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Generations of Assimil | ||
Tags: Assimil | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4948 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 25 of 55 12 February 2014 at 5:14pm | IP Logged |
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I've used 3 generations for both Russian and German.
I really disliked the 2nd generation Russian. Too dense, less humor, endless notes. I preferred the 2rd generation but just because it was lighter. The 1st one would be a compromise. I did actually start with the first one. I did the same with German, but since I was a false beginner in German, I could spot the outdated language more easily and felt a little more frustrated about it than in the case of Russian. Again, at the 2nd generation I found annoying endless notes. I find one note annoying when it picks one noun and tries to present you the verb and its forms, plus other verbs and preffixes plus derived adverbs, all while you still have to follow the main lesson. It was really annoying for me. In the case of German, though, these notes didn't hinder my progress that much because I was already at an A2 level. Yet I liked the 3rd generation better and found it more attractive for a true beginner. You may say the 3rd generation ones have been dumbed down towards their end, but there are so many more materials out there for pre-intermediate and above German and Russian that I would treat it as non-issue. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4036 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 26 of 55 13 February 2014 at 3:16am | IP Logged |
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Though I still have yet to finish a 2nd or 3rd generation Assimil course (I'm getting quite close with both though) I actually think the 3rd generation courses are really solid and well made. Adding the review dialogs, is actually a brilliant idea I think, and technically means you get more audio, the standard 3rd generation course with 100 lesson actually is more equivalent to a 116-117 lesson course in the other generations because of the extra dialogs. Even though they're more beginner friendly, they seem overall more substantial than the 2nd generations which can look rather inconsistent in terms of the number of lessons.
Though I'm quite curious about some second generation courses, since they seem to vary so much in lesson number and length. The Hindi course for example has only 55 lessons, but I think some of the lessons are 5-7 minutes long. Not sure if this is because they're slow like the 2nd Generation Russian, or if there's just that much content. I've been using the 2nd Generation Hungarian course, which I think is a really fun course because there's tons of native material lessons starting quite early, but it's absolutely killer for such a difficult language for anglophones. I would love to have a nice slow 3rd generation Hungarian course, or a 1st generation course with tons of lovely supplemental exercises. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6987 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 27 of 55 31 May 2014 at 9:38pm | IP Logged |
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Great post. Thanks for bringing this information together.
I noticed 2 typos in the first post. New French with Ease Business French (one s) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4036 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 28 of 55 02 June 2014 at 3:34pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for catching those luke. I've updated the first post and added in the new 3rd Generation Japanese and Romanian courses.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| daristani Senior Member United States Joined 6926 days ago 752 posts - 1661 votes Studies: Uzbek | Message 29 of 55 03 June 2014 at 12:10am | IP Logged |
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For some reason, the original Assimil Spanish course in English base, "Spanish Without Toil", seems to be rather rare; the few used copies I've seen for sale have been much more expensive that the equivalent English-base books for French or German. I recently saw a very cheap copy, in good condition, for sale on Ebay, and so I bought it; when it arrived, I was surprised to see Chinese characters at the bottom of the front cover, the frontispiece, and the rear inside cover.
My daughter confirmed that they were traditional characters, and that the copy had been printed in Taiwan. (Otherwise, the book seems to be the same as the original, and even indicates publication in Paris.) I recall that quite a few years ago, Taiwan used to be famous for "pirate" editions of various books, and this is evidently one of those. Interestingly, the cover and binding are substantially sturdier than my copy of the German version of the same book, "Spanisch Ohne Muehe". As to how many of these bootleg Asian versions of the Assimil books were ever printed, I have no idea, but I confess that its illegal nature makes it even more interesting to me than an "authentic" book would have been. (If my recollection is correct, US customs officials used to search people's luggage and confiscate copies of such illegal Taiwanese reprints. In any event, I guess it shows that such "pirate" Assimil versions were in circulation long before the internet.) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Arnaud25 Diglot Senior Member France Joined 3624 days ago 129 posts - 235 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Russian | Message 30 of 55 18 June 2014 at 7:24am | IP Logged |
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Hi,
I'm looking for the recordings in mp3 of the old editions of "La pratique de l'anglais". If one of you know where to find them, send me a PM. Thanks. Edited by Arnaud25 on 18 June 2014 at 11:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Paco Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 4059 days ago 145 posts - 251 votes Speaks: Cantonese* | Message 31 of 55 18 June 2014 at 5:04pm | IP Logged |
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Do you have the book of "La pratique de l'anglais"? I would be grateful if you could tell
us more about it and where people can locate one. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Antanas Tetraglot Groupie Lithuania Joined 4594 days ago 91 posts - 172 votes Speaks: Lithuanian*, English, Russian, German Studies: FrenchB1, Spanish | Message 32 of 55 02 August 2014 at 5:26pm | IP Logged |
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There is at least one edition of La Pratique du Néerlandais that precedes the one that was discontinued lately. The later one was written by Leon Verlee. That is the same author who is credited with Le nouvel neerlandais sans peine. I have a copy of the older edition that was printed in 1971. It has no author mentioned. The first lesson is called Geen graap. In its introduction this course is described as a continuation of Le neerlandais sans peine. So, this one is the "real" first generation advanced Dutch course. There are 75 lessons. They are completely different from those in Verlee's edition.
There is also another edition of La Pratique de l'Allemand that is older than the one mentioned. It has 40 lessons. And the German text of those lessons (except that of exercises) is printed in Gothic script. On the other hand the lessons seem to be, by an large, the same as the ones in the later non-Gothic edition of La pratique. At least there is a very significant overlap. But the later edition has 7 more lessons. Edited by Antanas on 02 August 2014 at 5:28pm 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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