Next Course or Course Part Contribution
Printed From: FSI Language Courses
Category: Language Courses
Forum Name: Member Contributions
Forum Discription: If you have course materials and are planning to contribute them to the website, this is the place to let everyone know.
URL: http://fsi-language-courses.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=258
Printed Date: 16 January 2009 at 3:06am
Topic: Next Course or Course Part Contribution
Posted By: smoen
Subject: Next Course or Course Part Contribution
Date Posted: 03 January 2007 at 4:11pm
I am ready to make an additional contribution to the fsi-language-courses.com site, and am trying to determine which course I should next purchase from NTIS.
The first group of course are those currently listed on the status page, missing some components:
1) Hungarian Reader Text 2) Serbo-Croation Basic Tapes 3) Spanish Programmatic Vol 2 Text 4) Vietnamese Basic, Volume 2 (text and tapes)
This second list contains those courses which I believe have had the greatest number of requests:
1) Modern Written Arabic, Volumes 1 and 2 (text and tapes) 2) Cambodian Basic Course (text and tapes) 3) German, A Programmed Introduction 4) Beginning Japanese, Parts 1 and 2 (text and tapes) 5) Korean Basic Course, Volume 1 (text and tapes) 6) Thai Basic Course, Volumes 1 and 2 (text and tapes)
And finally, what I consider to be the exotic languages
1) Bulgarian Basic Course 2) Chinyanja Basic Course 3) Hausa Basic Course 4) Igbo Basic Course 5) Kirundi Basic Course 6) Kituba Basic Course 7) Luganda Basic Course 8) More Basic Course 9) Shona Basic Course 10) Sinhalese Basic Course
Of course, this is how I categorize them, yours may differ. I will buy a minimum of ONE (more if it's not too expensivie) of the above listed courses/course parts, based on forum members ideas, wants and wishes. I will also communicate with gdfellows. I am inclined to go with completing the Group 1 courses listed above, unless there is an unusual demand from you'all for one of those in Group 2.
I will digitize the tapes, no problem, but someone will need to volunteer to scan the texts, if needed. I'll take input via this forum for about 10 days, then will let you know what course(s) will be ordered.
Corrections/additions/comments welcomed.
NOTE: I included, in the 3 groups above, only the BASIC courses, no Headstart or Survival Courses.
smoen
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Replies:
Posted By: Chung
Date Posted: 03 January 2007 at 4:32pm
Since it's your treat, just go with your strongest inclination. Namely, "fill in a blank" with something from the 1st group.
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Posted By: raincrowlee
Date Posted: 03 January 2007 at 8:49pm
What he said. Your dime, your choice.
I would recommend that, since you can digitize tapes but not scan books, then it might be best to get the Serbo-Croatian tapes, because I think everyone who can easily scan is scanning something or another. That way you know your purchase will be posted.
But, really, it's up to you.
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Posted By: sepulnation
Date Posted: 03 January 2007 at 11:46pm
personally id love to see more arabic on this site but its your money and if something else would help more people since it would complete the courses already here i think that would be a great value. and i just want to say i and im sure everyone else really appreciates your contribution to the site
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Posted By: nieuk
Date Posted: 04 January 2007 at 4:44am
As the others have said.. your penny, your pick. I'll offer my insight though; since you asked :P
The Group 1 options are the most sensible, as they would round out those courses.
And of the Group 2 options, my logic would say Cambodian Basic or Korean Basic Vol 1 - since Cambodian is being started and the Basic would complete that (??), and most people would find Korean Vol 2 useless without Vol 1.
Honestly, I would put Vietnamese Vol 2 in your Group 2 as well.
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Posted By: raincrowlee
Date Posted: 04 January 2007 at 7:29am
Oh, and I just wanted to point out that, after Swahili, the African languages with the largest number of speakers are Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. If you wanted to do an exotic, I'd say either Hausa or Igbo, or maybe Bulgarian.
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Posted By: morprussell
Date Posted: 04 January 2007 at 6:56pm
I would vote for the Serbo-Croatian course or the Korean Basic Course, Volume 1. Whatever you decide to go with I'm sure it will be appreciated.
