LuxEtVeritas Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5705 days ago 50 posts - 65 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, German, Italian
| Message 1 of 24 06 December 2009 at 10:00pm | IP Logged |
I think many language learners have a hard time starting a language because of a few
major reasons:
1.) Lack of confidence
2.) They don't know how to learn a language
3.) And three, they don't know what to use
It is because of this third issue that I have started this thread. Both one and two
seem to be covered quite extensively throughout the forum, but what about textbooks? I
find textbooks especially useful when studying on your own, and I think that we should
compose a comprehensive list of the best and most recommended textbooks to aid language
learners in their studies.
** Two suggestions for a textbook will add it to the list. For German I recommend Komm
mit! (published by Holt), and for Spanish I'd say the Realidades series (prentice
hall). Please add your suggestions, and then I will add them to the list once they are
suggested twice.
So, in alphabetic order, I shall begin the list:
Afrikaans:
Arabic:
Bengali:
Cantonese:
Dutch:
Finnish:
French:
German:
Hindi/Urdu:
Indonesian:
Italian:
Japanese:
Korean:
Malay:
Mandarin:
Norwegian:
Persian:
Portuguese:
Russian:
Spanish:
Swahili:
Swedish:
Tamil:
Thai:
Ukrainian:
Please only list textbooks here. For a list of miscellaneous resources such as websites
or audios, use the list below:
Afrikaans:
Arabic:
Bengali:
Cantonese:
Dutch:
Finnish:
French:
German:
Hindi/Urdu:
Indonesian:
Italian:
Japanese:
Korean:
Malay:
Mandarin:
Norwegian:
Persian:
Portuguese:
Russian:
Spanish:
Swahili:
Swedish:
Thai:
Tamil:
Ukrainian:
Please feel free to add any languages not on the list (I quickly jotted down only a
small portion).
I hope that our combined experience in language learning will point others in the right
direction when it comes to purchasing resources! :)
-Lux
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Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5847 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map
| Message 2 of 24 07 December 2009 at 4:10pm | IP Logged |
I am a big fan of using all kinds of textbooks for my language studies.
So my recommendation - based on German - ist the following series (Hueber Verlag) inclusive 2 audio-CDs
- Einstieg Türkisch
- Einstieg Dänisch
also available for other languages!!!
These textbooks contain 20 units and are designed for self-study. The whole vocabulary of every unit is presented on the audio.
Every unit contains two dialogues with some different types of exercises.
In German every unit gives detailed background information on the culture and way of life of the country.
The stories and comments are often amusing, so you aquire a kind of insider knowledge with a fun-factor.
I enjoy very much working with these textbooks!
Language level: from zero up to A1.
Fasulye
Edited by Fasulye on 07 December 2009 at 4:10pm
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tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5866 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish
| Message 3 of 24 07 December 2009 at 6:04pm | IP Logged |
Here is a link to free on-line textbooks for many subjects and languages.
http://bookboon.com/int/student
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sei Diglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5941 days ago 178 posts - 191 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Japanese
| Message 4 of 24 07 December 2009 at 9:38pm | IP Logged |
I've only really had experience with Japanese, and I think the "Japanese for Everyone" book is the best for self-study.
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LuxEtVeritas Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5705 days ago 50 posts - 65 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, German, Italian
| Message 5 of 24 08 December 2009 at 2:21am | IP Logged |
Thanks to the above for contributing so far! I haven't looked at the Hueber Verlag
texts, but they seem great! Anyone else use them?
@Tommus: That looks like a great website! Thank you very much for posting the link.
@Sei: I've heard good things about "Japanese for Everyone", but since I don't study
Japanese, I myself have never used it. Do I hear a second recommendation anyone?
Also, Assimil is a very popular series and the books for some languages (like French)
have helped many members on this forum. Unfortunately, I have also heard that some
languages in this "series" are not so good. Can we try to weed out some of the good
from the bad?
I'll nominate French Without Toil, from Assimil.
-Lux
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ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew
| Message 6 of 24 08 December 2009 at 8:15am | IP Logged |
Bulgarian: Intensive Bulgarian, Volumes 1 and 2, Colloquial Bulgarian is OK but I would suggest you use it with Intensive Bulgarian.
Russian: Russian Face to Face (I don't use this but I hear it's ok) and Nachalo (another textbook series), Penguin Russian Course is a good plan to follow, but use Schaum's Russian grammar as a solid supplement because you'll definitely need it (I hope it comes tomorrow) I'm so excited!!!
German: Komm mit! is pretty good. Holt also makes ones for Spanish and French.
Czech: Colloquial Czech
Hebrew: Contemporary Hebrew (It's a blue book and it's indeed very vague at some times but it's good study material)
Spanish: The Ven Conmigo from Holt is ok just like Komm mit!. Supplement them with a LOT of native material. Also Painless Spanish.
French: Allez Viens! (from Holt as well) I went onto their website and they have some really good resources.
That is pretty much all. I can remember off the top of my head. I'm sure if I looked deep into my endless bins of language materials I would find stuff but for now this will have to do :D.
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LuxEtVeritas Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5705 days ago 50 posts - 65 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, German, Italian
| Message 7 of 24 11 December 2009 at 8:04am | IP Logged |
Thanks for the large contribution, Ruskivyetr! I will add those to the list!
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ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew
| Message 8 of 24 12 December 2009 at 5:20am | IP Logged |
MORE!!!
I was going through some good books.
Arabic: Ultimate Arabic from Living Language
Latin: Cambridge Latin Course (there are 5 books I think, each one of them a "Unit")
Russian: Ultimate Russian by Living Langue (I originally used this one but it became VERY tedious and boring and I couldn't do it without wanting to get up and do something. It is very good though and has a good layout and method)
Spanish: Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Verb Tenses, Schaum's Spanish Grammar
Just wanted to make up for a few more that I missed :).
Edited by ruskivyetr on 12 December 2009 at 5:22am
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