Possibility of importing content from old Linguaphone Norwegian course once beta-languages operational

Content Forum
1

I have an old out-of-print Linguaphone Norwegian course originally published in the mid '60s but re-released in the '80s with cassettes and was thinking that it might make decent material for importing to LingQ along with audio once the beta-languages function is eventually added.

I’d have to get permission from Linguaphone of course but I don’t think it impossible considering the material is fairly old now, is no longer sold and will definitely not get a reprint since they have cut down the amount of languages they sell products for.

Assuming they would give their permission, would there be any problem with me typing up and importing the lesson texts and audio? It is just that it would originally come from a commercial language learning product and that I would need to add a disclaimer that the content is used with permission from Linguaphone and I suppose that could be considered a form of indirect advertisement for them.

The content is pretty decent, though does contain some old fashioned language but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem considering plenty of extracts from very old novels can be found here on LingQ. There are more than 50 lessons with the last lesson dealing with extracts from Norwegian literature and overall there is a fair bit of material.

I would appreciate if Steve or Mark could confirm whether or not they think it might be a good idea to upload this content (assuming I get a yes from Linguaphone) once the beta-languages functionality is active. I will of course just be adding the pure Norwegian content and not the explanatory parts though I may add an English translation in the notes section and perhaps some explanation of key phrases.

Anyway, I hope the beta-languages functionality is added in the near future, I very much look forward to that time. :slight_smile:

Cheers,

Steve.

2

As long as you’ve got permission from the publisher, I see no problems uploading this to the site.

It’s an excellent idea, and in spite of the fact that it may take some time to import it all, I’m sure many Norwegian learners will appreciate the content! :slight_smile:

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Cool, I’ll see what I can do! I will send an e-mail to Linguaphone tomorrow.and hopefully I’ll get a positive response from them in due course and then once the beta-language functionality comes up, I can start importing. :slight_smile:

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I fear it’s very unlikely that Linguaphone will allow people to share their vintage courses; however if they DO allow this, I could contribute the Linguaphone 1960s era audio content for Dutch, Afrikaans, Icelandic and Mexican Spanish (as well as Norwegian.)

5

I fear you may be right Jay, but it is worth a shot to ask them. They are probably more willing to allow the sharing of vintage courses that cover languages they no longer teach such as Norwegian, Icelandic and Afrikaans, but they may be more reluctant for old courses covering languages they currently teach to be shared.

Anyway, I’ve sent off an e-mail to them so all we can do now is wait and hope they give permission. If they do, let’s hope it sets a precedent so that perhaps other vintage courses can be used but it just might be pushing it. We’ll have to just wait and see.