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Progress expectations for Assimil French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| SteveMC Newbie United States Joined 4059 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes | Message 1 of 11 31 March 2013 at 11:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi All,
I just finished lesson 30 for French with Ease. My reading comprehension has improved but my listening comprehension is not very good at this point. Would it be reasonable to expect understand French radio programs when I complete this? Basically, I listen and read the translation first. Then listen and shadow the dialogue about 10 times. Then pause and pronounce a few times and do the fill in the blank exercises. Thanks 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| berabero89 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4438 days ago 101 posts - 137 votes  Speaks: English, Amharic* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, French | Message 2 of 11 01 April 2013 at 12:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm also around lesson 30 (but in the active, not the passive wave), which translates to
somewhere around lesson 80 for the passive wave and what I can tell you is that I can make out only a few words in rapid-spoken French. If the speed decreases though, I find that I can understand a fair amount of what is being said (sometimes even 90%, even though this is usually only for songs). If you're shadowing the material 10 times, I would think you're in good shape, but I don't know if you'd be able to understand entire radio programs. Hopefully emk will contribute to this one... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4503 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 3 of 11 01 April 2013 at 12:22am | IP Logged | ||
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Drop having expectations, be satisfied with your progress. If you want to listen to the
radio, just listen to the radio. My experience with Assimil is that it grounds you in reading and listening to the target language, even if it doesn't fully prepare you for anything. It's a way to make the language fun while you're learning. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| clevernamehere Newbie United States Joined 4082 days ago 6 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 4 of 11 01 April 2013 at 12:52am | IP Logged | ||
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Do you spend time listening to anything besides Assimil? While I am a beginning
language learner (using Assimil French also - on Lesson 30, too), my listening comprehension is improving at a fairly satisfactory rate. I can understand usually 40% of a tv show or movie geared towards adults, a higher percentage if it's geared towards kids. While it must be said that I took a year's worth of Beginning French at my old university 6 years ago, I can strongly say that my current ability to understand spoken French is atleast 3x better than what it was immediately after that one year of French. Back then, I would have been lucky to understand three sentences of Amélie without subtitles. Back to Assimil: I've read a few personal experiences on this board and elsewhere (http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/11/02/the-way-we-teach-mat h-and-language-is-wrong/) that state an Assimil French with Ease learner can expect to reach a B1 level of French at the end of the program. But, who knows? It must depend on the person. I say tailor your program to focus on your weaknesses while still supporting your strengths. If you want to improve your listening comprehension level, then listen to more stuff. Start with what challenges you. I started with Dora l'exploratrice et L'âne trotro. And now, I challenge myself with Fluent French audios (unscripted native recordings from France), podcasts, and the intermediate level audios from the old Living Language series. Challenging yourself is key in my humble opinion, at least challenges work for me. Youtube videos. Music. Whatever interests you. And if you can't understand everything at first, then you're probably on the right track (again, just my opinion). And also, have fun! I've found that comparing my progress to standards outside of myself can sometimes be harmful. Instead, I compare where I am to wherever I was a few weeks ago, take note of what's improved the most and the least, and adjust my methods as needed. Of course, I have goals like B1 by September, B2 by September if AT ALL possible, lol. But anyways, I think things just tend to fall into place. About 3 weeks ago, I opened up a copy of Le Petit Prince and was like, woah, I can't read this. I opened up the same copy a couple days ago and reading it was easy, almost natural. It kind of freaked me out, haha. HTLAL is super helpful. There are so many people here with different ideas, methods, etc that, as you look around, you're bound to find many useful gems. I am a beginning language learner, so please take everything I've typed with a grain of salt. I'm learning and making a lot of mistakes along the way! :) Edited by clevernamehere on 01 April 2013 at 1:00am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| SteveMC Newbie United States Joined 4059 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes | Message 5 of 11 01 April 2013 at 4:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the feedback. I'll try to put my expectations aside. I thought I was doing
