evol Triglot Newbie Hong Kong Joined 4112 days ago 28 posts - 39 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French, German, Spanish
| Message 9 of 14 01 March 2013 at 9:34pm | IP Logged |
Your explanation is crystal clear.
What would you recommend to bring German and Spanish up-to-date? Also the German with
Ease and Spanish with Ease respectively?
By the way, the books titled Wtih Ease for these two languages could be either the 2nd or
3rd, the latter of which is not desirable.
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evol Triglot Newbie Hong Kong Joined 4112 days ago 28 posts - 39 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French, German, Spanish
| Message 10 of 14 01 March 2013 at 11:24pm | IP Logged |
And, when is the version of New French with Ease you recommended me first published?
I found many products dated even 1982 with the same title. Did the sellers make a
mistake? Or How can I tell whether a book is the one you recommended?
Edited by evol on 01 March 2013 at 11:25pm
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Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5127 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish*
| Message 11 of 14 01 March 2013 at 11:44pm | IP Logged |
German with Ease and Spanish with Ease should be up to date. I'm not familiar with these two courses as I obviously never studied Spanish with Assimil (it is my native tongue) and in the case of German I only used German without Toil, which I found not to be quite as good as French without Toil, this one a truly excellent course.
Looking at the listings for German with Ease it seems it is an adaptation of the 2nd generation French-base course. It doesn't appear that the 3rd generation French-base German course has been translated into English. The same is probably true for Spanish. Is there even a 3rd generation French-base Spanish course? Maybe another member who has used them can confirm.
I think you should be safe getting both the old Without Toil courses for all three languages, along with their current in-print With Ease ones. Just be aware that you must complement these manuals with other materials, especially more advanced ones later on.
Best of luck on your language-learning journey!
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Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5127 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish*
| Message 12 of 14 01 March 2013 at 11:51pm | IP Logged |
evol wrote:
And, when is the version of New French with Ease you recommended me first published?
I found many products dated even 1982 with the same title. Did the sellers make a
mistake? Or How can I tell whether a book is the one you recommended? |
|
|
This one is it.
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Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5347 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 13 of 14 02 March 2013 at 6:38pm | IP Logged |
New French With Ease is not a third generation course - but a (slightly) updated second generation course.
In my view, as a language course, it is a superior learning experience to the out of date French Without Toil
(which is still useful, albeit quite quaint).
Edited by Elexi on 02 March 2013 at 6:40pm
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evol Triglot Newbie Hong Kong Joined 4112 days ago 28 posts - 39 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French, German, Spanish
| Message 14 of 14 02 March 2013 at 10:57pm | IP Logged |
Thank you!
I am trying to bid the Without Toil series for all 3. The French Without Toil I found
was even said to be published in 1940... I believe the commonly used ones should be
published around or after 1960. So, who knows what I am going to get with that 1940!
The With Ease are good recommendations. Unfortunately I'm not going to obtain them... I
would instead use the 1990 Made Simple courses to get the languages up-to-date.
Right now I imagine my program will be like this:
Core:
A) Without Toil + old Colloquial
B) FSI + Made Simple + Reference grammar
Using a comprehensive, though old, bilingual course together with a grammar translation
method, progress should be guaranteed. Then, an FSI for extra audio and drilling weak
points; Made Simple for up-to-date bilingual texts; and, some reference grammar stuff,
for I like to get the grammar part finished asap whenever I can. To this point, I will
probably have gain a solid grounding.
Extra, depends on progress:
c) Linguaphone 1970s
d) TYS Perfect Your series 2010
e) Living Language Ultimate Advanced, and/or Berlitz Advanced 2008
Depending on the progress, I may need extra manuals which offer high quality texts like
Linguaphone; or I will like to raise colloquial proficiency and improve pronunciation
with TYS which should be modern, colloquial and advanced. I am not sure if I will have
to have an "advanced" course before going into the field, for the core should have
brought me to B2 or C1; if I will, it should be Ultimate and/or Berlitz Advanced, as
they offer good audio materials and probably good instructions.
This program might look weird. A bit indeed, as I am going to purchase Without Toil and
old Colloquial only, but will try to make use of the resources available in local
libraries to reduce the cost.
Edited by evol on 02 March 2013 at 11:02pm
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