Is anybody in italki using Assimil courses ? Hi, I am learning French with Assimil New French with Ease (Beginner->B2) and Assimi Using French (B2->C1). There are two phases: the Passive phase during which you listen and repeat the texts and the Active phase in which you try to translate-reconstruct the text from your native language to the target language. I used both waves in Assimil New French with Ease and only the Passive wave in Assimil Using French. My question: - Is the active wave necessary after a certain level of undestanding of structures and vocabulary (eg B2) or one should work only to target language text ? I believe that the translation from your native to the target language is something that, in my humble opinion, is inevitable at the early stages, because of the function of our memory. You have to connect the new language to something already known (native language) and I believe that in the advanced levels probably still exists but is function extremely fast that we don't realise it.