>>6
It's not really good
It's fucking amazing. There is some French Assimil stuff on torrent sites (TPB has some, and Vuze has one you can get from their client).
If you use it wrong it won't work at all. You can change the following up a little to suit your needs, and add other stuff like Michel Thomas, French in Action, FSI, whatever you like.
Try "shadowing" it too. This is from the website of the inventor of shadowing:
http://www.foreignlanguageexpertise.com/foreign_language_study.html
Here is how you should use it:
How to use Assimil from the Dutch With Ease edition. Replace Dutch
with your target language and English with the book's base language.
Book + audio:
1. Listen to the text with the book closed. It does not matter if you
do not understand what is said. You will gain a general impression of
the sounds, hearing the pronunciation without being influenced by the
spelling.
2. Listen to the recording a second time while looking at the English
translation.
3. Read the Dutch text aloud (with the aid of the phonetic transcription
if necessary). Be sure you understand the meaning of each sentence,
comparing it with the translation as required.
4. Now read the Dutch text again, but this time without looking at
the translation.
5. Listen to the recording twice, once while looking at the English
translation, and once while looking at the Dutch text.
6. Listen to the recording again with the book closed. At this point
you should understand what is being said.
7. Listen to the recording once more. Stop the machine after each
sentence, and try to repeat it aloud.
8. Carefully read the comments several times. Examine the Dutch
sentences beign explained. These notes are very important.
9. Read the exercises. Repeat each sentence several times. The
exercises review material from the current lesson and from
preceding lessons. If you have forgotten certain words, consult the
English translation.
10. Examine the examples of sentence structure. They show how words
and phrases are combined in Dutch, which is not always the same as
in English.
Without audio:
1. Read the first Dutch sentence and compare it word for word the the
phonetic transcription.
2. Examine the English translation. Then read the Dutch sentence again.
3. Read the Dutch sentence aloud several times. Then try to repeat it without
consulting the book.
4. Follow the same procedure for each sentence.
5. When finished, read the entire Dutch text again, and carefully
examine the comments.
6. Read the Dutch text once more. You should now be able to
understand it without consulting the translation.
7. Read the exercises. Repeat each sentence several times.
The exercises review material from the current lesson and from
preceding lessons. If you have forgotten certain words, consult the
English translation.
8. Examine the examples of sentence structure. They show how words
and phrases are combined in Dutch, which is not always the same as
in English.
Random posts about Assimil from how-to-learn-any-language.com forums (I recommend you check that site out):
For me, I also read aloud along with the audio - be it shadowing or echoing. I also use the dialogs as a dictation exercise - I type up the dialog. I listen to a sentence, pause the audio and type it up in a text file. It helps with writing and spelling and it helps "internalise" the material. I do this in the passive rather than the active wave. In fact, these steps are no different than those I use for the basic courses. Is this enough? It works for me.
I also have a rolling playlist of "revision" dialogs which I begin with Lesson 8. Come the arrival of Lesson 8, I listen again to Lesson 1 - doing that I soon know what I don't know. With Lesson 9, I add Lesson 2 to the revision list. So, it runs like this:
Lesson 8 - Revise 1
Lesson 9 - Revise 2
Lesson 10 - Revise 3
Lesson 11 - Revise 4
Lesson 12 - Revise 5
Lesson 13 - Revise 6
Lesson 14 - Revise 7 (just revised once after doing Lesson 14)
Lesson 14, I re-read the notes from Lesson 7. Then starting with Lesson 15, Lesson 1 drops off the list and Lesson 8 comes in, Lesson 16, Lesson 2 goes and Lesson 9 comes in etc. There's a rolling list of dialogs. If you find you have a problem with a lesson in the revision list - a word or a construction - do a quick re-read of the relevant section in the book. No more than that is required because the problem lesson will be revisited a few times before it "disappears".
You can do exactly the same with the Active Wave as well.
Note: To reiterate - this is just my general Assimil approach rather than specific to the "Using" courses.
The key on assimil is WRITE the lesson too, not just heard it. I have studied German, Japanese and French with Assimil, and if you write the lessons after hearing and reading em till you understand it, it works. And the 2º wave its important to, so, what you have incorporated in "rules" will pass to be incorparated by the intuition, its just a mental process.
Assimil books owns
Damn I didn't know this would be such a long post...good luck with français