Any Experience with the CD-Intensiv-Sprachkurs?

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Seneca
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Any Experience with the CD-Intensiv-Sprachkurs?

Postby Seneca » Sun Jul 02, 2017 6:53 pm

I had an odd thing happen. I ordered a bunch of bilingual English/Italian readers from a seller on ebay, and they included this course for no descernible reason:

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I think they must have just chucked it in because I picked up so many other things for Italian that they mindlessly put it in the box. Free stuff via zoning out! Anyway, it appears to be a German based course for studying Italian via memorizing sentences (?), so I plan to send it back as the only language I know well enough to study another one in is English.

Has anyone ever used this course for any language? The ISBN for the Italian one I received is 3632988668. I am actually just curious about this now as I can find no reviews anywhere for these courses for any other language, even on amazon.de!

I plan to contact the seller about a return, but thought to ask about it first for two reasons:

1) Maybe someone knows if this is a good publisher and these could be a worthwhile suggestion to native German speakers to branch out from the usual suspects of Assimil, Teach Yourself, etc....

2) Perhaps someone might know of if there is a way to use this audio that would make it worthwhile to keep. More listening practice is always good, after all.

Thanks for any insights.
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Re: Any Experience with the CD-Intensiv-Sprachkurs?

Postby Speakeasy » Mon Jul 03, 2017 3:34 am

Mea culpa!
I wish to apologize for having left the impression (see my original post below) that the “(Name of Language) CD Intensive Language Course” series was of “dubious” value. Although I had had no experience with these materials, I allowed myself to influenced by superficial issues such as the packaging, the claims of the publisher, and other matters that recalled to me other language courses that I had purchased and that had turned out to be of no value whatsoever. It would appear that I had forgotten the adage “You can’t judge a book by its cover”; based on my recent experience with the “German CD Intensive Language Course”, I would now say that the series is remarkably well-conceived.

My Original Post
I am an self-avowed collector of language-learning materials of "dubious" value. I recognized the packaging of the above Italienisch Sprachkurs from a series of similar courses that are available on eBay, Amazon, et cetera, viz.:

Spanish CD Intensive Language Course (from an English base)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spanish-Language-Course-CD/dp/1840674474/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499080213&sr=8-1&keywords=CD+Intensive+Language+Course

German CD Intensive Language Course (from an English base)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/German-CD-Intensive-Language-Course-Book/3632988757/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1499050928&sr=8-4&keywords=CD+INTENSIVE

French CD Intensive Language Course (from a Spanish base)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/French-CD-Intensive-Language-Course/dp/3632988498/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1499051772&sr=1-1&keywords=French+CD+Intensive+Language+Course

Corso di lingua. Tedesco intensive (from an Italian base)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corso-lingua-Tedesco-intensivo-Audio/dp/8809064887/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1499051863&sr=1-4-fkmr0&keywords=Italian+CD+Intensive+Language+Course

Corso di lingua. Spagnolo intensive (from an Italian base)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Corso-lingua-Spagnolo-intensivo-Con-CD-Audio/8809064895/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1499051863&sr=1-3-fkmr0&keywords=Italian+CD+Intensive+Language+Course

Other variants are available.

HTLAL Discussion Threads
I came across the following reference to these courses in the HTLAL:
http://www.how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=38242&PN=13&TPN=3

Caveat Emptor
The "Spanish CD Intensive Language Course" has the most number of reviews on Amazon.com.uk. As this item is sold as a "CD Course", I was rather surprised that so many of customers should mention that they received the course book, but not the CDs. Caveat emptor!

I demurred
Although I was sorely tempted to add a version of the Intensive German course to my collection, I heeded the cautionary injunction from wife that, were she to come across just one more new item amongst my ever-accumulating pile of junk language courses, which I had believed were rather cleverly concealed in the basement, I would have to find new lodgings. So, I demurred.

EDITED:
Caveat Emptor, Image
Insertion of "Mea Culpa!"
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Last edited by Speakeasy on Thu Jul 20, 2017 9:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Any Experience with the CD-Intensiv-Sprachkurs?

