onkel_xiaoma Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 4483 days ago 38 posts - 44 votes Speaks: German*, Mandarin Studies: Tatar, Turkish
| Message 1 of 3 16 August 2012 at 11:16am | IP Logged |
Is this book any good? There's quite a heated discussion in the Amazon review section, is there anyone who used this book and can share his/her experiences with me?
Thank You!
can't post the link to amazon here due to the Umlauts in the url...
Türkisch - Lehrbuch für Anfänger und Fortgeschrittene: Mit zwei Audio-CDs zu sämtlichen Lektionen sowie mit alphabetischem Wörterverzeichnis und Übungsschlüssel im PDF-Format
by
Margarete I. Ersen-Rasch
Edited by onkel_xiaoma on 16 August 2012 at 11:19am
1 person has voted this message useful
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daristani Senior Member United States Joined 7143 days ago 752 posts - 1661 votes Studies: Uzbek
| Message 2 of 3 17 August 2012 at 3:23pm | IP Logged |
I didn't learn Turkish with the Ersen-Rasch book, since I learned it years ago from English-based books before the Ersen-Rasch books (the initial versions of which were entitled "Tuerkisch fuer Sie") were published. Also, I'm personally acquainted with her, at least via e-mail, since we've had an ongoing correspondence on Turkish grammatical issues for the past couple of years. So my comments are not based on actual experience in learning from her book(s) as a beginner, and I may be less than fully objective. Still, since no one else has yet responded to the question, here are my thoughts:
Her books are, in my view, the best available in German for explaining the fine points of Turkish grammar, and I think they're better than anything in English as well. She takes a very grammar-based approach to the language, and explains the subtleties more than any other instructional materials I've seen, often using "minimal pairs" of sentences to show the contrasts between similar expressions. Another virtue is that she aims at German-speakers who want to be able to speak Turkish, and not just understand a Turkish text. For instance, while many Turkish books simply take all the grammatical forms of Turkish, describe and explain them, and then provide exercises in using them, her books also contain portions that start from the German, i.e., by noting that Germans will want to know how to say X, and then giving the ways that X can be expressed in Turkish.
I can't really comment on the books from the standpoint of a beginner, since I only found them after I was at intermediate-level Turkish, and my German is still not at a high-enough level to get all the fine points of German. But I found her explanations of things that had been bothering me about Turkish grammar to be invaluable, and was happy to struggle with the German to be able to pick up the nuances of the Turkish.
I think her reference grammar is very highly respected in Germany. (She's working on a revised and updated version of that.)
You might take a look at some previous forum postings on Turkish materials, such as this one:
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=3169&PN=10&TPN=1
For additional input, check out this German-language discussion board for learners of Turkish:
http://www.tuerkisch-lernen-online.de/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi? sprach=deutsch.lng
And especially the sub-section on Lehrwerke:
http://www.tuerkisch-lernen-online.de/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi? sprach=deutsch.lng;board=13
(In the German forum, users often refer to Ersen-Rasch's reference grammar simply as "das rote Buch" for some reason.)
Good luck with your Turkish studies, and if you should be interested in branching out into other Turkic languages as well, take a look at Chung's guide to the language family at:
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=30243&PN=1
3 persons have voted this message useful
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onkel_xiaoma Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 4483 days ago 38 posts - 44 votes Speaks: German*, Mandarin Studies: Tatar, Turkish
| Message 3 of 3 17 August 2012 at 10:28pm | IP Logged |
Thank You very much for Your reply, daristani!
I've just purchased the book, looks great from what I saw so far; I really like thorough yet not overloaded/overly scholarly language books.
I've just seen "das rote Buch" in the local library; but for now her Lehrbuch should do the trick. ^^
When I've finished the book, I will definitely go for another turkic language as well, maybe Kazakh with the upcoming book published by Routledge, or maybe Tartar with a book also written by Ersen-Rasch.
May I ask what Your reason for learning turkish is? I'm learning turkish out of interest; turkic languages are quite exotic grammatically and there are many opportunities to practise here in Germany. Here Turkish is what Spanish is in the US, i presume.
Excuse me French, but my English is not that good, I hope You can understand what I just wrote.
Thank You for the links!!
Edited by onkel_xiaoma on 17 August 2012 at 10:31pm
1 person has voted this message useful
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