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Assimil for Reading Only

Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 6:15 pm
by MichaelM204351
Hello,

I was wondering if you all ever use Assimil solely to gain a reading knowledge in a language? I am considering doing this for Romanian. If I am not so concerned with the listening and active wave aspects, could I don’t multiple lessons in a day? I would love to hear your thoughts.

All the best,
Michael

Re: Assimil for Reading Only

Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 10:25 pm
by cjareck
I'm using Assimil for Mandarin, and the course is prepared for conversational purposes mostly. Even the words in dialogs are chosen to expose the learner to as many sounds as possible. If the same applies to Romanian, this would be a wrong idea to use Assimil to practice reading. I think that finding a beginner reader would be a better solution.

Re: Assimil for Reading Only

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 7:40 am
by AroAro
I used the Assimil course (new version) when I started learning Romanian in 2018. Although I did the active phase, I will definitely skip it next time I'll use Assimil - the active phase will not magically "activate" your language skills ;) it's better to do the lessons regularly and review the previous 3-4 lessons before moving on to the next one.

As for the listening - even if it's not your priority, I would still recommend to listen to some podcasts or YT videos in Romanian to familiarize yourself with the sound of the language. When you are reading Romanian texts in the future, you will be able to replicate to some extent the Romanian prosody in your inner voice and that will make the experience more pleasurable.
If you have the Assimil course without CDs, it should be no problem because the Romanian orthography rules are quite straightforward, just pay attention to the mobile stress (the stressed syllables are in bold font in the new Assimil) and to the final -i which is not pronounced but makes the preceding consonant softer.