Cortina Method Audio

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datsunking1
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Cortina Method Audio

Postby datsunking1 » Sun Feb 26, 2017 7:36 pm

Hi Guys, I'm looking for outlets to purchase or download the Cortina Method (Conversational) for Brazilian Portuguese, French, and German.

Does anyone know where I can find them?

Thanks,

Jordan
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Speakeasy
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Re: Cortina Method Audio

Postby Speakeasy » Sun Feb 26, 2017 10:55 pm

Availability of Cortina Languages Course Materials (1): For Purchase
In October, 2016, Cortina Languages announced a "closing sale" that some members had been anticipating for more than a year. Shortly thereafter, the company's website ceased offering their "Master Linguist" courses which included the audio recordings to the "Conversational ... in 20 Lessons" series. What-seems-to-have-been the last of the inventory of these courses appeared briefly on the Amazon, AbeBooks, and Alibris websites. I just checked these websites and it seems that, while very few courses remain, none of them meet your requirements.

The Cortina Languages website does not presently offer downloadable copies of the audio recordings accompanying the "Conversational ... in 20 Lessons" series. From my communications with the President of Cortina Languages, dating a little more than a year ago, all of these materials are still under copyright. Accordingly, I assume that any website that does offer these materials, in the absence of having the authority to do so, would be infringing on the rights of the holder of the copyright.

Availability of Cortina Languages Course Materials (2): Free
Over the past two years, in support of other forum members (notably jpazzz, daristani, n_j_f, and ericounet, all four of whom bore the brunt of the work involved) I acted as something of a communications conduit for two separate initiatives that ultimately resulted in the posting of the Cortina Russian and Cortina Japanese materials on the FSI Languages Courses website ... with the permission of the holder of the copyrights.

It would appear that, circa October, 2016, Cortina Languages either sold, disposed of, transferred ownership of, subcontracted sales on consignment basis, or made some other arrangements concerning the remainder of their inventories, thereby rendering them available as I noted above. Given their on-going commercial availability at that time, I made no attempts at communicating with the company with a view to seeking permission to host the materials on the FSI Languages Courses website as had been done for the Russian and Japanese courses. However, as the remaining stocks seem to have been sold, I will now endeavor to communicate with Cortina Languages with a view to launching an initiative that would, hopefully, result in the free availability of the remaining courses on the FSI Languages Courses website. This could be a lengthy process and there is no guarantee of success.

Communications Concerning the Sharing of Copyrighted Materials
I am not an administrator of this forum and I cannot speak on their behalf. However, I am under the impression that the open/public discussion, in this forum, of the exchange of materials which are copyright protection could be viewed as an infringement of the Forums' Rules. Additionally, I would note (a) that the above call to the members is your first post on this forum and (b) as far as I understand, as a security feature, members' permission to send/receive Private Messages on this forum is subject to their having posted three public messages that have been approved (or not disapproved) by the administrators.

EDITED: Typos
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datsunking1
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Re: Cortina Method Audio

Postby datsunking1 » Sun Feb 26, 2017 11:45 pm

That would really be awesome. I really like the methods and the content, it would just be so much more beneficial with the audio. I told them I'm willing to pay for it (even asked if they had old cds or anything) I'm just looking to complete the collection because they'd be more useful.

I'll hope for the best, let me know what I can do to help.
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Speakeasy
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Re: Cortina Method Audio

Postby Speakeasy » Mon Feb 27, 2017 1:37 pm

As the first step in launching this project, I will send an Email to the President of Cortina Languages today. While she graciously gave permission for the hosting of the Russian and Japanese courses on the FSI Languages Courses database, there may be reasons why she cannot extend her generosity to the entire family of "Conversational ... in 20 Lessons" courses at this time.

I suggest that you make a third post on any discussion thread in this forum that strikes your interest and that you then check your Private Messages.
Last edited by Speakeasy on Mon Feb 27, 2017 10:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Speakeasy
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Re: Cortina Method Audio

Postby Speakeasy » Mon Feb 27, 2017 10:16 pm

Update 1: L'art de mettre la charrue avant les bœufs ...
The thought came to me this morning that, in announcing my intention to submit a request to the President of Cortina Languages that she authorise the free-to-the-public hosting of the remaining Cortina "Conversational ... in 20 Lessons" courses on the FSI Languages Courses website, I had skipped a rather important step. That is, the true "first step" would be to inquire of ericounet, the administrator of said website, as to the feasibility, et cetera of this project. I have sent him an Email and will await his response before communicating with Cortina. Uh, er, my apologies to one and all.
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datsunking1
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Re: Cortina Method Audio

Postby datsunking1 » Tue Feb 28, 2017 1:20 am

Smart move. :) Thank you.
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Speakeasy
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Re: Cortina Method Audio

Postby Speakeasy » Thu Mar 02, 2017 10:26 pm

Update 2: Permission Granted
Good news! Two days ago, Ericounet confirmed his willingness to host the Cortina language series on the FSI-Languages-Courses website. Earlier today, I received permission from the President of Cortina Languages to proceed with this project. In addition, she advised me that she had already agreed to a similar proposal that had been submitted by a representative of WiderNet in October, 2016, . I believe that I have copies of the basic course books and the accompanying audio recordings in PDF and MP3 format for most of the courses in the series. I will forward the materials to Ericounet. In those cases where I do not have the materials, I will launch a general appeal to the members of the forum.

