Hi everybody!
Just 20 day ago I have started my Assimil course “with ease”.
My study method is that:
Listen the CD from 7 to 10 times
Repeat each phrase looking at the book
Repeat each phrases without looking at the book
Momorized all the text
Repeat all the the text (10 or 11 times) without looking at the book
After momorizing it, I write on a copybook all the text by memory
Correct all the errors
Repeat point 6)
After that I do the grammar exercice
At the end, I listen the exercice of oral comprension and without looking them, I write on acopybook what I understand.
Correct the errors and repeat point 10)
This method takes me 1 hour and half each day.
This summer, for 2 month, I can go to Paris to study French (26 hours per week= 208 hours of class).
I have also French friend and I speak with her one time a week and I usually go to Paris for 1 week every 2 months.
I tried to take a french test on Internet and my score was A2-B1. Of course I’ m not at this level (probably I’ m under A1), but I can understand most of the French grammar and speech cause of the similiarities between my native language (Italian) and French.
My question is: how long does it take to reach the B2 level in French? Thank you very much!
P.S. After Assimil “with ease” I will use Assimil “Using French”.
If it were me I would go through all the content on Assimil two or three times only and finish the book as soon as possible, in less than a month. I would focus on the content, and avoid the drills and notes which I consider a distraction. I would focus on inputting the language.
I would not do your steps 2)-11). I would only listen and read, and occasionally refer to a small concise grammar book, which you need to acquire.
I would then move on to authentic content, subjects of interest, that you can listen to and read. I would do this using LingQ since the yellow words and phrases that I save are, in my experience, the fastest way to acquire new words and phrases, as we meet them again and again in our reading. I would make sure that I start reading a novel and listening to the same book as an audio book within three months.
Continue talking to your friend and even step it up in a few months.
When in Paris don’t spend more than one hour a day in class with other non-native speakers. Spend most of your time with French people, speaking French. After 2 months in Paris you will have reached B2.
Since you speak Italian, reaching a good level in French shouldn’t be a very difficult task, especially if you spend some time in France. You just need to find the method that suits you best. Like Steve I think that once you’re done with Assimil you should move on to real content. Read books, articles or forum posts, listen to the radio or watch French TV. Italian and French are very close, therefore you won’t need to do lots of drills (in my opinion) to understand grammar patterns. You already know them! Also, most of the words are the same or almost, only the ending changes.
You just need exposure to the language.
I’ve finally bought an Assimil for French after having used a pirated (scanned) copy for some time.
What will probably make me drill it now is that it costed so much for such a petit book in a grand box!
Like many other users said previously, you don’t need to do that much.
I am a native French-speaker and I learned Italian in 2007. It took me 6 months to reach complete fluency. At the end of this period I was studying in an Italian university.
The reason why I went so fast is because Italian and French are so close that you don’t need to do a lot of efforts. The grammar and structures are at 80% the same, and there is a vocabulary at least 70% common.
I would advise you, based on my personal experience learning Italian from a French side, to have a good look at grammar first. Just get familiar with the tenses and patterns, which will not take you a lot of time since they are the same. You can do that 3 weeks max if you’re committed. Then focus all your attention on input, listening, reading and communicating with friends.
When you learn a language that is very similar to another one you already know, it is always very good to check the grammar and see if things use the structures you already learned. If they do, you can use the same “brain connections” and get fluent faster. In your case, tenses and articles enter in this category, the logic is the same in Italian and French and you can use your native Italian to get an “artificial’” native French structure.
That is the reason why when you know many languages, it always gets easier to learn new ones because your brain builds a thesaurus of language structures that you will meet in other ones. It’s like bridges between islands, just take advantage of what you already built!
