General Linguaphone Discussion

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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby Speakeasy » Sun May 26, 2019 11:56 pm

Hello, Elsa Maria. Although I did not address the matter of “answer keys” in my description of the Linguaphone Portuguese and Dutch courses on page 10 of this discussion thread, the answer to your question is “yes”.

As to the Linguaphone Portuguese course, which was completely rewritten in 1987, and the influence of the subsequent orthography reforms, I would not discount these materials over such a minor issue.

Both of these courses differ greatly in their approach to teaching from those of the previous generation (1970’s). They are far more demanding of the student and, as such, more effective, in my opinion.
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Elsa Maria
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby Elsa Maria » Mon May 27, 2019 10:33 pm

Thank you, Speakeasy. I do not know enough about Portuguese spelling reforms to know that they are a minor issue.

Looking around on Linguaphone's website, I found out that the Portuguese course is available in a download version but the Dutch one is not.

I was torn over which one to try first, but I think that Portuguese wins.
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Speakeasy
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby Speakeasy » Mon May 27, 2019 11:26 pm

Elsa Maria, your questions are quite valid certainly worth discussing. As the matter of the reforms to Portuguese orthography touch upon a large number of popular, comprehensive courses which pre-date the reforms, I have opened a new discussion thread …

Portuguese Materials for Study Purposes – versus -- Reforms of Portuguese Orthography
https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&p=141903#p141903
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby AnthonyLauder » Wed Jul 10, 2019 3:51 pm

I have become quite addicted to owning older linguaphone courses, and have bought rather too many of them (mostly from ebay).

This one caught my eye today, because, in addition to the splendid Listening Robo L2, and the extremely sturdy case, it includes 16 cassette tapes. I have never before seen the silver book series with so many tapes.
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby Elexi » Fri Jul 12, 2019 9:40 am

Unless there are blue second stage books under the silver-gray ones, I can't think what those extra tapes are for. The silver-grey series usually came with nine cassettes and I doubt that Linguaphone provided any more material for this version.

I do have one of the business courses with an older version of the listening robo that was essentially a 2 track recorder that allowed you to record your voice over the exercises - maybe the tapes are shorter to make this facility easier?
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby Speakeasy » Fri Jul 12, 2019 12:14 pm

AnthonyLauder, thank you for bringing this edition to our attention. It goes without saying that you NEED to add it to your collection! The 16 cassette edition of what-appears-to-be the standard Linguaphone French course of the era is an interesting variant. Like Elexi, I initially wondered whether or not this might be one of Linguaphone’s “combined” packages containing both the 1st Stage and the 2nd Stage courses. However, looking closely at the depth of the carrying case and the width of the cassette cases, it seems to me that there is insufficient space for the additional course books. And then, I noticed that the cassette player contains a 17th cassette. As an aside, this is a poor way of storing cassettes and cassette players as it damages both.
Linguaphone Course 16 cassettes.JPG

Coming back to the cassette, the amount of magnetic tape visible in the small window leaves me with the impression that, for this edition, Linguaphone spread the recordings over a greater number of cassettes, each having perhaps four lessons per two-side tape, so as to facilitate their use by the user. It is also possible that the B Side of the cassettes were blank and were to be used for recording the user’s voice for comparison with the original. Either way, Antony, you NEED to buy this!
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby AnthonyLauder » Fri Jul 12, 2019 1:32 pm

I have searched around and found a few other linguaphone courses for sale with the same huge sturdy case and the same fancy tape player. This one, which is for learning English, claims the set is from the 1990s.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Lingua ... 2398309487

I have also found a photo (albeit rather grainy) of a similar course, but this appears to have 19 or 20 tapes.

5c51af5e939c420042a183c8.jpg


In terms of the French set that I mentioned in the post above, I have written to the seller, trying to negotiate a deal on the price and on shipping. Fingers crossed.
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby Speakeasy » Fri Jul 12, 2019 3:03 pm

Campion Language Studies – Linguaphone Courses
AnthonyLauder, yet another interesting discovery! I followed the link that you provided to the 19 cassette Linguaphone English course on eBay.com and came across an offer for a “Campion Language Studies” edition of Linguaphone French.
Campion Language Studies (Linguaphone French) 1.jpg

Seeing this offer caused me to recall a post by dgc1970 from September 2018 which he had filed under the “Vintage Language Courses of Lesser Renown” discussion thread, introducing us to the “Campion Language Studies” editions of Linguaphone courses …
dgc1970 wrote:I just paid $5.00 at a garage sale for the Campion Language Studies French course. It's simply the Linguaphone course with a different cover. I believe this was only made for the Canadian market in the late 1980s to the early 1990s. The course used cassette tapes, all which appear to be in perfect condition (I'm pretty sure the books were used once, to the end of the first chapter).

