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Assimil Russian with Ease | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| erinserb Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6994 days ago 135 posts - 144 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 8 26 February 2014 at 3:06am | IP Logged | ||
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I know this course has perhaps been mentioned here several times, but does anyone give some input about the quality of this course...does it carry the same quality as other Assimil courses? Is it good for a beginner, who may have access to Russian video/TV, etc.?
I also have access to Modern Russian I & II with all audio, however this may be way too much for a beginner. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4052 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 2 of 8 26 February 2014 at 3:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Assuming you're talking about the newest Assimil Russian course (which just has the title Russian in big letters, and "with ease series" written on the bottom), as opposed to the old Russian Without Toil course from the 50s.
I'm close to finishing the course, and so far I've really enjoyed it. Like most other 3rd generation Assimil courses it's more beginner friendly than older Assimil courses so the dialogs start out a bit shorter and simpler than usual, but quickly get to a more typical Assimil length. There are lots of great jokes which is really helpful for remembering vocabulary. I also enjoy doing a lot of blind shadowing with Assimil and the joke dialogs are definitely are much easier to remember without the translation. My only issue with the more modern courses is that their exercises are much thinner than the old courses, and for me this makes it much harder to get familiar with the grammar ideas that are introduced. But since you also have Modern Russian which is filled to the brim with grammar drills, I think the two will complement each other nicely. Modern Russian has so far helped clarify a lot of things for me, when certain grammar points weren't fully sinking in with Assimil alone. Edited by YnEoS on 26 February 2014 at 3:45am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| miertje Diglot Newbie Netherlands Joined 3867 days ago 21 posts - 27 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: German, Russian, French | Message 3 of 8 26 February 2014 at 12:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm doing Russian with ease right now. Before starting I'd learned the alphabet and done
some work with free online learning material. I think this helped a little because Assimil dives right in and it can be a bit overwhelming (at least for me). I've no experience with other Assimil courses so I don't know about the quality in comparison to other Assimil courses. I do like it a lot and I definitely feel I'm making progress with it. I work with another (more grammar intensive) Russian course as well. Because I usually struggle a lot with grammar. Though I don't use this course as much as the Assimil. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| chokofingrz Pentaglot Senior Member England Joined 4987 days ago 241 posts - 430 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Japanese, Catalan, Luxembourgish | Message 4 of 8 26 February 2014 at 1:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm using it but so far I've just whipped through the first 20 lessons without them challenging me. I would say it's pretty good for beginners. Hopefully it will challenge me soon.
Personally I prefer methods where the grammar comes in clear delimited blocks and the quantity of input is greater (e.g. Penguin Course or LearnRussian @ RT.com). In Assimil they just start throwing short sentences at you (5-10 per lesson i.e. not many) and small bits of grammar and vocab come mixed in at their own rate. However, one thing I can't fault Assimil for is their notes explaining key words and colloquialisms, which accompany every sentence. It does feel like a quality product even if the sentences are a bit random at first. I would rate Assimil Russian higher if they didn't write so much text explaining pronunciation. It comes with an audio CD, so you just need to listen and repeat to get the pronunciation! I think pronunciation should always be learned with your ears rather than your eyes. (I've just noticed that they do phase the Roo-glish out between lessons 22-50.) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4854 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 5 of 8 26 February 2014 at 10:39pm | IP Logged | ||
That's wrong from my point of view. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| erinserb Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6994 days ago 135 posts - 144 votes Speaks: English* | Message 6 of 8 27 February 2014 at 3:59am | IP Logged | ||
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I am thankful for those who have commented here regarding Assimil Russian - I agree that I need strong grammar, but like some have said, using other sources helps. I have the New Penguin Russian Course, plus both Modern Russian 1 & 2
I haven't felt as determined to learn Russian as I have in the past couple of weeks - perhaps it is Sochi Rebound Syndrome! :-) Years ago, I learned the alphabet and pronunciation and came close to really progressing with it, but it fell off. I was always "wanderlusting" French or Spanish. I have several reasons for learning it: 1) is my Slavic heritage (2nd generation Serbian), 2) I have a friend in Petrozavodsk who I would finally like to both write and learn in the coming months, years; we have known each other since 1995. 3) I am involved in patent research (side job, as I am a librarian), and am interested in using information and learning about the Russian patent process. don't get me wrong, I still love French, but I believe I'll be able to learn it down the line. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| xMachiavelli Newbie United States Joined 3990 days ago 7 posts - 22 votes Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 8 11 March 2014 at 5:27am | IP Logged | ||
I have the Russian With Ease course along with an old Linguaphone course, Living Languages Ultimate Russian Beginner-Intermediate (the book itself is only about 8-9 dollars on Amazon right now if you're interested, I downloaded the audio separately!), Penguin Russian Course, Pimsleur Russian(only did the first 34 lessons, got bored), and ordered Cortina Conversational Russian. I may also pick up one of the older Berlitz Self-Teacher Russian books as I loved these for German, French, and Italian. All that aside the Assimil and Penguin course by themselves provide a strong foundation for any beginner and could take them to a B2 level I believe with intensive study. I read Assimil provides a vocabulary between 2,000-3,000 words, and I see Penguin provides a vocabulary of roughly 1,500 words. These are the two sources I use more than any other for Russian. Linguaphone is also great but I don't like having to bounce between four course books simultaneously, though these were developed before the age of iPods and what not so I can't hold that against them. Overall it sounds like you have some excellent sources to start your journey. The only reason I got the others is either because they were free or cheap, and just wanted something to break the monotony of two courses, plus as I said I love the older Berlitz Self-Teacher and also the Cortina series. The Cortina German I just picked up the other day off Amazon for a quarter, with free shipping... So always look out for cheap resources like this as well. Maybe you could also get some connections being a librarian. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fireballtrouble Triglot Senior Member Turkey Joined 4322 days ago 129 posts - 203 votes Speaks: Turkish*, French, English Studies: German | Message 8 of 8 11 March 2014 at 8:45am | IP Logged | ||
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I studied Assimil Russian with Ease(2011 edition), assimil le russe sans peine ('70s)
and 3rd generation German. (L'Allemand '04) Assimil Russian '11 was my first Assimil experience and it was also my first step in Russian. I think it's completely beginner friendly. Don't worry. It provides a vocabulary range about 1500-1800 words which is lower than 3rd generation German and 70's Russe sans peine. 2011's Grammar explanations are better than older Russian version. But '70s Russian introduces many more words and it's a really "dense" book with its texts, additional exercises etc. It can really bring someone from zero to the ability of handling conversations. For audio, 70's Russian speakers' intonation sounds a bit unnatural, pronunciation is clear but I had just the feeling that they were sounding like theathre/opera actors. 3rd generation courses seem to be superior in terms of audio quality and similarity to real TV/radio. None of the courses I mentioned above didn't bring me to B2 level, unfortunately. But I can say that insisted repetition countless times is compulsory otherwise you can't retain all the words. My best bet may be B1+ for '70s Russe sans peine, A2+ or low B1 for L'Allemand (3rd) and 2011 Russian. All of them are great courses if you supplement them with TV, skype conversations and extra reading. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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