American Versus British Assimil Courses?

[Seneca]

An Italian friend has just learned she will need to test to B2 in English eventually for work. From the level she is at, I think Assimil would be great for her to work with until she enrolls in in-person tutoring later in Spring. I was surprised to learn there are two different English courses for Italians!



110 Lessons over 736 pages.



105 Lessons over 672 pages.

She seems most likely to enroll in a course run by some British-style English speakers, so my inclination would be to get her the version that corresponds with that and has more lessons. But I was curious if anyone knew more about the two versions and if one was of a particularly higher quality than the other.

As a native speaker of English who has spent a decent bit of time in the UK, I am genuinely surprised there are two versions!

[Speakeasy]

Hi, Seneca! This is not particularly unusual. The Assimil combinations of target language and base language are available via the Assimil website. Availability depends, presumably, on market demand.

There are two variants of English (British and American)

There are two variants of Portuguese (European and Brazilian)

There are two variants of Greek (Modern and Ancient)

There are two variants of Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin)

There are two variants of Egyptian (Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Egyptian Arabic (guide only))

There are several variants Spanish (European plus a series of Latin American language guides). There have been numerous “petitions” submitted to Assimil over the years requesting a separate, full course for Latin American Spanish. I suspect that we'll see such a course at some time in the next few years.

Your "surprise" at the existence of separate courses for English supports the oft-reported observation that native speakers, or even second-language speakers, of English view the regional differences in this lingua franca as not representing an insurmountable barrier to effective communications. The same observation is frequently made for Spanish and Portuguese. Nevertheless, if that is what the consumer wants and if that is what the competition is offering, there exists a sound argument for making the different variants available. Obviously, there are major differences in the Assimil Greek, Egyptian, and Chinese variants.

EDITED:
Expansion of the text.

[Seneca]

It still seems likely one of these courses is of higher quality. But perhaps not and it'd work to just get whichever is cheaper.

As for the main content of your post, I don't know enough about those other language pairings to compare. But I think these are rather different. Aren't Cantonese and Mandarin considered to not be mutually intelligible beyond a few recognized words here and there?

Can any modern Greek native speaker understand Ancient Greek?

Are European and Brazilian Portuguese or Latin American and European Spanish the same amount of intelligible to each other as British and American English? I was always under the impression the gap was a bit larger with Portuguese and Spanish varieties than the main versions of English. But I could be mistaken.

[aokoye]

Outside of the accent used on the recordings I suspect the main different are going to be spelling, idiomatic expressions, and place names. Also potentially some vocab differences like cookies vs biscuits .

[Speakeasy]

Hi, Seneca. My observations were in response to the “surprise” that you expressed upon discovering that Assimil publishes “variants” of English for speakers of Italian (their two English courses are available from several different bases). I listed the languages for which Assimil currently offers different variants as a matter of information. The inclusion of the Chinese, Greek, and Egyptian variants was not a comment on their degree of proximity one with another, it was merely meant to demonstrate that Assimil publishes different variants of a given language. In some cases, the variants are mutually intelligible, in other cases, they are not.

My understanding is that most language instructors would agree that the European and North American or South American variants of English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish are mutually intelligible amongst native speakers and advanced second-language speakers. Furthermore, in cases where differences in the variants do exist, both groups are quite capable of quickly adapting to and resolving any issues facing them. Should the marketplace demand courses covering “variants” of these languages, individual publishers will make a business decision whether or not to offer such variants.

I’m not sure that that I follow your train of thought on quality. What makes you think that one Assimil course would be of “lower quality” than other? My impression is that Assimil adopted a highly standardized approach to language teaching, one from which they have never deviated. While the authors of the individual courses enjoy a certain latitude in composing the dialogues, it seems to me that the publisher exercises a very high level of control over the final product. Customers might dislike a given Assimil course, or even the entire product line, but I have yet to see anyone advance an argument to the effect that the courses vary in quality.

[Loriot]

I have worked through L'américain sans peine and have had a look at the British English Assimil course.
Naturally, the American course uses some vocabulary specific to American English and the setting is typically American.

The differences between the two variants of English are not that huge and, in my opinion, both courses can be used with the same efficiency.

[Expugnator]

I have been through both for helping people make their choices. I might be biased from my preference for Am.E, but I like L'Américain sans peine much better than O novo inglês sem esforço. The British one has lessons progress more gradually with 3-4 characters dominating the storylines, but oh it's boring. It also sounds very stereotypical in the sense of trying to force onto the learner what they understand as typical British. The American one, on the contrary, aims for diversity from the early lessons. You get speakers from different parts of the country meeting up and greeting in a contrasting way for their typical accents but the learner still manages to associate them all into the big picture of American English. The lessons themselves are much more fun than in that new with ease edition for the British one. I have no say for any earlier edition.

[ilmari]

Assimil stresses in all the prefaces to its books that it is teaching languages within their cultural context. As such, Assimil English is explicitly set up in Great Britain, and Assimil American in the US. Same with Portuguese and Brazilian. By the way, Assimil also has a conversation guide for Australian English (adapted from a German book), but (unfortunately) no full-fledged Australian course.

You could have a look at their recently released apps to get a feeling of what is in both the English and American courses. The apps allow free access to the first seven lessons.