Duration of Assimil audio recordings (Language Programs, Books & Tapes) Language Learning Forum

Duration of Assimil audio recordings
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Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes

10 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

goosefrabbas
Triglot
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United States
Joined 6367 days ago
393 posts - 475 votes

Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: German, Italian
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Message 9 of 10

16 January 2010 at 10:24pm | IP Logged

tommus wrote:

I think publishers don't worry that customers get little surprises AFTER they buy their products. I just bought the book and accompanying CD-ROM called "Easy Spanish Reader" from McGraw-Hill. It says on the cover that the audio provides more than 50 passages featured in the book. That is true. But there are more than 75 passages in the book. It provides for Chapters 1 and 3, but not 2. There is little or no prospect of suspecting or spotting this before you buy it and install the software. Then you feel cheated. This is NOT how publishers should treat their customers.

That being said, this package is very good. The audio quality is outstanding. It installs on your computer and also provides the 50 individual mp3 files for using on an mp3 player or elsewhere. I just wish I had all 75 mp3 files.

I've had a similar experience with "Read and Think Spanish". This review on Amazon sums it up pretty well.

"The readings represent a beautiful overview of cultural information and activities that take place over the range of Spanish-speaking countries. The readings are clear. Of equal importance, the recordings are not cluttered with explanations in English, background noises, and music--just straight reading in Spanish from story to story.

There is one flaw: The back blurb of the book says "you will read and listen to more than 100 articles in Spanish about the enchanting diversity of Latino culture." This blurb dishonestly gives the impression that all articles are recorded on the CD. In reality, of the 117 articles, only 29 are read on the enclosed CD.

It is perfectly all right to record only a portion of the articles for readers to listen to, but this fact should have been stated honestly so that customers would not be mislead before making their purchase."

*bold for emphasis is mine

Edited by goosefrabbas on 16 January 2010 at 10:25pm
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OlafP
Triglot
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Germany
Joined 5434 days ago
261 posts - 667 votes

Speaks: German*, French, English

Message 10 of 10

20 January 2010 at 6:14pm | IP Logged

To follow up on this, today I received the Russian Assimil course with the recordings in mp3 format instead of audio CDs, which is available with French as L1. The overall duration of the recordings is 4h03, and they start right away with the first lesson instead of pronunciation exercises like in the Swedish version. So the 4 audio CDs of the "normal" course are a genuine offer. The CD-ROM of the mp3 version even has all the texts on it in plain format. Great stuff.
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