Product Description

Learn French in six weeks!

Even if you have failed in traditional language-learning courses, you will succeed with Teach Yourself Instant French! In just 35 minutes a day for six weeks (including one day off each week), you will be able to speak confidently in your new language. As you become involved with the program's intriguing storyline, you will pick up the words and phrases integral to basic conversations.

You will learn 400 key words and expressions in French and only the most important grammar tips so you can communicate quickly and easily.

Customer Reviews (8)

very funny & helpful!
it's great,funny, & very helpful.i like the words of encouragement that it gives!such as "give yourself a gold star! don't worry!"

The best French learning materials (book + CDs) out there!!!
French is the 3rd foreign language that I've learned (still learning). I have to say this book plus the accompanying CDs are the best materials out there for learning French. (I've tried a dozen to say at least.) The format of the book is well organized. The conversations and new words are those that you'll recognize on a daily basis.

What I like most of this book is the "dis-emphasize" of the formal endings of the verbs and etc, and instead emphasize on the speaking of the language itself. It's a great relief for someone who's learning a new language, so that he/she would not be overwhelmed by the information overload.

In this day and age, iPod is so ubiquitous. Learning a new language with iPod made it so much easier for me. I imported the whole CDs into my iPod and created playlists like "conversations" and "new words". So, I can either follow the order of the book, or just concentrate on one aspect of the learning at a time instead.

Strongly recommend it to anyone who's aspired to learn this beautiful language. In the meantime, I would also suggest to take a look at "Hide this French CD" and "Play and Learn French", two totally different approaches.

très bon!
I wanted a system that would teach me the basics and would allow me to quickly begin conversing in French which is what this program does.

I love that I can study at my own pace (though I do study for more than 35 minutes a day, it's more like an hour or two depending on how much time I have) and I never get lost in the subject matter. I think the book's sections are split very well, though I definitely recommend the CDs as it helps a lot with pronunciation. I put the audio files on my home and office computer as well as my iPod so I can practice saying the words as well as do the practice exercises where ever I am.

Overall, I'm thoroughly happy with the program and plan to get the "Teach Yourself French Complete Course" once I feel more comfortable with everything I've learned from the Instant French package.

Serious Omissions - not for beginners
What was the smiling author, Elisabeth Smith, thinking, when she wrote this book? It makes absolutely no sense at all, to publish a foreign language book that does not clearly show the correct pronunciations associated with the words.
A beginner will have no clue as to how to correctly pronounce these words in french. And pronunciation is extremely important.....in ANY foreign language. This book (along with many others) are poorly written, rush-to-market paperbacks.

The real "Teach Yourself" series are very well written and will always have a "ty" in the upper left corner of the cover. All the rest are a waste of time.

I studied French in high school and college, so I'll use this book. But for the true beginner, buyer beware.

Instant French- tres bon
I come from an Anglophone African country and had very little exposure to French until I started working for a bilingual international organization. The two official languages in my organization are French and English. All meetings, conferences and documentation have to be in both languages.

When I started working for this organization, I needed a book that would enable me to speak and understand basic French. I often visit Francophone countries where some people hardly speak English including at the airport and in restaurants. This is where the book "Instant French" by Elisabeth Smith came handy. For instance, I had to visit Senegal during the first few weeks of my employment and so I needed something urgent to enable me to have an elementary knowledge of the language in the shortest possible time to be studied whilst also being busy preparing for my trip. I acquired a copy of the book together with the accompanying audio cassette. After spending about an hour a day studying the book and listening to the audio cassette, I acquired sufficient knowledge to order food, ask for directions, negotiate prices in the market and read road signs.

I recommend the book for those who need to learn basic French in a hurry. One, however, needs to understand that this is very basic French. Mastering the contents of the book will not make one to be anywhere near being considering an expert in the language but it makes a very good beginning for those who need to have a go at studying this beautiful language.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Ridiculous Book
Whatever you're looking for, this is not the book for you. I see that twobeginners have very high opinions about this book, and I guess that theyhave found it easy to use. The problem is that the form of Welsh used inthe book does not exit. I am not a beginner, I've lived in Wales, I speakWelsh, I watch TV in Welsh, etc. etc. In short, I know the Welsh languagequite well. Written Welsh is a very archaic language, and we can still readtexts written in Welsh 800AD, while ordinary English-speakers can't readBeowulf except in translation. Spoken Welsh is however not so archaic, sothe difference between written and spoken Welsh in considerable. Now, TeachYourself Welsh uses a form invented to be a bridge between the written andspoken language, but fails utterly. If you use this book you willbeunable to understand written texts in Welsh, and if you try to speak..Well, most people will understand you, but I can assure you that you willsound funny. For example, the written Welsh for "I am" is"Yr wyf", while the spoken form is "Dw I". In this bookyou will learn to say "Rydw I", a form which has never been usedin writing nor in speech.

Welsh is a wonderful language, and possesessome of the oldest stories in Europe, among them the tales of King Arthur,Merlin etc. It is definitely worth learning this language, which is truthis quite easy, but this is not the book to use. I strongly recommend"Colloquial Welsh" by Gareth King, which gives the beginner agood command of spoken Welsh, and also gives the outlines of the writtenlanguage.

Welsh Learners Start Here
As a new Welsh Learner, I have purchased several programs.Although they are all very good, I found the layout of this book and cassette easier toget to a good basic grasp of pronunciation and phrasing. I reallyappreciated how the 'speed' of the recordings starts at a slower pace, andthen speeds up as the course continues.This course seemed to be focusedon the Southern dialects as its default.

Wonderful introduction to Welsh!
For a beginner in studying Welsh, I found this book extremely helpful.There are clear lessons and comprehensive examples that allow you to understand the grammar and pronunciation of the language.Excercises arealso included that help you practice your grasp of the language.Awonderful start for the beginner in Welsh! ... Read more

Product Description
Students of Gaelic at all levels will consider this bilingual dictionary a welcome addition to their reference bookshelf. New to the Teach Yourself dictionary series, this title provides the user with a comprehensive vocabulary for working Gaelic, the Celtic language of Scotland. With more than 30,000 words from Gaelic to English and from English to Gaelic contained within its covers, this handy resource offers extensive coverage in a portable package. In addition to vocabulary, special sections round out language learning with concise overviews of grammar and idiomatic usage. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Teach YourselfGaelic Dictionary
Teach Yourself Gaelic Dictionary (Teach Yourself)

This is a very useful book for those learning Gaelic, but cannot replace the need for access to fluent Gaelic speakers in learning this difficult language.

Okay for a start but quickly exhausts its usefulness
I am not, by any means, disappointed by this dictionary, as I bought it with the assumption that it would be just adequate for my needs. I very much needed a working Gaelic dictionary that was within a reasonable price-range and would serve my current (fairly elementary) level of Gaelic.

If my sole criterion were the number of headwords provided, I might actually be quite pleased with this dictionary- it covers quite a good range of vocabulary and functions well as a reading aid for intermediate texts.My biggest complaint however, is the lack of examples, guides to usage etc that would allow the user to: a) identify the correct translation of Gaelic lexis and b) correctly choose and be able to actively use the sought-after word in Gaelic.As it stands, there are just lists of translations with little or no indications of how to use the lexis presented in sentences nor any guide to the register, appropriacy etc.of items.

Of course, this is a beginner's dictionary- but in many ways that makes it all the more necessary to provide cues to assist the learner.I am a language teacher myself and know only too well the pitfalls of poor dictionary use and bad translations.Gaelic especially, is quite an idiomatic language and has a strong, structural orientation towards "lexical chunking".Boyd and Robertson's Teach Yourself Gaelic" textbook shows a high awareness of this aspect of the language- if only they'd applied the same diligence to this dictionary!

Teaching yourself Gaelic
It is a great book if you already know how to pronounce the words, but if you don't, I would not recommed this book. If you do, it's wonderful. Lots of gaelic names and places and simple phrases to say. Would be very helpful in Scotland or Ireland, even to just look up the word.

Teach Yourself Gaelic Dictionary
As a student of Celtic languages, I am the first to speak out against the Teach Yourself (TY) courses for Welsh, Irish, and Gaelic (Scottish).I have purchased all three of these courses, and I was disappointed to find them little more than glorifed "travel phrase" books with CD's.

If you are seriously wanting to learn one of these languages, you can save your time and money by purchasing something else...believe me, there are better courses out there.However, if reason you are learning these languages is you want some simple phrases and vocabulary for a trip or maybe some special event...then a TY course "might" be what you are looking for.

Now having said that...this is a positive review!!!

In fact, I feel that the TY dictionary might be one of the best Scottish Gaelic dictionaries on the market right now...and there are a lot out there.

I have a few of the most recently published dictionaries, and I can tell you that while they are nice to have...they were not designed for beginning students.It is easy to get lost, confused, and just plain upset with the mass volume of choices and examples given for the entries.

A student just starting out needs to be able to open a book, find the word in their language or the language they are learning, and have only a few options...

And that is exactly what TY has created...while the Amazon site says there are over 30,000 entries, the book itself only claims 24,000.However, that is more than enough for a beginner, and having gone through it...I know that the vocabulary is modern, numerous, and capable of covering any situation that even the most advanced speaker will find themselves in.

So while I may have a hard time giving a friend the TY Gaelic language learning course...I would have no hesitation in giving them the TY Gaelic Dictionary.

