Well, I just ordered the Assimil-Italia Latin course. Oh boy, what I am getting into here? :-0
[Note of humour: maybe it’s not such a bad thing that I’m hooked on nicotine again? After all, I learned both Italian and German while on nicotine…!]
Well, I just ordered the Assimil-Italia Latin course.
Wow, that is great! Let us know what you think of it, especially the recordings.
Definitely consider the “schola Latina” course; it establishes a regimen for your study and can keep you on track. Besides, if the same “class notes” files that I saw are being used, you’ll prob. find they are quite nifty, espec. those after lesson 50. (Ah, a little spontaneous doggerel.) I hope you like it. Latin is a great language, and it will make more than 2000 years of literature available to you. The Assimil book ought to give you lots of Italian practice, too.
. . . Nicotine does help concentration.
I’ll let you know what it’s like, Ernie.
(I’ve got it on supersaver delivery from Amazon, so it may take up to two weeks to get here from Italy.)
I think it’s great that they include recordings for both classical and ecclesiastical, but I’m not sure which would be the smartest one to go for? Personally I prefer the sound of ecclesiastical, but most people who record and upload Latin audio seem to prefer classical…
(Ah well, as a friend of mine in Germany used to say: “de gustibus non est disputandum”…! :-D)
I have only recorded lessons for LingQ using the ecclesiastical pronunciation because it’s the only one I master. I tried recording with the classical pronunciation, but I felt awkward, as if I were trying to speak Italian with a different accent than mine.
(Eventually I stopped translating lessons into Latin due to the complexity of the task and the low number of learners. Moreover, some beginners disapproved my ecclesiastical pronunciation…)
It may be slower (quite possibly it may not be), but you’ve got to love that supersaver shipping. It gives amazon.fr a competitive advantage in France, where prices, by law, can be discounted no more than 5% . . . for those living in Metropolitan France it’s an advantage, anyway.
I’d say learn the classical pronunciation, no question; I bet Michele would say learn ecclesiastical, for sure. From what I’ve heard, Italians usually have a very nice classical pronunciation, so either set of recordings will probably sound excellent.
As language learning methods go, Desessard’s Lingua latina sine molestia is quite humorous. I bet you’ll enjoy it.
de gustibus . . .
Ah, those Germans have a way with words!
BTW I notice that Assimil-Italia now has an edition of the Ancient Greek course too!
(Looks like those guys are expanding their range - I believe this only used to be available in French?)
Yes, I bought that course in May to see if I can further expand my vocabulary, and I like it, even if I haven’t listened to the recordings so far.
[Le Grec ancien] The recordings and course received quite favorable reviews from users on amazon.fr for the most part.
@Ernie + Mike
Well guys, I took delivery of “Il Latino senza sforzo” today. (Ernie is right - that Amazon supersaver shipping can be a whole lot faster than we expect! :-D)
I’ve sampled the two sets of audio recordings (ecclesiastical and restored classical) and they both seem very good to me. I would say that there is a fairly strong Italian “twang” to both of them - but IMO that is no bad thing at all. Personally I have to love the ecclesiastical pronunciation - somehow it brings the Latin right alive for me (maybe because I’m already used to the sound of modern Italian?)
The book is a softback rather than the hardbacks that I’m more used to from my Assimil-Deutschland editions - but it’s perfectly okay. The contents seem to be a very close adaptation of the original 1960s vintage French edition - even retaining those wonderfully sexy little cartoon-illustrations by Pierre Soymier and Robert Gring!
One drawback: the book seems to be pretty much peppered with printing errors; there was an errata list included in the box with dozens upon dozens of corrections. Many of these errors are quite small things (one wrong letter in a word, for example) but it’s a shame nevertheless. It would seem they didn’t get it proof-read at all before printing.
The good news is: I’ve discovered that these errors are NOT on the audio recordings, they are just in the book.
Obviously, a book can have corrections penciled in - but it would have been a real [blankety-blank] if the recordings had also been screwed up in this way!
All in all it looks like a very good Latin course, and I’m glad that I got it. (However I don’t know whether I’ll have time to start using it any time very soon - I’ll have to see about that.)
Hey JayB, I just wanted you to know that I just bought “Il Tedesco Senza Sforzo” last week. What Assimil Italia really needs is “Il Perfezionamento dell’italiano” visto che la serie “perfezionamente” esiste per le altre lingue
There can’t be an Italian-Italian Assimil course, but you guys could ask about an Advanced course of Italian in English. Just write a message in English on Assimil France Facebook page or send them an e-mail. They usually answer fast and kindly.
