Assimil is a French company producing dialog-based language courses. Their materials are generally considered excellent, but require more self-discipline than the FSI Courses. Many people alter the "official" Assimil instructions slightly to fit more into their personal learning style, by emphasizing Shadowing, transcribing the audio portions of the lessons, etc. Some people find the Assimil voice actors speak unnaturally slowly during the first week or two of dialogs. During the first few lessons the dialogs are repeated twice. This is to reinforce the totally new sounds.