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Team Rätsel TAC’15 - TEAM THREAD

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patrickwilken
Senior Member
Germany
radiant-flux.net
Joined 4329 days ago

1546 posts - 3200 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 97 of 225
10 January 2015 at 2:40pm | IP Logged 
Nieng Zhonghan wrote:

Does anyone know whether I can achieve a good passive A1 level knowledge at the end of
Assimil German With Ease? I am considering here A1 grammar patterns and vocabulary.

I am studying with both Assimil and Germanpod101.com, but what do you think about
adding Hugo in 3 months or any of DW's courses (Mission in Berlin, Radio D Teil 1
and Deutsch Interaktiv)?

A friend of mine said I can borrow from him Lagune, Begegnungen and some other
textbooks as well.


I haven't done any courses, but everyone generally says that you'll get to high-A2, perhaps B1, with Assimil. People also say (Gemuse I'm looking at you!) that Hugo is a good compliment for grammar (you need only the book) as Assimil is a bit grammar light.

I am not sure you really need to be doing any more courses, but then that's a phobia of mine. :)

Unlike most courses, I think Assimil does get you some useful vocabulary, but it might be worth thinking about ways of trying to actively supplement this (e.g., Anki, graded readers, starting to watch native shows...).


1 person has voted this message useful



carlyd
Groupie
United States
Joined 3785 days ago

94 posts - 138 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 98 of 225
11 January 2015 at 7:45pm | IP Logged 
I was reading a thread somewhere on this site about the difficulties of getting TV shows in another country because of blocking. I don't recall where the thread was.

I received this blog link from FluentU specifically about all the ways to receive German tv shows and movies if you're outside of Germany, and thought it might be useful to the team members.

http://www.fluentu.com/german/blog/watch-german-tv-online/?u tm_source=FluentU+Language+Learning+Tips+and+Updates&utm_cam paign=b0d5ed67fa-German_Learner_Weekly01_11_2015&utm_medium= email&utm_term=0_ee7f81dbad-b0d5ed67fa-89885093
1 person has voted this message useful



Nieng Zhonghan
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
Antarctica
Joined 3467 days ago

108 posts - 315 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician
Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian
Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin

 
 Message 99 of 225
12 January 2015 at 12:01am | IP Logged 
patrickwilken wrote:


I haven't done any courses, but everyone generally says that you'll get to high-A2,
perhaps B1, with Assimil. People also say (Gemuse I'm looking at you!) that Hugo is a
good compliment for grammar (you need only the book) as Assimil is a bit grammar
light.

I am not sure you really need to be doing any more courses, but then that's a phobia
of mine. :)

Unlike most courses, I think Assimil does get you some useful vocabulary, but it might
be worth thinking about ways of trying to actively supplement this (e.g., Anki, graded
readers, starting to watch native shows...).


The Assimil course goes beyond my expectation, then. That's nice to hear.

I will definitely look for native resources soon.

Edited by Nieng Zhonghan on 12 January 2015 at 1:14pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Gemuse
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 3878 days ago

818 posts - 1189 votes 
Speaks: English
Studies: German

 
 Message 100 of 225
12 January 2015 at 12:50pm | IP Logged 
patrickwilken wrote:

People also say (Gemuse I'm looking at you!) that Hugo is a good compliment for grammar (you need only the book) as Assimil is a bit grammar light.
:P

Nieng Zhonghan wrote:

Unlike most courses, I think Assimil does get you some useful vocabulary, but it might
be worth thinking about ways of trying to actively supplement this (e.g., Anki, graded
readers, starting to watch native shows...).


If you can do more, it's usually better; but the other stuff should not come at the expense of Assimil+Hugo IMHO.
The reason being that once you get to B1, a LOT of nativ material opens up, so if you are in it for the long haul, aim to get to A2/B1 as quickly as possible, and then use readers and native material as supplements. I don't know how useful native shows will be at A1.