A dictionary can be your best friend or your worst enemey when you are learning a language.And TY has created a very friendly dictionary to help you.

Absolutely essential for every student of Scottish Gaelic.
This is the best two-way Scottish Gaelic dictionary on the market, and the first dictionary that every student of the language should buy. Excellent coverage of vocabulary, including modern coinages, and contemporary usage. The appendices (grammar reference, personal and place names) are useful, though they could have been laid out better. ... Read more

Product Description
English-speaking children are introduced to French as a second language and have fun as they learn 50 important French phrases. The book is filled with a color illustrations and variety of word games to keep kids interested. The phrases and their translations cover greeting friends, knowing colors and numbers, giving names to many different foods and drinks, and naming familiar objects such as books and paper, as well as animals such as dogs and cats. The book also includes an extra vocabulary list, a simple pronunciation guide, and a summary of all words and phrases on the last page and both inside covers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Beginner French
Great introductory book for beginners.I like the way they show you how to pronounce these French words that are confusing to fledglings like me. ... Read more

Product Description

TEACH YOURSELF BESTSELLING LANGUAGE COURSES!

From Cantonese to Thai, Gaelic to Modern Persian, learning the languages of the world is attainable for any beginning student. Learners can use the Teach Yourself Language Courses at their own pace or as a supplement to formal courses. These complete courses are based on the very latest learning methods and designed to be enjoyable and user-friendly Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and gradually promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, including:

• Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues
• Graded units of culture notes, grammar, and exercises
• Step-by-step guide to pronunciation
• Practical vocabulary
• Regular and irregular verb tables
• Plenty of practice exercises and answers
• Bilingual glossary

The new editions also feature:

• Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
• Self-assessment quizzes to test progress
• Website suggestions to take language study further
• Audio recordings on CD for easy access and review

Customer Reviews (14)

Learning our ancient human language.
This is a necessary book to learn the ancient human language.
Remember to practise on daily basis.
Enjoy learning !

Too tough for me!
Retired, wanting to pass a little time, I opted for Ancient Greek. No wish to earn my living by it, just for fun.
I started with Peter Jones (very light-hearted), moved on to JACT (great), struggled with Betts (I have to agree against the Lunate sigma, hell, it's difficult enough without such complications) and have Mastronarde in reserve for a rainy day. But Betts is a bit too much me. I'll keep trying though. Promise!

I needed to re-learn English first
I found that I really needed to brush up on sentence structure and terminology in order to follow the book.

Best choice for motivated self-learners
After using Gavin Betts' Latin title in this series, I figured I couldn't go wrong with the Greek volume, and I was not disappointed.This is probably the best choice for highly motivated self-learners.Those who have the stamina and desire to really work at learning the language will be very satisfied with this book.It relies very little on artificial "baby Greek" and exposes the reader to authentic and challenging passages as soon as possible.There is no question that this makes the book a bit more difficult, but the trade-off is that you will be making quicker progress and reach advanced topics much sooner, as opposed to simply repeating the same kinds of simple (and boring) sentences over and over again for weeks at a time.Another big plus is that, in contrast to most other titles on the market, which are designed for classroom use, this has answers to all the exercises, so you will never be guessing if you got it right.

The reader must be very disciplined about mastering every lesson before moving on to the next, but those who do so will find no problems reading authentic Greek once they finish this book.Those who want a more relaxed introduction to Greek may want to choose a different title, but if your goal is to begin delving into original Greek works as soon as possible, go with this one.The only thing really lacking in this book is English to Greek translation exercises, though I suspect most learners aren't really concerned with writing Greek as much as reading.Others have pointed out the somewhat annoying use of the lunate sigma, but simply put, unless you just enjoy whining, there's no reason why you can't deal with it.It's just one letter.I've not had any problems adjusting to the traditional forms of sigma after moving on from this book.

I'm A Beginner, and I Like It
First of all, being a complete neophyte (hey, that's a Greek word!), it's impossible for me to compare this book or its method with any other. However, I have found it quite satisfactory. For one thing, it has you jump right into "reading" Ancient Greek from the get-go, rather than overwhelming you with ALL the grammar and ALL the word morphology first before allowing you into the pool.

I have found that purchasing a separate lexicon - it appears that Liddell and Scott, Abridged Edition, is the odds-on choice for the elementary level student - is worthwhile. Although the words in the book are "mostly" there in the included lexicon, there are many words that are not (they just give you the definitions parenthetically within the Greek text), and I've found it helpful to be able to look those up as well. My copy of Liddell and Scott gives me a bit more insight into the "gimme" words.

One big plus is the way the book works with the online enrichment material, so that the book is in fact "bigger than it appears on the outside." In particular the "revision" material (what we Yanks call review or quiz) is very helpful as it has you doing things like declining nouns and the like.

The complaint about the use of "c" for all instances of lower-case sigma is worth noting, but I've hardly found it a problem. In fact, when I WRITE Greek as part of the lesson work, I just go ahead and use the initial/medial and final forms of sigma. I must say I don't get the authors' comment that they decided to use "c" because it is "increasingly used in modern editions." In my browsing through bookstores looking at other references I have yet to see a single other instance of this.

But I repeat that, for THIS reviewer at least, it has NOT been a problem at all. ... Read more

Product Description

Want to learn Portuguese? Then Teach Yourself!

Customer Reviews (45)

Great
I bought several "teach yourself" and "learn how" Portuguese books from amazon. I was disappointed with most. My boyfriend is Portuguese and I wanted to learn some phrases and sayings so I could talk with his parents. I had almost lost hope when I tried this book. It really worked and they even had the more correct way of pronouncing things then the other books I purchased and the CD's were awesome.

Audio is very confusing.
I bought this because it includes spoken Portuguese from Portugal, which is very hard to find. Most of the Portuguese-learning CDs out there are exclusively Brazilian, which is nice to know but not very helpful if you are planning to travel to Portugal or have friends/family from there.

In addition to European Portuguese, the audio does include Brazilian Portuguese.

However, it can be very confusing at first, especially since there are four speakers in total (2 from Portugal, man and woman; 2 from Brazil, man and woman as well.) In each chapter they pronounce different words, which can be tricky at first because you are still trying to get used to all the speakers and you still have to distinguish between them.

The first few times through you definitely have to use the book alongside the CDs. If you just want to use the audio in the car or at work, it won't be that easy at first. I think that the book is really good and very thorough, so it is definitely nice to study.

I think, for the price, this is a decent resource to have (especially the book.) However, if you are a total beginner to Portuguese or it is your first Romance language, I would recommend buying something more structured (such as a grammar book) in addition to this.

Dense
A little dense and confused for my taste. Material is given which a beginner won't need to know. Also better to find a course which doesn't keep giving both Brazilian and Portuguese pronunciations. The beginner will have a hard enough time coming to grips with one pronunciation. I recommend "Portuguese in 10 Minutes a Day," a course which is fun and encouraging for a beginner.

waste of $
As a foreign language teacher of 13 years, a learner of multiple languages, and someone who has a Ph.D. in sociolinguistics, I warn you that this is a very difficult language program to work with.The format is very disorganized and/or random, the various accents make it hard to focus on which dialect you need, and the book gives you multiple pages of self-teach information (that should be explained) and then tests you on it--very random.I learned more from an English-Portuguese dictionary! Take what you want from the other reviews (i.e., most likely submitted by the author and publisher), but I would not recommend this to anyone (i.e., it is a WASTE of money).Use this program onlyif you get it for free.

Teach Yourself Portuguese needs some work
This is not a bad language course for portuguese listening practice BUT with two significant exceptions:

1.It is missing WRITTEN dialogues of what is being said. I believe that a beginner student of any language needs to see in written form what is being spoken to see LOTS of example dialogues with translations of how things are said and spelled and just what words are being used etc etc etc to get used to what they are hearing and not just listening to normal speed native speakers without any way of knowing what they are saying. This does NOT have hardly any of that.

2. Also, they mix the 2 accents (Portugal and Brazil) right from the very beginning and therefore there are multiple (and VERY different) ways of pronouncing every word. I feel that it would be better to focus on one accent and then, once you can understand the "correct" way to pronounce words, you can branch out to include the alternative pronunciation.At the least the 2 accents should be separated so that it is not a mishmash of accents and the beginner cannot distinguish which one is from where and thereby speak with a 1/2 portuguese accent and 1/2 brazilian accent.

I think that if someone is already fluent in basic portuguese this will be a useful language course but to get a grip on the basics of the language i find it very lacking and very frustrating. ... Read more

Product Description

Begin reading biblical Greek from the first lesson using lively, contemporary methods.This tool emphasizes developing reading skills rather than mastering technical grammar.

Customer Reviews (2)

A Great Aid for Beginning and Furthering Greek Study
I love this instructional book.MacNair is both sagacious and cunning in his prolific instruction on everything from learning basic pronouns and the 4 cases, to actually translating Biblical phrases.All the while, heintermingles a likeable sense of humor in a didactic way!I recommend thisto everyone who wants to make their latest pursuit the learning of theGreek language and it's peculiarities.On a critical note, I do notapprove or accept the way that MacNair still attaches the disgusting, yettraditional doctrine of the trinity on certain areas in the book.Why,when one closely examines the sentence structure in the original Greek,such things have to be dismissed.Such things were not the thoughts thatBible writers wanted to convey.

