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Help choosing the right programs | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| palfrey Senior Member Canada Joined 5271 days ago 81 posts - 180 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 9 of 18 29 March 2012 at 2:53am | IP Logged | |||||
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The following are not free, but they are not terribly expensive, either:
Living French, Living German, Living Italian, Living Spanish. (Note that these are not part of the "Living Language" series. This is a different set of books.) These are more traditional grammar-based courses, with each chapter including grammar, vocabulary, a reading passage, and exercise. Answers to exercises are at the back, and there is also an audio cd with some (though not all) of the reading passages recorded. They were first published in the period 1949-1961, and have been officially "updated" several times. But upon comparing various editions, I think the material in them has hardly changed over the decades. On the other hand, these are grammar-based courses, whereas you appear to prefer something more along the lines of Assimil or Linguaphone. If that's the case, maybe you could consider buying a newer Assimil course, e.g., "Italian with Ease", as a complement to the older "without Toil" course. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| onurdolar Diglot Groupie TurkeyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4650 days ago 98 posts - 147 votes Speaks: Turkish*, English Studies: Italian, German | Message 10 of 18 29 March 2012 at 10:54am | IP Logged | |||||
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I have tried a lot of Italian programmes myself over last few months. FSI Italian Fast ( which is free online ) is a good source, Linguaphone All Talk for Italian is not "bad" however i am not sure if its worth the money spent. I am also using Assimil Italian with Ease, Italian with Michel Thomas ( foundation ) and Pimsleur Italian I-II-III. I can recommend them all but have to say Michel Thomas one is not so good in terms of prononciation and does not really follow the same linear approach as others; it is good as a supplementary programm though.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6595 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 11 of 18 29 March 2012 at 2:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I sooo don't recommend Pimsleur for anything but German in this case.
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| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5451 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 12 of 18 29 March 2012 at 5:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
I've never tried AllTalk, but I have my doubts about them. I was thinking about the old ones.
I have only used the old ones (grammar-translation based). I think they can serve as a nice complement to other courses, such as Assimil . The new ones seem to have a lot of "fill in the blanks" and puzzles, and I'm personally not a fan of such an approach 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5667 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 13 of 18 29 March 2012 at 6:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
The first four discs of the AllTalk French course came free with an English newspaper a few years ago, presumably to encourage people to buy the whole set. It was a story - mostly in English - of a bewildered English businessman visiting a tradeshow in Paris, and flirting gently with a French colleague. I suppose the storyline was meant to keep you interested. However, since the English businessman was a beginner, his occasional lessons in French in the series were on pretty trivial topics. In contrast, the older book-and-tape based Linguaphone French course went into much more details. If you are a serious language learner, I would stick to the older course. If, however, you only want a few tourist phrases, and you want to keep things light and easy, then the AllTalk course would be more suitable. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| dambros Diglot Newbie Brazil Joined 4628 days ago 15 posts - 16 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English | Message 14 of 18 29 March 2012 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks again for all replies.
Regarding the Linguaphones courses I was expecting and afraid you guys would say to stick with the old ones. Finding them are incredible hard. I was really lucky to get my hands into the German one (Kursus + Handbook). I found a french one but only the Cours de Français. Same thing with the Teach Tourself series. The only ones I found was from 1998 :/ 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tmp011007 Diglot Senior Member Congo Joined 6067 days ago 199 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 15 of 18 29 March 2012 at 9:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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French In Action (FIA)
frenchpod DLI french le nouveau sans frontieres the berlitz self-teacher french strokes français tell me more french/frances frances planeta agostini * fokus deutsch DLI German strokes deutsch tell me more German/aleman aleman planeta agostini* viaje al español p.s. Foreign Languages Series Reviews Edited by tmp011007 on 29 March 2012 at 9:58pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5451 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 16 of 18 29 March 2012 at 11:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
A good place to look is http://www.abebooks.com/. It can be hard to find the audio though. Edited by tractor on 29 March 2012 at 11:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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