Assimil "15 volume" Editions?

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Speakeasy
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Assimil "15 volume" Editions?

Postby Speakeasy » Wed Jul 17, 2019 1:33 pm

During my relentless searching of the internet for language-learning materials, I recently came across a 15 volume edition of "Assimil le néerlandais sans peine" which, from the images below, appears to be a contemporary publication. The 15 volumes are accompanied by a CD containing mp3 files. The height and width of the books seem to correspond to those of the regular Assimil books. However, it is clear that the combined thickness of the entire set of hardbound books exceeds that of the customary single volume Assimil course manuals by a large margin.
Assimil san peine (15 volumes) 1.JPG

Assimil san peine (15 volumes) 2.JPG

Assimil san peine (15 volumes) 3.JPG

I have not found any references to this edition on the Assimil website. Does anyone have any information concerning them? For example, do they contain more dialogues, exercises, and audio recordings than do the regular editions? Are there other languages in the series?

EDITED:
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AnthonyLauder
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Re: Assimil "15 volume" Editions?

Postby AnthonyLauder » Wed Jul 17, 2019 4:16 pm

This series has certainly caught my interest. Like you, however, I have found almost nothing about them. I found a few copies on various second hand book sites, some of which claimed they were dated from the year 2000, and are now "rare" and "hard to find". Another site claimed they are from 2010. Yet another site claimed they were specifically from the Belgian branch of Assimil. However, the details were so sparse, that I am not sure how accurate any of those morsels are.

Here, for example, are details of one volume on a randomly chosen site: https://bib.henallux.be/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=567296
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David1917
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Re: Assimil "15 volume" Editions?

Postby David1917 » Wed Jul 17, 2019 4:19 pm

I wonder if it's a library edition, so that people don't borrow a book for 6 months at a time, but rather each for only a couple weeks at a time?
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Speakeasy
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Re: Assimil "15 volume" Editions?

Postby Speakeasy » Wed Jul 17, 2019 5:11 pm

@AnthonyLauder and @David1917, thank you very much for your comments!

Hmm, the thought of a library edition had not crossed my mind. However, the annotations “CD mp3 inclus dans chaque fascicule” and “Accompagnement: 1 CD” suggest that the audio recordings were grouped which would have complicated the lending of the materials by volume. Qui sait?*

As for restricting the sales of this edition to Belgium, yes, this might have been part of a test marketing campaign for a new product the response to which was judged not worth pursuing.

The link indicates that the author was Léon Verlée and that the course was is divided in 84 lessons. This corresponds to my 1989 edition (reprinted in 2007) of Dutch With Ease. Assuming that the individual volumes contain six lessons plus the review section, for a total of seven per book, this would yield 84 / 7 = 12 books. I would imagine that the additional three volumes contain the instructions for use, the glossary, and the summary of grammar. As the link might disappear, I have attached an image of the description therein …
Assimil 15 volumes (84 leçons).JPG


*NOTES:
Qui sait? = Who knows?

EDITED:
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Last edited by Speakeasy on Wed Jul 17, 2019 5:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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David1917
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Re: Assimil "15 volume" Editions?

Postby David1917 » Wed Jul 17, 2019 5:26 pm

Well, that next line "21 Modules Partages" could explain the other 3 books at 7 per volume. Extra Assimil content?

Each book probably contains in it a title page, copyright page, table of contents, amply spaced lessons, an index, glossary, grammar table, etc; which would explain the considerably large number of pages due to having to reprint all that material. Anyone venture to contact Assimil for details?
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Speakeasy
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Re: Assimil "15 volume" Editions?

Postby Speakeasy » Wed Jul 17, 2019 5:30 pm

@David1917, yes, perhaps there was additional content, after all. The only way to be certain would be to purchase a used copy ... you NEED to add this to your collection!
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AnthonyLauder
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Re: Assimil "15 volume" Editions?

Postby AnthonyLauder » Wed Jul 17, 2019 5:45 pm

I have found another used set of all 15 volumes for sale, with confirmation that they are from the year 2010.

Assimil.png
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Speakeasy
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Re: Assimil "15 volume" Editions?

Postby Speakeasy » Wed Jul 17, 2019 5:52 pm

150 euros? Ouch! Still, I will admit to having disbursed greater sums, which no one in their right mind would spend, in my obsessive acquisition of language-learning vintage materials. There is an offer on the 2ememain website for an incomplete (14 volume) set for 20 euros.
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Re: Assimil "15 volume" Editions?

Postby neumanc » Wed Jul 17, 2019 9:54 pm

Speakeasy wrote:The link indicates that the author was Léon Verlée and that the course was is divided in 84 lessons. This corresponds to my 1989 edition (reprinted in 2007) of Dutch With Ease. Assuming that the individual volumes contain six lessons plus the review section, for a total of seven per book, this would yield 84 / 7 = 12 books. I would imagine that the additional three volumes contain the instructions for use, the glossary, and the summary of grammar.
It is quite unlikely, I think, that Assimil produced a "Super-Assimil"-course with lots and lots of dialogues that nobody has heard of up to today, is it not? Now that we know that Leon Verlée is the author and that the course has 84 lessons, we can but surmise that this is a "stretched" version of the book "Assimil Le nouveau néerlandais sans peine". By the way, the first of the 15 volumes has 31 pages. If we assume that also the other volumes have a similar pagecount, we get 15 * 31 pages = 465 pages in total. My German edition of this course ("Niederländisch ohne Mühe heute") has 467 pages, the French version will be in the same range. Case closed, I would say.
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