No comments about Iidne Tallinn. Ancient Tallinn. Gustave German. 1986. In three languages. Estonian. Russian. English.

No comments about English-Estonian Dictionary.

No comments about Estonian self-taught by the natural method.

No comments about Talk Now! Estonian.

5 comments about Colloquial Estonian: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series (Multimedia)).

1. If this was a drug or a food it would be recalled and you would get your money back. How they can charge this amount of money for such a product is beyond me. Lack of time is hardly an excuse because it's been in print for over ten years. Below is a copy of the letter I wrote to the publisher. They passed it on to the author who conceded all but one of my points and had the grace to ask for my money to be returned out of his royalties (which I have not yet received...).
   
   
   I have recently purchased your book Colloquial Estonian. I have worked through the first five chapters and am concerned at what seem to be some rather serious shortcomings in the text, the main ones of which I have listed below:
   
   Page 5 Letter š - no explanation of this is given at all. It is also mentioned on page 37 without explanation.
   
   Page 16 Exercise 4 number eight. The answer in the back uses the word "ka". This has not been given yet. How can the student be expected to know this?
   
   Page 18 and 20. There seem to be two forms natukene and natuke. Why is this difference not explained?
   
   Page 22 Exercise 2 no. 2 the form Piretit is given in the answers in the back, this form is not explained.
   Likewise the form teda in question 4 (which also uses the unexplained word ka).
   
   Page 23 Exercise 3. You mention the two words teada and tunnen for to know. Your explanation leads one to believe that they are similar to savoir and connaitre in French. However, all the examples look like the connaitre meaning (i.e. to be acquainted with), and no proper explanation is given when to use teada and tunnen in this exercise.
   Likewise in the answer to 4, it is not clear why the form teda is used here.
   
   Page 24
   Explanation of the illative case:
   "The short form adds -sse to the genitive stem, but in this lesson we will only concern ourselves with the short form"
   I'm not sure I understand this - is the first `short' a misprint for long?
   
   Page 26 Exercise 6
   The answer uses a new verb soita - how is the student expected to know this? Especially since he has already had one verb for to go and would normally expect to use that.
   Further, the answers in the back use the long form of the illative which we have been told we will not be concerning ourselves with this lesson - if I have correctly understood the text on page 24.
   
   Page 33 Exercise 1 question 4 nine glasses of milk. How is the student expected to find the partitive for milk?
   
   Page 36 You use the term "weak grade" referring the student back to the introductory notes on pronunciation. I cannot find this term there.
   
   Page 43 Exercise 1 no errors here, but it might have been an idea to give some times requiring the "pärast" form...
   
   Page 47 Exercise 4 question 4 "ta on lubanud" - this form has not been explained.
   Page 47 Exercise 5 question 4, answer in the back uses the word "kohta" - how is the student expected to know this word?
   
   Pages 48 - 9
   Language in action
   How is the student expected to do these exercises? Presumably it means finding words for left, right north, south etc. How is he to know which cases they govern? This seems a totally unreasonable exercise (and no answers are given anyway).
   
   Page 54
   Ara minge! my understanding of your explanation of the polite imperative is that this form should come from the conjugated present tense not the infinitive. Either I don't understand something, or something has not been explained.
   
   Page 55
   Exercise 2 question 3. The answer in the back again uses a form the student has not had yet.
   
   Page 57 Exercise 1
   The instructions read: "Translate these questions into Estonian and answer them first positively, then negatively."
   The answers you give in the back are merely negative and "positive" forms of the question and don't fit the models you have given of affirmative and negative answers.
   Further in the answers section you give forms the student has not had!!
   eg. 4 on teili linna naidanud
   Question 3 prompts for plural `you' but the answer in the back is in the singular
   
   Page 58 Exercise 4 question 3. vanem (older) - you don't give comparatives until the next chapter.
   
   I have only reached this far in the book, but the quantity of inaccuracies seriously compromises its usefulness. What is the point of giving the student exercises that include material he has not had yet? I would remind you that the price of the book on its own is nearly twenty pounds, and with CDs and cassettes is nearly 40 pounds, and at these prices I believe the consumer is entitled to a properly thought out and proof read book. (Running headers might have been useful too).
   
