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Assimil Experiment Group Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5163 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 297 of 344 03 April 2013 at 6:23pm | IP Logged |
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How is everyone holding up?
Quick update: Assimil Roumain -- Active wave, lesson 52. 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 298 of 344 03 April 2013 at 6:27pm | IP Logged |
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I'm at lesson 49 of Russian Without Toil and I must say replacing a second wave with another edition of the book was a wise idea. Things start to get more systematic and consolidated now, especially the grammar. I'm still not comfortable with translating into Russian, but I'm starting to get used to the vocabulary.
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| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6011 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 299 of 344 04 April 2013 at 4:38am | IP Logged |
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I am still trying to work my way through Le Norvégien Sans Peine. I am
up to Leksjon 70 of the passive phase. I tried doing the active phase, but I just don't have enough time for both phases concurrently. Instead of the active phase, I have just been downloading sentences into Anki and reviewing them when I have a spare moment. My impressions with Assimil have been mixed. I have found that reading Norwegian is hands down my best skill so far. (similar to last month) My comprehension is "OK" (podcasts, news broadcasts etc...) and my speaking/conversational skills are still horrible! I wonder if the discrepancy is because Assimil throws so much new vocabulary at the student in such a short time. Thus, there is no way one can recall this vast vocabulary and "pull the words out of the air" when trying to speak. When reading a passage on the other hand, it is easier to figure out the words from context. I'm getting pretty burned out on it right now but I keep telling myself, "only 30 units to go!!" Edited by liddytime on 04 April 2013 at 5:45am 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 300 of 344 04 April 2013 at 12:16pm | IP Logged |
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My humble conclusion is that Assimil is just another translation method based book.
Maybe the best in its kind, but a left-brain method nonetheless. Applied to Chinese is very confusing due to lack of characters training. The fact that Professor Arguelles recommends it certainly make us try it. 1 person has 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 301 of 344 04 April 2013 at 5:00pm | IP Logged |
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Le Breton, lesson 70 active wave completed today.
I definitely have an idea of how to read Breton, write some sentences, have an idea of how to pronounce it. But I am not functional. Would put my level at an A2 or so. If I could supplement Assimil right now with extensive speaking practice, and some external written sources, I could hit B2 in 6 months. But I didn't have that time and this is Breton so resources are thin on the ground. Edited by tarvos on 04 April 2013 at 5:01pm 2 persons have 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 302 of 344 04 April 2013 at 5:29pm | IP Logged |
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Don't you have access to the other editions of Breton, tarvos? I assume there are at least 3 different Assimil books. Still, it's quite encouraging to think you reached A2 and you could have reached B2 in six months. I would never be able to say that of my Russian after being halfway through my second Assimil book.
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| 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 303 of 344 04 April 2013 at 8:41pm | IP Logged |
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No, I don't think I do. And I would probably need another 6 months right now is what I
meant. Mostly because I have been less consistent the past few months. I think the big step towards "conversational level" is the one that takes the most time. The learning curve of a new language can be steep if it contains many unfamiliar grammatical features and unrelated vocabulary. But on the whole, if you have to deal with an Indo- european language and an alphabet, or a Semitic language like Hebrew, then B2 in a year is a very realistic goal. In some languages you can do it in 3 or 6 months. It all depends on your background. If I had to spend my time fulltime on Breton and use Assimil as my main textbook, then I probably would have hit B2 much earlier. Russian took me somewhat longer too, I would say I am a high B1 low B2 right now (can carry on conversation without strain). I think all in all I spent like... a year and a half to get to this level, although the first three months did not mean so much. There have been some interruptions where I did less Russian. I would say that it is possible to get to conversational Russian within a year (not native fluency) given that you supplement Assimil with other materials and lots of speaking practice. But if you use Assimil on the spot while also supplementing it with loads of speaking practice and native speakers, it works, because usually the method is fun. I think older editions of books are more thorough, but sometimes they lack essentials (the Romanian one lacks a good glossary or an appendix, f.e.). Assimil taught me some things I actually have come across later in conversations. 2 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 304 of 344 04 April 2013 at 8:48pm | IP Logged |
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After a month of going through a grammar book I went back to Greek last night. It did not
go well. I had left off on Lesson 67 (passive). I went back as far as Lesson 30 before I felt comfortable with the text. I think the problem with ancient Greek, and other 'hard' languages, is that it is too foreign, and there is simply too much to cram into a slim text book, and yet Assimil crams it all in. By comparison, the old Teach Yourself is designed to take two years, and that is a pretty hard-core course. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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