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Assimil versus US language programs | ||
Tags: Learner type | Platiquemos | Pimsleur | Reading | Language Program | FSI | Assimil | Accent | Book | Grammar | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6846 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish | Message 121 of 184 09 February 2006 at 3:09am | IP Logged | ||
My girlfriend is rather busy but I do see her now and then. She tells me my Spanish is good and when I say I must learn more so we can talk more she says "we are talking now" and my private teacher (I see him once per month for questions and talking) also says I speak well (especially my pronunciation) and he too said I'm able to get across what I want to say. I do feel I have gained progress and what I have learned I can speak rather well. I'm even able to call on the phone with my girlfriend a little, so audio only. But I'm VERY limited in my vocabulary and sometimes I still strugle with tenses. I do notice that when I intensely listen to the lessons my speech and understaning increases. When I take it easy for a few days it gets less again :) Next to Pimsleur I watch Destinos now and then, watch Spanish tv in between, listen to Spanish music and sometimes I try to read something (teletext, internet). But I don't read a lot yet. (and sms with my girlfriend :) But I understand you don't recommend FSI or Assimil? Edited by tuffy on 09 February 2006 at 3:11am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6755 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 122 of 184 09 February 2006 at 7:14am | IP Logged | ||
Not at all - both are good courses, so one can't go wrong with either, and one can benefit from both, probably even both at the same time. I was just wondering about the optimal approach in your particular case, when you need your Spanish yesterday. Given that you are already speaking and are comfortable doing it, FSI may or may not be the fastest route to increasing your vocabulary and - not to be forgotten - learning the rest of the main grammatical structures of Spanish. Sounds like Assimil might well do this job faster, and you can follow up with the FSI course, if you still need it then, to be sure you can really use what you've learned. You can even do both at the same time, if you have enough hours in the day, and see if you like doing them in parallel or prefer one over the other as the immediate followup to Pimsleur (and both level of Assimil are even available in Dutch.) However, IMHO, whatever you do, you want to add a bit of reading to the mix - reading does help drive home a lot of grammar and vocabulary, and since you already speak and have opportunities to do so, you are in no danger of ending up knowing how to read, but not speak. Edited by frenkeld on 09 February 2006 at 7:20am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6846 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish | Message 123 of 184 09 February 2006 at 8:04am | IP Logged | ||
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Ah ok, so you think Assimil might be faster for me.
I will try to focus on reading more too indeed. Maybe "the little prince" in Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6755 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 124 of 184 09 February 2006 at 10:19am | IP Logged | ||
1. I was actually even more "radical". Given your success with Pimsleur, the fastest way to beef up your Spanish at this point might well be a textbook/workbook combined with some reading materials. However, I was a bit afraid to go that far, so I suggested Assimil as a compromize. 2. Popular simplified first readers in the US market are: First Spanish Reader by Flores and Easy Spanish Reader by Tardy. I myself had used only Flores, and liked it a lot, but both books are well-regarded by Amazon readership. You can find excerpts from simplified books for foreigners published in Spain, in three levels, here. Finally, fanatic recommends the wordtheque site on his web page. You can find many stories in Spanish there, some even accompanied by an mp3 audiobook recording. I found a few for Hans Christian Andersen's stories as well as for Charles Perrot's, translated into Spanish. The only thing, some of the translations are old and in rather old-fashioned language, so you may want to try the other options first. Edited by frenkeld on 09 February 2006 at 7:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6846 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish | Message 125 of 184 09 February 2006 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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COOOL! I don't know if the audio books are full versions (the first few I saw were short) but at least I have some audio materials in the form of stories. Thanks!! And free text too I understand, very handy.
