trustmebro.reviews

Assimil

Method Strategy · Language learning · 30 mentions · 5 subreddits · discussed in r/languagelearning, r/French, r/German, r/Portuguese

Reddit take

Not enough linked mention summaries yet; the source excerpts below are the evidence.

Pros

  • Get Pimsleur and/or Assimil.
  • I often use Assimil, but I haven't used this one.
  • Há um curso de português brasileiro de Assimil. Eu fiz o curso em francês mas acho que há um tradução espanhol.
  • Assimil for listening and reading
  • I used Assimil to get an overview of the grammar and then used Linguno and monolingual grammar workbooks to review until I could use it without thinking.

Cons

  • Despite its shortcomings, I still think Assimil belongs among the recommended resources for learners but it shouldn't be used on its own, and it definitely doesn't deliver on its marketing promise. It's no "magical method" so a decision...
  • I'm a great fan of Assimil, but I always use it together with a more traditional textbook. Assimil has too little of everything, in my opinion, and has to be supplemented by a lot of other resources.
  • Assimil, being based around dialogues, mostly counts as CI with some vocabulary and grammar... I would guess you would benefit from more input since one Assimil per day is really very little.
  • Assimil books tend to use pretty formal/flowery French that sometimes feels like it's flaunting the author's mastery of advanced French language. So it might be rough at times, but you can probably make it work if you're patient with it.
  • Recommended by Patrick Lancastre in his book Sem Limité if you're a beginner, but less good if you're already intermediate.

Sentiment

22 positive (73%) · 7 mixed (23%) · 1 negative (3%)

Trust + time weighted score: +75% · raw score 70%

What redditors said (10 of 30)

Get Pimsleur and/or Assimil.
positive · u/t****n · r/languagelearning · comment · Jul 26, 2025 · open on Reddit ↗
Despite its shortcomings, I still think Assimil belongs among the recommended resources for learners but it shouldn't be used on its own, and it definitely doesn't deliver on its marketing promise. It's no "magical method" so a decision for or against Assimil should always depend on other available resources
mixed · u/M****n · r/languagelearning · Feb 20, 2025 · open on Reddit ↗
I often use Assimil, but I haven't used this one.
positive · u/s****a · r/languagelearning · comment · Nov 26, 2025 · open on Reddit ↗
I'm a great fan of Assimil, but I always use it together with a more traditional textbook. Assimil has too little of everything, in my opinion, and has to be supplemented by a lot of other resources.
mixed · u/s****a · r/languagelearning · comment · Feb 20, 2025 · open on Reddit ↗
Há um curso de português brasileiro de Assimil. Eu fiz o curso em francês mas acho que há um tradução espanhol.
positive · u/r****r · r/Portuguese · comment · Dec 4, 2025 · open on Reddit ↗
Assimil for listening and reading
positive · u/r****r · r/languagelearning · comment · Jul 8, 2025 · open on Reddit ↗
I used Assimil to get an overview of the grammar and then used Linguno and monolingual grammar workbooks to review until I could use it without thinking.
positive · u/r****r · r/languagelearning · comment · Jul 6, 2025 · open on Reddit ↗
I think I'd rather spend 300 euros on private classes, or a course that I know is good quality, such as Assimil or Pimsleur.
positive · u/r****r · r/languagelearning · comment · Jul 3, 2025 · open on Reddit ↗
I started with Assimil, a grammar book and intensive listening.
positive · u/D****9 · r/German · comment · Feb 7, 2025 · open on Reddit ↗
For established methods like Assimil or Pimsleur you can buy the course once and use it as many years as you like.
positive · u/C****m · r/languagelearning · comment · Aug 22, 2025 · open on Reddit ↗

Compare

Related

  • AJATT · related · 21 mentions
  • FSRS · related · 10 mentions