Oh yes you can!
I have tried 4 other books on Koine Greek (New Testament Greek) before.I continued in my persuit to find a book like this.Ian McNair does an outstanding job of teaching the lanuage fast and understandably.Now I can't say 'It's Greek to me.'

Thinking that a second lanuage is to hard to learn is no longer a valid excuse.Ian says, Oh yes you can!And to prove it, he wrote this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Now learning non-Roman-alphabet languages is as easy as A-B-C!

Readers wanting to learn the basics of reading and writing a new language that employs script will find all they need in the Teach Yourself Beginner's Script series. Each book includes a step-by-step introduction to reading and writing in a new language as well as tips and practice exercises to build learners' skills. Thanks to the experts at Teach Yourself, script will no longer be all "Greek" to language learners--unless of course, it is Greek script! Teach Yourself Beginner's Script series books feature:

• Origins of the language
• A systematic approach to mastering the script
• Lots of "hands-on" exercises and activities
• Practical examples from real-life situations

Customer Reviews (32)

Beginers Russian Script
I really like this book. It teaches the Cyrillic script well. There are plenty of examples and exercises to help you. You can use it again and again until you know it well. I will continue to use it for some time until the Russian alphabet is cemented into my brain.

Definitely Start Here
I bought this book and Rosetta Stone Level 1 because I saw a review on here to start with this and then go to Rosetta Stone. I have to say, I am only through 3 lessons, but I feel that I've learned alot. I was skeptical at first and felt like I had learned nothing at the end of lesson 1, but the way it builds on itself and repeats what you learned from previous lessons really works.

Yes, start with this one- Sí, empiesen con este
If you want to save in money and fustration start the learning process by using this book. It is the best way to start to build up your knowledge about Russian language. The only great error I found is that the consonant X is not pronounced as the books recommends, the right way to pronounce the letter X is by using the H like in ham, human, hand. You can learn to pronounce or to reproduce the right soung of each vowel and consonant by goin to [...] and look at the menu that is in the center of the Main Page, and search for the word link: More>> click over this word and you will see a new narrow little window with a menu of words-options, select option Learn Russian, and you will be on the way to find the sounds you need to learn and memorize for good pronuntiation of the alphabet letters and more. Regarding the pronuntiation of the letter: O, the book will give you good ideas to start using the this vowel, but look for more on the way it is used and pronounced after finishing with this book in other books, taking classes or by hearing Russian speakers, it will take you some time and practice for knowing the right use of this vowel with regard about pronouncing it like a O, or as A. Nevertheless,this book is the best starting point - no other book can surpass its effective and simple way of teaching Russian language.


In Spanish - En Español

Si usted desea ahorrar en tiempo, dinero y fustración, empiese con este magnífico librito. Con él podrá edificar su conocimiento sobre el idioma Ruso, de manera segura, rápida y agradable.El único gran error que encontré usando el libro fue que la X no se pronuncia como el libro recomienda, si no como nosotros pronunciamos la J, o sea que, para realmente pronunciar correctamente esta consonante, deben pronunciarla, como se pronuncia en jamás, Jueves, jornalero, jornada,Jaime, etc. Por ejemplo, si van a decir azúcar en Ruso, en vez de decir sukcar, deben decir sujar. Si desean más detalles sobre como pronunciar bien las letras del alfabeto y adquirir un conocimiento extra sobre el idioma Ruso dirijance al siguiente sitio web donde encontrarán la información necesaria, para complementar la instrucción de este libro y algo más; el sitio es el siguiente: [...]. Cuando llegen a la Home page the [...], busquen en el centro de esa página, el menú con opciones, y traten de encontrar la opción: More>> hagan click sobre esta opción del menú central y aparecerá una pequeña, alargada y delgada ventana con otras opciones; por favor seleccionen Learn Russian, y estarán en camino a encontrar los sonidos e información que necesitan para aprender correctamente a hablar en Ruso. Hace poco [...] incluyó servicio en Español, por medio de otra web page, que está en link con esta que les dí en idioma Ingles; solo tienen que encontrar el link en la parte superior del Home page y averiguar si tiene la opción de aprender Ruso en idioma Español. Otro detalle; con referencia a la pronunciación de la vocal: O, el libro les dará buenas ideas sobre como usarla, pero no se conformen con lo que el libro les recomienda, busquen más en otros libros, classes, o escuchando a personas nativas hablar el idioma Ruso, porque toma cierto tiempo para dominar cuando es correcto pronunciar la O como O, o como una A. Por lo demás el libro es bastante bueno. Para comenzar a aprender idioma Ruso en Ingles, esta es la mejor opción o punto inicial - no existe otro libro que le iguale.

Beyond Helpful
Russian is a very difficult language to self-teach and my first few attempts were futile because the materials I consulted showed one page of the Cyrillic alphabet and then proceeded immediately to entire words. This book takes the time to really teach the alphabet so that by the time you have finished it, you can at least pronounce any Russian word you encounter. However, if you are an American, keep in mind that the author is from the UK and not every example works for American English. For example, on page 25, Ms. West writes that "ë" is pronounced like "yo" in "yonder." For Americans, "ë" is pronounced like "yo" (the slang term, or as in "yogurt"). Still, my copy is already well-worn and I know I would still be lost without it.

Well...
I haven't read any other Russian language-learning books, so I have nothing to compare it to, but it seems just okay.There was a whole chapter on names, which I found a bit tedious.But learning the sounds the letters make is very important, so...it's a great start!However, I'm sure there's better stuff out there.Worth buying, but you could probably do better. ... Read more

Product Description
Bestselling language courses now with audio CDs!

From Danish to Spanish, Swahili to Brazilian Portuguese, the languages of the world are brought within the reach of any beginning student. Learners can use the Teach Yourself Language Courses at their own pace or as a supplement to formal courses. These complete courses are based on the very latest learning methods and designed to be enjoyable and user-friendly.

Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and gradually promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, including:

Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues
Graded units of culture notes, grammar, and exercises
Step-by-step guide to pronunciation
Practical vocabulary
Regular and irregular verb tables
Plenty of practice exercises and answers
Bilingual glossary
The new editions also feature:

Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
Self-assessment quizzes to test progress
Website suggestions to take language study further ... Read more

Customer Reviews (46)

Great book
I've been learning Dutch with this book at my own pace for almost 3 months and I feel like I'm doing well. The book is really easy to understand and the CDs arevery good complement. I've found only two or three sentences that are "old school" but in general, the methodology is "Uitsteikend".

learning Dutch
This was a gift for my oldest son who plans to travel through the Netherlands. He states that it has been quite helpful as well as informative. The CD that was included has also been helpful in hearing the correct pronounciation, as well as the proper sentence structure, of the words as they differ greatly from other Germanic-like languages.

Great for self study
I moved to the Netherlands several months ago. Before going, I studied this book on my own. The learning process was quite straightforward: self-contained and almost no missing words. After arriving in the Netherlands, it turned out that the colloquial expressions that I had to learn are all used and applicable. I bought some other Dutch study books, but this is by far the best.

interesting and useful
This course is a very good place to start learning Dutch, particularly for those planning to visit the Netherlands or Belgium. The lessons are strongly oriented toward everyday subjects and particularly those that would be useful for travelers- getting around town, making travel plans, using public transportation, different kinds of shopping situations-from buying clothes in a department store to shopping for fruits and vegetables, and seeing a doctor, to name just a few of the topics that are covered, beginning with the conversations that start each lesson. While the book is not particularly grammar-oriented, the coverage of it is certainly adequate for a beginning learner (those with stronger interest in the minutiae of Dutch grammar should check out 'Dutch: A Comprehensive Grammar' by Bruce Donaldson)and there are lots of exercises to reinforce every point that is introduced. At the end of each chapter there is a text, usually a few paragraphs long,covering some aspect of political, cultural or economic life in the two countries, which may require several readings, even though the necessary vocabulary is well-glossed. So when you reach the end of the course, while you won't have native speaker fluency, you will be able to speak reasonably correctly,get where you need to go,converse a bit with native speakers, and have a very buildable nucleus of street smart vocabulary. Need directions to a cannabis club? No problem.

it was ok but not great
I found 'teach yourself Dutch' to be very difficult. This is not for beginners. I was hoping to spend more time on pronuciation. It was too fast and went too soon into conversation. Also, there were sectons in the book that the narrater skipted. The book seemed to be a good study guide but it was hard to tell because of the speed and parts skipted on the CD's ... Read more

Product Description
Bestselling language courses now with audio CDs !

From Catonese to Thai, Gaelic to Modern Persian, learning the languages of the world is attainable for any beginning student. Learners can use the Teach Yourself Language Courses at their own pace or as a supplement to formal courses. These complete courses are based on thievery latest learning methods and designed to be enjoyable and user-friendly.

Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and gradually promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, including:

• Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues
• Graded units of culture notes, grammar, and exercises
• Step-by-step guide to pronunciation
• Practical vocabulary
• Regular and irregular verb tables
• Plenty of practice exercises and answers
• Bilingual glossary

The new editions also feature:

• Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
• Self-assessment quizzes to test progress
• Website suggestions to take language study further

Customer Reviews (8)

Great content poor organization
Great content but poor organization as with every TY book.I would just once like to find one that has any kind of logical order.I mean really can you really have awful order that many times over and over.Do you never learn anything from all the comments saying so with EVERY language book TY does.If you are willing to sort out the order of things than you will make good use of this book.

