Assimil consists of a pocket sized book and 4 audio CDs and promises an intuitive method. I bought it for Romanian and read through a few chapters each day as each chapter is quite short. The book is based on a series of short bilingual dialogues. I bought the French version as there was no English version to learn the Romanian language. I also recorded myself reading the dialogues aloud and then sent them to a native speaker for review and feedback. I would recommend doing this as the course does not have any in-built method for reviewing your pronunciation and prosody.
The Method
According to the Assimil, their courses apply the same natural process adapting it to the abilities of adults, young and old that allowed you to learn your native tongue. This is that you will absorb – or assimilate – the meanings of the word associations, and will begin to link words and form your own sentences. So how does Assimil shape up to their claims?
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Strengths
Weakness
Conclusion
So would I recommend using Assimil? Assimil is certainly a useful product to supplement your language learning. I found it particularly effective for learning where to stress lies on new words and for noticing patterns in the language’s grammar. However, it comes with the following qualifications:
Update: Assimil contacted me immediately after I published this review to say that a new version of Assimil Romanian is to be published in the spring of 2014 so I suggest that you choose this version if you are considering learning Romanian and would like to try Assimil.
If you would like to purchase a Assimil course as a result of or in spite of my review, you can do so below in your local Amazon store.
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United Kingdom:
If you are looking to find language tutors or connect with native speakers of the language that you are learning, I recommend using iTalki as I have done for the last few years.