EDITED: this is update "2", not "1"
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Re: Cortina Method Audio

Postby PfifltriggPi » Fri Mar 03, 2017 1:59 am

Speakeasy wrote:Update 2: Permission Granted
Good news! Two days ago, Ericounet confirmed his willingness to host the Cortina language series on the FSI-Languages-Courses website. Earlier today, I received permission from the President of Cortina Languages to proceed with this project. In addition, she advised me that she had already agreed to a similar proposal that had been submitted by a representative of WiderNet in October, 2016, . I believe that I have copies of the basic course books and the accompanying audio recordings in PDF and MP3 format for most of the courses in the series. I will forward the materials to Ericounet. In those cases where I do not have the materials, I will launch a general appeal to the members of the forum.

EDITED: this is update "2", not "1"

Yeah! I have the Greek book in physical book form, but if that could somehow help, I would be happy to do what I can.
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Re: Cortina Method Audio

Postby Cainntear » Fri Mar 03, 2017 8:30 am

Can I just make a request at this point -- if people are recording audio materials from originals, please record first to FLAC (free lossless audio compression) format. FLAC keeps the full data of the recording, and it allows people to improve and clean up the recordings later, and also split them into different chunks if required. MO3 loses data and introduces noise, so if you attempt to clean up an MP3 file and save it as MP3 again, you end up degrading the recording as much as you improve it.

Even if the FLAC files aren't made immediately publicaly available and are kept in some hidden folder somewhere until specifically requested, please make sure they exist and are not lost, or in a sense we lose access to the materials again.
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Speakeasy
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Re: Cortina Method Audio

Postby Speakeasy » Fri Mar 03, 2017 7:25 pm

Update 3: Progress Report (1)

My Reply to the Replies:
PfifltriggPi and Cainntear, thank you very much for comments, both which I have addressed below.

FLAC (free lossless audio compression) format
Cainntear, thank you for comment; I wasn’t even aware of this! As all but one set of the audio recordings are already available in MP3 format, as I do not have access to the originals for the majority of the materials, and given ericounet’s availability, I suggest that we proceed with the MP3 format materials and that we consider the preparation and hosting of FLAC format recordings as being part a future project.

Cortina Courses already on the FSI-Language-Courses website
As part of two previous projects, the following course materials (PDF version of course book and MP3 version of audio) have already been posted to the FSI-Language-Courses website:
Cortina Russian
Cortina Japanese


Cortina Courses available for uploading to the FSI-Language-Courses website
I have copies of the following course materials (PDF version of course book and MP3 version of audio) and have begun uploading them to the SPREND file-sharing website for furtherance to ericounet who, despite his very busy schedule, will endeavour to post them to the FSI-Language-Courses website over the next couple of weeks:
Cortina French
Cortina German
Cortina Greek
Cortina Italian
Cortina Portuguese (Brazilian)
Cortina Spanish


Cortina Courses in Preparation
I have a physical copy of the course book and CDs of the following course for which I will prepare a PDF version of course book and a MP3 version of the audio recordings:
Cortina Vietnamese

Cortina Reading Books
As far as I understand, some of the Cortina Master Linguist courses included an elementary Reader. While it might be “nice” to prepare PDF versions of these books, given the wide and very low-cost availability of reading materials in the languages of the Cortina courses, I will not be launching a request concerning this part of the materials. Should anyone wish to prepare a PDF version of their copy of a Reader, I would ask them to make their own separate arrangements with ericounet for the hosting of these materials.

Request for Materials
From my experience with the Cortina Master Linguist courses, these packages should contain a few separate pages of “Comprehension Tests” matching the last few sections of the audio recordings. I have the pages for the German and Italian tests. Should anyone have a copy of the following tests, could they please communicate with me by the Private Message function so that we can arrange for a transfer? Merci beaucoup! Upon receipt, I combine them into one folder and forward them to ericounet for insertion in the appropriate course materials. Here is the list:
Comprehension Tests for Cortina French
Comprehension Tests for Cortina Greek
Comprehension Tests for Cortina Portuguese (Brazilian)
Comprehension Tests for Cortina Spanish


And the credit goes to ...
I would like to underscore that, not only did jpazzz, daristani, n_j_f, and ericounet "prime the pump" on this project, they dug the well, they furnished the pump and they installed it. All that I have done in this project is to draw a little water. Furthermore, we should not forget the generosity of the President of Cortina Languages.

EDITED: "and the credit goes to" and, of course, the typos.
Last edited by Speakeasy on Fri Mar 03, 2017 9:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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