Postby Speakeasy » Thu Jul 20, 2017 8:55 pm

Mea culpa!
First, I wish to apologize for having left the impression that the “(Name of Language) CD Intensive Language Course” series was of “dubious” value. Although I had had no experience with these materials, I allowed myself to influenced by superficial issues such as the packaging, the claims of the publisher, and other matters that recalled to me other language courses that I had purchased and that had turned out to be of no value whatsoever. It would appear that I had forgotten the adage “You can’t judge a book by its cover”; based on my recent experience with the “German CD Intensive Language Course”, I would now say that the series is remarkably well-conceived.

The (Name of Language) CD Intensive Language Courses

Publisher and Materials
The series was published by Naumann & Göbel Verlagsgesellslchaft mbH, whose website (available in DE, EN, ES) identifies them as a specialist publisher in guide books: https://www.naumann-goebel.de/programm/ Based on the offers of new/used copies of these courses on the Internet, I am under the impression that the courses were introduced in the early 1990’s and that they are no longer in print. The courses were available in several language bases (French, Italian, Spanish, German, and English) and covered all of these languages plus Russian. The course contents included a set of audio recordings (4 to 6 CDs), a small course book, and an inexplicably large, but very brief, summary of grammar. Although the “German CD Intensive Language Course” that I purchased contained 4 CDs which the publisher identified as containing 4 hours of audio recordings, I found that the actual duration of the recordings was closer to 5 hours, suggesting that the publisher used the maximum storage capacity for regular CDs.

Course Structure and Appreciation
The instructional materials of the “German CD Intensive Language Course” are presented through 75 lessons, each of which begins with a short, situational dialogue. Each lesson focuses on one or two specific aspects of grammar and contains a surprisingly well-conceived collection of sentence-pattern exercises, verb drills, pronunciation drills, et cetera. The dialogues and most, but not all, of the exercise sets are recorded. The recordings are in the target language only. The course book contains a line-by-line translation of the dialogues and exercise sets. The accompanying notes and the brief summary of grammar at the end of the course book are exceptionally sparse, so much so that I would consider them to be inadequate to meeting the needs of an absolute beginner. However, this minor deficiency can be easily remedied by the purchase of a small, simple grammar. To those readers who might be tempted to consider these courses as being similar to those published by Assimil, I would respond: “M-m-m-maybe, but only a little and, well, not really.” Yes, both methods present a series of situational dialogues with line-by-line translations, but so do many other courses. To my mind, the major differences lie in the quantity and the style of the exercise sets which, in the case of the “(Name of Language)CD Intensive Language Course” series, almost resemble a mini (micro) variant of the audio-lingual approach. I would estimate that the level attained on completion of these courses would be CEFR A2 or just somewhat shy of it. All in all, to my genuine surprise, I was greatly impressed by the obvious thought that had gone into the conception and preparation of this course. I’d be pleased to recommend these courses, but to whom and for what purpose?

My Recommendation in a Saturated Marketplace
Let’s face it, even with the withdrawal of some very fine materials, a matter which many of us deplore, the marketplace for good introductory courses for learning German (or for any of the other languages covered in this series) continues to be saturated. So then, it comes as no surprise that a little-known gem such as the “(Name of Language) CD Intensive Language Courses” would have a difficult, if not impossible, task finding a niche.

Still, I would recommend these courses to anyone having recently achieved an A0-A1 level of skill through the Michel Thomas Method, the Pimsleur Method, the Teach Yourself Method, the Routledge Colloquial Method, or any similar, very basic introductory series. Doing so would provide the student with (a) an absolutely terrific review of everything that they have learned, (b) a set of dialogues and exercise sets that would expand their understanding of and facility in speaking their target language, and (c) an opportunity to expand their vocabulary. These courses could also serve as a transition to the Assimil Method or, alternatively, could be used in conjunction with it. Nevertheless, despite my enthusiastic support of these courses, I must admit that “you don’t need” these materials … and what a shame that really is!
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Re: Any Experience with the CD-Intensiv-Sprachkurs?