   Perhaps I should have judged the book by its cover, where on the back cover you misspell Tallinn (explanation of the cover photograph). I might also question the wisdom of choosing a Russian Orthodox church for the front cover.
   
   I would appreciate hearing your comments and shall also draw these issues to the attention of my bookseller.



2. My Estonian Language teacher hates this book, I would follow her advice. Your first clue should be the Russian domes on the cover. No native Estonian would dare put this on their cover. Think about it. Try E Nagu Eesti.



3. This series has some problems, including the occasional typo, lack of grammatical explanations and generally loose editing, but as a companion to more antiquated but grammatically rich texts available for English speakers (such as Tuldava's Estonian Textbook), this series provides a nice set of colloquial updates for those tackling Estonian.



4. Just read an article in an Estonian newspaper about this. I've heard complaints before as well.
   They re-printed this for the 7th time with the same mistakes they've had in it for years (since 1994 I suppose!). And on the CD the person doing the reading isn't a native speaker at all.
   Would definitely not recommend.



5. PROS:
   - None
   
   CONS:
   - Use of a non-native speaker (his voice sounds suspiciously similar to that of the author's) on the recordings. He reads and speaks Estonian as if he were telling a story to young children since he seems to enjoy using exaggerated intonation, length and volume. None of the other speakers are as bad or patronising as he. I cringe when hearing his shouting or mangling of Estonian.
   - Inconsistencies between dialogues' scripts and recordings
   - The sequence of recorded sections (especially for pronunciation) doesn't match the sequence printed in the book.
   - Inadequate English-Estonian glossary. The Estonian-English glossary is a little better in comparison.
   - Insufficient amount of exercises.
   
   "Colloquial Estonian" competes with "Colloquial Slovene" and "Teach Yourself Slovene" as the worst self-instructional language course that I've used. It also is a warning when using courses that are designed by teachers or authors who are not native speakers of the target language. I'm thankful that "Teach Yourself Estonian" (it was designed by teachers who are native speakers of Estonian) is now available and it is a marked improvement over Mr. Moseley's creation. (Incidentally, Mr. Moseley is now a teaching fellow of Latvian at SSEES (School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies). As far as I could tell his main links to Estonian were that he had earned a master's degree in Balto-Finnic linguistics and focused on reporting/analyzing Baltic affairs while working at the BBC. There's no mention if he had ever gained substantial and meaningful experience in teaching Estonian anywhere)
   
   Unfortunately Colloquial Estonian is still the only self-instructional Estonian course that is widely available for many people. The competition isn't very comparable to begin with. Aside from the newly-published "Teach Yourself Estonian", Juhan Tuldava's "Estonian Textbook: Grammar - Exercises - Conversation" has a much better presentation of grammar but was never designed with audio and has a pitiful amount of exercises. Felix Oinas' course "Basic Estonian" is dated and modelled on a course used at the Defense Language Institute. Its cost (approximately $300) and comprehensiveness (the textbook has 393 pages and comes with 32 tapes/CDs) also make comparisons with the shorter "Teach Yourself Estonian" and "Colloquial Estonian" unsuitable.

1 comments about Estonian Short Stories (Writings from an Unbound Europe).

1. The country of Estonia is one of the smallest in the world to be separated by its language. As a result, most Estonian literature has gone untranslated. The flip side of this coin, of course, is that Estonia has produced a great deal of unique literature which reflects those elements of its culture that are most salient. This collection introduces several of Estonia's most well-know writers (Kross) and a wide selection of younger "fringe" writers to an audience unfamiliar with Estonian literature. The translations are masterful, and even those stories which are not "great" still manage to fascinate. Highly recommended for anyone looking to break out of the same-old Western European model of literature... this stuff is sure to please.

No comments about Teach Yourself Estonian (Teach Yourself Complete Courses).

No comments about From Interaction to Grammar: Estonian Finite Verb Forms in Conversation (Studia Uralica Upsaliensia, 34).

No comments about Vocabulary Of Sense Perception In Estonian: Structure And History (Opuscula Fenno-Ugrica Gottingensia,).

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