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"No-Time" Audio Materials | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Wulf Newbie United States traditionalisth Joined 4575 days ago 10 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Persian | Message 1 of 6 01 June 2012 at 7:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Has anyone else here tried out the "No-Time" series which have been offered by AudioForum (now Cafe Lango) for years?
They were supposedly developed by A.E. Van Vogt. I finally buckled and purchased No-Time Persian. Big mistake. This has got to be, hands down, the most useless excuse for a language-learning program I have ever encountered. There is no repetition, there are no pauses. The material is covered in what appears to me to be a very haphazard fashion. The speaker spells out each word using the names of the Persian letters, with brutal ear-jarring force, like he's being punched in the stomach each time he speaks. He does this during the rest of the presentation, too--at the end of every sentence he expels the last one or two syllables with bizarre emphasis. As a bonus, the narrator suffers what appear to be mini-strokes throughout the program. He'll be discussing something, and go immediately to a non-sequitur. For example, discussing the months in Persian, all of a sudden he stops in the middle of what he's saying and says, "ONE. TWO. THREE. FOUR. FIVE. SIX. SEVEN." He's not discussing the numbers one through seven, or anything like that. He just breaks off and starts counting, of course using the bizarre explosive speech, then returns to the discussion as if nothing untoward had happened! The sound quality is often so poor that, even with my speakers turned all the way up, I cannot make out what the narrator is saying. This course can only be called "No-Time" if they mean, "At No Time will you benefit from this program!" My advice to all is to avoid this program like the plague. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes  Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 2 of 6 01 June 2012 at 7:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'd not even heard of the program. That's too bad it's a dud... I generally really like
audio-only programs in the beginning or as a first step into a language. If I can offer up a free solution to try for Persian, have you tried Chai and Conversation? They don't update as often as I'd like to see, but their audio lessons seem pretty top-notch. And if you use Firefox or Chrome for your browser, you can get a plugin that'll go and grab all the mp3 files at once and download them to a folder (Snapfish and Download Master, respectively). R. == Edited by hrhenry on 01 June 2012 at 7:47pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4666 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 3 of 6 01 June 2012 at 8:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the warning, Wulf. I want to learn some Persian eventually, and will definitely avoid that program. Edited by tastyonions on 01 June 2012 at 8:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Wulf Newbie United States traditionalisth Joined 4575 days ago 10 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Persian | Message 4 of 6 01 June 2012 at 9:09pm | IP Logged | ||
Oddly, I just stumbled upon a link to that site last night, but the link was broken and I assumed that "Chai and Conversation" must be defunct. I see that it is alive and well; thank you! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hobbitofny Senior Member United States Joined 6234 days ago 280 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 6 01 June 2012 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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The Russian version is no better. :(
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6152 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 6 of 6 06 June 2012 at 9:59am | IP Logged | ||
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I purchased No-Time Hungarian. I'm wondering if it's the same speaker on all the tapes ? The recording quality was very poor and the speaker talks very fast. I found the whole experience quite surreal. It was like an A.E. Van Vogt story about the last living speaker desperately trying to record his language before they destroy his planet.
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