Best Assimil courses for each language [continuation].

[astromule]

Edit 31.07.15: If there isn't an Assimil course for a certain language or the Assimil course is not good (Assimil Arabic), please suggest the best courses that you have used on your target language.


Hi! Could we make an up to date chart of the best Assimil/FSI courses for each language? Following the great recommendations that were written here (http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/fo ... PN=0&TPN=1), I'd like to add my bit:

Assimil and others
Language Best course

German German Without Toil 1957, Michel Thomas.
Italian El nuevo italiano sin esfuerzo 1986./The Italian without Toil, 1957 is also very good, with more vocabulary than the '86 edition and traditional songs, although the expressions from 1986 are better for the modern day speaker, I believe.
Russian Russe sans peine 1971, Michel Thomas.
Mandarin FSI, Linguaphone.
Arabic FSI, Linguaphone.

If the name is not included, the best course for the language is Assimil. If Assimil is omitted, it's because the course is not good or there are others that are much better. For example: Assimil Arabic should be omitted. We should write the complete name of the Assimil course, that is, "with ease/sans peine/le nouvelle/without toil..." and the year, to facilitate the identification of each course.

Of course, we could choose another criteria.

What do you think?

Separate question:

(In Reddit to make a table I write:
Language | Best course
:-- | :--
German | German Without Toil 1957, Michel Thomas.
Italian | El nuevo italiano sin esfuerzo 1986.
How can I do that here?)


Astromule.

[rdearman]

You can create tables in a post. See this link.https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... &t=1151165

Perhaps EMK or I could find a plugin.

[Polyclod]

My experience so far has been:

FRENCH

Assimil New French With Ease
FSI French Basic Course
Linguaphone French

SPANISH

FSI Spanish Basic Course

GERMAN

Assimil German With Ease
FSI German Basic Course

[emk]

We're looking into tables. There are about four different ways to set it up, each with its own tradeoffs, and we want to get it right.

As for Assimil courses, I was really impressed by Assimil Business French. It's an upper level course, appropriate for B2 students, and it actually features a fair bit of full-speed conversation audio and writing exercises. It's more advanced than their Using French, in my personal opinion. Apparently Assimil has only a few of these upper level courses, but most of them have very good reviews.

[astromule]

Thank you for the replies! Should I start editing the initial post?
So for example for French we should include Business French and Assimil New French With Ease, FSI French Basic Course, Linguaphone French.
Then we could start merging all in one table.

I also did FSI Swedish and I thought it was great: basically it was the only material that I got access to at that time, besides 10 lessons of Pimsleur. Some expressions are now outdated, such as "hur står det till" or the formal "ni", but that's nothing in comparison with the material that the course gives you. I even remember some of the dialogs today, because you put yourself in the shoes of a diplomat, and you went to visit a friend, then to eat, then to work to your office... I don't know if every FSI course works like that (I've only completed FSI Swedish) , but I really liked that approach.

[tarvos]

Thank you for the replies! Should I start editing the initial post?
So for example for French we should include Business French and Assimil New French With Ease, FSI French Basic Course, Linguaphone French.
Then we could start merging all in one table.

I also did FSI Swedish and I thought it was great: basically it was the only material that I got access to at that time, besides 10 lessons of Pimsleur. Some expressions are now outdated, such as "hur står det till" or the formal "ni", but that's nothing in comparison with the material that the course gives you. I even remember some of the dialogs today, because you put yourself in the shoes of a diplomat, and you went to visit a friend, then to eat, then to work to your office... I don't know if every FSI course works like that (I've only completed FSI Swedish) , but I really liked that approach.

Almost all of them do, because FSI courses were aimed at American diplomats. Well, they still are.

I used FSI Swedish and it catapulted me to fluency in a mere few months.

[Arnaud]

deleted

[emk]

I'd also like to suggest Assimil: L'Égyptien hiéroglyphique. This is a very useful introduction to Middle Egyptian, with a few limitations: you need to put more study than average into each lesson, and there appear to be some occasional minor proofreading errors. It finishes most of the introductory material by lesson 50 or so, and then it features passages from several of the most interesting works of Middle Egyptian literature.

Many Egyptian textbooks are unsatisfactory for one reason or another. For example, Collier, et al., is too superficial IMO, and some of the popular French textbooks focus too much on introducing elaborate grammatical terminology and minute exceptions, and they put off authentic texts until very late. But if you're looking for a traditional, non-Assimil textbook, then Allen's modern classic Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs is the standard choice, and an excellent one. If you're more interested in the linguistics, Loprieno's Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction re-analyzes traditional Egyptian grammar using modern linguistic techniques.

But Assimil's course is very good, if you can read French, if you can forgive a few errors, and if you're looking for something like an Assimil course in the first place.

[astromule]

Many thanks for all the recommendations! I'll add them to the initial table. Should I also add who recommended what? Perhaps that would be useful too.
For example, for FSI Swedish we have at least three users here that recommend it: Elenia, tarvos, astromule. It would also serve as a guideline for questions. For example, if I were to learn Middle Egyptian and I saw that emk recommended it, I could ask him for more info about the course or how to use it properly.

What do you think? We could have three columns: language, best course, recommended by.

Sorry to bring this up again, but how can I set a table such as this one? http://i.imgur.com/WemcJHG.jpg
Could you please explain me how to do it, in very simple terms? Because I tried to set the table using one of the guides, but I failed.

[emk]

Sorry to bring this up again, but how can I set a table such as this one? http://i.imgur.com/WemcJHG.jpg
Could you please explain me how to do it, in very simple terms? Because I tried to set the table using one of the guides, but I failed.

I think a table sounds like a lovely idea. But we do not yet have table support yet. It's trickier than it looks, there are potentially security issues, and we want to get it right.