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Best series of textbooks/beginning? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Jinatonik Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5049 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese | Message 1 of 4 05 February 2011 at 3:26am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello, I've been curious and had been wanting to ask: Which series of language books are good for beginning on and learning the language from the ground up? (By that i mean, from knowing nothing to knowing basic/intermediate level)
I was looking into the TYS and Colloquial series, but I am not too sure, anyone care to give me some input? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tomsawyer Senior Member Aruba Joined 5293 days ago 103 posts - 141 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: GermanB1, French, Russian | Message 2 of 4 05 February 2011 at 6:56am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Kevin,
Firstly, welcome to the forum. There's no such things as the "best" series - what works for me probably doesn't work for you. With that in mind, some great book-based series that I've used include the old Teach Yourself series, FSI, Hugo's "In Three Months" series, and a few other ones particular to German (Heute Abend, for example). I have found that the recent Teach Yourself and Berlitz courses could never hold my attention for very long. I think it's generally accepted that most people sample a few different books until they find the approach that suits them. Finally, don't go out and buy (or download) a whole bunch of material right from the get-go. You'll end up picking a course, doing it until it gets hard, then putting it down and starting up a new one. This'll turn into a vicious cycle that you'll justify by saying that you're "just building up a solid foundation by reviewing". In other words, when you find a course that fits, stick with it to the end. Of course, this is just my opinion, from my experiences. All the best with your studies. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7162 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 3 of 4 05 February 2011 at 7:52am | IP Logged | ||
Pretty much what tomsawyer posted. Your big bookstore chain like B&N or Borders focuses on inventory that moves quickly for whatever reason. Sometimes the inventory moves quickly because it actually is decent, at other times, it just moves because the stuff is backed by a slick marketing machine and people just buy it because of the hype or some advertisement. In general a course that is good for starting your studies depends not only on your learning style but also the language involved. There's also the matter of what you're after in "basic/intermediate level". The reason is that there are some decent resources that may teach you how to read and write but not to speak very well. The opposite case holds true too. Here are a few examples of what I mean: "Teach Yourself Slovene" and "Colloquial Slovene" are equally terrible and for whatever reason are written by the same author, Andrea Albretti. There are better courses in Slovenian but you have to order them from Slovenia. In this case the widely-available courses under familiar series to foreigners are best avoided unless you're willing to put up with their shoddiness. "The New Penguin Russian Course" by Nicholas Brown and "Swedish: An Elementary Grammar-Reader" by Gladys Hird are well-thought of for beginners learning these languages. However neither course comes with audio and so your reading and writing skills will far outstrip whatever speaking and listening skills you somehow acquire with these courses alone. At the other end are courses in the series "Pimsleur" and "Michel Thomas" which have their supporters. However these are heavily dependent on audio and you will need to get other materials to practice or develop reading and writing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5136 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 4 of 4 05 February 2011 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm a big fan of starting with audio-only courses, then moving to a more in-depth course which involves reading, writing and more audio afterwards. And I like these follow up courses to be entirely in the target language - no English, French - whatever your native language may be - involved. For my languages, that meant Pimsleur Norwegian, then På Vei, Stein på stein and På Berget for Norwegian, and MT Polish, then Zaczynam Móvić po Polsku for Polish. For Turkish, I completed the Pimsleur Turkish, then moved to TY Turkish. I would love to find an all Turkish course instead of TY Turkish, but I haven't found a decent course yet. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful |
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