Awesome, usefull, very very good!
My husband started using this book before I did..... as I preferred to speak to the people and learn that way.
NOW I WISH I had started sooner using this very book myself!

I does teach you all the necessary vocabulary easily!

THUMBS UP!

Wish it was available on Kindle!

A good conversational course with some minor flaws
I'm half way through this course and it's pretty easy to use, and the topics and dialogues are relevant and interesting. There is material on the cd's to help you get accustomed to hearing spoken Indonesian, which is great if you live somewhere with very few Indonesian people like I do.

I have two minor criticisms:

1) During the dialog practice there is often not a long enough pause on the cd to allow you to finish saying your part of the exchange. This is not a big deal if you have an ipod and can easily pause and rewind with little trouble. But it's a bit of a hassle when you're using a home stereo and you have to pause it.

2) Sometimes the dialogues contain a couple of words that are not in the vocabulary key for that dialogue, and sometimes not even in the glossary at the back of the book. That has caught me off-guard a few times when I didn't have my dictionary with me.

But all in this is the best introductory course I've seen, and a much more interesting way to start off than using Yohanna Johns's "Bahasa Indonesia" (which looks better for long term serious study).

Great book!
This book is very easy to use, being well laid out and organized and introducing vocabulary in manageable pieces throughout each chapter.Another nice thing is that the book alternates 50-50 between formal situations and casual situations so you can become familiar with both styles of the language. So far the book is fun and motivating and makes me want to study much more than my other books do.

An Exceptional Guide to the Indonesian Language
To reiterate what a previous reviewer had pointed out, the "Teach Yourself Indonesian Complete Course" includes just the textbook, whereas the "Teach Yourself Indonesian Complete Course Audiopack" includes both the text book and compact discs. Contrary to what Amazon.com suggests, you need to only buy the "Teach Yourself Indonesian Complete Course Audiopack" to get the full benefits of the program.

I purchased the "Teach Yourself Indonesian Complete Course Audiopack" several days ago, and after having had the opportunity to peruse the material for a bit, I must say that I am very impressed with what I have seen thus far. The material is presented in such a way as to make learning Indonesian effectively and effortless.

For example, each chapter begins with a dialogue in Indonesian that pertains to everyday activities, such as eating out or asking for directions. Below the dialogue is a box filled with pertinent vocabulary words from the preceding dialogue. Next is an English translation of the dialogue to ensure that the student fully understands the meaning of the Indonesian dialogue. Succeeding that is a section entitled, "How the language works." Here, grammatical concepts and contexts of the vocabulary words relevant to the dialogue are discussed. Finally, several exercises are included in each chapter to reinforce the lessons taught. Do not worry, the answers are in the back!

The compact discs mesh perfectly with the material in the chapters. Native Indonesian speakers act out the chapter dialogues, thus providing the student with the opportunity to practice their listening skills and learn how to properly speak Indonesian. The speakers on the compact discs clearly enunciate so there is plenty of time for the student to practice their Indonesian out loud if desired.

Overall, the "Teach Yourself Indonesian Complete Course Audiopack" is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in learning Indonesian. As a student of Indonesian myself, I highly recommend this product for its exceptional effectiveness. ... Read more

Product Description

Bestselling language courses now with audio CDs!

From Danish to Spanish, Swahili to Brazilian Portuguese, the languages of the world are brought within the reach of any beginning student. Learners can use the Teach Yourself Language Courses at their own pace or as a supplement to formal courses. These complete courses are based on the very latest learning methods and designed to be enjoyable and user-friendly.

Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and gradually promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, including:

• Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues
• Graded units of culture notes, grammar, and exercises
• Step-by-step guide to pronunciation
• Practical vocabulary
• Regular and irregular verb tables
• Plenty of practice exercises and answers
• Bilingual glossary

The new editions also feature:

• Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
• Self-assessment quizzes to test progress
• Website suggestions to take language study further

Customer Reviews (21)

Has anybody ever actually made a good start in learning Swedish from this book?
When I began graduate studies at Helsingfors Universitet, I was keen on learning some Swedish. I examined a number of different resources, including TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH, the most widely available self-teaching textbook in the English-speaking world. Unfortunately, Vera Croghan's work must be one of the poorest volumes in the entire Teach Yourself series.

I had already learnt some basic Swedish for another textbook before opening TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH for the first time, and so I was shocked by how Croghan chose to begin her course. Right from the first chapter the reader faces a deluge of highly colloquial and idiomatic language. There's no gentle start from the very basics; instead, it's like you are dumped right into a Swedish crowd. Total immersion is a good language-learning technique in a classroom environment where a trained teacher can skillfully direct the group's activities, but I imagine most home learners will swiftly give up. Worse yet, many of the colloquialisms are already obsolete, and the use of several words Croghan claims are everyday will result in laughter from your Swedish friends.

The exercises make too few demands of the reader, requiring him only to utter a few phrases. Sweden is not a country where you need survival language skills. If you try to use overly simple language on the street, people are just going to answer in English. So, the learner might as wellwork towards as rigorous a command of the language as possible. It is therefore a pity that Croghan doesn't include exercises that really challenge you and force you to start thinking in Swedish. Furthermore, as Swedish word order is so different from that of English, the reader should do long prose translations from English into Swedish to flex his syntactic muscles. But you won't get that here.

Now, even though the course is completely useless for the beginners that it is marketed to, TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH does have some value for people with some amount of experience with the language already. The dialogues, especially as heard from the cassettes or CD, make one more comfortable with colloquial speech and popular expressions.

The book I eventually used to reach an intermediate level of Swedish is Gladis Hird's Swedish: An Elementary Grammar-Reader (Cambridge University Press, 1977). Hird's textbook is among the best for any language that I've ever encountered, and teaches one both everyday Swedish and the basics of the literary language. Even when it goes for quite a bit on the used market it's worth seeking out more than TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH.

Has anybody ever actually made a good start in learning Swedish from this book?
When I began graduate studies at Helsingfors Universitet, I was keen on learning some Swedish. I examined a number of different resources, including TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH, the most widely available self-teaching textbook in the English-speaking world. Unfortunately, Vera Croghan's work must be one of the poorest volumes in the entire Teach Yourself series.

I had already learnt some basic Swedish for another textbook before opening TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH for the first time, and so I was shocked by how Croghan chose to begin her course. Right from the first chapter the reader faces a deluge of highly colloquial and idiomatic language. There's no gentle start from the very basics; instead, it's like you are dumped right into a Swedish crowd. Total immersion is a good language-learning technique in a classroom environment where a trained teacher can skillfully direct the group's activities, but I imagine most home learners will swiftly give up. Worse yet, many of the colloquialisms are already obsolete, and the use of several words Croghan claims are everyday will result in laughter from your Swedish friends.

The exercises make too few demands of the reader, requiring him only to utter a few phrases. Sweden is not a country where you need survival language skills. If you try to use overly simple language on the street, people are just going to answer in English. So, the learner might as wellwork towards as rigorous a command of the language as possible. It is therefore a pity that Croghan doesn't include exercises that really challenge you and force you to start thinking in Swedish. Furthermore, as Swedish word order is so different from that of English, the reader should do long prose translations from English into Swedish to flex his syntactic muscles. But you won't get that here.

Now, even though the course is completely useless for the beginners that it is marketed to, TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH does have some value for people with some amount of experience with the language already. The dialogues, especially as heard from the cassettes or CD, make one more comfortable with colloquial speech and popular expressions.

The book I eventually used to reach an intermediate level of Swedish is Gladis Hird's Swedish: An Elementary Grammar-Reader (Cambridge University Press, 1977). Hird's textbook is among the best for any language that I've ever encountered, and teaches one both everyday Swedish and the basics of the literary language. Even when it goes for quite a bit on the used market it's worth seeking out more than TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH.

Save your money
As others have indicated, the quality of Teach Yourself varies from book to book.Teach Yourself Swedish is confusing, boring and of little value to the true beginner.

1.First, the book does a poor job of explaining regional pronunciation differences and does an even worse job of explaining general pronunciation.

2.Not all of the dialogues written in the book are recorded on the CD.Therefore you are always skipping through the book trying to figure out which dialogue you are hearing.

3.The storyline in the book is tedious and boring.

4.The different portions on grammar are OK, but there is very little organization with respect to vocabulary.

To conclude, the book and CD are disorganized, confusing and of very little help to people with no prior knowledge of the language.

Why the bad reviews?
This book and cd kit has everything one needs to start learning the swedish language. It is very thorough, giving an abundance of vocabulary (perhaps too much, which is one of the problems many have stated concerning the Teach Yourself series), goes over grammar and pronunciation, and has a clear and consistent format. Nothing is out of order as in some other books. TY generally has a very good reputation for all of the languages they provide and TY Swedish is no exception.

One person mentioned that this book should not be used alone as the sole aid in learning the language. This is true, but this is how most books of this type function. I would never recommend that you buy a conversation/exercise/audio kit and rely entirely on that. You must get a seperate grammar books as these kits are designed to be general so that you can see how the language works without the messiness of grammar. I dare anyone to show me a book that goes over the various nuances of a language's grammar all the while providing the same content of a TY kit. It simply isn't possible (with the exception of perhaps TY's Latin and Sanskrit books, but this is understandable).

