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After Assimil German, TY Further? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Bobb328 Groupie Canada Joined 4395 days ago 52 posts - 78 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 1 of 11 15 January 2013 at 4:57am | IP Logged |
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Having just finished Assmil German with Ease, I feel like there's still so much to learn. Declining articles, adjectives,
and memorizing the gender of nouns (especially memorizing genders) is becoming harder as I feel that this will never come automatically to me. I thought German would be easy but it's killing me. I bought a dual language German first reader and that was too difficult. I managed to pick up TY Further German by Paul Coggle for around $2 at a used bookstore but even that is very challenging because it's entirely in German except the grammar explanations. Has anyone used this course after Assimil or TY and did you like it? I've never learned a language before so I'm kind of lost on what to do next. Can anyone help? Edited by Bobb328 on 15 January 2013 at 4:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4517 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 2 of 11 15 January 2013 at 9:42am | IP Logged |
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Go on, don't lose faith, you'll get there. Usain Bolt had to fall down a few times before
he became a world champion too. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Quique Diglot Senior Member Spain cronopios.net/Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4492 days ago 183 posts - 313 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, German | Message 3 of 11 15 January 2013 at 2:36pm | IP Logged |
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The next logical step after Assimil German with Ease would be Assimil Perfectionnement Allemand, but I'm afraid it's not available using English as base language.
Are you sure you mastered GwE? Maybe after a new wave you'll be better prepared to tackle TYS Further German. EDIT: German: How to Speak and Write It (Beginners' Guides) is an old method that costs peanuts, starts from scratch and gets really deep. I have it, but didn't use it yet. It might feel dated, but you can learn a heck of a lot from it. See the reviews at amazon. It's also available as a hardcover. Edited by Quique on 15 January 2013 at 2:45pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4498 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 4 of 11 15 January 2013 at 4:00pm | IP Logged |
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If you're looking for learning materials other than Assimil that start out at a low level and have a ton of content,
nothing beats FSI. It also sounds like some reflection is in order. Where do you think you should be right now in your German studies? Are you behind what you perceive as where you should be right now? If you spent 30 minutes on each Assimil lesson in each wave, that would be a total of 100 hours of total exposure. For reference, FSI estimates that it takes 750 hours of classroom study plus tons of homework to take a rank beginner to professional proficiency in German. The Goethe Institute similarly recommends 800-1000 units of instruction (at 45 minutes each) for a similar level. The GI also estimates that 80-200 units of instruction should suffice to reach level A1 of the CEFR. I think this is a very conservative estimate, and A2 or better ought to be possible after Assimil for most people, but that's still less than most people expect--even though it's also more advanced than most self-taught students ever reach, and represents an accomplishment in and of itself. These are just approximations, and are not meant to scare you, but rather to say that it's ok to feel like you're still a beginner, because in many respects you are. Are you finding that you have no clue whatsoever when you look at your dual-language reader, or merely that there are a lot of vocabulary and structures that are still strange and unfamiliar, even while you generally can follow the gist? If the latter, that's fine, just stick with it and keep reading. Don't get hung up on getting every word right if you don't feel like it, it'll come in time. If the former, then you probably didn't fully internalize a lot of what's in Assimil, and you might benefit from going back through it again. You don't say how you used Assimil, and the instructions are notoriously vague. Everyone has their own way of using it, and that's ok, but I found these helpful: Passive wave instructions Active wave instructions If this looks more substantial than what you did, consider going back and spending more time with it. It's easy to blow through Assimil too quickly and not give yourself time for it all to sink in. Hang in there. If you stick with it and keep doing something every day, it's impossible for you to fail. You WILL learn German. The only way to fail is to give up. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4719 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 5 of 11 15 January 2013 at 8:24pm | IP Logged |
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Have you visited the Deutsche Welle website? There is a ton of really good free material for learners, all organised by level. The section of the DW website is Deutschkurse. From what you've said, I'd suggest trying the Audiotrainer for a general review, or Warum Nicht? for a more detailed review.
And for a bit more practice, try their slowly spoken news Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| LatinoBoy84 Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5385 days ago 443 posts - 603 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Latvian | Message 6 of 11 16 January 2013 at 2:30am | IP Logged |
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Living Language Ultimate German
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-German-Basic-Intermediate-Cas sette-Beginner- Intermediate/dp/060960760X/ref=tmm_abk_title_0 http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-German-Advanced-Living- Language/dp/1400023203/ref=tmm_abk_title_0 Solid Recordings, I've just the Russian Course as I would an Assimil Course 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bobb328 Groupie Canada Joined 4395 days ago 52 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 7 of 11 16 January 2013 at 2:54am | IP Logged |
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I started out only doing around 45 minutes a day and for the past two months I've been doing 1.5-2 hours a
day plus listening to the lessons during the day. I can understand the most basic of things but that's about it. I was thinking of getting that book, German How to Write it and Speak it, but I never knew if it was good or not. Thanks for all the replies! I'm trying not to get discouraged. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Valy Newbie France Joined 4158 days ago 39 posts - 47 votes Speaks: French* Studies: English, German, Spanish, Mandarin | Message 8 of 11 16 January 2013 at 4:42pm | IP Logged |
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Did you do some shadowing when you've been through Assimil ? I find it helps a lot. Reviewing each day the
latest 10 lessons is also very efficient. Did you do the active wave ? It seems that the English version of 'Assimil l'Allemand' will be releasing this year (see the post : new assimil programs). I'm doing it and I find it really good. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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