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Berlitz Vs TY | ||
Tags: Teach Yourself | Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Felixelus Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6839 days ago 237 posts - 244 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 17 10 August 2007 at 1:40pm | IP Logged |
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I've been looking at vocabulary books and the two major ones I have been browsing at my local book store are the
Berlitz vocabulary handbook and Teach yourself Italian vocabulary I just want your opinions on those books and whether I actually need them. Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cage Diglot aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas Senior Member United States Joined 6625 days ago 382 posts - 393 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 2 of 17 10 August 2007 at 4:12pm | IP Logged |
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I do not think much of Berlitz methods. I think they are more fluff than substance. TY are good for what they offer for most of their courses. Its just that they don't take you far. They are fine for minor languages which don't have much in the way of goood learning materials available such as say Irish. I would go with FSI on several languages especially French and Spanish. Others that are good are Assimil, and Living Language Ultimate series.
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| daristani Senior Member United States Joined 7145 days ago 752 posts - 1661 votes Studies: Uzbek | Message 3 of 17 10 August 2007 at 4:37pm | IP Logged |
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The question dealt with vocabulary books, not language learning methods. Learning methods aside, Berlitz does produce some very useful reference materials, such as their grammar handbooks. In terms of vocabulary books, I'm not all that keen on the Teach Yourself ones, and so of the two cited, I think I would have to choose the Berlitz one. But there's another alternative I'd recommend, which uses the vocabulary in short sentences, allowing you to learn the words in a meaningful context: It's Barron's "Mastering Italian Vocabulary", by Luciana Feinler-Torriani, 432 pages, and is physically a bit more durable and printed on better-quality paper than your average Teach Yourself book.
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| Cage Diglot aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas Senior Member United States Joined 6625 days ago 382 posts - 393 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 4 of 17 11 August 2007 at 1:58pm | IP Logged |
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Aren't the use of vocabulary books part of the learning method? Please let us not descend into hair splitting.
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| daristani Senior Member United States Joined 7145 days ago 752 posts - 1661 votes Studies: Uzbek | Message 5 of 17 11 August 2007 at 3:16pm | IP Logged |
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There is a difference between "hair splitting" and showing the courtesy to respond to the question asked. Felixelus asked for comments on vocabulary books for Italian. Recommending FSI, Assimil, Living Language, etc., which are not vocabulary books, hardly responds to her question. Moreover, all of the publishers cited produce materials of different types and widely varying quality, so that breezy generalizations ("more fluff than substance") are not very helpful.
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| Cage Diglot aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas Senior Member United States Joined 6625 days ago 382 posts - 393 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 6 of 17 11 August 2007 at 9:02pm | IP Logged |
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FSI, Assimil, Living Language, etc do teach vocabulary among other things do they not? I was only offering my opinion which still stands..Berlitz products are masterfully packaged but don't deliver on their claims. I bought several of these products in the beginning and was disappointed with them. I am sorry if you felt the need to come to the aid of the "damsel in distress..." I complement you on your English. Your skill seems to be near native level.
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| tmesis Senior Member Mayotte Joined 6649 days ago 154 posts - 146 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 17 12 August 2007 at 6:46am | IP Logged |
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- Edited by tmesis on 17 February 2008 at 3:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Felixelus Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6839 days ago 237 posts - 244 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 17 12 August 2007 at 8:42am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the advice everyone! I like vocabulary books because I like having lists of words that are ordered by topic. I was prefering the Berlitz one because they actually had a science section. I'm a physics student so I want to be able to talk about it in Italian. I wish I could look inside the Barron one, just to see what vocabulary it has in it...
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