And then someone else gave the book only one star simply because of its "pompous British pronunciation guide" and recommended that you get a grammar and language software program. This person obviously doesn't know much about learning languages on your own. First, all the TY books include references to pronuciations for sounds similar to the French, mainly because these sounds most widely occur in French. Second, how many people will be learning Swedish in the US? The majority of the world speaks British English and that's why the book is based on this. I don't see how this is pompous (perhaps the reviewer has some issues with the United Kingdom?). Lastly, software programs are the WORST way to go about learning a foreign language. They provide you with meaningless bits of simple vocabulary that you could learn from a cheaper (and more efficient, since these programs tend to be a bit buggy) phrase book.

The reviewer mentioning that there was too much English needs to remind himself that this is a "Teach Yourself" book meaning its meant for self-study. Anyone will agree that with books at the beginning level, you need to have some sort of English translation for self-study. Only in a class setting will you be able to manage without any English. Even the pimsleur courses start you off with English.

Swedish is really quite a fun language and seemingly easy, but like all, it has its difficulties. This book goes over them in a thorough yet understandable manner, though naturally, as with all languages, it helps if you have some experience in the field. I hope this review helped redeem the quality of this great learning tool.

Frustrating for beginners
Everyone learns differently. I personally like to know what I am saying, not just memorize a phrases.Yes, your brain picks up phrases best when in practical use, but it needs footholds togain ground and confidence. Unfortunately, this book provides few such footholds and much confusion. From the unhelpul and pompously-British pronunciation guide ("prounced rather like in French..." ) to the colloquial speech, regional dialects and complex grammer used throughout the book, this is not a book for true beginners. This book could, however, be useful as tool for someone with more experience to *hear* the language (albeit in stilted situations).

In general this series leaves me cold. I have tried several of the books and found them all to be too complex grammatically, and not "real world" enough either. So I am confused as a beginner but, by God, thanks to this series, I can say "French cheese"and "the dog is upstairs" in Japanese. This Swedish one is actually a little more useful in trems of credible situtions; but, par for the course, I doubt that I will need to learn to say "I am in training at an import-export firm" (lesson one)

My advice: Skip this book. Instead buy the Viberg grammer and a language software program. Better yet, if possible take a class ( there is no subtitution for actual language class or real world experience) ... Read more

Product Description
Bestselling language courses now with audio CDs!

From Danish to Spanish, Swahili to Brazilian Portuguese, the languages of the world are brought within the reach of any beginning student. Learners can use the Teach Yourself Language Courses at their own pace or as a supplement to formal courses. These complete courses are based on the very latest learning methods and designed to be enjoyable and user-friendly.

Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and gradually promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, including:

Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues
Graded units of culture notes, grammar, and exercises
Step-by-step guide to pronunciation
Practical vocabulary
Regular and irregular verb tables
Plenty of practice exercises and answers
Bilingual glossary
The new editions also feature:

Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
Self-assessment quizzes to test progress
Website suggestions to take language study further ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

teah yourself fSwahili complette course
i did larn a lot from this.but a bit frustratedtrying to find the written page sith the spoken cd.and think too much grammer given in a beginner's course.need just practie with hearingthe basic phrases.grammer shouldbe much later.

Not great- not awful
The book is great for conversational phrases and social interaction, but the tape leaps into conversations with no preamble and I had no idea where to find the same conversation in the book to follow along.This seems disjointed to me, and not the way I've learned other languages in the past.I am keeping it because I find the book useful, but if I knew then what I know now, would not have ordered this course.

Torturous
This strikes me as the case of a (probably) good teacher in desperate need of a professional writer.

As someone who speaks Spanish, Japanese and French (all learned through books and CDs prior to actual cultural immersion),I've been through self-taught language courses and consider myself, while not brilliant, at least capable of the process.

I've been through Teach Yourself Swahili's Unit One about 5 times now, and find myself barely able to remember anything. Now let me say, I have probably been spoiled on more intuitively designed, better thought-out language courses. So I do think, once I'm done with Pimsleur Swahili, I will probably tackle this with a pen and paper and get something out of it.

There is a lot of information here, so it's not as if this course fails from lack of effort, or has no utility.

BUT the information is presented in a way that's exhausting, almost torturous to sift through.

Unit One Examples:
1) "Njema" and "nzuri" are introduced with no explanation of what differentiates them
2) Vocabulary translation are presented in sentences, rather than focusing on crucial words ("you," "me")
2) The word "si" (meaning "no") is introduced in the form of a question where it seems to mean "yes" -- anyone with even a basic familiarity with Spanish will already be grappling with remembering "si" is negative: putting it in a sentence where it seems to be a positive just throws another monkey wrench into the process ... but this type of carelessness pervades
3) "M/WA" class nouns are explained in two muddled paragraphs that I had to re-read multiple times to understand
4) Most unforgivingly, we're asked to compose a sentence using "siyo," while NEVER having been introduced to the word in the lesson! (Unless I'm missing it every time I read the chapter?)

In short, there's no thought put into systematizing learning, or organizing it in a fashion that makes it digestible.

Can you get something out of this, with dedication and patience (and perhaps a basic familiarity with Swahili already?) Yes.

Would I recommend it? No.

I suggest seeing if they have this at your local library. Burn into into iTunes, then try and buy just the book used. That's what I did, so my only consolation is that I didn't lose a lot of money, and it may come in handy once I know a bit more.

Teach Yourself Swahili
I have had this set for about a week. I am amazed at how many Swahili words I already know. Mostly from TV and movies like Tarzan with Jonny Weissmuller and Lion King. You hear a word and get a general idea of what it means.

I like the way the book is set up. The CDs are great to hear the language, but you really need to work with the book at the same time. I wish the set had a third CD that was basically a dictionary: English to Swahili or Swahili to English to be able to hear and memorize individual words.

I am a little confused at the moment, but I think it will get easier as I go through it. Not having anyone to speak to at the moment is a drawback. I have 10 months before my church mission so I am sure I will be confident if not proficient in that time. I like to learn about the places where I am going. England has been my most difficult place to visit so far.

This set is worth the time and a lot cheaper than other programs.

Great Package!
Great Package! Going to Tanzania in a week, and this has helped me get a head start on Swahili.It's easy to understand and you learn a lot! ... Read more

Product Description

Complete language confidence without stepping into a classroom

With Teach Yourself Spanish Complete Course, you can learn the language from the comfort of your own home, at your own pace. This fully revised and updated course introduces you to practical themes, such as making travel arrangements, meeting someone new, shopping, and other every day activities. Includes two 75-minute audio CDs with listening and speaking exercises.

Customer Reviews (25)

Got me through Central and South America - can't complain!
Most of the complaints I see on this page are regarding the audio portion. I have an earlier edition though I assume it is quite similar, and I found it second hand and so didn't have the audio portion. This is really irrelevant! Pronouncing Spanish really isn't difficult - it must be one of the world's easiest languages, especially if you already are a native speaker of English - there are many similarities.

I used this book to self-study as I backpacked through Central and South America this year and within a couple of days I was traveling alone without any real problems. By the end of my trip I could have simple conversations, and I learned almost all of it from this book.

It begins very, VERY simply in little baby steps, so simple that it almost feels just like reading a book rather than 'studying' anything. By the first half you have all the basics you need to get around traveling (and conveniently, much of it is focused on traveling needs and questions, etc.). The second half gets progressively more dense and difficult, but then that's what you want after you've got the basics down, right?

All in all I thought it was great, and the use of real newspaper articles, conversations, drawings and cartoons and so on to aid your memory is I think a great idea (and I'm pretty sure proven to work, though I couldn't cite the research off the top of my head - engaging multiple modalities during learning or something...?).

Excellent for a beginner.

Teach yourself Spanish book/cds
Price was good and delivery was quick. It was good to be notified when it was sent. Even though the postage to Australia ($16) was more than the cost of the set ($14) it was still less than half the cost of buying the exact same thing in shops here! How they can justify charging $50 or even $70 for these Teach Yourself sets in shops in Australia is nothing less than incredible.

Reveiw of Teach Yourself Spanish by James
This is James from James Spanish (the learning Spanish blog). Teach Yourself Spanish Complete Course includes a Book packed with valuable vocabulary, conversation examples, and in depth lessons to help you grasp the language.There are also two 75 minute audio CDs with more examples and exercises to get you speaking.The language and accents used in the course are geared more towards Castilian Spanish, from Spain, rather than Latin America, although these differences are subtle and shouldn't concern someone who is just looking to be able to communicate on a basic level to any Spanish speaker.

Covering most of the standard introductory language topics such as meeting new people, travel, shopping and eating out, the book also contains enough information to make this a useful purchase for anyone looking to brush up their existing knowledge of Spanish.It is also a good reference that you are likely to refer to again and again in the future for those one or two words or phrases that you have trouble remembering.

The Teach Yourself Spanish book includes some grammar information that other courses sometimes skip over.This makes the learning a little more in depth, and provides a good solid framework for students who want to know how to speak the language well, rather than just memorizing a set of phrases.

As with many language products, the speed with which you learn is related to the amount of effort you are willing to put in.If you are at a beginner level but are serious about learning to speak Spanish, then this book will reward your hard work well.

