page_title: Rafael Díez de la Cortina y Olaeta
section_title: Linguist and businessman
hierarchical_section_title: Rafael Díez de la Cortina y Olaeta / Linguist and businessman
caption_attribution_description: Thomas Edison and his early phonograph. Cropped from Library of Congress copy. Edited Version. Dust removed by Arad. Lightness fixed by Skies
context_page_description: Rafael Díez de la Cortina y Olaeta, 1st Count of Olaeta was a Spanish-American linguist. Globally he is recognized as the first person to introduce sound recording into the teaching of foreign languages, for which he started a related business in the 1890s. In Spain he is also known as a Carlist political activist and soldier.
context_section_description: In the early 1880s Cortina commenced teaching Spanish. His own marketing and independent reviews alike claimed that Cortina Institute of Languages was set up in 1882. Throughout the 1880s he was rather noted as giving lessons offered by other institutions, e.g. in 1887 by Brooklyn Library or in 1889 by Brooklyn YMCA. The breakthrough work which helped him launch own business was the 1889 publication titled The Cortina Method to Learn Spanish in Twenty Lessons. Instead of systematically mastering linguistic structures, deemed laborious and inefficient, Cortina - claiming to be M.A. graduate of University of Madrid - focused on practical skills. In 1891 he was already boasting a program based on "the Cortina method", and in 1892 the Cortina School of Languages started to advertise. Indeed, it seems to have been an established business already. Set in two locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan, the school offered 9 languages, taught in 20 lessons by native instructors.
  It is not clear whether from the onset "the Cortina method" entailed mechanically-aided learning. Some claim that already in the mid-1880s Cortina experimented with phonograph recordings, possibly in co-operation with Thomas Edison. It was in 1893 that his method was reported in The Phonogram, an academic journal, and he became the first person to use phonograph for foreign language instruction. It soon became a second leg of his business, as on-site learning was paired with development of self-learning correspondence courses and production of related aid materials. They consisted of two types. One was own textbooks; they contained excerpts from literary works, though also phrases tailored for daily usage. Another one was recordings. Initially phonograph-intended cylinders were used; first branded by Cortina, after 1896 they were made by Edison's National Phonographic Company. In 1908 he registered the trademark of Cortinaphone, selling own brand of phonograph, and since 1913 his company started to issue flat round recordings. The Cortina school kept using English for instruction until 1920, when they switched to target language only. Around 1920 he was marketing "Cortina phonograph outfit", advertised as more efficient than teaching by instructors.
  Cortina's language business proved rather successful. His method of teaching was awarded corporate prizes; the school – since 1899 named Cortina Academy of Languages - made arrangements with prestigious New York colleges and had to rent bigger and bigger premises at prestigious downtown locations; other teaching institutions advertised themselves as adhering to his methodology; the publishing house he set up kept re-printing textbooks and manuals in endless editions while audio materials were published jointly with Columbia Records. Correspondence courses of English proved successful in South America and Mexico. Cortina business developed also in Spain, as the owner was granted official governmental recommendation and remained on good terms with education officials. His teaching method enjoyed largely positive reception among academics of that time; also contemporary scholars note that it "marks a great advance in language teaching". The language school he created was later renamed to Cortina Institute of Languages and is operational until today.
caption: Edison and phonograph
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