Assimil Dutch with Ease (1981) or Le néerlandais (2011)?

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rowanexer
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Assimil Dutch with Ease (1981) or Le néerlandais (2011)?

Postby rowanexer » Tue Mar 28, 2023 5:57 pm

I'm interested in learning Dutch at some point and I'm stuck between which version of Assimil to get.

I have an old "Le nouveau néerlandais sans peine" by Leon Verlee but I feel like 40 years old might be a little bit too old. However, apparently even the newest Dutch with Ease is still using this old version, which the French base has had two translations since then. The most recent French version also has more lessons (100 compared to 84).

My French is good enough to read the French base (I'm currently going through "Le portugais sans peine" but I do have to look up 2-3 words each dialogue in French), but I was hoping to learn through the English base to see similarities between related languages.

What do people think? Which is more valuable: more recent Dutch? Or being able to compare Dutch with a more related language?
Is there a better course between Leon Verlee's and Ineke Paupert's?
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Re: Assimil Dutch with Ease (1981) or Le néerlandais (2011)?

Postby Le Baron » Tue Mar 28, 2023 6:50 pm

I just looked at that Paupert one. It's more 'nowadays' in the sense of using lots of 'je' instead of 'u' and ordinary situations and also seems to have a lot of supplementary information. I actually had a paper copy of the Verlee one with English base language (it's all over the internet) and never used it. I remember answering a question about it before and in the first dialogue it has 'mijn zoon is ook in bed', where I'd have expected 'ligt' rather than 'is'. The older Assimil's tend to be more amusing though.

I don't know of any other versions. I didn't even know the Paupert one by name.
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Re: Assimil Dutch with Ease (1981) or Le néerlandais (2011)?

Postby Ug_Caveman » Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:45 pm

Le Baron wrote:I remember answering a question about it before and in the first dialogue it has 'mijn zoon is ook in bed', where I'd have expected 'ligt' rather than 'is'.


Wel nee, mijn schoonmoeder is nu bij ons thuis.

(I've restarted Assimil Dutch with Ease so many times to the point I know that lesson far too well...)
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Re: Assimil Dutch with Ease (1981) or Le néerlandais (2011)?

Postby rowanexer » Wed Apr 05, 2023 1:46 pm

Le Baron wrote:I just looked at that Paupert one. It's more 'nowadays' in the sense of using lots of 'je' instead of 'u' and ordinary situations and also seems to have a lot of supplementary information. I actually had a paper copy of the Verlee one with English base language (it's all over the internet) and never used it. I remember answering a question about it before and in the first dialogue it has 'mijn zoon is ook in bed', where I'd have expected 'ligt' rather than 'is'. The older Assimil's tend to be more amusing though.

I don't know of any other versions. I didn't even know the Paupert one by name.


Thank you for your advice! I've decided to go ahead and order the most recent one, as my motivation is mainly for talking to friends, and I think modern language will be more useful for that.
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Re: Assimil Dutch with Ease (1981) or Le néerlandais (2011)?

Postby evandro » Mon May 15, 2023 3:55 pm

It didn't get many answers, but this question has been asked once on Reddit, if you're interested!
Here it is: https://www.reddit.com/r/learndutch/comments/x9p8ak/assimil_dutch_with_ease_or_assimil_le_n%C3%A9erlandais/
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Re: Assimil Dutch with Ease (1981) or Le néerlandais (2011)?

Postby Le Baron » Mon May 15, 2023 5:32 pm

evandro wrote:It didn't get many answers, but this question has been asked once on Reddit, if you're interested!
Here it is: https://www.reddit.com/r/learndutch/comments/x9p8ak/assimil_dutch_with_ease_or_assimil_le_n%C3%A9erlandais/

I don't think people should judge the number of lessons or actual written material as 'providing more', because there's likely a good reason one has more actual words than the other. The French base one will definitely be more wordy and take up more space and need more explanation because the two languages have more differences.

The first reply in that thread said: "Dutch has rather a lot of French words in it." It doesn't; not ones commonly used in daily speech, apart from a few cliches of the type you also find in daily English such as: 'au contraire, quelle surprise, à propos. English has infinitely more French-derived common words whose visibility is evident. The ones in Dutch tend to be much more obscured and in fact Dutch has provided a fair bit of vocabulary to French, e.g. drogues, which is drogen or 'dried goods' and usually of the sort ending up powdered in an apothecary, or dried herbs. Hence its modern connotations.

I'd say if a person's strongest language between French/English is the latter they should do the English base course. If French, the French one. They cater to two different approaches. I learned Dutch through the French teaching medium in Belgium, and in some ways it wasn't ideal for me, because as a stronger English speaker I would have benefited from different explanations/comparisons - which I found by myself using English-base books. You see this sort of thing with 'easy reader' books where the things they highlight differ markedly according to the base language of the audience.
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Re: Assimil Dutch with Ease (1981) or Le néerlandais (2011)?

Postby evandro » Mon May 15, 2023 6:19 pm

Le Baron wrote:
evandro wrote:It didn't get many answers, but this question has been asked once on Reddit, if you're interested!
Here it is: https://www.reddit.com/r/learndutch/comments/x9p8ak/assimil_dutch_with_ease_or_assimil_le_n%C3%A9erlandais/

I don't think people should judge the number of lessons or actual written material as 'providing more', because there's likely a good reason one has more actual words than the other. The French base one will definitely be more wordy and take up more space and need more explanation because the two languages have more differences.

The first reply in that thread said: "Dutch has rather a lot of French words in it." It doesn't; not ones commonly used in daily speech, apart from a few cliches of the type you also find in daily English such as: 'au contraire, quelle surprise, à propos. English has infinitely more French-derived common words whose visibility is evident. The ones in Dutch tend to be much more obscured and in fact Dutch has provided a fair bit of vocabulary to French, e.g. drogues, which is drogen or 'dried goods' and usually of the sort ending up powdered in an apothecary, or dried herbs. Hence its modern connotations.

I'd say if a person's strongest language between French/English is the latter they should do the English base course. If French, the French one. They cater to two different approaches. I learned Dutch through the French teaching medium in Belgium, and in some ways it wasn't ideal for me, because as a stronger English speaker I would have benefited from different explanations/comparisons - which I found by myself using English-base books. You see this sort of thing with 'easy reader' books where the things they highlight differ markedly according to the base language of the audience.


Oh yeah, I agree. Just posted it here so rowanexer could get more replies to their question.

I personally followed the French just because it was the one I found second-hand for cheaper, and I found it was pretty good honestly.
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