Skims Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5102 days ago 18 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German
| Message 1 of 8 23 May 2010 at 1:39pm | IP Logged |
Has anyone ever bought a Linguaphone 'Second Stage' course? I'm seriously considering buying the French one, but at £200 it's quite expensive! I wanted to get some opinions about it first from people who have used it. What level do you achieve by the end of the course?
Is it available (legally) cheaper anywhere on the web? I've tried Ebay and Amazon, but no success there :(
Thanks!
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Mark88 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5475 days ago 15 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German
| Message 2 of 8 23 May 2010 at 1:56pm | IP Logged |
Skims wrote:
Has anyone ever bought a Linguaphone 'Second Stage' course? I'm
seriously considering buying the French one, but at £200 it's quite expensive! I
wanted to get some opinions about it first from people who have used it. What level do
you achieve by the end of the course?
Is it available (legally) cheaper anywhere on the web? I've tried Ebay and Amazon, but
no success there :(
Thanks! |
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Don't pay silly prices for it. You may have tried eBay as you said, but I assure you if
you check regularly it will come up! I have seen the French Advanced one available on
eBay a good few times already this year. They rarely sell for stupid prices. Just wait
a little and keep checking back. £200 is laughable. Get eBay to send you an email when
new items listed "Linguaphone French" (don't put 'advanced') are listed and you won't
miss it. I rarely pay more than £5 for full Linguaphone courses. I just transfer the
cassettes to mp3. Simple and cheap.
(I do not have the course you are asking for, so I can't comment on that issue.)
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Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5361 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 3 of 8 23 May 2010 at 4:41pm | IP Logged |
They come up regularly on ebay - I got the German for £35 and the French for £25- they are normally mislabelled, so look closely. In the 90s, the books are blue coloured (although there was a brown series before that) and they consist of two hardbacks, two pamphlets and 4 cassettes with a total of 60 lessons.
Everything is in the target language, so you have to be competent enough to read and hear at a GCSE/B1-ish level - the second stage courses follow the daily life of one person. If you have done the 1st Linguaphone or Assimil they look to be good courses (I haven't actually started yet).
Edited by Elexi on 23 May 2010 at 4:43pm
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patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 6811 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map
| Message 4 of 8 23 May 2010 at 6:40pm | IP Logged |
In the days of yore when I still used eBay, I managed to get the French one (with cassettes - since converted to mp3s) for only £5 minus shipping (which was only about £10).
P.S. I also found a seller/shop which had genuine Linguaphone courses at less than half-price since they were on cassettes and they were being phased out. Due to that, I got the German advanced and the basic Swedish, Dutch and Greek courses for just a bit more than the equivalent of a single new Linguaphone course.
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Skims Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5102 days ago 18 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German
| Message 5 of 8 23 May 2010 at 9:46pm | IP Logged |
Thanks very much everyone, I'll keep an eye out on Ebay!
Is the material for the older courses (ie the oens with cassettes) identical to the 'modern' Second Stage French course that they advertise on their website? Are the older courses written entirely in French?
I've found a couple of candidates on Ebay, but I've got a feeling they might be the normal 'beginner - advanced' courses, and not the advanced course I'm after.
Edit: Mark88, how do you transfer the cassettes to mp3? I'd be interested in doing this if I get the cassette version.
Edited by Skims on 23 May 2010 at 9:49pm
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Mark88 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5475 days ago 15 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German
| Message 6 of 8 23 May 2010 at 10:02pm | IP Logged |
Skims wrote:
Thanks very much everyone, I'll keep an eye out on Ebay!
Is the material for the older courses (ie the oens with cassettes) identical to the
'modern' Second Stage French course that they advertise on their website? Are the
older courses written entirely in French?
I've found a couple of candidates on Ebay, but I've got a feeling they might be the
normal 'beginner - advanced' courses, and not the advanced course I'm after.
Edit: Mark88, how do you transfer the cassettes to mp3? I'd be interested in doing
this if I get the cassette version.
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Buy a cheap Stereo Cable/Plug (they cost nothing - 50p or so!) that connects from the
headphone socket of your cassette deck one end and to the microphone socket of your
computer the other end. Download a program called Audacity (it is free.) RECORD!
(Google if you need the specifics - easy to find.)
Edited by Mark88 on 23 May 2010 at 10:02pm
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tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5249 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 7 of 8 23 May 2010 at 11:07pm | IP Logged |
Skims wrote:
Thanks very much everyone, I'll keep an eye out on Ebay!
Is the material for the older courses (ie the oens with cassettes) identical to the 'modern' Second Stage French
course that they advertise on their website? Are the older courses written entirely in French?
I've found a couple of candidates on Ebay, but I've got a feeling they might be the normal 'beginner - advanced'
courses, and not the advanced course I'm after. |
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If you do get hold of it, I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.
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