Odiernod, un corso Assimil di perfezionamento in Italiano c’e’ - ma purtroppo viene offerto solomente da Assimil-France e Assimil-Deutschland - allora si deve essere in grado di leggere francese o tedesco per capire l’insegnimento.
Secondo me e’ molto…(come si dice?)…“surprising” che non viene offerto anche da Assimil-UK - o almeno da Assimil-USA. So che l’Italiano e’ abbastanza…(come si dice?)…“widely taught” negli stati uniti come lingua straniera…
Per me personalmente non e’ un problema leggere i libri Assimil in lingua tedesca - ma sarebbe pure un problema questo per il maggior parte delgli inglesi o americani! (Forse e’ per questo motivo che vuoi imparare il tedesco tu? :-D)
purtroppo, “Assimil USA” non esiste, per questo motivo devo comprare i libri di Assimil quando sono in Italia (che fortunatemente ci sono piuttosto spesso in questi giorni). Sì, anch’io lo trovo “sorprendente” che non esiste un Perfezionamento dell’italiano per gli anglofoni, sopratutto perché l’italiano viene largamente insegnato anche qua nella terra delle “stelle e strisce”.
Potete scrivere qua (Redirecting...) o via mail per chiedere il corso di perfezionamento su base inglese.
Grazie per il link, Mike 
Per quanto riguarda il corso Assimil di perfezionamento in Italiano, Odiernod secondo me non ne ha bisogna! Penso che Lui parli e scriva Italiano gia molto bene. E poi lavora adesso da una firma italiana…di sicuro avra’ l’opportunita’ di perfezionare il suo Italiano parlando con i suoi colleghi, no? 
"Odiernod secondo me non ne ha bisogna! "
E ora un po’ di poesia:
Mille grazie per i complimenti Jay, ma Michele non sarebbe d’accordo con te 
Jay_B, That was quick! It’s too bad the proofreading of the book isn’t better, for sure, but the recordings sound really great. I have the French edition; if you ever come upon what might be a typo that was missed by the errata; just “wall” me. What a bargain to get both classical and ecclesiastical pronunciation. Sounds like you made a really good purchase. It for me is rather tempting to buy the recordings sans book, just to have superior recordings of a very enjoyable book; perhaps when I’m “done” with Russian. Don’t forget that the “schola latina” would provide a nice, steady, fairly gradual, “structured” approach, using the Assimil course.
FWIW, I like Italian-sounding vowel pronunciation of Latin (like this gent, who must have studied in Italy: Plinius Ep.V.8 - recitat L. Amadeus Ranierius - YouTube ).
Odiermod, this is rather a long shot, but there is this online: http://www.toutapprendre.com/cours-de-langues.asp ; however. I think that the level is at most the same as the initial Assimil Itialian course, and it’s in French. At your level in Italian you’d surely learn much more staying with LingQ. (I’ve never tried any of these toutapprendre courses, so I can’t say anything about their quality.)
And, to correct something I said earlier, the Ducos-Filippi Assimil Latin course is offered in Italian.
Ernie, I hate to correct you, but having worked with Assimil Italia, I know for sure that they did not translate the Ducos-Filippi method into Italian, because the Desessard one was better. They also told me the French were thinking of republishing the Desessard course.
Further to Mike’s last comment, the edition I got is a fairly recent issue (I believe it’s late 2011 - I don’t have it in my hand right now) and, yes, it is definitely an adaptation of the 1960s Desessard edition.
One note of caution Ernie: if you order the recordings alone, make sure that you’re not getting the audio content for the newer Ducos-Filippi French edition! (I may be wrong, but I have a sneaking feeling that the newer Italian recordings may only be available if bought as a book-CD pack?)
I wonder whether Assimil are also considering republishing some of their older courses in other languages too?
I know there are many people such as Prof Arguelles, who say that the 1960s vintage Assimil courses are generally much better than the newer ones (even if 1% or 2% of the language content may now be a little outdated.)
IMO they should consider re-releasing the older courses as a limited edition classic range.
I doubt they will republish older course. Latin was a special case due to the better quality of the Desessard course.
I agree that older courses have more text and exercises. I have a Serbo-Croatian course published in the 70s, which was very rich. I am curious to compare it to the new Croatian course when I eventually buy it.