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Assimil Learning methods | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Roger Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6388 days ago 159 posts - 161 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Indonesian | Message 81 of 96 20 February 2007 at 12:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Farley wrote:
"Which suggests that you were a firm believer that there was one suit for everybody? I had a similar discovery myself. Why do we make such foolish assumptions?" :) With all the hype about assimil being so good, I couldn't see any other way would beat that style for language learning. For me it's not useful. I personally made that assumption because, from all the hype it sounded like the only way, how wrong I was. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Farley Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6888 days ago 681 posts - 739 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanB1, French Studies: Spanish | Message 82 of 96 20 February 2007 at 12:39pm | IP Logged | ||
Roger, I did the same thing with Pimsleur, and it was a bitter disappointment! The only way I could make it work was to use it as a dictation exercise, so why even use it all. It was a valuable lesson that I need to see and write things down to make them stick. So, I don’t think your experiment with Assimil has been for nothing, at least you know what not to do! Best of luck with other courses, I’m curious to see how they turn out for you. John 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lenkadv Hexaglot Newbie Czech Republic Joined 6945 days ago 21 posts - 24 votes 3 sounds Speaks: Czech*, English, German, SpanishB2, Russian, FrenchB2 Studies: Japanese | Message 83 of 96 20 February 2007 at 1:25pm | IP Logged | ||
I find this assumption really interesting. It was certainly true for me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Vinnie Groupie England Joined 6320 days ago 65 posts - 66 votes Speaks: English* | Message 84 of 96 19 March 2007 at 8:02am | IP Logged | ||
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Right, first of all i want to say im sorry for bringing this up again.
This is going against everything i have said before about assimil, and i feel really stupid, but i want to correct my mistakes. First off, let me just explain what sort of way i used to use assimil. I would do 3 lessons per week, really drilling those those lessons in throughout the week, It was horrible and became a chore, not fun and i didnt get anything out of it. I wouldnt take note of any meanings, and i always tried to do it with a literal translation. So the end result would be really weird and not make much sense. I would spend about 4hrs on each lesson througout the week. Basically i was doing everything wrong and was getting nowhere. Im a personal trainer, and i was giving a client his first fitness session last friday. At the end i was asking him all the usual casual questions like, "what do you do for a job" etc. We got talking about stuff, and he mentioned he could speak ,German,french,Spanish,italian and russian. Obviously i was over the moon to be speaking to a language guru, and asked him questions about how he learnt them and stuff. His main best source was, beleive it or not assimil, the worst (or so i thought) language program around. I told him about my frustraions with assimil, and he looked at me with a "are you insane" kinda look. He then went on to say, that all i needed to do was read assimil first, the entire thing, and take note of "lexical meanings" and dont try to turn it into a literal translation, because it cant. He said use a good dictionary to learn words your not sure of in assimil, and read and read. All in all he said it should take roughly 30mins to complete a reading session of assimil, in which you could return and read the italian without needing the english translation. He kept on saying "and no trying to get literal translations", "learn how the countrys language you are learning is used by them, theres no template for every language", or something along those lines. He then told me that there was no need for an active phase in this part, and i was to just keep reading, and sure enough ive done ten lessons since that time and have actually taken note of the meanings and how the language should be used. He then told me to do a listening phase after i had finished the reading phase, whereby i just listen to the audio and read along taking note of correct pronounciation etc for the entire book, im yet to try this, but i cant wait. And finally he told me to then start a phase of speaking, doing this for the entire book, and when its all done im to start reading newspapers and listen to italian radio etc. I know i havent tried the last 2 phases yet, so its still early in the day to comment, but i actually feel im getting there faster and with more enjoyment by reading and understanding the grammar. So from someone who despised assimil, to someone who now likes it. For sure its not the perfect thing, but it was me who was making it a bad course by doing it wrong. So ive posted this, to make sure my earlier comments dont mislead anyone who is thinking of buying assimil, i say buy it, with a good dictionary, and grammar book. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6739 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 85 of 96 19 March 2007 at 12:49pm | IP Logged | ||
Vince, Don't feel bad at all. Here is one of the "ten commandments" from an expert: "X. Be firmly convinced that you are a linguistic genius. If the facts demonstrate otherwise, heap blame on the pesky language you aim to master, on the dictionaries, or on this little book, not on yourself." Anything that kept you going was the right thing to do. I am also uncomfortable with textbooks or readers in the bilingual format without a dictionary - I find the dictionary really helpful in figuring out what's going on whenever comparing the translation to the original leaves me with a feeling that I am somehow not getting the full picture. There must be others who are like that too. P.S. As for completely separating Assimil into the reading, the listening, and the active phases, I am glad to hear it worked well for someone, because I've pretty much decided on my own that this is the only way I would ever use it myself. Edited by frenkeld on 19 March 2007 at 2:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Roger Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6388 days ago 159 posts - 161 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Indonesian | Message 86 of 96 19 March 2007 at 5:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Im still skeptical about assimil, but I might try the reading phase as described and just see how it goes.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Linguamor Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6414 days ago 469 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 87 of 96 19 March 2007 at 7:06pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm glad you found someone who could explain all of this to you. It is always much easier to explain these things in person than in a forum thread. Edited by Linguamor on 20 March 2007 at 7:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Vinnie Groupie England Joined 6320 days ago 65 posts - 66 votes Speaks: English* | Message 88 of 96 22 March 2007 at 7:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yeh same here, it's been a real bonus.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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