Rosebank Language Centre (African Languages, et cetera)

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Speakeasy
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Rosebank Language Centre (African Languages, et cetera)

Postby Speakeasy » Wed Jul 18, 2018 1:29 am

Rosebank Language Centre (African Languages, et cetera)
During my multiple, and largely unsuccessful, searches of the internet for information on the “P.I.L.L.” languages courses (please refer to my review under the “Vintage Courses of Lesser Reknown” discussion thread), almost by accident, I stumbled upon the website of what-appears-to-be the current owners of the copyrights of these materials.

Rosebank Language Centre
Rosebank, Braamfontein and Quellerina in Johannesburg
South Africa


As the above company appears to be a going-concern, which continues to offer a small selection of the P.I.L.L. courses for sale, I have created this separate discussion thread to draw attention to their product line, mostly particularly as it includes materials for a number of the less-frequently-studied African languages. I invite readers to consult the company’s website.

Rosebank Language Centre website
http://www.rlconline.co.za/
The usual disclaimer applies: I am not a representant of this company, I have no relationship of any kind with this company, I will not benefit in any manner whatsoever from the sales of any of this company’s products or services.

The Website
Although the website seems professionally-prepared, it appears to be more of a “drop box” for communicating with the prospective customers than a conventional website for the usual functions of electronic order placement, of calculating and assigning shipping charges and taxes if any, of order processing, of preparation of an invoice, of final payment, of confirmation of dispatch, et cetera. Communications with the vendor are can be initiated via a “Contact Us” portal which, if you submit a question, as I did, will generate an automated invitation by Email to create an account. This would seem to suggest that the vendors are willing to communicate with registered account-holders only. Payment instructions are quite specific (prepayment directly to a bank account). In the age of electronic payment via internationally-recognized credit cards, via PayPal, and the like, I find this just a tad unusual. I am not suggesting that the vendors are running a dubious business operation. However, by not providing what-have-become wide-spread, secure, electronic order processing facilities, they are not doing much in the way of encouraging new customers to make a leap of faith!
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Jaleel10
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Re: Rosebank Language Centre (African Languages, et cetera)

Postby Jaleel10 » Wed Jul 18, 2018 6:18 am

Hi, Speakeasy. Thanks for bringing this website to our attention.

The thing we South Africans love to do is complain :lol: and I was actually shocked to see no complaints about this on our regular business review sites. But also no positive comments, in fact no comments or reviews at all. But I will admit that even though we have 11 official languages, we don't really have a culture for language learning outside of learning English

The website does look unprofessional and hastily done in some areas. For instance this is the page for Spanish (the language that I am studying). I thought I would support a local business but this doesn't really do them favours. It's the same on some other pages as well for Non-African languages.
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But I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt so I contacted them requesting a demo or a few pages of the course. Just so I can see it's quality. Maybe even compare it to the Teach Yourself Zulu course which I own

I will report back once I hear something.

it is HARD even for us South Africans to find good resources for African languages haha.
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