It’s great to see that some Linguaphone courses are now available at LingQ. However it should be pointed out that the “PDQ” range of courses only cover a quite basic level. They are different entirely from the 1960s and 1970s vintage Linguaphone courses recommended by Prof Arguelles and others.
But maybe some of these bigger Linguaphone courses are going to be made available too?
One step at a time, Rank. We’ll see what we can do 
The new courses of Linguaphone, are really quite terrible compared to the older ones. The style changed completely. Even courses like the German one from the 80s is quite excellent. Probably the best of all is the Icelandic one.
I am glad to have these Linguaphone courses. I think they help people get started, people who are not confident language learners. Thereafter there are ample language resources here at LingQ and elsewhere to satisfy every one. However, getting started, getting your feet wet, that is the most important step. These Linguaphone courses cater to that need, in my view.
In my opinion PDQ is actually a very decent place to start for complete beginners. When I was first starting Italian - my very first foreign language - I myself used PDQ Italian, before then moving on to Linguaphone’s ‘main’ Italian course (together with “Practise and Improve Your Italian” by Passport Books.)
But I would say PDQ is really only the very first step.
Yeah, I think that might be it Steve.
I’m trying to imagine, however, how these PDQ courses can possibly fit into the LingQ system. From what I remember of the Spanish course which I looked at, it starts off all in English, and the character doesn’t speak any Spanish. The Spanish speakers try to continuously speak Spanish to them and they slowly pick some up. It’s very slow and boring and they expect you pick it up in the same way that this ridiculous person does…and then do drills on what you’ve “learned”!
Please point me to the lessons, because I’m really unable to imagine it.
Rank, do you mean beginners at language learning? Or beginners in a particular language? I don’t think that any experienced language learner could take these sources seriously (perhaps the exception would be a language which is very, very different to their own or anything similar to something they’ve studied - theoretically).
At first I thought that these PDQ lessons were a joke, but now I see it’s just British humour. And I love the British humour!
Really? I’m surprised. I listened to the free lesson, and it just doesn’t really seem like the kind of content that you would think would help someone learn a language, Steve. They are a bunch of disconnected phrases. They’re not even interesting. This is the premium content that people will want to pay for?
Aybee, exactly my thoughts.
Lingaphone’s old content should be used and not this new junk. Unfortunately, their business model has moved onto offering Pimsleur-inspired courses instead of something closer to Assimil.
As you all know, I just start into a language using the kind of content we have at LingQ. I have had great success with Czech using the content provided by our members, and then jumping into the news and audio books. If I were starting any of the languages that are available through LingQ in the Linguaphone PDQ series, I would probably just use the free content we have in our Libraries and go for it.
On the other hand, I often hear people say that it is difficult to start a language from scratch with LingQ. I don’t feel that way because I am an experienced language learner, as are many of you.
I feel that we lose a lot of beginner learners, people who are less experienced at language learning. Now they have an option. People can sample a free lesson, and if they like this format they can buy the series.
I’ve just seen the fist lesson of the PDQ course in Spanish and I’m really surprised by the dreadful quality of this lesson. In this lesson they speak more in English than in Spanish, but this is just the beginning.
In theory they cover 5 topics: The cafe, the taxi, the reception, the visit and “Ledesma”. Each theoretical situation has 3 short meaningless sentences (some of them repeated and unfinished). The last topic is called Ledesma and the dialog has just one word “Ledesma”. What the hell is Ledesma? At the beginning it says in English “some more useful dialogs” but as far as I know 1 word is not a dialog and also I don’t think the name of a small village, even if it’s beautiful, is a really useful word to learn!!!
This is considered premium content? Or in other works, should this be considered premium content worth paying for?
¡Ledesma!
The choice is with the student. We have a certain style at LingQ, and it is an effective style, one that works for many of us, and one that I believe in.
However, there are many language learners who prefer to have their hands held more, especially at the beginning. The number of such learners is large. I suspect that is why Linguaphone has moved away from their traditional courses and developed these easier texts.
What I don’t understand is why some paying content at LingQ is so far away from the core philosophy of LingQ.
Thousands of explanations in English in that lessons reminds me the old days of the English subject at school.
Is LingQ becoming a traditional language school (but online)?
And no, this is not making me laugh at all.
Some students want their hands held more, so let’s give them what they want, even if it’s ineffective?
These are not easier texts, these are useless, meaningless and incoherent texts that do not teach you anything.
But to be fair, this Spanish lessons of PDQ courses are excellent for learning English.
(British)