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Cool-looking language books | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| gogglehead Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 5876 days ago 248 posts - 320 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 17 of 31 14 May 2013 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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An interesting topic, and speaking of the appearance of language books, has anyone noticed that some of the new assimil books have a pretty looking native lady on the cover. Maybe this is intended to prompt learners to buy, has anyone noticed this? In addition, has anyone noticed the amazing smell of Assimil books? A little off topic I know, but I couldn´t very well start a new thread about the scent of a book!
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| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4629 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 18 of 31 14 May 2013 at 2:42pm | IP Logged | ||
Smell is pretty important I'd say! While CDs and MP3s are all very well, nothing quite beats the smell of a vinyl record, and the tactile experience of teasing a vinyl album out of its outer, and then inner sleeve... Seriously, I think smells can reach parts of the brain that other beers cannot reach ... 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Onrust Newbie United States Joined 4220 days ago 14 posts - 42 votes Studies: German | Message 19 of 31 14 May 2013 at 4:46pm | IP Logged | ||
The design for the newer Assimil covers is kind of blah, though I did notice the pretty German lady on my copy of German With Ease. But if they're going that route, they should have her in a dirndl with a come-hither look in her eye. Unrelated, but I really like the cover art on the penultimate editions of Teach Yourself. They have since switched to boring white glossy covers, but the previous editions had pretty cool pictures. Beginner's Russian sticks out in my mind. The cover photo is this retro Russian scuba diver. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| freakyaye Senior Member Australia Joined 4639 days ago 107 posts - 152 votes | Message 20 of 31 14 May 2013 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | ||
I agree, I love the smell of old books, and i think it is one of the reasons I prefer flashcards to be physical than digital. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4629 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 21 of 31 14 May 2013 at 8:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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The Scandinavian Phrase book by Collins which I have praised before has no illustrations inside (although one feels it ought to have), but has a
nice cover: cover BL If you clink on the "BL" (Amazon book link), you can get to see it in magnified form) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kronos Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5062 days ago 186 posts - 452 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 22 of 31 23 May 2013 at 3:52pm | IP Logged | ||
Here are two photos of my hard copy of Französisch ohne Mühe, which I am just using for getting an idea of French. This is the German edition of Assimil's French without Toil, the book is yellowed and may be an early 1950s print. French without Toil came out in 1940. My copy has still the original period illustrations, which are lovely. The illustration at the top proudly presents the then state-of-the art audio technology:
The second one is from Lessons 94/95 (of a total 140). The book is physically small, the paper extremely thin, but it has about 500 pages. It has its own home-made phonetic notation below each lesson text, which is actually very precise and which I often prefer having recourse to rather than listening to the audio. 
And finally here is a link to my favorite Spanish manual. It has a beautiful cover and many stylish 1960s drawings inside. When it first came out in 1965 it was probably meant for language classes in school in the first place, but then it turned into a longseller from which several generations of pupils and students have profited. I got my own copy more than three decades later in college shortly before it went out of print, by then it was one of the last remaining old-style quality materials still in use in language classes. Modernes Spanisch (Amazon) Hey, this book looks anything but "modern"! :) If you are looking for hard copies of older generation Assimil books and don't care about having the earliest vintage illustrations I suggest you look for 1970s/80s prints. By that time, starting in the early 1970s, they usually had a beautiful cover image, better paper and sometimes sturdier binding. Here is a 1970s print of La pratique de l'espagnol, the massive old Spanish advanced course. It shows the Torre del Oro right in the heart of Seville. The photo for the old basic course, L'espagnol sans peine (i.e. Spanish without Toil) was taken right next (left) to the other photo, showing wire statues of Spain's two national heroes in the foreground (I believe they have been removed by now, just in case you go there). Some of the empty space right in the center of the background across the river is now taken up by the Teatro de la Maestranza which was constructed only about two decades after the photo was taken. The old Le Grec sans peine featured Mykonos which is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. These photos make me nostalgic and longing for getting abroad, *sigh*. Or I have to go on an inner journey and study harder. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6073 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 23 of 31 21 August 2013 at 3:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Many of the photos of books, esp. those about German, remind me of books in my university
library, of which a great many were published in the 1950s or 1960s. Though there were more recent books, the majority seemed to come from that period and quite a few were older. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BlaBla Triglot Groupie Spain Joined 3930 days ago 45 posts - 72 votes Speaks: German*, English, French Studies: Nepali, Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin | Message 24 of 31 23 August 2013 at 9:00am | IP Logged | ||
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While our french friends can enjoy the new 'L'Espagnol sans peine' since 2004 the rest of us has still to
cope with the somewhat odd edition from 1984 by the same author, not exactly their prime achievement if you ask me. In the last 29 years it has been published with 3 different covers though for at least some change of pace. Like Kronos and Prof.Arguelles I prefer the old editions by some stretch, especially 'Spanish without toil' and 'La pratique d'Espagnol' by J.Bouzet (thanks Kronos!). Hard to beat their food value. Edited by BlaBla on 23 August 2013 at 9:10am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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