Postby ClaireB » Sat Nov 24, 2018 5:45 pm
I am a huge fan of the original Méthode 90 books. I own copies of the russian, german, italian, spanish, arabic, portuguese, dutch and chinese course. I think you could split them in “generations”, like you would Assimil :
First generation courses are available in german, spanish, italian, russian and english (I don’t have a copy of that one). The course is split in groups of ten lessons (instead
of the Assimil 7-lessons-a-week groups) with an extra summing-up lessons in between. I don’t have the books on hand at the moment, but I clearly remember the russian one is 1-10, 10 bis, 11-20, 2 bis, etc... until 75 (I think there is a 75bis, definetely a 70bis). Grammar and vocabulary is introduced in these lessons, the last 15 are only texts from litterature and newspapers. Every lesson is organized on 4 pages, target language on the first left hand page, translation and new vocabulary on the first right hand page, then grammar explanations on the second left-hand page, and exercises with keys on the last, right-hand page. There are usually 4 exercises per lesson, two translations exercises (target language to native language, and the other way around, approximately 10 sentences each) and two exercises with fill-in-the-blanks to practice conjugations, declensions, gender or number changes. Around... lesson 30 or 40 I think, there’s also a small literary text at the end to practice reading.
Second generation courses added portuguese, arabic and dutch. Same layout, but the texts at the end are, as far as I remember, only newspaper extracts, not litterature.
There is also a Pratique Courante for italian, spanish and german (like Assimil Perfectionnement), separate grammar books with exercises for italian, german, spanish, portuguese and arabic, and vocabulary books (theme-based) for german and spanish.
Third generation added chinese, and introduced a new spanish course, and a new german course (which is only 50 lessons long !). Those were called “Pratique de Base”, not Méthode 90.
The “new” german and spanish, and “old” russian, italian, dutch, chinese and arabic books are still available under the name “Language” Débutants (as in, for example, “Russe Débutants”). The grammar books are still available, including the portuguese one, even though the course itself is out of print. I think the Pratique courante and vocabulary books haven’t been reprinted.
Audio is a mixed basket: the original courses were on tape, though I have never been able to get my hands on the portuguese one (and would be very interested if someone happened to have the tapes...). Russian, german, spanish, chinese and italian are available on CD’s, but for the italian several lessons are missing (that’s from the official CD’s, not some internet version). I have the italian tapes, but have never listened to them, so I can’t say at the moment if they are complete. The arabic and dutch books have been reprinted, but not the audio (and I can’t understand why, especially for arabic...)
I don’t think there ever was audio for the Pratique Courante.
I have actively used the russian, italian, spanish (and to a lesser extent) german books. They are, in my opinion, very good, as long as you don’t mind a traditional approach with grammar lessons, vocabulary lists to learn and translation exercises. I find that the languages stick better in my mind that way than with the “official” Assimil way, but they require a lot more work, especially if you keep to the 1-lesson-a-day schedule. However, if you do study properly, I am confident those books, especially the first generation ones, will take you to B2.
They are only available in french....
9 x
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