About learning only or much more with text and less audio: I don't think that would be good yet. It's due to Pimsleur (audio learning) I got this far! It has some negative points (no text, too little explaining, too few words and the lessons are a bit too long). But appart from that, audio learning is great because I can repeat it many times during the day. And it the language comes alive for me. But I still don't speak fluent enough, don't enough words and don't understand enough. And those are the things that I want most of all: speaking and understanding. But having said that: I do need more text too indeed! What you said is true: then you recognise grammar and stuff. And although audio works for me, I am a visual learner, I need to know how things LOOK. I gues I need the combination. Anyway, I'm very pleased with those audiobooks, muchísimas gracias! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6755 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 126 of 184 10 February 2006 at 10:31am | IP Logged | ||
I once had an exchange with a lady in Ukraine who teaches buisiness-oriented English at a private language school in Kiev. She is convinced that the fastest progress takes place when all the skills are developed at the same time in a balanced manner. Not that you can't learn to just speak or read first, she said, but overall it will take a lot longer than with a method that works on all your skills at the same time. I countered that all that may be true, but for an adult, especially one studying on his/her own, this multitrack approach is very difficult to achieve because it requires a lot of time. I further told her that a self-studying adult ideally needs a self-contained method that is single-track and linear, and that can be followed even on half-an-hour a day. (This, by the way, is the main difficulty I had in figuring out how to turn Barry Farber's ideas into a practical study schedule.) If I recall correctly, she was skeptical about learning a language usefully on 30 mins/day - well, we know people do it, so those language teachers don't know it all, after all. :) What I took out of that discussion, however, is that while a busy person studying on his/her own does need a single-track approach, which can be an audiocourse or a conventional textbook, it is good to avoid accumulating too much imbalance among the various skills, and one should try to rectify this imbalance to the extent one's schedule permits. Generally, what you've been doing is working well for you, so clearly there is every reason to continue with your original plan of studying Platiquemos after Pimsleur. At the same time, even if speaking and understanding is your main goal, too much imbalance, i.e., exclusive focus on speaking alone, will actually start hampering your progress at some point, at least if that lady is right. Of course, instead of changing one's plans, one can simply enhance them a bit. Adding some reading is a useful enhancement, as you seem to believe already, but I would suggest adding one more ingredient to the mix, some intermediate-level grammar reference, not so much for systematic study as for reference and gradual familiarization in spare moments. Edited by frenkeld on 10 February 2006 at 11:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6846 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish | Message 127 of 184 11 February 2006 at 10:40am | IP Logged | ||
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You're right, enhancing is a good idea!
One good thing is that I can read everything Pimsleur has taught me. Because I wrote down the transscripts :) I can't spell it from heart perfectly because I don't focus on that yet. But I can read every word I have learned. However, since Pimsleur only teaches 500 words I can only read 500 words. So I have the same problem as with understanding Spanish tv: I can't understand a complete book or article yet. And that doesn't motivate to read yet (I would have to pick up the dictionary constantly). But sometimes there was something on the news I couldn't understand. But they placed a few lines of text to sum it up and that I could understand. So I didn't catch the story from hearing but from reading. That happened twice and that was nice :) However I was more depressed about the fact that I couldn't understand it :-) I think reading is more easy for me, then you have more time to understand and you can repeat it. Anyway, I hope to continue like this: each new word I learn I will also be able to read (and thus write a little too). And one day I hope to be able to understand tv and read books. But I will keep in mind that a multitrack indeed is necessary! And enhancing my learning is something I can do, buena idea :) Edited by tuffy on 11 February 2006 at 10:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6755 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 128 of 184 11 February 2006 at 2:16pm | IP Logged | ||
An unabridged novel would certainly be too challenging at this stage, not only because of the vocabulary, but also because of the more complex grammatical structures than you have seen in Pimsleur so far. The two readers I mentioned in a previous post solve both these problems. Both use simplified vocabulary and grammar, increasing the level as one moves from one story to the next. One of them (by Flores) is bilingual - Spanish on the left side of the page, English translation on the right (if you click on the book's icon on its Amazon page, you will be able to see the first couple of pages and get an idea). So, you don't have to look up the words in the dictionary all the time. Also, at the end of the book there is a glossary with all or most of the words used in the book, so you shouldn't need a separate dictionary with it at all. I have not used Tardy's reader, but I looked at in a store once. It starts with very simply written stories, with limited vocabulary and grammartical structures, and builds up. It is not a bilingual text, but he supplies translations of some of the more difficult words right on the margin of each page. It is likely for a book of this type that it would also have all the words in a glossary at the end of the book, but I can't remember that with certainty. The thing about reading is that a lot of vocabulary somehow walks into one's head, especially if one rereads the stories a few times, so it's not like one has to sweat every word one learns or put it on a flashcard, etc. Of course, these particular readers are only two possibilities - there are many others, so if you want to start reading a little in addition to Pimsleur or Platiquemos, you don't really have to wait. Edited by frenkeld on 11 February 2006 at 2:20pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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