The lessons and exercises used in the book nicely tie vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure together so that you get a good all round concept of how all of the elements work together.The course is methodical and consistent, always clearly laying out the information that you need and fully explaining what is being taught.

The audio CDs are designed to supplement the information laid out in the book, providing conversation examples and speaking exercises.They are a handy way to practice what you have learnt and apply it to real life conversations.The audio content does not `follow along' with the lessons in the book, so the two can be used independently to complement each other without relying on each other.

The book is a handy size for keeping in your purse, briefcase or backpack, and is a great tool to have with you on your trip to any Spanish speaking country.

In closing my review of this product, I'd like to share with you the three Amazon products that I have found most helpful in my pursuit to learn Spanish. If you are truly serious about achieving fluency, I'd recommend getting all 3 of them if you can afford it.

1.Lights, Camera, Spanish (Book + DVD): Learn Conversational Spanish by Watching a Romantic Adventure This isactually a 90 minute movie for Spanish-language learners. It gives the option to watch the movie with subtitles but I'd recommend not using them to improve your Spanish. This "movie" also includes a workbook so that you can reinforce the Spanish vocabulary words and phrases from the film.The workbook also has lots of exercises to keep you engaged in the film. But be prepared to hear Chilean accents. Although pleasent to the ear, the accents from Chile are very different from most Latin American accents.

2. Verbarrator Version 1.1 (Windows Version) This software replaces the traditional verb conjugation books and makes learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an interactive and fun activity. This should be a required resource for anyone who wants to improve their ability to conjugate Spanish verbs. Especially anyone who is challenged by the drudgery of learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs and who is looking for a new way to make learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an easy and fun activity

3. Diccionario esencial de la lengua espanola de la Real Academia Espanola (Spanish Edition) If you are really serious about speaking the language fluently, then at some point you will need to replace your Spanish-English dictionary and get a pure Spanish dictionary with both the vocabulary words and the definitionsentirely in Spanish. I use this one only because it was highly-recommended by a friend from Spain who teaches Spanish.

Teach Yourself Spanish
I received the Spanish book within the estimated time for shipping.It was
in very good condition.

Great selfstudy book, great value for money!
Have recently purchased this book and am very satisfied. It is very complete, covering the basics with dialogues supported by audio recordings. It also includes grammar rules that pop up in each chapter throughout the dialogues. The way it is built up is very clear and intuitive to me. I am a beginner, and just started chapter 4 now. I have bought Puentes, and practiced with Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur. Pimsleur (audio) takes too long, Rosetta stone (visual, sort of like 'memory' game) misses the basic dialogues and grammar rules, Puentes is useless without a teacher. For all those much more expensive courses...I find this method superiour. And it costs under 20 US$! Will visit South America in a few months, and this book really gets me up to a certain level fast by selfstudy before starting my spanish course there. Highly recommended!! ... Read more

Product Description

Passing time in the Pyrenees? Teach yourself Catalan.

With Teach Yourself it's possible for virtually anyone to learn and experience the languages of the world, from Afrikaans to Zulu; Ancient Greek to Modern Persian; Beginner's Latin to Biblical Hebrew.Follow any of the Teach Yourself Language Courses Audiopacks at your own pace or use them as a supplement to formal courses. These complete courses are professionally designed for self-guided study, making them one of the most enjoyable and easy to use language courses you can find. Audiopacks include an instructional paperback book and two companion 60-minute audio CDs.

Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and gradually promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, including:

• Step-by-step guide to pronunciation and grammar
• Regular and irregular verb tables
• Plenty of practice exercises and answers
• Practical vocabulary and a bilingual glossary
• Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
• An exploration of the culture
• And much more

Customer Reviews (10)

Greatly organized and an easy learn
If you have spare time, this language is unique and interesting, and full of culture. Spanish background is incredibly helpful, especially since this book came without an audio cd.

"Teach Yourself" -- the title says it all
You can "get by" with Castilian Spanish in Catalunya, but it's sort of like seeing a movie halfway through. As far as I'm concerned, Catalan is indispensable in Catalunya if you want to get to know the country and the people. Really. It's liable to become even more important in the years to come.

This review is primarly directed to those who already speak Spanish (and I'll bet that covers 99% of the people who buy this course). If do you speak Spanish, consider learning Catalan in a way that's a little different from what the coursebook recommends.

This may not be the recommended approach, but it has certainly worked for me.

I recommend you use the book sparingly at first. The CDs are this package's real strong point--use them! Listen to both of them straight through. Then do it again. Spanish speakers will find they have already absorbed a great deal of grammar and vocabulary.

Then, as you continue to listen to the CDs, refer to the book at those places in the audio where you're not sure what's going on. Don't try to learn all the grammar by rote yet! Once you're confident you understand everything on the CDs (it'll only take a month or two), go through the book lesson by lesson.

By now, speaking and understanding basic Catalan using this package only, your curiosity will be stoked, and you'll want to listen to some "real" Catalan: go to http://www.catradio.cat/reproductor/audio.htm?ID=CATRADIO, and listen to streaming Catalan radio free!

Ready to go for the gold? Sign up free at http://pelc.uib.es/recursos/index.html, and get a world-class course online (Balearic Catalan, which has a few differences from what you'll use in Barcelona, but well worth the effort.)

But by all means start with this package. Highly recommended.

Winter Laite is the author of SKEE.

Book required during study
This course is designed for study WITH THE BOOK.I purchased this course in hopes of learning Catalan while driving.It is not intended for this application, and it doesn't work while driving.Without the book, it's a long slew of Catalan, no English, and no repetition.By contrast the Pimsleur system (they don't have a Catalan course that I could find) builds language skills slowly, repeating all words in English, then the other language.

In some sense, this is an unfair review.I'm not reviewing the product for it's intended use.So be it.

Good course
Good course, but definitely not the best. It works if you already live in Catalonya or if you have a close friend to practice.

Lack of language immersion
I would like to find a teaching book that could put me in Catalan idiom immersion. As it changes constantly from English to Catalan (and vice-versa), it took more difficult to assimilate the idiom.

Too few audio media. Need more do learn the idiom. ... Read more

Product Description

Bestselling language courses now with audio CDs!

From Danish to Spanish, Swahili to Brazilian Portuguese, the languages of the world are brought within the reach of any beginning student. Learners can use the Teach Yourself Language Courses at their own pace or as a supplement to formal courses. These complete courses are based on the very latest learning methods and designed to be enjoyable and user-friendly.

Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and gradually promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, including:

• Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues
• Graded units of culture notes, grammar, and exercises
• Step-by-step guide to pronunciation
• Practical vocabulary
• Regular and irregular verb tables
• Plenty of practice exercises and answers
• Bilingual glossary

The new editions also feature:

• Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
• Self-assessment quizzes to test progress
• Website suggestions to take language study further

Customer Reviews (21)

Could Be Better...Much Better
I bought the Teach Yourself Greek book w/CDs(2) hoping to learn the language at a basic entry level. After slogging through the tedious "Introdution," which is a must if you want to get a handle on the alphabet, pronunciation, vowel sounds, consonant sounds, stress mark placement(Plus two-letter vowel and two-letter consonant exceptions), I was glad to finally start in on the first lesson. It took only one listening, while working with the book, to realize this was not going to work for me. I had to keep referring back to the "Introduction" for clarification on spelling and letter grouping(Those two-letter exceptions can be confusing at times). I imagine, after several lessons one might not have to do that, if he/she eventually memorizes what is definitely needed in the "Introduction." But it would be too slow-going. Not for me.

I read reviews with references to Theodore C. Papaloizos "Modern Greek" and thought that might be worth looking into. Amazon carries a few of his books, albeit as older editions, so a visit to the publisher's website greek123 settled that issue. I researched as much as I could at the site(Watched the videos, scanned text samples and so on) and finally decided on ordering the "Modern Greek" set, 8th edition(The 8th edition is the newest one), which at first might seem like a pricey $106 and change, but now that I have it, I'm glad I didn't nickle-and-dime-it buying one item at a time.

The set comes with a 534 page textbook, a 126 page workbook, an answer key book and six audio CDs. So far it's looking pretty good. The first lesson starts off with the Greek alphabet, one double vowel, punctuation marks, an auxiliary verb, the accent mark, three definite articles and three indefinite articles. I like this format much better because the essentials are spread out over the course of the book; not crammed into one section as in the TY Greek book.

By the way, the textbook measures 8x10 inches, is hefty and has really nice color photos and graphics.

If you're really serious about learning Greek, "Modern Greek" by Theodore C. Papaloizos is the way to go. And don't be chintzy. Buy the set, because I can assure you, you'll go back for the rest anyway.

*****Annnnd, get the 8th edition because of the color photos and graphics, not to mention it's been updated. The website still sells the 7th edition set, but I heard it doesn't have the color in it and is cheaper in price(Your call).

Oops, conversation based...
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing really "bad" about this Teach Yourself Greek book and CD set - it's just that it kind of throws you in at the deep end. It starts with the alphabet and a basic pronunciation guide, then it goes right into "How are you?" and "What's your name?" etc, which is fine for someone who knows the verb "to be" in Greek already. I am a total beginner, so I really need something that starts at the VERY beginning. I mean, I can memorize the various phrases fairly easily, but it isn't of any real use unless I actually understand the nuts and bolts of the language. To use a cooking analogy, this is like learning to scramble eggs without knowing how to break them first.
However, for someone with an intermediate grasp of the immediate basics of the language, I would still recommend it. Like I said, there's really nothing bad about it - it's just not as "for beginners" as you might think.

