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Annoyance With High Cost of Materials | ||
Tags: Low budget | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4710 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 1 of 33 05 October 2014 at 5:52am | IP Logged | ||
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Anyone else get annoyed at the insane prices people charge for out-of-print resources?
I definitely get supply and demand, but the costs charged for non-Spanish Margarita Madrigal courses are insane. Not to mention this new one I found today: http://www.amazon.com/Pronounce-Perfectly-Spanish-Audio- CDs/dp/0764177729/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top Starting at over $300! My favorite part Is that one of the "cheapest" copies says "Does not include any additional materials like workbooks, CDs or access codes." IT IS A COURSE TO TEACH PROPER Spanish PRONUNCIATION. Idiots... Any other great examples we can all bemoan together in this thread? Oh, and any suggested alternative courses since this is obviously priced out of the reach of normal people? 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| robarb Nonaglot Senior Member United States languagenpluson Joined 5058 days ago 361 posts - 921 votes Speaks: Portuguese, English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, French Studies: Mandarin, Danish, Russian, Norwegian, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Greek, Latin, Nepali, Modern Hebrew | Message 2 of 33 05 October 2014 at 8:01am | IP Logged | ||
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For any product, there is a typical price and then there's a long tail of extremely overpriced versions. You can
even buy a spoon for $7000 on Amazon! I'm not familiar with the Margarita Madrigal courses, but in general I find that all the major popular languages can be learned for free (assuming Internet access) if you really want to. There are the free FSI courses, there's the free version of Lingq, and all sorts of free podcasts and blogs you can use. You can find an exchange partner for free, too. Libraries are your friend; you can get a lot of things that aren't free for the general public if you have access to a decent one. If you're willing to spend $20 you can get a used Teach Yourself style book. If you're willing to spend $200 you can buy 20-40 hours of one-on-one lessons on italki. If you're willing to spend $500 you can collect a pretty decent library on top of the personal lessons. Or you could spend it all on one book! If you've found yourself in the possession of millions of dollars you could use $300 books, Rosetta Stone, and the like, but you probably wouldn't get much advantage over the frugal learner. There are really only three expensive things I can think of that might significantly help you to learn a language: -Going to the place where it's spoken -Quitting your job to get more study time -Hiring an in-person tutor for large amounts of time (but occasional online tutoring is cheap) Edited by robarb on 05 October 2014 at 8:06am 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5261 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 3 of 33 05 October 2014 at 1:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Amazon is famous for that. Sellers automatically assume that out of print books like that could be "collector's items". Everything is negotiable. I once saw a book I wanted in Portuguese priced at $250. I contacted the seller and offered him $25. He took it. Makes me think I should have offered $20.
15 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4710 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 4 of 33 05 October 2014 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | ||
You inspired me. I've never written a seller to bargain over the price with on Amazon. You may have just helped me take my addiction to acquisition of language learning materials to the next level, haha. I will let everyone know if my efforts to get the Pronounce it Perfectly in Spanish book for something more reasonable is successful. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5099 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 5 of 33 05 October 2014 at 7:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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I get so annoyed by the prices of French books. I look for paperback used copies of books
that aren't anything to get excited about. I'm not looking for anything autographed or first editions, I don't even care about dust jackets or library markings. And yet, most books are on sale on Amazon for about 30 dollars... before shipping and handling. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5261 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 6 of 33 05 October 2014 at 9:18pm | IP Logged | ||
I TAKE IT BACK!!!! I want to help you learn a language, not buy yet even more courses. Aaaaaaaarggggghhhhh! Of course, sellers can always say "no". I'll have a talk with them, :). 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5531 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 33 05 October 2014 at 10:57pm | IP Logged | ||
The cheapest way to buy new French books is to use Amazon.fr. Log in with your regular Amazon email/password combo, buy the books, and ship them. The secret is to buy in bulk: Shipping usually works out to something like $10/order + $2/book, so if you make a big order every once in a while, you'll pay only a few bucks over French retail prices. Of course, French retail prices for new books aren't that great. But you can still save a lot this way. There's also an increasing number of dodgy self-published French novels available for US Kindles, plus lots of public domain classics. And Izneo for BDs online, which is a good buy if you read fast and get the bulk plan. French publishers are conservative, and France was far behind the US in ebook adoption the last time I looked. Additionally, book prices are set by French publishers, and discounts are strictly limited by law. Everything is tied up under region restrictions, too, so you need a proxy server to buy digital media. It's a bit frustrating—but bulk orders from Amazon.fr and perhaps a bit of Izneo make it bearable. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5344 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 8 of 33 06 October 2014 at 12:13am | IP Logged | ||
Or rather they're far ahead by not allowing their book culture and beloved écrivains to be cheapened and turned into a commodity by ephemeral digital formats and Wal-Mart-like business practices. This is one sector where the French penchant for regulation has been put to good use. As to Darklight1216's question, French book prices vary widely. Paperbacks of classics and popular literature are quite affordable, and usually can be had for around 10€ (not much more than what their English equivalents cost). On the other hand, academic works can be expensive. I just paid 55€ for a book on Islamic theology. Though I have not encountered anything comparable to the monstrosity that American textbook prices are, which can be as high as 250USD for a single book. Again, we can thank the "conservative" European book industry for that. The trick is, like emk suggests, to use Amazon.fr and make a big order every once in a while to reduce shipping costs per unit. I usually buy at least seven books on each order. For out of print titles, PriceMinister.com is the best option, however you can find many new and used French books on the American and Canadian Amazon sites along with their Marketplaces, as well as on AbeBooks.com. Sometimes on BookDepository.com too. Compared to what obtaining books from other parts of the world costs and entails, French books are superabundant and dirt cheap. Don't be discouraged! Edited by Juаn on 06 October 2014 at 12:14am 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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