(Remember THAT SONG?)
If you've visited the Spanish, French, or German course pages, you've seen a link to the FOREIGN SERVICE INSTITUTE'S FREE LANGUAGE PROGRAMS. If you poke around, you'll see there are dozens of different languages offered there. Anyone up for learning TWI?
Recently I was given a copy of BARRON'S MASTERING SPANISH 1. As I flipped through the book (from 2003), I thought, "Well, this looks awfully familiar."
The main page of the FSI Language Courses website has this to say: "These courses were developed by the United States government and are in the public domain."
The front cover of the Barron's book says, "Developed by the Foreign Service Institute. The same course used by the U.S. Government to train diplomatic personnel."
Yes. Yes, it is the same course. The exact same course. The free, public domain course that Barron's is repackaging and selling (because, frankly, they can; anyone can.) So, you can go ahead and spend the $46 or up to buy it on CD and get a printed copy of the book, or you can download everything for free. The files on the site are MP3s and we've been able to transfer them to my daughter's MP3 player without an issue.
Just as a side note while discussing foreign languages: The free Destinos and French in Action videos from Annenberg do coordinate with textbooks. Right now you can get the textbooks used through Amazon for less than $15, if you'd like to have them.
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