Good start
For the price, this is a good product to learn the language with.If you're really serious about learning Greek though, I would get a genuine textbook.The reason being, for example, you can't find vocabulary in the book.Suppose you want to look up the verb to learn: there is a list in the back of the book of about 20 verbs with page numbers; that's it.If the verb and its conjugations are in the book, you'll have to look through every page to find it.Another small complaint is that unless you have the book in front of you, listening to the cd's does almost no good unless you already know the vocabulary they're using, because they don't make the statements in both Greek and English, only in Greek.
But again, for the price it's a good buy and I'm happy with it.

One of the worst Teach Yourself books
According to one of the best language learning books that I know (The Language Teaching Controversy by Karl Conrad Diller): "Thus learning a living language involves learning to think in that language. Guided practice through thinking (through speaking, writing, listening or reading) is what enables a person to learn a living language in which he can think. Knolwledge of a language allows a person to understand infinitely many new sentences and to creat grammatical sentences (rule governed creativity) which no one else has ever pronounced but which will be understood iimediately by others who know the language."That is: meaningful interaction/practice.
According to that criteria Teach Yourself Greek fails miserably. You are thrown dialogues one after the other with almost nothingin terms of explanations of how the language functions, just memorization. The dialogues are very complicated in the beginning chapters and you get easily discouraged as you go along. Too much space is also wasted with transliterations, with the English translation placed right next to them. This is an almost unavoidable temptation which ruins the learning and understanding of the written Greek.
Explanations are left for too far ahead, thereby creating confusion and frustration. On page 41 the author says "Don't worry about understanding everything immediately. Leave some questions for later. Everything will make sense in time."Well, some explanations are left for far too "later". I'm sorry, but it won't make sense, since the grammar here is almost non-existant. And some of the "questions" are never answered. In chapter 3 they use the reflexive type verb "thimamai" = I remember. . Nowhere in the book did I find an expalanation of how these verbs are conjugated. In the vocabulary there is also an (f) after this expression as if it were a feminine noun! Chapter two uses the particle "na" which is explained very superficially only in chapter eleven!!!
As has been pointed ou by another reviewer (Diogenes) the exercises are relatively useless. Nothing to improve your creative powers of the language. Dialogues which you have already heard are repeated in the exercises where you are supposed to fill in what's missing. You will learn nothing from these.The mini-tests are just memorization exercises.
The book doesn't show you how to hand-write the alphabet.The former edition had this. A pitty. On the CDs the English translation comes before the Greek, thus eliminating the chance to test yourself orally.
There is very little reinforcement of the material learned and you are mostly just thrown from one dialogue to another. You can listen to a language all day long on the radio but this is not meaningful interaction and will not teach you how to say what you want or really understand new utterances which you have not already heard.
I would only use this book to review if you have gone through a basic course or use the dialogues for dictation. Outside of this, forget it. The author should take a look at the TY Turkish,or TY Serbian, TY Arabic books to get an idea of good organization. I don't know why, but many TY authors are afraid of the word "grammar", as if using it might reduce sales. Instead they use "language points" or "How it works". This is kind of a dumbing down. Are we readers that stupid now? By the time you went to school you spoke you own language but you didn't stay at that level for the rest of your life. I assume you want to learn Greek but don't have 5-6 years surrounded 24 houras a day by it. Everybody had grammar in school and that's one of the reasons you speak your mother-tongue fluently and correctly.
Also be careful those who like to use water-based fluorescent highliters: the ink smears! Now that is what I call a cheap production. Remember when TY books were all bound in signatures and had hard covers?
Anyone who recommends this book hasn't seen any others on the market. Instead get "Take off in Greek", "Communicate in Greek" or, if you speak German, "Griechisch Aktiv". You will be much better served.

Learn Greek
It is a very good book for the biginers . Just marvels. I recommend it with all my heart for they which want to begin to understand this marvels culture ... Read more

Product Description

Complete language courses that span the globe!

From Danish to Spanish, Swahili to Brazilian Portuguese, the languages of the world are brought within the reach of any beginning language student. Learners can use the Teach Yourself Language Courses at their own pace or as a supplement in their formal courses. These complete courses are based on the very latest learning methods and designed to be enjoyable and user-friendly.

Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and steadily promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, through:

• Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues
• Graded units of culture notes, grammar, and exercises
• Step-by-step guides to pronunciation
• Practical vocabulary
• Regular and irregular verb tables
• Plenty of practice exercises and answers
• Bilingual glossary The new editions also feature:
• Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
• Self-assessment quizzes to test progress
• New recordings on CD for easy access and review
• Website suggestions to take language study further

Customer Reviews (10)

the worst possible TY book
This is the lousiest TY book I've seen. If you like to learn things parrot fashion then this book may help you a little bit, but if you're an intelligent curious adult (that's the usual reader of TY books) then this book is USELESS. Things are thrown at your face from the word go without any explanation at all. There are virtually no grammar notes. It's the first TY book that doesn't even list the present tense of the verb to "BE," an important verb in Welsh at the beginning; You have to wait until lesson 4. There are differences between written and spoken Welsh; this is not mentioned here; there are differences between Northern and Southern Welsh; this is not mentioned here either. The glossary at the end of the book is a big joke: it doesn't even list words used in the dialogues. Try to look for the words for "he" or "she" there. The exercises are rather idiotic: after telling you the forms for "good morning, evening, afternoon" the author gives you a long exercise asking you what you'd say at 1pm, 3pm, 4pm... . In dialogue 1 of unit 1 there's a sentence "Peidiwch â bod yn nerfus" translated as "Don't be nervous". You can clearly see that it's a totally different structure. Nothing is mentioned about it. No even to say that it'd be discussed later.
I'd suggest you'd try to buy an older version of TY Welsh by another author (Rhys Jones), which is not modernish but at least it's better designed. Julie Brake and Christine Jones, according to the back cover, teach Welsh in Wales. I pity their poor unlucky students and doubt they'll ever learn something from these lousy teachers.

good start, but lacking.
I have been working with this course for a little while now and I have noticed that the vocabulary provided is lacking in some of the most basic words, such as the welsh word for english or mother.This can be remedied with a good dictionary, but shows the lack of forethought in planning the course.Also, the grammar sections are not as clear as I would have liked, I have seen much better jobs done with other teach yourself courses.That said,, this course does provide a good introduction to the Welsh language and phonetics for the absolute beginner.

How not to teach a Language
This book is an example of how NOT to teach language. It purports to have small snippets of conversation but they are contrived events with sound effects that annoy rather than enhance. Concepts are not very clearly presented and you will spend more time figuring out what they are trying to tell you than learning anything.

You are far better off going to one of several UK sites (like BBC) where they appear to know how to teach languages.

Perfect for Independent Studying
The Teach Yourself Welsh course is fantastic! I was in doubt a while back when I tried to find a good Welsh program (that wasn't as expensive as Rosetta Stone) and Teach Yourself stands out! The Teach Yourself interface is great and the other Welsh-related books by Teach Yourself work as great additions to your own personalized course. I would highly recommend this to any aspiring Welsh student!

Cymru am Byth!

My daughter is delighted!!
Welsh is an extremely difficult language to learn.The way Welsh words are spelled is NOT the way they are spoken.If you cannot hear the spoken language, you just cannot learn it well.This course has it all!!
Very comprehensive and, surprisingly, very inexpensive!! I would highly recommend this course to any serious language student. ... Read more

Product Description
This new edition has been completely rekeyed to improve the quality of the print and small amendments and improvements have been made. ... Read more

Product Description
Bestselling language courses!

From Danish to Spanish, Swahili to Brazilian Portuguese, the languages of the world are brought within the reach of any beginning student. Learners can use the Teach Yourself Language Courses at their own pace or as a supplement to formal courses. These complete courses are based on the very latest learning methods and designed to be enjoyable and user-friendly.

Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and gradually promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, including:

• Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues
• Graded units of culture notes, grammar, and exercises
• Step-by-step guide to pronunciation
• Practical vocabulary
• Regular and irregular verb tables
• Plenty of practice exercises and answers
• Bilingual glossary

The new editions also feature:

• Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
• Self-assessment quizzes to test progress
• Website suggestions to take language study further

Customer Reviews (6)

Veldig Bra! :)
I liked the format of this book so much that I bought the Icelandic edition from this series for myself. This Norwegian book is really helping my friend (who I purchased it for) learn Norsk. She loves it. I checked it out as well and it's truly amazing. Especially for the price!

Quite Useful and Entertaining
This was the first of the Teach Yourself language lessons I've used and it is probably the best one of the lot.

While it's not going to make you fluent in Norwegian, it's certainly way better than the useless Pimsleur series and it's got enough drama to keep you interested.

The key to this book and CDs is that you get to learn the grammar and vocabulary in the context of somewhat believable situations. In this case, it's the context of following the thoroughly entertaining love story of John and Bente as well as all the stuff that comes along with it (e.g. a motorcycle accident, jealousy over another guy name Knut, a grandmother blasting John for not liking lutefisk, struggling with a long distance relationship, and more...).

