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New Assimil Books 2014 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| mra16 Triglot Newbie United States Joined 4068 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2, Japanese Studies: Russian | Message 97 of 102 25 November 2014 at 10:25am | IP Logged |
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Has anyone tried the new Assimil Italian (French edition) that came out this year? How different is that course from
the Italian with Ease that is already in English? http://www.amazon.com/Italian-Assimil-Language-Learning- Programs/dp/270051064X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top vs. http://www.amazon.com/Assimil-Italien-italien-francais-Itali an/dp/2700517946/ref=sr_1_7? ie=UTF8&qid=1416907492&sr=8-7&keywords=assimil+l%27italien Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| seldnar Senior Member United States Joined 6928 days ago 189 posts - 287 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, French, Greek | Message 98 of 102 26 November 2014 at 6:33am | IP Logged |
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I just started this week. I like it a lot better than Italian with Ease. Italian with
Ease always made me think of a tourist phrase book--a really good phrase books, mind you. It bored me however, probably because it seemed every chapter was about the same people; because of this, I never finished the book. The new Italien so far reminds me of the French or German with Ease. The lessons seem to be all little vignettes with changing characters, or no specified persons at all. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| caracao Triglot Groupie France Joined 4916 days ago 53 posts - 84 votes Speaks: French*, English, Italian Studies: German | Message 99 of 102 07 December 2014 at 11:56pm | IP Logged |
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They just changed some dialogs for the 2014 Italian edition. It is not that different from the 2004 edition. Without the grammar part it is only 15 pages thicker. Don't buy it if you got the 2004 edition. They added more colours in the grammar lessons, etc.
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| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7001 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 100 of 102 08 December 2014 at 1:48am | IP Logged |
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One thing I miss in Assimil courses is a L2/L1 vocabulary listing in the back of the book. Some courses like New French with Ease and Business French have L1/L2, which is better than nothing, but not what I'm usually looking for. If you're trying to find a good sentence for an Anki word, an L2/L1 listing in your courses would help.
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| jbadg76421 Groupie United States Joined 4184 days ago 51 posts - 92 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, French, Esperanto | Message 101 of 102 14 December 2014 at 1:27pm | IP Logged |
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I received Assimil Le Khmer two days ago, and wanted to share my first impressions of the course.
First of all, I was very exctited that Assimil decided to publish a course for Khmer. I have wanted to learn Khmer for some time, and I hope to even one day travel to Cambodia. I even learned French via Assimil just to be able to access courses like this. My first reaction upon opening the box was surprise at how thick the book is. Including the appendices, it's 822 pages long. The length isn't due to the number of lessons, there are 100, but rather to the lengthy appendices, which cover grammar, the Khmer writing system (including charts showing how to form the letters by hand),a map of Cambodia, info on the ethnic minorities within the country, a glossary of all the vocab in the book (French-Khmer, Khmer-French), and a bibliography for further study. The beginning of the book also has an interesting introduction to the Khmer language and a brief pronunciation guide. All in all, it seems like Assimil really put a lot of effort into this course, and the authors, Michel Rethy Antelme and Hélène Nut seem very passionate about the Khmer language and Cambodian culture in general. The lessons start out very small and build progressively. The first lesson, for example, contains a dialogue of only two lines. The second dialogue consists of four lines. I am actually grateful for this, because I had to listen to the first dialogue repeadly yesterday on my phone in order to get it right. Khmer is indeed a much more exotic language than I had expected. The dialogues are written in the Khmer script along with a transcription underneath each line. The French translation is opposite, along with a literal word-for-word translation in parentheses. After the dialogues are the usual exercises (translate and fill-in-the-blank). I can't comment on the audio yet because I haven't had a chance to play it for a native speaker, but I plan on doing so as soon as possible. To me, it seems clear and well-recorded. The speakers have pleasant voices. The dialogue is repeated twice, the first time at "full" speed (it sounds to me like a medium pace, but again I'll have to defer to my native speaker friend) and the second time at a much slower speed, in order to allow the student to repeat each line out loud. Since this is my first introduction to Khmer, and since I've barely started the course, I can't really say with any certainty how far this course will take me. Since the language is more exotic than the two I have previously studied (French and German), each lesson takes me longer to complete than the time I needed with Assimil French With Ease or German With Ease. I also try to spend time after each lesson working on the script, copying out each new letter that I come across in the dialogues, another time consuming task. But I believe it's best to learn the script early rather than rely on the transcription. I am very excited to see where this course takes me. I know Khmer will take me far longer to learn than French or German, but if I have anywhere near the same success with Assimil Le Khmer that I had with the previous Assimil courses I've used, I think within 5 or 6 months I'll have a solid foundation to build on. Edited by jbadg76421 on 14 December 2014 at 1:29pm 15 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4962 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 102 of 102 15 December 2014 at 8:07pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you for the detailed review on Assimil Khmer, it was quite inspiring! Nice to see that even at this time of dumbing down courses they managed to release something more old-school.
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