A language learners’ forum

Hello all,

I wanted to ask if anyone is able to explain which version I should go for? I've never used Linguaphone, but reading on this forum I can see many do recommend it. In addition, I am quite intrigued by its history as well as I do like the package as a whole. Those wonderful briefcases and attachés are a great touch. I've ordered a Philips cassette player but don't have a vinyl player. This can be easily bought as needed. However, is there a difference in the course compared to the ones offered in cassette tapes and the ones in vinyl? Or is it the same course just different medium? Also I have seen some courses in brown attache cases. How do they compare?

Please see these two images. Number 1 is the easily recognisable grey/silver course with audio cassette tapes. The second is the vinyl course with the hardback books with national flags.

I think your best bet in determining generation is to find out the number of lessons. 50 lessons = 50s/60s course, 30 lessons = 70s/80s course; with some notable exceptions (I think Dutch and Spanish?).

Zooming in on that German course, it looks like there are 30 lessons. The other giveaway that it is a 70s course is that it includes a 3rd book of exercises which I believe never came with the 50s courses. Either way, you can definitely find a 70s 30-lesson German course with tapes rather than records.

I don't really think there is a hard and fast rule as to the covers/book types. Even within them, there is considerable discrepancy. For example, I have the 30-lesson Arabic course with silver hardcovers and the inside looks pretty different than the silver hardback Prof Arguelles flips through in this video:.

His has the little blue stripes on each page, some color photos, and more importantly the text looks bigger and clearer, whereas half the time I can barely read my own book. Obviously a later printing that I have.

David1917 wrote:I think your best bet in determining generation is to find out the number of lessons. 50 lessons = 50s/60s course, 30 lessons = 70s/80s course; with some notable exceptions (I think Dutch and Spanish?).

One exception would be the Irish course from 1986 (first printed in 1974) - it has 48 lessons.

On a side note, the courses from the 50s/60s belong to what Arguelles calls "the polyglot's dream" - same content but in different languages (he talks about this some 3 minutes into the clip).