okay and then I had a phone call with a native French speaker who spoke at full speed and I didn't understand anything. Sometimes I listen to a French radio station called RMC. Many of the hosts talk really fast. I understand words here & there but not too much. I do look forward to the little jokes in Assimil. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Antanas Tetraglot Groupie Lithuania Joined 4608 days ago 91 posts - 172 votes Speaks: Lithuanian*, English, Russian, German Studies: FrenchB1, Spanish | Message 6 of 11 01 April 2013 at 5:39pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm afraid you won't be able to understand French radio programs just after having completed Assimil French with Ease. Just do a simple math: it teaches you ca. 2500 words. Would that be enough? No. Add Using French, that would be another 2000 or so. Of course, there are many cognates in English and French. Unfortunately, they are not very useful in recognizing everyday speech. On the other hand, tarvos is right, French with Ease will give you a solid ground in your further studies of French. That's my personal opinion, but I believe that in normal conditions (that is, learning a language not more than an hour a day and not in a country it is spoken) it is virtually impossible to reach 95-100% passive understanding of a radio program (or any general text)in that language in less than a year. That might be disheartening for some but, on the other hand, one has to bear in mind that many people make it. They learn French. So, bon courage! Just read and enjoy Assimil and don't get into temptation to expect to understand everything they say on French radio just after first 30 lessons of Assimil with Ease (=despair). Postpone it till you have worked it through Using French. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7001 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 7 of 11 01 April 2013 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm working through various Assimil French courses simultaneously and although I'm not at the end of New French with Ease, I can tell my experience at this point. (NFWE passive wave 93, a couple trips through Using French, and concurrent trips through French Without Toil)...
I'm not a news buff. If you are, understanding the news will be easier. I may have paid attention to about 5 minutes of news per week for the last few years. So I just listened to Radio France Internationale Le journal en français facile and I can understand a good bit of it. If I was interested in the news, I could see how I am at a level where listening to the news would support my French studies. I think at the end of French With Ease, you'll be able to begin working through French news broadcasts in a way like you work through Assimil French lessons. French news broadcasts are longer than Assimil lessons, and I'm not aware of a bilingual text format for a French news program, but, because of the repetative nature of the news and news topics and developing stories, I would imagine after working with French Radio podcasts systematically for a few months, as you would do an Assimil lesson, you'll be able to listen to the French radio with perhaps not too much effort. My plans with Assimil include continuing to review the course even after I've been through it a few times. The amount of time spent on Assimil will become less and less over time, and things that interest or challenge me more will get more attention. That may be a good approach for you too, especially if you are only working through one course. Bonne chance! Edited by luke on 01 April 2013 at 7:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5328 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 11 01 April 2013 at 10:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here's some rough rules of thumb, based on the CEFR levels. These are based on my own experience, so please take with a grain of salt! Everybody is going to be different, and I'm by no means an expert at this.
A2: - Most likely level after New French with Ease. (It's about where I wound up.) - You should be able to hold a slow conversation with a native speaker, assuming some pantomime! - If you look around a bookstore long enough, you'll probably find something interesting that you can more-or-less read. You should probably read it. :-) B1: - Possible level after New French with Ease,especially if you supplement it with native media. (See tastyonion's log. I think he'll reach B1.) - Have a conversation about most concrete subjects, though it may be hard work. - Listen to science documentaries about familiar subjects. (The narrators speak much more slowly and clearly than news broadcasters.) - Good time to start listening to lots of news, if you haven't already. - Good time to start reading interesting native books, if you haven't already. B2: - Understand news and other relatively formal speech, though not 100%. - Good time to start watching a multi-season TV series, if you haven't already. - Reading should be quite comfortable, as long as the book is reasonable. - No problem understanding people when they speak to you. - May have trouble following fast conversations between natives. C1: - Should understand almost all of what you hear, including TV and fast conversations between natives. - Reading should be fast and pleasurable, with only a few unknown words here and there. First time language learners often get discouraged because they can't understand native movies or conversations between natives at A2. But it's not all that far from A2 to B1, and by the time you reach B1, you should be able to handle one-on-one conversations fairly well, as long as nobody asks you about intellectual stuff. Aim for the stuff on the B1 list, because it's all incredibly useful and satisfying, and you can achieve it quite early on. There's no point in being discouraged about not yet having C1 listening skills when you could be on Skype having really interesting conversations in French, or reading fun books! 7 persons have voted this message useful |
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