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Linguaphone's German Review

By Gerrit du Plessis

Linguaphone has a venerable history in the language instruction industry; they were one of the first companies to incorporate recordings into their curriculum - nearly a century ago!

Today the regular Linguaphone program is available on a combination of CDs and printed books. But since I'm specifically comparing ways to learn German online, I was pleased to discover that Linguaphone had an Mp3 download version as well. I was curious to find out how Linguaphone - typically unusually heavy on the written word - managed to adapt their program to this new format.

The answer is - not perfectly. You're invited to listen to a series of skits involving a clueless character named Jane, who is learning German just as you are. There is no writing or reading involved in this program at all - the .pdf-formatted book is nothing but vocabulary.

The power of Linguaphone's regular program is not in its CDs, it's in the accompanying books, and all that vigor seems to be missing here. You do pick up German words and phrases from listening to the graduated dialogues, and the program certainly isn't difficult. But Linguaphone allTalk doesn't have enough variety to be fun; your money would be better spent somewhere else like on Rocket German.

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