While helping my uncle clear out some old boxes lately, I came across a proper forgotten classic of language learning: the Made Simple series.

I knew it as soon as I spied the familiar black, red and yellow paperback – it was an early nineties edition of Spanish Made Simple, chunky, well-worn, and still with my teenage pencil notes in it. I’d passed it on to my globetrotting uncle ahead of a trip he made to South America, so it had done some serious miles.

Made Simple was a series familiar to many who took evening classes back then. And with its slightly polytechnic-esque look and feel, it sat naturally alongside Teach Yourself, Colloquial, Hugo In Three Months and language course stalwarts, keeping up but not quite displacing them. They covered the usual mainstream languages – French, German and Spanish – but also featured other self-teach titles from Electronics to Philosophy. 

And they feel solid, with a no-fluff, down-to-brass-tacks grammar-vocab-reading model. There’s a real ‘adult ed’ feel to them, which is probably why I loved them as a language-obsessed teen. They just felt grown-up.

Made Simple… Made Disappear?

Despite the Spanish edition making it to 2.5 million copies in print, the series never held the primacy that rivals like Teach Yourself and Colloquial hung onto. Other series expanded into more languages, for example, and shifting formats – especially the rise of audio media – made keeping courses like these a real specialist undertaking. In fact, they did manage to cling on in a modern incarnation by Penguin Random House, with fresh, up-to-date jackets. But those original, ubiquitous Made Simple language titles drifted into obscurity, and you’ll only spot their tricolore jackets on the shelves of second-hand booksellers these days.

That said, being obscure and forgotten doesn’t mean being obsolete. You will know, by now, my take on old language learning gems! For those of us who cut our language learning teeth before apps and streaks, they’re a charming reminder that all you really need is a pencil, a bit of patience, and a good old-fashioned tome.

So with that, consider the original Made Simple series unearthed and celebrated once again in this post. If you’re hankering after a new angle on your language, those old Made Simple volumes are still well worth a look!