Postby Seneca » Sat Aug 19, 2017 12:26 pm

I decided I wanted to get the Spanish audio cd on principle. I have failed, haha. It seems every single listing on Amazon for the cd is wrong. Four separate people have sent me just the book and no cd. I emailed about 10 more and most either canceled their posting or said they meant to post it as book only. Tragic times.
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Re: Any Experience with the CD-Intensiv-Sprachkurs?

Postby Speakeasy » Sat Aug 19, 2017 3:53 pm

Seneca wrote:I decided I wanted to get the Spanish audio cd on principle ... Four separate people have sent me just the book and no cd ...
Hang onto your books! As it happens, earlier this week, I ordered a copy of the Spanish CD Intensive language course. When I receive it and should it contain the CDs, I'll send you a Private Message.

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Re: Any Experience with the CD-Intensiv-Sprachkurs?

Postby Speakeasy » Tue Sep 05, 2017 9:31 pm

We're in luck! Earlier today, I received my package containing the "Spanish CD Intensive Language Course" and it contains the four CDs. I suspect that your disappointing experience and that of others, of having ordered factory-sealed packages only to find that the CDs were missing, was the result of an unintentional error committed by the publisher or, more likely, by the firm to which they had sub-contracted production. Once the packages had been sealed and shipped, it was very unlikely that anyone in the distribution chain would have opened and inspected them, thereby yielding a fair number of unsatisfied customers, returns to the vendor, additional costs, frustration, disappointment and heart-ache all around. For all we know, the error could have occurred during one production lot, perhaps the last one before switching to a different product, and no ever noticed. Private Message to follow.

Addendum:
Follow my comments above, I began opening the envelopes containing the CDs with a view to digitizing the audio files for subsequent transfer to my Sony Walkman. All four CDs had small deposits of some unidentifiable substance on the surface which I cleaned up with a liquid lens cleaner. Still, as it is rather unusual for unopened CDs to be so marked, and as my package arrived factory-sealed, the thought occurred to me that something might have gone awry during the regular packing process implicating the CDs. The packaging process, which would have been receiving the CDs and course books from separate feed lines might have been halted, fixed, and restarted, thereby creating an interval during which a number of incomplete packages had continued down the production line, where they were automatically sealed and sent to finished inventory for subsequent shipment. Other scenarios are possible.

EDITED:
Addendum
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Re: Any Experience with the CD-Intensiv-Sprachkurs?

Postby Serpent » Wed Jan 17, 2018 8:45 pm

Seneca wrote:I had an odd thing happen. I ordered a bunch of bilingual English/Italian readers from a seller on ebay, and they included this course for no descernible reason
...
I plan to contact the seller about a return
I missed this. Just curious: what did you end up doing?
A few years ago I bought many books in Italian, and the woman reselling her books also included one that I hadn't asked for. We met in person and she kinda insisted that she really didn't need it or something (I think she was moving maybe?). I ended up accepting it but then it continued gathering dust until I brought it to the Polyglot gathering to get rid of it :D
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Seneca
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Re: Any Experience with the CD-Intensiv-Sprachkurs?

Postby Seneca » Wed Jan 17, 2018 9:03 pm

Serpent wrote:
Seneca wrote:I had an odd thing happen. I ordered a bunch of bilingual English/Italian readers from a seller on ebay, and they included this course for no descernible reason
...
I plan to contact the seller about a return
I missed this. Just curious: what did you end up doing?
A few years ago I bought many books in Italian, and the woman reselling her books also included one that I hadn't asked for. We met in person and she kinda insisted that she really didn't need it or something (I think she was moving maybe?). I ended up accepting it but then it continued gathering dust until I brought it to the Polyglot gathering to get rid of it :D

The seller replied and said she didn't imagine she'd ever sell it, so just added it in. The box was in pretty beat up shape, so maybe she just didn't think it was worth it taking up her space.

So, it just sits in storage here :lol: If I ever meet a German wanting to learn Italian, they have a gift coming.
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