Linguaphone Finnish (Suomen Kielen Kurssi)

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Speakeasy
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Linguaphone Finnish (Suomen Kielen Kurssi)

Postby Speakeasy » Sat Dec 02, 2017 11:40 pm

Linguaphone Finnish (Suomen Kielen Kurssi)

Preamble and Disclaimer
I have never studied Finnish and I have no intention of ever doing so. Nevertheless, earlier today, I came across an offer for a complete copy of “Linguaphone Finnish” for a reasonable price on eBay and, as this out-of-print course does not appear in the “Finnish Profile” and, as it does not seem to be available on the major online booksellers’ websites, I thought that some members might wish to know that a copy of the course is presently available. I am not the seller of this course, nor do I have any relationship whatsoever with the seller and, apart from the personal pleasure that I derive from sharing information on vintage language-learning materials, I cannot and will not profit from this announcement.

Link to the Offer on eBay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Linguaphone-FINNISH-Course-Cassette-Language-Tapes-SUOMEN-KIELEN-KURSSI/152810524226?hash=item2394378e42:g:sPAAAOSwDFBaIYal

Materials
From the information available on the major online booksellers’ websites, the Linguaphone Finnish seems to have been published circa 1957. While I could be wrong, I suspect that subsequent editions were reprints of the original course; however, I have no evidence to support this. Some old references indicate “Starter Course” which, to me, suggests one of Linguaphone’s shorter, less comprehensive courses, when compared to those that were published for the more-commonly-studied languages. The offer on eBay seems to include the usual Course Book, accompanying Handbook, plus four audio cassettes (see the attached images). In the absence of more precise information, I surmise that the audio cassettes are of 45-minutes duration, thereby yielding a total duration of the audio recordings of approximately three (3) hours. I recognize that Linguaphone did, indeed, publish courses containing four audio cassettes of 90-minutes duration (I have such a course in my private collection); however, the indication on Amazon that Linguaphone Finnish was a “Starter Course” leads me to conclude that the four cassettes are of 45-minutes duration each.

Reviews?
I could not locate any Customer Reviews on Amazon or elsewhere on the Internet. Nevertheless, there are a few passing references on the HTLAL (How-To-Learn-Any-Language) forum. Below are extracts from the most relevant HTLAL discussion threads:

Finnish language materials – HTLAL, June 2010 – member Guido
“Apart from Assimil, which is always an excellent option, here are some other methods (I'll just post the images, you have to search for the ISBNs):
1. Hyvin Menee 1
2. Hyvin Menee 2
3. Harjoitus tekee mestarin 1, 2, 3 and 4
4. Linguaphone Finnish
5. Supisuomea Video Lessons
6. Suomea Paremmin
7. FSI Conversational Finnish
8. Teach Yourself Finnish
9. Ymmärrä suomea

My recomendation:
1. Start with Linguaphone Finnish together with Supisuomea
2. Continue with the two Hyvin Menee, the 4 Harjoitus tekee mestarin and Ymmärrä suomea
3. The others (Suomea Paremmin, FSI and TY) would be just to reinforce

A short description of some of the books:
- Supisuomea: it's a DVD course in fact. 12 Lesson. Subtitles in like 8 languages (including Russian and Finnish). Excelent. A must
- Hyvin Menee 1 and 2: Books with dialoges, exercises, audio. Excelent. A must
- Harjoitus tekee mestarin: Exercises books. Excellent. I'd say they are a must since Finnish grammar isn't the easiest.
- Linguaphone Finnish: since Assimil Finnish is only available in French and German, you have no better option than this book (with
audio). You need a language course that teaches you the language through another (English>Finnish) and the Hyvin Menee and Harjoitus are 100% in
Finnish.
- FSI Finnish: The same as Linguaphone, but FSI can get boring.
- Teach Yourself Finnish: These are good, but for a language like Finnish it's not enought. I'd buy it anyway.
- Suomea Paremmin: Texts and dialogues with audio (very long texts in fact). 100% Finnish.
- Ymmärrä suomea: Texts and dialogues. It seems to be very good.

Hope it helps!
and have a nice day!
Guido.-“


Mandarin – Assimil – 2+ yrs w/ILR Results – HTLAL, March 2012 – member BobbyE
“I've been using Linguaphone ever since I finished Assimil. Oh, and this is my Assimil completion video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HQjV827 ... ture=g-upl

Anyway, Linguaphone is amazing. Seriously. I'm on lesson 5 and the grammar and dialogues are already more advanced then the 105th lesson in Assimil. I highly highly recommend anyone to get there hands on one of these old 80's linguaphone sets.”


Let Us All Know !!!!!
Should a member purchase the copy of Linguaphone Finnish that is presently available on eBay, I think that it would be of some considerable interest to many other members were they to say so, here, in this discussion thread. Also, a follow-up review of the materials would be greatly appreciated.

Time for my nap!

IMAGES (downloaded from eBay)
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