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Posted By: Deniz
Date Posted: 06 January 2007 at 4:16pm
That is great from you, smoen. From the lists given, I would vote for completing serbo-croatian, as only the tapes are needed and MSA, because the rest of the arabic material is already available and the MSA course would be a cherry on the cake for arabic learners.
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Posted By: daristani
Date Posted: 06 January 2007 at 6:24pm
Smoen, if you should decide to go for the MSA, I've got volume 1 of the book (only, no tapes) that I'd be happy to send to whoever might be able to do the digitizing, so if you're going to purchase materials, there's no need to pay for the MSA volume 1 book.
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Posted By: patuco
Date Posted: 07 January 2007 at 10:00am
Like others have said, go for what you want since you're going to be spending your money.
However, it makes sense to me to "finish off" the courses which have already been started before getting new ones.
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Posted By: charlesbell74
Date Posted: 07 January 2007 at 11:30pm
Hi smoen. The Spanish one gets my vote (if SirNigel doesn't have it) as I know many people who are wanting to jump into the second section of the programmatic portion.
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Posted By: smoen
Date Posted: 08 January 2007 at 2:01pm
It's almost unanimous to "fill in" the incompleted courses. Therefore, this week I will order:
1) The Hungarian Reader (text) 2) Korean Basic Course Volume 1 (text and tapes)
I'm confused about the availability of the Programmed Spanish Volume 2 texts, so I'll leave that for another forum member.
I will be ordering the above listed text and tapes on Thursday or Friday this week, so, if you know that these materials are available elsewhere, PLEASE let me know so I don't buy duplicate material.
I will also need a volunteer to scan the texts (I'll do the tapes)
No promises as to time frame until completion. I'll do what I can, when I can.
SMoen
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Posted By: onebir
Date Posted: 08 January 2007 at 3:24pm
Originally posted by smoen
2) Korean Basic Course Volume 1 (text and tapes)
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I think you can save yourself about $40 if you get the book here for $20: http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=109553500&searchurl=an%3Dforeign%2Bservice%2Binstitute%26y%3D7%26bsi%3D120%26x%3D60%26sortby%3D1 - http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=109553500&searchurl=an%3Dforeign%2Bservice%2Binstitute%26y%3D7%26bsi%3D120%26x%3D60%26sortby%3D1
And just the tapes from NTIS ($185 instead of $245 for tapes + text)
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Posted By: smoen
Date Posted: 08 January 2007 at 3:32pm
Thanks for the tip!! SMoen
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Posted By: juhraffe
Date Posted: 09 January 2007 at 9:42am
SMoen, I'd be interested in scanning the Korean Basic I text if you need someone to do it. Does anyone have an estimate of how long this would take or how many pages are in the book? I have access to a scanner and should have Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional soon. I'm not sure how people typically send the books around, but if it makes things easier I could just buy the book myself (since it's only $20) and then upload the PDF file(s) to the site.
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Posted By: smoen
Date Posted: 09 January 2007 at 12:52pm
I e-mailed the link above from onebir, and they indicated to me that it is, indeed, the original FSI version. Yes, it would be easer if you were to order it, and then scan it. It would save a few days in the mail, in any case. If you decide to do this, and the book turns out to be of poor quality or, in fact, a copyrighted book, let me know and I'll include the book in my order with NTIS. Let me know if you are going to purchase it. If not, PM me your address, and I'll order the text and mail it to you.
Smoen
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Posted By: juhraffe
Date Posted: 09 January 2007 at 1:30pm
I ordered Korean Basic I from the link. I'll check it when it arrives for quality and copyrights and then start scanning if everything is OK.
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Posted By: nieuk
Date Posted: 09 January 2007 at 10:46pm
I just checked our State Library and it's catalogue has been updated.. They have a few FSI courses listed, including Hungarian Reader; I will check it out tonight or tomorrow and see if it is actually in the library and the prospects of me scanning it - the library is a reference library only (no loans).