I graduated high school in 1988 and remember seeing this course constantly advertised in magazines and newspapers. Since my school had a Swedish exchange student I decided to purchase the Swedish course. The price was not advertised so anyone interested had to mail in a magazine insert, checking the box of the language you were interested in. I now know that any time you have to ask the price it's going to be expensive.

About three weeks later I received a letter in the mail, the price was $800! In 1990! I just used an inflation calculator and that works to $1368.66 in today's money. So I didn't buy it. But I remember clearly that about 6 weeks later I received another letter, this time offering the exact same course for $400. 50% off! I didn't reply and about 6 weeks later I was mailed another offer: $200! I didn't reply again and finally received an offer for $150! I was sent this final offer a few times before they stopped mailing me. To this day I wonder about the percentage of people who bought the course that paid the full amount.

Campion Language Studies 1.JPG

Campion Language Studies 2.JPG

Campion Language Studies 3.JPG


UPDATE: 12 September 2019
Sales Inquiry to Campion Language Studies

In early August 2019, through searching the internet, I came across the last known business address of the publisher/vendor of the "Campion/Linguaphone" series (see below).

Campion Language Studies
199 Avenue Rd
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5R 2J3


I sent a letter to the above address expressing my deep interest in their editions of the Linguaphone courses and inquiring if they might still have copies (new or used) of these materials in stock. In addition, I confirmed that I was a serious buyer and that I was confident that we would be able to come to terms as to pricing. I provided my Email address. That was about six weeks ago and I have still not received a reply (damn!). I conclude that the company is no longer in business.

Should anyone happen to have a copy of the Campion Language Studies "German" course, I would be quite interested in purchasing it.
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby Elsa Maria » Mon Jul 15, 2019 2:13 pm

The vintage courses are so interesting to look at, and I am fascinated that some of the courses came with a player. But I am glad that I am not tempted to start collecting vintage courses since I already collect vintage books :)

I bought the downloadable version of European Portuguese. Here are some thoughts on the downloadable product after completing Unit One:

Set up was a bit tricky, and I did not receive my download links until I emailed Customer Service. There were some other troubles getting access, but eventually it all worked out.

I had to install the Flipbook Viewer app on my tablet and phone before I could use the course. I think it presents better on my ipad than on my laptop. It looks kind of distorted on my laptop. My Flipbook Library is cluttered up with other Lingaphone courses that I do not own or have access to. This is not a big deal, but it bothers me a bit I would rather just see my course. The Portuguese course is split into four parts (Part One is Units 1-10, for example) and it takes me a few annoying seconds to find my course.

Maneuvering through took some getting used to. There are arrow buttons that jump you to the exercises, but I have not discovered any easy way to jump back. I made use of the bookmark system to jump back and forth, but it is a clumsy bookmarking system so I gave up on that idea. Instead, I had the course open on two devices and let one of the devices be on the exercises page (these pages come after the lesson text). I am still fussing around with the bookmarks, getting things optimized.
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby AnthonyLauder » Fri Aug 16, 2019 2:09 pm

I have a pretty large collection of Linguaphone courses, across all generations. This includes many of the older courses that come with records. While collecting these, I have learned that, in addition to language courses, Linguaphone offered their own gramophone record player.

Perhaps more surprisingly, Linguaphone also sold their own needles, advertised as having special properties for reproducing the spoken voice as opposed to music.

What caught my eye on a recent box of Linguaphone needles on ebay is that each needle was suitable for a mere 20 minutes of playback time. How can that be correct? If it is indeed the case, a language learner would have to use a very large number of these needles to complete a Linguaphone course.

Getting customers on the hook for constantly having to buy more of these needles reminded me a little of the modern subscription service model for language learning products. Linguaphone was, perhaps, ahead of their time in this regard.

Linguaphone Needles.png
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