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Cool-looking language books | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5348 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes  Speaks: Spanish* | Message 9 of 31 18 April 2013 at 6:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ahh, books are so beautiful and noble. I'll post a picture later.
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| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6064 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical) | Message 10 of 31 19 April 2013 at 7:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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An aunt of mine had a collection of language learning books for German, bought in the thirties or forties.
The cover was some kind of yellow leather. They were in German only, and you could only read the beginning, since the rest was in Fraktur (Gothic script). As a kid, I remember thinking that German ought to be an exotic, mysterious language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Onrust Newbie United States Joined 4422 days ago 14 posts - 42 votes Studies: German | Message 11 of 31 19 April 2013 at 10:11pm | IP Logged | ||
I wish I could read Fraktur more fluidly. So many of the German readers that have entered the public domain are printed in Fraktur. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6275 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 12 of 31 11 May 2013 at 9:53am | IP Logged | ||
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They look good, and old does not mean bad or useless, but I would go with the content of the book rather than its outward appearance. It is interesting how book design has changed over the years, and not necessarily for the better.
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| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4831 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 13 of 31 11 May 2013 at 10:12am | IP Logged | ||
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The OP has reminded me how design from a previous era was often superior to what we
have today, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the advances in technology. Perhaps it was because in the past, they had to "do more with less", whereas today people can throw technology at the task, cheaply, regardless of taste, good design, or sometimes even basic legibility. (One of my pet peeves is indiscriminate use of colour, and, e.g. printing black text on a dark colour background, which I find almost illegible). And quite often the "design" of a page is simply too "noisy". There is too much going on in their attempt to be "modern" and "attractive". I think because use of colour in the past was quite limited, they had to do the best they could with black and white, hence some of the amazing woodcuts, line drawings and the like (although they often compensated for the monochrome book content by using colour in the cover, as we have seen in some examples. My wife had quite a few German and other language books from the 70s and perhaps a little earlier when we first got married. Sadly some have gone, but we still have some around, and I like to look at them, even if I don't actively use them much. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4831 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 14 of 31 11 May 2013 at 10:24am | IP Logged | ||
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I've just remembered the "Easy Reader" series, which are still being published.
I haven't bought any in recent years, but the ones I used to buy, say 10-15 years ago still had a rather old-fashioned look about them (but in a good way IMO), with nice line drawings, etc, as though someone had gone to great care in their preparation. Having a quick browse online, the covers seem to have been modernised somewhat, but I don't know about the content. Easy Reader - Mein Onkel Franz Easy Reader - Emil und die Detectives 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6600 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 15 of 31 11 May 2013 at 1:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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One more reason to start using native materials early :)
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| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5559 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 16 of 31 11 May 2013 at 9:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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So beautiful and intriguing, I agree...it'd be hard not to pick up books that look like these! I particularly liked the designs for "Fünf Berühmte Märchen", they remind me of a book called "The Firebird and Other Stories" with traditional Russian illustrations I loved as a small kid.
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