pass up the opportunity to immerse myself. I have managed to do a least a little Japanese every day however. I admit I broke down and listened to some entertaining Japanese pod-casts the other day. This really put the fun back into it and motivated med to keep going. I only "cheated" for one day but it made the difference. I am absorbing some Japanese, though not as much of the written. I am getting a feel for the sentence structure, rhythm of the language. I do think that after this experiment is over I will go back and do several things differently: 1) Listen to Pimsleur - at least the first 30 audio lessons. 2) Learn more Kanji, Kana. 3) and then start at the beginning of Assimil and work my way back through. I would use Anki daily to review what I learn, and listen to pod-casts and watch Anime for fun on the side. For me, the beauty of Assimil is that you use the written or visual, which I am stronger at, to learn the oral or audio of the language. With Japanese, the written language is quit literally a different language altogether. Anyway, will keep at it and try to update more often. Good luck to all! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4948 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 128 of 344 05 December 2012 at 4:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
Not really, I like it but I wasn't born here. I was born in Bahia and I support the good, honest team in Rio =D
I find it a bit short and less contrastive, maybe not the best ones but it is good indeed. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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