The Nature Method Institute's Language Courses

[andreasmi]

Hey everyone,

I’m still trying to find the russian one myself, but as some others have asked for the versions for different languages I thought I’d share the ones that I found:

https://vivariumnovum.it/risorse-didattiche/propria-formazione/metodo-diretto-applicato-alle-lingue-moderne

The link contains Jensen’s work on French, English and Italian and similar pieces on German and Spanish. Hope that helps someone.

Hint: The language of the instructions vary in the different download packages. The italian one, only comes with instructions in dutch, so I checked the english one which also had instructions in german. Try till you find one you can understand... Apart from the phonetic instructions, they should be very similar anyway. Those of course might have some gaps if languages use different sounds...

[Daristani]

For those interested in acquiring physical copies of the Nature Method books, it seems that the French and Italian versions, divided into three volumes each, are now available:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=francais+met ... nb_sb_noss

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=l%27+italian ... _ss_i_1_22

As to whether these are authorized or unauthorized reprints, I have no idea.

[ロータス]

For those interested in acquiring physical copies of the Nature Method books, it seems that the French and Italian versions, divided into three volumes each, are now available:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=francais+met ... nb_sb_noss

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=l%27+italian ... _ss_i_1_22

As to whether these are authorized or unauthorized reprints, I have no idea.

Wish there was images of the pages. If someone here buys one, can you post some sample pages please.

[Querneus]

Wish there was images of the pages. If someone here buys one, can you post some sample pages please.

Andreasmi posted a link from which you can download PDF versions of both the French book and the Italian book. I notice that, unlike Daristani, his post got zero likes until I just gave it one a minute ago. Did his post literally go completely unnoticed?

[MrPenguin]

Andreasmi posted a link from which you can download PDF versions of both the French book and the Italian book. I notice that, unlike Daristani, his post got zero likes until I just gave it one a minute ago. Did his post literally go completely unnoticed?

I believe ロータス was referring to images of the pages of the actual physical books mentioned as being for sale in the post he was replying to.

[tokyohermit]

Very interesting. Ive used Orberg and was so impressed I have got the French and the Italian books, which are just wonderful.

I would make a recommendation though these books will not take you as far the 'nature' method books will, however they are an excellent introductory series which will give you a very good grounding in the grammar and a vocab of about 1,500 words.

These are the Berlitz Self-teacher series. They are available for French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian (as far as I know).

They do use English, but overall they are pretty good if you cant get hold of a Nature method text.

[Icepick23]

Does anyone know the copyright status of these books, and how they ended up as pdfs? I'm confused because at first they appeared to be pirated, but they were posted on Vivarium Novum.

[Sahmilat]

Does anyone know the copyright status of these books, and how they ended up as pdfs? I'm confused because at first they appeared to be pirated, but they were posted on Vivarium Novum.

In the US, the French and Italian books were published early enough that they are out of copyright. They were not renewed. Latin was renewed, of course, and the Russian book was published just after the copyright rules changed so it is still protected.

[Icepick23]

Does anyone know the copyright status of these books, and how they ended up as pdfs? I'm confused because at first they appeared to be pirated, but they were posted on Vivarium Novum.

In the US, the French and Italian books were published early enough that they are out of copyright. They were not renewed. Latin was renewed, of course, and the Russian book was published just after the copyright rules changed so it is still protected.

Thank you! This eases my conscience!

[Hsh]

Of possible interest:
I found Humboldt's 2005 web archive, which has a little information about each Nature Method course, as well as product numbers (perhaps useful in the search for the "lost" materials):
https://web.archive.org/web/20050209051035/http://www.humboldt.at/

Another thing to note: Humboldt has several languages listed as being Nature Method material which haven't been mentioned here: Slovak, Turkish, and some others. Perhaps these were the newer products that someone mentioned were poorer quality?

Curiously, Humboldt sold Linguaphone products alongside Nature Method products, and in similar packages: CD's with audio, and also textbooks. Given that Linguaphone is still an active company (https://linguaphone.co.uk/) while The Nature Method Institute has seemingly disappeared, and given the similarity between the methods/materials, I wonder if Humboldt was attempting to combine the two. Edit: linguaphone was an active company even while Humboldt sold their products