Beginner Georgian resources? (Advice Center) Language Learning Forum

Beginner Georgian resources?
Tags: Georgian \| Beginner \| Resources
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Tomohiro
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Japan
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Speaks: Japanese*, Korean, Galician, German^C2, Spanish^C2, Portuguese, Mandarin, English
Studies: Russian, Old English, Armenian

Message 1 of 5

17 July 2015 at 11:50pm | IP Logged

I can't find many beginner resources aside from the following book in the library:
Beginner’s Georgian.

Has anyone used this book? Would you recommend me starting from the scratch using this
book? Isn’t there any other book which is better? Any online-based course?

I am also looking for a dictionary and a good grammar. Online version preferably as I am
constantly outside home and I cannot carry paper-based stuff as I need to carry so many
things in my daily life.

Thank you.

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Expugnator
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Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento
Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian

Message 2 of 5

21 July 2015 at 9:10pm | IP Logged

There is Georgian: a reading grammar, but it's not that learner-friendly.

I don't have access to my bookmarks here, but I wrote a detailed review of all the materials available (only a few I just recently bought are missing) in my old Georgian çog.
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hrhenry
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languagehopper.blogs
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Message 3 of 5

21 July 2015 at 10:29pm | IP Logged

I went through the Beginner's Georgian
book a couple years ago. It's a decent
course.

There's also the Book2/50 Languages course
that'll provide some extra audio. I
wouldn't rely on that course for grammar,
though. But for audio, it's OK.

R.
==
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Expugnator
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Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento
Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian

Message 4 of 5

21 July 2015 at 11:12pm | IP Logged

Here is a review from my old log:

Georgian Notes, Doubts and Tips
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kyukumber
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Message 5 of 5

25 July 2015 at 3:20pm | IP Logged

Expugnator has already covered everything (thanks for the comprehensive reviews!) but I just wanted to throw in a few links for convenience.

Georgian: A Reading Grammar
http://goo.gl/rWzf0j/

Indiana University CeLT Archive for Georgian
http://goo.gl/7naL1V

ニューエクスプレス　グルジア語 (Amazon.co.jp)
http://goo.gl/rVvN0V

Lehrbuch der georgischen Sprache (Amazon.de)
http://goo.gl/ofihcG

Grundwortschatz Georgisch (Amazon.de)
http://goo.gl/y0pymi

TixhiiDon wrote:

I then went through the whole of Beginner's Georgian by Dodona Kiziria very thoroughly. I think this is probably the first time I have ever gone through an entire language textbook from beginning to end, and it was utterly invaluable for getting to grips with the basics of the language and picking up some very useful vocabulary.

Midway through the Kiziria book I started my Saturday class. The class has been a lot of fun and has taken me to quite a high level of grammar. However, the class is heavily focussed on just understanding the grammar rather than putting it to use. Another great thing about the class is that it has brought me into contact with Japanese people who are interested in Georgia, and my two teachers, Kojima-sensei, who I guess must be up there among the greatest scholars of Georgian in the world, and his wife Medea, with whom I'm now taking private lessons.

After finishing Kiziria I moved onto Aronson's Reading Grammar. I went through the first few chapters very thoroughly, the next few a bit less thoroughly, and the last few very briefly. Aronson was useful for covering grammar points that are left out of Kiziria and that we haven't got to in our class yet, but it is very old-fashioned and not hugely practical.

I also went through Lehrbuch der Georgischen Sprache by Abuladze and Ludden quite thoroughly. The long dialogues were very useful and the grammar explanations are clear and easy to understand. I kind of stalled when the dialogues changed to reading passages on the history of Georgia. Why do all the Georgian textbooks have such boring reading passages?? How about food and drink in Georgia, sport in Georgia, Georgian music, Georgian literature? Surely that would be more interesting to more people than "Georgia in the 12th and 13th Centuries".

Other texts I have flirted with are the Newspaper Reader, which is actually very good and one which I really should go back to at some point, Georgian Language Intensive Course by Nikolaishvili, which is pretty awful really but has some long dialogues and three CDs so is useful for listening practice, and Georgian Language and Culture: A Continuing Course by Kiziria and Aronson, which looks excellent but is only available by illegal download at the moment so I am hanging on for a reprint supposedly coming out in a few weeks.

For reading practice I started with small articles on the Radio Tavisupleba site. I then got hold of both English and Georgian versions of Mziani Ghame, a novel by Nodar Dumbadze. This was really too hard for me and I gave up around page 50. Recently I have been able to purchase English and Georgian versions of ჯინსების თეობა/Flight from USSR by David Turashvili and have found much more success with this novel - I'm picking up a lot of vocabulary from it and my Georgian reading speed is improving dramatically.

(http://goo.gl/wLnO60)

Sadly, he is no longer an active member of this forum but his log is worth reading, too.

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