In addition, there are three editions of Assimil, so you could also try doing two at once.


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patrickwilken
Senior Member
Germany
radiant-flux.net
Joined 4329 days ago

1546 posts - 3200 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 101 of 225
12 January 2015 at 1:16pm | IP Logged 
Gemuse wrote:
   
In addition, there are three editions of Assimil, so you could also try doing two at once.


Can you say something about the differences in the three different editions?
1 person has voted this message useful



Nieng Zhonghan
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
Antarctica
Joined 3467 days ago

108 posts - 315 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician
Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian
Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin

 
 Message 102 of 225
12 January 2015 at 2:11pm | IP Logged 
@Gemuse

It will take time for me to finish the Assimil course as it has 100 units and I have
only accomplished 25% of it. Although it went smoothly, I guess difficult grammar
patterns are waiting me in the next 75%. I will try to do another burst this week, but
there is a lot to review. Who knows how long it will take to finish the whole course?

Aside from Germanpod and Hugo in 3 months, as you said I will work with native
materials. At the moment, from my other language learning experiences, I don’t think
dealing with native resources is really effective for my learning approach. Perhaps
only music (lyrics) can help me a little bit. In addition, I am considering borrowing
some German grammar books and buy one of them as a reference.


By the way, I am also interested to know the differences in the three Assimil series.
I have found only two of them. One is the same book I am working with (with ease) and
the other one was German Assimil for English speakers at level B2 published in
November last year. Perhaps you are talking about Assimil in the French version, oder?
If I am not wrong, the third course of the series is called “Assimil German:
Perfectionnement Allemand” which aims you to the level C1, but it is not available in
English yet.
1 person has voted this message useful



patrickwilken
Senior Member
Germany
radiant-flux.net
Joined 4329 days ago

1546 posts - 3200 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 103 of 225
12 January 2015 at 2:57pm | IP Logged 
Nieng Zhonghan wrote:
If I am not wrong, the third course of the series is called “Assimil German:
Perfectionnement Allemand” which aims you to the level C1, but it is not available in
English yet.


I find it hard to believe *any* course gets you much beyond B1, as the big stumbling block is always going to be vocabulary, not grammar.

I know I am a bit extreme here, but I think you are much better off doing one (or two) basic courses, and getting into native materials as soon as possible, then later start writing and fill in the gaps you have in grammar that become apparent when writing then.

I see this a lot in Berlin where expats go to language schools, and am regularly told by participants they are B2 or C1 level, but they have never read a book or could not watch a movie without subtitles.
3 persons have voted this message useful



WingSuet
Triglot
Senior Member
Sweden
Joined 5147 days ago

169 posts - 211 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English, German
Studies: Cantonese

 
 Message 104 of 225
12 January 2015 at 3:05pm | IP Logged 
patrickwilken wrote:
Nieng Zhonghan wrote:
If I am not wrong, the third course of
the series is called “Assimil German:
Perfectionnement Allemand” which aims you to the level C1, but it is not available in
English yet.


I find it hard to believe *any* course gets you much beyond B1, as the big stumbling
block is always going to be vocabulary, not grammar.

I know I am a bit extreme here, but I think you are much better off doing one (or two)
basic courses, and getting into native materials as soon as possible, then later start
writing and fill in the gaps you have in grammar that become apparent when writing
then.

I see this a lot in Berlin where expats go to language schools, and am regularly told
by participants they are B2 or C1 level, but they have never read a book or could not
watch a movie without subtitles.


I see what you mean and I tend to agree. Many course books focus on vocabulary for
only a few situations and when you find yourself in another situation, suddenly you
can't say anything. However, I have no experience of using Assimil, so I can't judge
its contents, it might be a great resource. But I also know that even though I have
read native books from a certain genre and have learned a lot of vocabulary from it,
simply reading something from a different genre might cause a lot of trouble, since
I'm not used to the kind of vocabulary used in that genre.


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