If the courses in the catalogue actually exist, are original, and I can scan the texts with little hassle from staff then I theoretically now have access to a lot of 'exotics' (Yoruba, Hausa, Twi, More, Luganda, Lingala, Lao, Kituba, Kirundi, Indonesian Reader, Igbo, Fula, and Chinyanja). Unfortunately, I don't think that I'll be able to digitise any audio if it's also available unless I can book a private room at the library.
Anyway smoen - Will let you know ASAP about the Hungarian Reader.
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Posted By: lemony_steve
Date Posted: 09 January 2007 at 11:14pm
I would be really happy to see Serbo-Croatian online and the Texts for Finnish
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Posted By: nieuk
Date Posted: 10 January 2007 at 3:26am
Ok, so forget what I said above.. *argh*
In short, no Hungarian Reader from me :(
The material I saw is indeed, original material. But I have no realistic way of getting it. I can't borrow the material, I can't get access to a private room there to use a scanner... I can't take a scanner into the library, hah. Photocopying works out more expensive than the actual book.
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Posted By: Chung
Date Posted: 10 January 2007 at 8:24am
Originally posted by lemony_steve
I would be really happy to see Serbo-Croatian online and the Texts for Finnish  |
As indicated on the Status page, Malcolm is already scanning the textbook and workbook for FSI Conversational Finnish. There's no need for smoen to put out his cash for these books.
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Posted By: Myself
Date Posted: 12 January 2007 at 7:57pm
I would like to see Vietnamese Basic, Volume 2 on the website.
Where can we get this from? Thank you.
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Posted By: Chung
Date Posted: 17 January 2007 at 5:21pm
Straight from the horse's mouth
http://www.ntis.gov/search/results.asp?loc=3-0-0&strSearch=ntisavlanguagevietnamese&formShow=no - http://www.ntis.gov/search/results.asp?loc=3-0-0&strSearch=ntisavlanguagevietnamese&formShow=no
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Posted By: DemiPuppet
Date Posted: 17 January 2007 at 11:17pm
You can also find all the book for free at a local "Federal Depository Library" Typically these books are not in the catalog, so you'll need to wander down to the government documents section of the library. My university is a repository and has almost all the FSI language books.
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/libraries.html - http://www.gpoaccess.gov/libraries.html Look around call number S1.114 (S = State Dept, D = Defense) The Defense documents section usually have all the DLI Headstart books.
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Posted By: fastjet
Date Posted: 18 January 2007 at 7:16am
If possible, I would like to see Beginning Japanese on the site. I really appreciate everyone's contributions, and believe that this is an amazing site and service that you are all providing.
Keep up the good work.
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Posted By: Chung
Date Posted: 18 January 2007 at 8:04am
Originally posted by DemiPuppet
You can also find all the book for free at a local "Federal Depository Library" Typically these books are not in the catalog, so you'll need to wander down to the government documents section of the library. My university is a repository and has almost all the FSI language books.
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/libraries.html - http://www.gpoaccess.gov/libraries.html Look around call number S1.114 (S = State Dept, D = Defense) The Defense documents section usually have all the DLI Headstart books.
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Ahhhh! That explains how you've been able to scan so many texts...
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Posted By: Exocrist
Date Posted: 18 January 2007 at 10:24am
My university (University of Minnesota) has a few courses that aren't up here yet , but I don't have a scanner that I can use. If I ever have free time, I'll have to check out the public libraries, too.
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Posted By: onebir
Date Posted: 18 January 2007 at 11:25am
"My university (University of Minnesota) has a few courses that aren't
up here yet , but I don't have a scanner that I can use. If I ever
have free time, I'll have to check out the public libraries, too."
Maybe your Uni library can get interlibrary loans. If so, you probably have access to just about everything...
If you're short of time, maybe you can digitize some tapes. As long as you can actually borrow them, this takes very little 'person time' - a few mins per tape max.
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Posted By: Exocrist
Date Posted: 19 January 2007 at 6:20pm
I have a scanner at my parent's house, and my dad has a tape player that I could plug into my sound card, but the problem is that I don't really live there anymore, and don't really have place for them, or time to spend digitizing. However, if I can get the equipment from my parents, I'll make time.
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Posted By: AndrewK
Date Posted: 27 January 2007 at 11:40pm
so has the FSI Korean I been ordered by someone yet?
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