Assimil

Assimil (often stylised as ASSiMiL) is a French company, founded by Alphonse Chérel in 1929. It creates and publishes foreign language courses, which began with their first book Anglais sans peine (English Without Toil). Since then, the company has expanded into numerous other languages and continues to publish today.

ASSiMiL

Founded	1929
Founder	Alphonse Chérel
Country of origin	France
Headquarters location	Paris
Publication types	Books
Nonfiction topics	Foreign language courses
Official website	assimil.com

Their method for teaching foreign languages is through listening to recordings, and the reading of a book with the text that you are listening to: one side native language, one side foreign language. This method is focused on learning whole sentences, for an organic learning of the grammar. It begins with a long passive phase of only reading and listening, and eventually adds active exercises. Most books contain around 100 lessons, with the active phase starting on Lesson 50. The name Assimil comes from assimilate 'to incorporate or absorb knowledge into the mind'.

The company publishes several different series:

• "Learn" series, which teach to an A2 level;
• "With Ease" series (Originally "Without Toil"), which teach basic rules of grammar up to a CEFR B2 level and a vocabulary of 2000–3000 words;
• "Perfectionnement" ("Using") series, which teaches more advanced idiosyncrasies and idioms of the target language;
• Business series, which focuses on vocabulary related to international business;
• Idioms series, which teaches common idioms;
• Phrasebooks, which serve as a travel companion;
• Slang series, for contemporary slang usage;
• "Assimemor" ("My First Words") series, which is meant to introduce a language to young children

Languages

English base

For the English reader, the following languages are available (as of October 2022^[update]):

Language	Learn (A2)	With Ease	Using (Advanced)	Business	Phrasebook	For Kids	Dictionary
Arabic	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Chinese (Mandarin)	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
Dutch	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
French	Yes	Yes	Yes	No longer in print	Yes	Yes	No
German	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Hebrew	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Hungarian	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Italian	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Japanese	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
Korean	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
Portuguese (Brazilian)	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Russian	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
Spanish (Cuban)	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Spanish (Spain)	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Yiddish	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No

See also

• Language education
• List of Language Self-Study Programs

External links

• Official website
• A Gift in Any Language at npr.org
• Assimil courses at publishinghistory.com - historical lists and images