App Profile: Assimil - Learn languages

floridaStyles

Rating: 1/5

One year later and the app is still clunky and weird. Take a look at Pimsleur and Duolingo for how to build language learning apps. Use your great content but with a new design!

ESci Prof

Rating: 2/5

I’m a huge fan of Assimil for starting a new language. For clarity: Assimil publishes these courses in books and recordings; Mantano delivers that same content via this and the related apps. This app is a straight transcription of the book and recordings. The convenience and simplicity of doing it through the app would make it marginally better than the book+recordings format. However, it only works maybe a third of the time the time. Most mornings, I get up, open the app, and watch the pinwheel-of-death spin for five minutes or so. Then I give up and get out the book and play the recordings from my phone while reading along. (Which is essentially all the app does.) This is really frustrating since the Assimil approach works best if you do one lesson per day religiously. Bottom line: I feel like I paid for the course in Spanish twice - once through Mantano and once through a reputable online bookseller. I regret wasting the money at Mantano. However, if you really want to teach yourself a language, I can’t praise Assimil enough.

LF Burke

Rating: 2/5

I am extremely disappointed I was very excited when I saw that Assimil had an app where I could purchase their books in digital form, but unfortunately that’s where the good news ends. After purchasing my item the site simply timed-out and the book would not download. After many attempts I contacted Assimil by text but because of the time difference has been long and drawn out. Save yourself the aggravation and just buy the physical books. It’s a shame its a good idea but the execution is a disaster.