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Assimil - Perfectionnement Espagnol | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| grunts67 Diglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5113 days ago 215 posts - 252 votes  Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 1 of 9 08 January 2013 at 2:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello,
I ma currently finishing, in a little more than a month, my first Spanish course, Assimil - Espagnol. Now, I am wondering if I should start Assimil Perfectionnement Espagnol before I finish the whole active wave (I would have done all lessons in passive and the first 51 in active)? Ny the way, I will finish in any case my active wave. By the way, I doing a bit of L-R at the same time. I am currently finishing Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal (not too hard, I am surprise), I am doing a bit of SRS, I do some grammar drill from time to time, slowly (because I never thrive on that) and finally, I try to watch some movie (with English subtitles) and to write a little each week so I can finish my super duper challenge :) So would you recommand finishing the whole active wave, integrate the two books in continuation or use another method before doing this one ? Thank you 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4421 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek | Message 2 of 9 08 January 2013 at 3:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi. Congratulations on your Spanish. Reading a novel without even finishing the Assimil
course is very impressive. Both, because you jumped right in with both feet and because you are actually understanding it. Bravo! My experience is more limited than others on this site, but I might recommend Michel Thomas or Language Transfer to you. They are both good for building active skills with a language. I've been using Assimil, Michel Thomas and Language Transfer for Greek and while Assimil has helped build vocabulary and listening comprehension, MT and LT have helped reinforce verb tenses and conjugations that never really sunk in with Assimil alone. Te deseo mucha suerte con tus estudios. Edit: Added link. Edited by embici on 08 January 2013 at 3:17pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| fireballtrouble Triglot Senior Member Turkey Joined 4335 days ago 129 posts - 203 votes Speaks: Turkish*, French, English Studies: German | Message 3 of 9 08 January 2013 at 4:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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There was a member who did Assimil Spanish + Using Spanish solely. As he passed his B2
exam, it can be said that Perfectionnement Espagnol can be a good choice. Topic link is here
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4700 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 4 of 9 08 January 2013 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I always feel like there's something missing from claims like noriyuku_nomura's. Two
books of Assimil might give you 200 hours of studying, and even that would be focused on reading, listening, and repeating, not on speaking or producing the language. Most of the experts I've seem (FSI, and ILA for French) estimate that it takes 460 to 700 hours of focused study minimum to reach a B-1 level. For a lower C1 we're talking about 1000 hours. Either the test was graded on a serious curve, or n.n. had a lot of external input beyond Assimil. Even the most optimistic language learners here (where are ya, Benny?) wouldn't claim that you could reach this level with just two books. Not that you shouldn't do the book! Assimil Perfectionnement Espagnol is also on my list for this year - I'm not slamming the method, just some of the grander claims the books make. And I agree with embici that Michel Thomas makes a nice addition to Assimil. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5073 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 5 of 9 08 January 2013 at 8:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I, too add my congratulations on your hard work! Well done, or at least soon done! I'm going to differ from the Assimil recommendations. I find that it is better to go into native materials and to talk to natives as much as possible,(even better if you can hire a private tutor to help!) once you reach an intermediate stage.
I think once you reach this stage, you create your own "course". A good grammar book or a good website can supplement this well. Courses are there to provide you a foundation upon which you must build your language "house" so to speak. At some point, you have to start building that house. Relying too much on courses tends to makes one, well, good at courses, not necessarily the language. So, my recommendation, get a copy of "Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish" by Joseph J. Keenan. It's not a course but a book and a good guide to how to do just that. Take off the training wheels and delve into Spanish. Challenge yourself with a non-translated book. Get a twitter account and start following people of interest in the Spanish-speaking world. Start a skype exchange. Write on lang8. Chat online in Spanish. Make some new Spanish-speaking friends. Watch some good films or tv series from Latin American and Spain. Find some interesting podcasts to listen to. Don't just passively consume media, investigate what you don't understand. If you don't understand a construction, try to find out why it is done that way. When you live outside the TL country, where you are not immersed in the language, you have to make more of an effort. See emk's log French: Taking it to the next Level. Emk's log is simply the best roadmap available on this forum in the last two years to show (with proven results) how to go beyond finishing that first course. The only aspect of his journey that is difficult for most to replicate is that he does have a native speaker wife. His other tasks and advice are highly relevant to most language learners. I hope, someday soon, he'll write his own version of "Breaking Out of Beginner's French". For now, his log is a good substitute. If you do the next Assimil course, my advice is to use it only as a supplement. Edited by iguanamon on 08 January 2013 at 8:16pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7016 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 6 of 9 09 January 2013 at 1:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
Two points about that I think are significant. 1) The poster, noriyuki_nomura was already at C2 in French and B2 in Italian, two Romance languages. In addition, noriyuki_nomura has native proficiency in English and Mandarin, and C2 in German. Someone with a different background may not expect such an impressive result. 2) It looks like noriyuki_nomura may have been using the French base for Using Spanish, based on the name of the thread. Using Spanish with an English base has some terrible translations, which limits the effectiveness of the course. It's bad enough that I bought the French base of Using Spanish even though I already owned the English base of the same course. Edited by luke on 09 January 2013 at 1:26pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| grunts67 Diglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5113 days ago 215 posts - 252 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 7 of 9 09 January 2013 at 11:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Really interesting respond. Thank you all of you.
I will take the time to thing about my next move but I will definitively try to switch to native material as soon as possible. I might pick the next Assimil course but only as a support as I can get the audio from my local library. I am not sure about MT. I find the course rather boring. I need to find more Spanish DVD to watch. For a unknown reason, it's difficult to find in Montreal because the DVDs need to have a French soundtrack on them and I can't seem to find the subtitle in Spanish that matches the Spanish movies I downloaded so far. If anyone as any others ideas, don't be shy. Thank you. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4833 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 9 12 January 2013 at 2:20am | IP Logged | |||||
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If I were you, I would do everything Iguanamon suggested, and then do the
advanced assimil, but as a supplement to lots of other learning activities. I don't think the advanced course makes a very good direct follow on from "with ease". I think the English title, " Using Spanish" is quite apt. That is to say, its hard to learn from if you'd your not already quite proficient, and using the language regularly. It is absolutely packed with idioms, and despite many shortcomings theres nothing like it on the market. For the meantime, have you thought about fsi/Platiquemos? That is great after Assimil and could easily occupy for over a year! If you can get through that, and follow iguanamon's suggestions, you will be amazed at your progress. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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