So while you're busy trying to follow the drama, you're picking up Norwegian as you go. I personally think this is the most effective way of self-learning a language short of constantly practicing with a real Norwegian speaker or living in the country itself.

So far, I've been able to engage in limited conversations with Norwegian speakers (both in Norway and even on a recent Angel Falls trip with a group of Norwegians). So I'd say it was somewhat effective in bringing me up from being clueless about the language to start with.

My only gripe with this lesson is that the CDs seemed to rush its way through the latter units (especially in the 2nd CD). I wish they'd at least cover all the dialogues in the book rather than rush through bits and pieces of units 8-16.

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed this product and liked it enough to buy other Teach Yourself books for Icelandic, Swahili, and Spanish. But like I said earlier, I think the Norwegian one is the best of the Teach Yourself lot I have so far...

One of the very best!
So I happened to marry an american and we have decided to move to Norway! Only one problem, my husband does not speak a word of Norwegian.... Till NOW! I bought him several books on the subject, but it was not until this book arrived that he actually started to feel like he was finally beginning to grasp and get a "feel" for the language. It is written in a way that forces you to use what you are taught, and it is set up so that you are not able to "cheat", but instead carefully pushing you to actively use what you are learning while the language is taking shape in front of you. Before this book he would often become frustrated over a lot of issues, with "Teach Yourself Norwegian" there is such a change in how he views his journey to learning Norwegian, it is all in all a very good choice if you are a beginner seeking out educational material for learning Norwegian.

en god Norsk bok
This review is for the 2003 edition with the language cd's, ISBN 0071414401. There are about 5 or 6 different versions listed on Amazon (the differences aren't always clearly specified), but this is by far the best edition.

Now, as for the book itself: It's really the only, affordable, in depth Norwegian language book currently available, and in that respect --assuming you have to or want to learn Norwegian--you've lucked out, because it also happens to be very good. In fact, the average college textbook costs about 5 times as much and is only, maybe, half as good as this book.

The goal of this book is to teach you a couple thousand of the language's most common words and the basics of Norwegian grammar. I haven't had the chance to try what I've learned, to talk with a native speaker, but, after a couple months of study, I can read the Norwegian tabloids on the internet (slowly, occasionally reffering to a dictionary and holding my nose all the while) and understand probably about 90-95% of a given article. I appreciated, I have to admit, that the author doesn't assume you're entirely up on grammatical matters and briefly goes over the basic concepts that apply to any language as they are introduced specifically in Norwegian. The only real problem I had with this book was it's exercises. There are not quite enough enough of the them and I didn't always feel they effectivly reinforced what I'd just learned.

The cds that come with the book are definitely helpfull, but inconsistent. The female actor speaks the way you'd expect Norwegian to sound, given the pronunciation guidelines. The male actor, though, has a rolling, bouncing accent that I find impossible to imitate(he sounds kind of like the Swedish chef muppet). The CD's narrator has an unbelievably bored, pompous sounding British voice -he acutually sighs between his lines!

A few of the other reveiwers have complained about some of the vocabulary being out of date. That may be true. (I don't think it's very important because vocabulary is the comparitivly easy part of learning a language. Also, you can't really expect to pass as a native speaker after reading just one book, anyway.) Regardless, I thought the Norwegian text readings were well written (for a text book)and gave me a little motivation to get to the next chapter. The texts follow the lives of two characters, John and his girlfriend, Bente, throughout the book.
They have fights (de krangler) with each other, motorcycle accidents, finally they get married and move into a trailer park (actually, I have a couple chapters to read yet, but I am hoping for some sort of a happy ending for them). It's all a little soap opera-ie, but I do appreciate that the author tried to make the whole thing a little less monotones than the average text book.

Teach Yourself Norwegian makes the grade
I selected this book at random, on the advice of my friend to "get a norwegian course-book if you really want to learn" and it was the best chance i took. the layout of the course is excellent, and the dialogs are very interesting. I like the way the book tells the story of John, an British student, and Bente, a Norwegian au pair. Hey, how bout a follow up: "Teach Yourself Advanced Norwegian" :) ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides both a comprehensive introduction to Business English for teachers who are new to the field, as well as inspiration and guidance for those already involved in this area. This book deals with a range of issues from needs analysis and course planning to testing and evaluation. The emphasis throughout is practical, and a large part of the book focuses on classroom procedures. ... Read more

Product Description

It's no secret that parents want their children to have the lifelong cultural and intellectual advantages that come from being bilingual. Parents spend millions of dollars every year on classes, computer programs, and toys, all of which promise to help children learn a second language. But many of their best efforts (and investments) end in disappointment.

Customer Reviews (22)

It does what it promises on the cover
Why, when, and how to teach your child a second language - this book covers these aspects as promised on the cover. The authors make a point of letting the reader know that they have an academic background on the subject and also practical experience as mothers, which is reassuring. I would have given the book five starts if it weren't for the overbearing presence of Spansih. You get the feeling that technical and practical knowledge on the matter is actually on English-Spanish bilingualism, and the other languages quoted are there only to divert from this limitation. Except from this snag, the book is definitively worth reading.

Most readable / practical book on this topic
After reading several other books on this topic, I found myself repeatedly checking this book out from the library.Eventually, I bought the book and I keep on referring back to it periodically as my child develops and circumstances change.

Very repetitive, but more interesting near the end
I just got this book for Christmas (because it was on my Amazon Wishlist) and have wanted to read it for some time.Initially the book starts off slow, and is very repetitive.The authors reiterated many times that learning a second language will not delay your child's speech development, and that it happens in Europe, Africa, and Asia all the time.While that's great to keep in mind, I feel as though the authors wrote the book in such a way that it could be referenced and if the reader just looked at one chapter they could get the meat of the book.However, reading it straight through was difficult to do because of the aforementioned redundancies.The book could have been condensed to 150 pages.

That being said, for parents who are clueless about how to raise your child to be bilingual, this is a great resource.Especially interesting are the "case studies", if you can call them that.The authors discuss several families who are trying to raise their children to be bilingual, trilingual, or multilingual.I wish there would have been more of these, and that they would have gone into greater detail about the families to discuss exactly what works and what doesn't.I also wish that the authors would have provided some additional activities, and some concrete examples for those parents who actually know a foreign language.(This probably shouldn't be in the review here, but don't bother going to their website.The book claims that there are resources on there, but it's mostly a promotional page telling you to buy the book.)

If I were to edit and/or reorganize the book, I think that, of course I would eliminate the redundancies, but I would also start the book by discussing why bilingualism is important, which languages are up-and-coming, and then challenge the parents to think about how bilingual they want their children to be.Challenging the parents to think about the level of bilingualism that they want their children to reach (even though language learning is a life-long process), is an important idea that should permeate the text.Instead I feel as though it is left until the very end of the book.

Not much advice for bilingual parents
My husband is French speaking, and I am English speaking. I was looking for a book with advice on how to best teach both languages to our children. Most of the book is about why bilingualism is good, and how to encourage it if the parents are not bilingual. This book sorely lacks practical advice for parents in bilingual families. I have now bought Language Strategies for Bilingual Families by Suzanne Barron-Hauwaert, which I am hoping will be better.

Two inspired thumbs up from a non-native Spanish-speaking mama!
I give The Bilingual Edge two thumbs up! My mom gifted this book to me when my son was born eight months ago. I am a native English speaker who became proficient in Spanish a little later in life (mid-late 20's) but have always been a lover of foreign languages. Before my son was born, I knew I was determined to teach him Spanish; I myself have a B.A. in the language, have taught it at various academic levels, and generally just champion the idea of bilingualism. Even when family circumstances brought me back to my little, homogenous hometown (where "this is America, speak English" is a common way of thinking) and away from Brooklyn, New York (where diversity and resources abound!), I thought, "nothing's going to stopy my little guy from learning Spanish!" Nothing, that is, until he was born, I was a single mom overwhelmed with life in my first language much less a second, and quite honestly felt a little silly and unnatural speaking to my baby in a second language. One day around 4 months ago, I picked up this book, which had fallen through the cracks in the newborn chaos, and couldn't put it down. I majored in Linguistics as a grad student several years ago so had a little background knowledge--enough to be familiar with much of the research so wonderfully synthesized in the book--but was nevertheless struck by its readability for the "average" parent who isn't up on all the jargon of the field. Perfect for my "new mom" fried brain reading a book about bilingualism at 2 a.m.! Aside from the credibility combined with readability, the message was really inspiring. The researchers who wrote the book (linguistic professors at Georgetown University) touched upon several of the hesitations that parents who are non-native speakers of a second language, or who maybe don't even know a second language themselves, might have. They also dispel common myths about bilingualism in children. And there is lots of humor and the non-erudite tone makes you feel like you're just talking to a couple of super-smart moms on the playground, not sitting in a stuffy lecture hall! The book is also organized very nicely and pleasing to the eye in its layout.

When I was finished reading this book, I was ready to go! My son now is spoken to in Spanish for a block of time each day, and I overcame that "weird" feeling doing it. In fact, sometimes speaking Spanish to him just comesnatural when we're out and about, and I don't even know I'm doing it until it comes out of my mouth.We read in Spanish all the time, and I am desperately trying (though not having much luck so far, I must admit) to put together a Spanish play group for the fall. I am very grateful to the authors for this book, and highly recommend their work.It really got us back on the bilingual track. ... Read more