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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7221 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 1 of 5 20 March 2015 at 8:36pm | IP Logged |
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Can people list down language producing companies and rate with their opinions on
reliability? (I am interested specifically with Pimsleur, Michel Thomas, Assimil, PONS, Teach Yourself) The actual company themselves. The reason I am making this thread is due to people mixing things up or the 100% reliance on the company and everything in between. It is better to get things clarified. Examples: When it comes to Pimsleur and one of their affiliate distributors called Pimsleur Approach, some members and people on Youtube lump them together and state the outrageous claims from Pimsleur Approach is from Pimsleur. Steve Kaufmann did this regarding the learn a language in 10 days, and so did a member called Splog. Simon and Schuster did not mention upcoming titles before, but when I wrote about it last year being on Amazon.com, another member named Jeffers, wrote not to believe Amazon.com, since he did not see the forthcoming titles mentioned on the official Pimsleur website. Amazon.com proved to be accurate and reliable in comparison to the official Pimsleur site and customer service did not seem to know anything about any release dates or upcoming titles. Jeffers did mention about a Michel Thomas Hindi course no longer planned for release, and now it seems to be back on track again (Only the Hindi starter released last year). Another member PinkCordelia posted in 2012 and claimed to have done Pimsleur French IV and utterly hated it. By deduction from her review and release date of French IV (2013), she likely did French plus, but the odd thing is she called it French IV and did not even mention French Plus in anyway. This causes confusion, due to some people interchangeably using different names. Assimil France and Italy seem to be running independently from one another, as one site has courses available, that the other one sometimes does not have. Specifically the Italian base programs. I don't believe members routinely check the Italian site compared to the French homepage. No need to state about the companies new edition products, but only a rehash of the former releases. The members here on the site do a good job of finding out the editions, when it is totally new or just a re-release. (Usually with Assimil and Teach Yourself) Edit: I almost forgot, I made a thread about 2 years ago, about Pimsleur programs in other language bases not including ESL. Only one member responded and it was hrhenry. His response, was there are none, as their was nothing on the official Pimsleur website. Again a member just solely relied on the official Pimsleur website, and to my knowledge, he was in error. If members can also mention programs planned, either abandoned or delayed, that would be informative. Assimil had this happen to them with multiple programs. A proposed Pimsleur three comprehensive course with Ojibwe from what I read, but only the first one has been released. Even though there was not a high demand with it, the first one was made, due to some agreement. If I remember what I was informed back in 2001. Edited by alang on 21 March 2015 at 6:14am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| jbadg76421 Groupie United States Joined 4388 days ago 51 posts - 92 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, French, Esperanto | Message 2 of 5 21 March 2015 at 12:04pm | IP Logged |
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My copy of Assimil "Using Spanish" claims that both Using French and Using German are "available"...I guess they planned on translating Perfectionnement Allemand into English but cancelled it?
And yeah, the Michael Thomas Facebook page says that the full Hindi course is coming out this year, but they don't have a specific date. Edited by jbadg76421 on 21 March 2015 at 12:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 4052 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 3 of 5 21 March 2015 at 4:55pm | IP Logged |
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A dissenting voice...
I am not at all convinced that one can judge a company’s reliability solely by their adherence to an announced schedule of releases of new or revised products. For example, were Rosetta Stone to display better performance than any of the publishers named above, on this limited criterion, would we truly consider Rosetta Stone “more reliable”? Would we not want to consider the level of customer service and the suitability of the product itself? Furthermore, I believe that we all have enough "real world experience" to accept that conditions change; projects are cancelled and promises are broken. Disappointment is part of life; not everyone can meet every commitment all the time. EDIT: Harumpff! Edited by Speakeasy on 21 March 2015 at 5:05pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7221 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 4 of 5 22 March 2015 at 8:00am | IP Logged |
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True, if you noticed in my first post, I did not state, that it was solely on scheduled
released dates or abandoned projects. I am interested in the opinions of members, which they find are most reliable or unreliable. Sometimes some companies don't even mention products, they planned on making and why it was even cancelled. The example with a Pimsleur affiliate reseller like Pimsleur Approach has questionable business practices, and people start blaming Pimsleur in general. That is one reason why I am interested in having clarification, the main company is not at fault. The resellers should be held accountable in what they do, and not reflect Pimsleur overall. Pimsleur customer service is a contributing reason and reflection of the company itself, so the quality of service should be stated. It was Pimsleur customer service who said, there was no Spanish IV, about three or four months before it was officially released for sale. I must say recently it has been improving. I will change my opinion accordingly if they continue to change for the better. Some of the members I even mentioned posted if information was not on the official sites, then the product must not exist (Other Pimsleur language base) or don't believe the other websites (Amazon.com). They were proven wrong, when Pimsleur released the products listed somewhere else. The one other Pimsleur language base was released 2006. French V was released last year proving Amazon.com reliable about the product being made. My question was to find out if there were more, than what I already knew. The Assimil Using German course, I am sure members actually searched for it, just to satiate the curiosity if the course ever existed. The member Jeffers implied if MT Hindi was picked up again, it would be great. Edited by alang on 22 March 2015 at 5:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5565 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 5 of 5 22 March 2015 at 10:22am | IP Logged |
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I remember about 5 years ago that Assimil emailed someone on HTLAL in response to a
query and said they had abandoned Using German due to their market analysis suggesting there wasn't a sufficient market for it. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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