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The Colloquial series? | ||
Tags: Colloquial (program) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Martien Heptaglot Senior Member Netherlands martienvanwanrooij.n Joined 7107 days ago 134 posts - 148 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written) | Message 9 of 19 15 June 2005 at 8:38am | IP Logged |
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Nephilim,
I think it is just a good mix of enough grammar, lots of exercises, and conversations that can be useful in everyday situations. When I try to get a more thorough knowledge of the language I often buy both the Assimil and the TYS volume. Older TYS volumes (1950-1980) had a more theoretical approach and they are often sold in second hand bookshops, the adventage of these older ones is a more systematical approach of the whole grammar but there are less dialogues. E.g. in highly inflected languages they start with the nominative and end with the instrumental, then they discuss verbs but the exercises are more suitable for a good grammar drill then for practical purposes, they offer sentences like "the green box is in front of the white table" :) I still should mention that some of the "newer" TYS volumes are split up in an absolute beginners' level and a more advanced level where the first five or six lessons offer a kind of survival guide for tourists. This method is followed in the volumes about Finnish, Swahili, Modern Greek and Hungarian.There is a statement on these volumes that they are based on the Council of Europe's Threshold guidelines on language learning. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Nephilim Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 7147 days ago 363 posts - 368 votes Speaks: English*, Polish | Message 10 of 19 15 June 2005 at 5:05pm | IP Logged |
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Martien,
I remember some of the old style Teach Yourself books because about 10 years ago I had one on Polish. I found it to be very structure based with lots of translating practice - usually of pointless sentences that I could could never get into a conversation. A classic example being: "I can't go to the cinema until I have fed all my pigs." Well.... I've been in Poland for some 13 yeras now and I have never been able to get that expression into a conversation. I really wnated to because it was so bizarre. I find the newer books more useful by far as they are divided into real-life topics such as "at the post office"; "social situations"; "work and leisure" etc. They are also more fun and the grammar explanations are less academic. As a teacher myself, I'm well aware of the Council of Europes Threshold guidlines and so I can relate to it. Do the Teach Yourself ones now come with CD or cassettes Martien? With my Polish one I got cassettes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Chris Heptaglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7123 days ago 287 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian | Message 11 of 19 15 June 2005 at 7:17pm | IP Logged |
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Sorry for cutting in but maybe I'm in a better position to answer your question about the CDs, being a TY author myself. I think that they are moving towards having all their courses on CDs. There is going to be a re-release of many titles as CD versions in October (I think).
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| Nephilim Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 7147 days ago 363 posts - 368 votes Speaks: English*, Polish | Message 12 of 19 16 June 2005 at 1:55am | IP Logged |
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not at all - thanks you for your input Chris. I had no idea that the courses were all moving towards CD's. The quality of CD's has never been in doubt and it's nice just to be able to get to the place you want without rewinding/fastforwarding. The only problem I have with CD's is they are not so good for walking/running as they tend to bounce all over the place. But that's a small hassle considering the quality.
Which ones have you authored Chris, by the way? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Chris Heptaglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7123 days ago 287 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian | Message 13 of 19 16 June 2005 at 6:58pm | IP Logged |
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'Teach Yourself Indonesian' with Eva Nyimas and I am currently working on 'Teach yourself Malay' to be released in October, that's how I know something is going on then.
Do you mind me asking what languages you are interested in? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| onebir Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7165 days ago 487 posts - 503 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 14 of 19 18 June 2005 at 1:07pm | IP Logged |
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Maybe this is an aside, but judging from the reviews on Amazon, the quality of the Colloquials varies quite a lot (both the Turkish and Indonesian ones come in for a bit of a slating).
Incidentally, I think 'Teach Yourself Indonesian' is better than 'Teach Yourself Turkish' - based on the first third of the former. So I think it's worth discussing the individual courses a bit rather than the just the series. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Nephilim Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 7147 days ago 363 posts - 368 votes Speaks: English*, Polish | Message 15 of 19 18 June 2005 at 2:36pm | IP Logged |
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Well, I have Colloquials for Czech, German, French and Russian. They're a good way into your chosen language but some of them fall short on vocabulary and have only about 1,500 words.
I don't know that many of the Teach yourself ones - except for the archaic Polish one I had about 10 years ago. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| caroline Newbie United Kingdom Joined 7113 days ago 12 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* | Message 16 of 19 23 June 2005 at 3:30am | IP Logged |
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I have Colloquial Polish and I find it quite good - lots of dialogues to
introduce vocabulary and grammatical structures. My only complaint is that they sell the audio CDs separately from the book (I don't think one is much use without the other). I would definitely recommend it as a method to start on. So far it has introduced enough vocabulary - I'm not sure that I could cope with any more at a time! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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