Assimil: Foreign Language Learning Series Reviews
Alexander Arguelles presents a series of video reviews and demonstrations of those foreign language learning series that he has found most useful in his own studies. For further information about the series, please refer to www.foreignlanguageexpertise.com
So, I am going to take the advice I’ve heard over and over again and study a little at a time, but regularly, rather than the ole’ cram method. My sponge can only absorb so much at one time.
. Congratulations on your success and great videos.
I recently bought a used copy of Russisch ohne muhe and it is a brilliant course as the prof said. Compared to ohne muhe heute the dialogues are much more substantial and move at a natural pace.
Pools zonder moeite
Good video explaining the system. I have German With Ease (Deutsch ohne Mühe heute), the 1987 edition that’s still available on Amazon UK, and it’s superb.
Prof Arguelles says that he prefers a big, connected story running through the course; in German With Ease the dialogues are mostly unrelated but I find that more fun. Every day you get a fresh, new lesson with lots of language to explore!
Can anyone tell me how far the Assimil Spanish with Ease course will take you? I already have a mediocre knowledge of the language and I am not sure whether the beginner “Spanish at Ease” will be substantive enough for me. I have the equivalent of one year of college Spanish (in the US), so I’m in the early stages of “intermediate”skills I suppose. Shall I try With Ease or should I see out a more advanced tutorial?
According to the Assimil website:
“The With Ease Series takes you to Level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.”
Level B2 is: “Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation. Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party.”
Hope that helps a bit!
I teach spanish to english , french and german speakers using this méthod in Sevilla. Just give me a call and I´ll be glad to tell you where you ca get it and help you to achieve the method.
The Assimil book for Catalonia’s national language is really excellent – a lot of info about the history of Catalonia, Catalan arts and literature, etc. In fact I think it’s pretty much THE best Assimil course amongst those I’ve used.
The current one (actually the current ones, as there are 3 volumes) is very good – it’s more like the 80′s books than the recent ones. However I don’t know what to think about volume 3, “Writing Japanese with Ease” – it’s not bad, but I think there are better books to learn kanji.
I bought Assimil method with cds to study english and I’d say that it’s an excellent and effective method for studying foreigner languages. It only needs to practise it every day for at least half and hour per day. I’ve just also bought assimil german course. I advice this course to everyone who wants to study a foreigner language.
“didnt have the filling in the blanks taking up the space on the page so you got consequently a lot more text, a lot more content”
Old books were about 200 pages. New books are 500 pages. The flll in the blanks is additional to the original content that has always been there. If you dont like it you can skip them. I think it is use full for languages with foreign scripts.
Having compared an old and new versions, i find your review bias, maybe its nostalgia.
What languages except english, french and german do they have as the learner’s language in these books? Do they exist with swedish as base langauge? The languages I most like to learn are chinese, farsi and arabic.
Can anyone tell me how the Assimil Italian program is? Also, at the risk of sounding ignorant, since it’s a French program, are instructions, etc., in French or available in English as well?
Could anyone tell me the ISBN of the second generation Assimil French books? (or where to find the ISBNS?) The ones from the late 60′s to early 70′s that Prof. Arguelle likes so much?
does anyone know what the ISBNs are for the SECOND generation Assimil books for French?
You can find English to Italian, search amazon, you can get it for less than 40usd
@thecommentmonster The are available in English as a base as well but only French, Spanish German, Italian and I think Portuguese… the rest are French, German and Spanish based.
@Siddy1200 Dude, he didn’t have to do this… show some respect will you.
I see you are a bit nostalgic of the old Chérel Assimils. I was, too. But, after having finished both the old and the 80′s german assimil, I say that the new one is much better. Yes, it has less information packed, but it is much more ordered and the learning curve is softer. You don’t need nowadays much information (there are thousands of webpages and multimedia resources for free! in any language) but rather a well ordered, easy to learn information. It may seem that nowadays assimils are …
@Chabune Hello from uz-translations
I wish I could have such a big collection…
I highly recomend Assimil… I have studied english, italian and now french with it and it is really usefull and easy…. I only I would say that a minimun knowledge of the language (some vocabulary) would help to start… if you know “Zero” it can be a bit difficult at the beginning. but I really recommend it!!
This video is IMMENSELY helpful. Thanks for taking the time to review this.
this guy is scary. he talks as if he married with those books.
Great review, thanks!
And you have an Assimil collection that language enthusiasts would jack off to.