Linguaphone: Foreign Language Learning Series Reviews

Alexander Arguelles presents a series of video reviews and demonstrations of those foreign language learning series that he has found most useful in his own studies. For further information about the series, please refer to http://www.foreignlanguageexpertise.com/index.html

Category:

Education

Tags:

• polyglottery
• polyglots
• foreign
• language
• Linguaphone

[1xbebebliss]

Hi Professor! I just had a question about the two courses you showed (the Chinese course with the two brown books and the Arabic course with the grey books)... are these courses both from the same era and/or are they the same in context??? I am looking to buy a course and was just wondering if you know of any differences and if you recommend one over the other. Thank you!

[ProfASAr]

@1xbebebliss Both courses are from the same era (mid-1970's) and both are quite excellent and most highly recommended. They both have 30 lessons, but they do not have parallel content or stucture as did the earlier Linguaphone courses, which is a pity, but they compensate for it in their overall quality.

[qzchris]

Professor,

I am wondering whether you are familiar with their Korean offering; does it use hangul, or is it a romanized job like the Japanese course? Also, is the audio tolerable in terms of speed and quality?

Thank you for any help!

[ProfASAr]

The Linguaphone Korean course helped me a great deal when I first went to Korea. It was in Hangul and the audio was very good in terms of speed and quality. One thing to note is that the overall structure of the course was quite different from most other Linguaphone courses - more audio-lingual with drills rather than dialogues and conversations.

[scootermclean]

Hello Professor,

I have been able to obtain Linguaphone courses for French, German, Italian, and Spanish that look very similar to the 1970's Arabic course you showed in the video (despite the fact that they say 'Printed 1991' inside the front cover)

Anyways, I am curious to know how you would recommend using these courses. Do you think that the three phase method described by the little leaflet inside the attaché case is an effective way to use the course?

Thank you

[ProfASAr]

Try the method described in the pamphlet and see if it seems to be working well for you. There are a number of different approaches that you can take to using these courses - which is one reason why I am partial to them. In particular, they can provide excellent substance for use with my shadowing methodology. Shadowing is not the best method for all types of learners, but if it does suit you and you can learn to do it correctly, it is a highly efficient and effective technique.

[Esoparagon]

I love the old linguaphone courses. It's such a shame they don't make them anymore. They are pure genius!

[storebror21]

This was a fascinating video. As the owner of several traditional Linguaphone courses, I think it's a shame that they have so drastically reduced the number of languages they offer and that they seem to going down the route of 'quick-fix' courses such as the 'All Talk' products that you mentioned. I don't want to sound elitist, but it seems to me that they're trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator and consequently standards appear to be dropping.

[cril1001001]

I was glancing at the Linguaphone site, and for many languages they do have courses with more than just AllTalk. That's all they offer for Swedish, which is the language I'm after. Have you or anybody used their newest releases (for any language) that are NOT AllTalk?

[Dicedude]

Hello Professor,

Back in 1973 I purchased the Linguaphone Chinese and Russian courses (7-inch vinyl records with hardbound books and soft-cover manuals packed into the leatherette attache case) and loved both of them. Unfortunately, they were both stolen. Do you know where I can purchase these courses (not the newer ones)?

[1xbebebliss]

@ProfASAr Thank you for the reply. This is actually my first time looking into Linguaphone and it really is confusing trying to decide b/w what to buy (I've seen grey/brown books, 4 cassettes, 6 cassettes, even 10 cassettes!). I also saw a course that has apparently two books: "grammar/reference book" and "exercise book" rather than the traditional "course book", "handbook" etc. What are your thoughts on the "grammar book" format (if you're familiar with it). Is it worth checking out? Thanks.

[rayneval]

Where did you buy your 1950's edition? I've been searching and i cannot find any place that sells them.

[Enricogranafei]

Hi there, I just saw your video. I have been using the Linguaphone courses for many years. I recently acquired a Russian course from the early 30s. Only problem is it doesn't have the book with the translations of the lessons. Could you tell me where I can find one?

[Enricogranafei]

Hi there, I just saw your video. I have been using the Linguaphone courses for many years. I recently acquired a Russian course from the early 30s. Only problem is it doesn't have the book with the translations of the lessons. Could you tell me where I can find one?

[nietinho]

Professor,

(dado que usted habla varios idiomas, me voy a tomar la libertad de escribirle en el mio). Le queria pedir un consejo. termine hace muy poco el curso Assimil de aleman.. pero ahora estoy en una encrucijada, dado que nose muy bien con que metodo seguir.. cual es su recomendacion?

usted cree que despues de venir de un metodo tan intuitivo como assimil, valga la pena revisar otros metodos mas estructurados?

Gracias.

[nietinho]

Professor,

(dado que usted habla varios idiomas, me voy a tomar la libertad de escribirle en el mio). Le queria pedir un consejo. termine hace muy poco el curso Assimil de aleman.. pero ahora estoy en una encrucijada, dado que nose muy bien con que metodo seguir.. cual es su recomendacion?

usted cree que despues de venir de un metodo tan intuitivo como assimil, valga la pena revisar otros metodos mas estructurados?

Gracias.