Fllufy Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4518 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 1 of 8 11 July 2012 at 9:36pm | IP Logged |
Hi all
I am planning to get a secondhand copy of Linguaphone Spanish Complete CD course, or perhaps new.
Is this course any good? I recently bought new the German version, I was quite impressed with it but had a change of heart.
I have read that the Spanish has been updated and is not considered as good.
Is this a general opinon?
Would I be better off getting an older, cassette version?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Chris
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tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5452 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 2 of 8 11 July 2012 at 9:47pm | IP Logged |
There are various generations of Linguaphone Spanish. I have only used the one from the 1970s. It is an excellent
course. It is not the same one as the one they sell to day.
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Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5564 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 3 of 8 11 July 2012 at 10:16pm | IP Logged |
The new one is not very good at all.
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Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5711 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi
| Message 4 of 8 25 July 2012 at 12:58am | IP Logged |
Elexi wrote:
The new one is not very good at all. |
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I've heard that many people don't like the All Talk courses, but the complete courses are bad as well? They seem (are advertised as) pretty extensive (vocabulary-wise) and they also include an Advanced component which you can buy separately after you complete the beginner-intermediate course. I'd like to hear more about this course and why it's good/bad.
Thanks,
Rout
Edited by Rout on 25 July 2012 at 1:00am
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tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5452 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 5 of 8 25 July 2012 at 8:50am | IP Logged |
The French and Spanish course are new, while the rest of their "complete" courses are reprints of the ones published
in the 70s. I haven't used the new courses, so I can't really tell what's wrong about them, but I do remember
someone on this forum complaining that the new Spanish one didn't teach the subjunctive.
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Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5564 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 6 of 8 25 July 2012 at 9:58am | IP Logged |
The new ones - the post 2000 courses for French and Spanish are very much like the All
Talk in style. They are similar in content to the Berlitz Basic/Intermediate/Advanced
courses - lots of English, lots of phrase book style language, fill in the gaps,
connect the clauses, do the crossword, say 'Where is the train station please' 'Can I
have a lemonade', etc. A much cheaper and less bulky option that covers pretty much
the same ground in the Oxford Take Off course.
The 70-90s course, however, are 30 lessons (split into 3 parts) of pure Spanish audio -
with an explanation book for the grammar and vocabulary.
The advanced course is from the 1980s - it was designed to follow on from the 1970-90s
course and is excellent - It is all in Spanish, save some of the notes. I can't
imagine that you would be able to use it after finishing the modern complete course
because it doesn't take you far enough.
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Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5711 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi
| Message 7 of 8 25 July 2012 at 12:57pm | IP Logged |
Elexi wrote:
The new ones - the post 2000 courses for French and Spanish are very much like the All
Talk in style. They are similar in content to the Berlitz Basic/Intermediate/Advanced
courses - lots of English, lots of phrase book style language, fill in the gaps,
connect the clauses, do the crossword, say 'Where is the train station please' 'Can I
have a lemonade', etc. A much cheaper and less bulky option that covers pretty much
the same ground in the Oxford Take Off course.
The 70-90s course, however, are 30 lessons (split into 3 parts) of pure Spanish audio -
with an explanation book for the grammar and vocabulary.
The advanced course is from the 1980s - it was designed to follow on from the 1970-90s
course and is excellent - It is all in Spanish, save some of the notes. I can't
imagine that you would be able to use it after finishing the modern complete course
because it doesn't take you far enough. |
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Wow, I'm familar with the older courses (both generations) but I was not aware that there was an older advanced course. Interesting! I've been trying to hunt down a 70s-90s course for Latin American Spanish then use the 70s-90s course for peninsular Spanish to contrast and compare (my focus is on LA which I realize would almost certainly not be available in the advanced, but so be it to life).
Are the older advance courses available in any other languages?
[EDIT] BTW, could you tell me the author of the advanced Spanish course, as well? I'll snatch it up if I happen to ever come across it.
Edited by Rout on 25 July 2012 at 2:37pm
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Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5564 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 8 of 8 25 July 2012 at 2:15pm | IP Logged |
The Advanced course they sell now is the old Advanced course - nothing has changed,
except the cover and that it is now on CDs. The other Advanced courses were English,
German and French.
As to Latin American Spanish - it is a very different course, less in depth than the
Penninsula (Castilian?) course and has the exercises integrated into each lesson rather
than separate (Greek, Dutch and Afrikaans has a similar format). More like a premium
Teach Yourself course.
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